Hard Times Cafe — Restaurant in Rockville

Hard Times Cafe is a local chain that specializes in grilled wings, chili, and burgers. It’s a great place to eat wings, watch sports, and drink beers.

My boyfriend wanted to celebrate his birthday at Hard Times Cafe so we did. To celebrate in style, he enjoyed a few Budweiser’s. We started off with a plate of grilled wings, which was served with celery and blue cheese. My boyfriend ordered Original Texas Grilled Wings and douched it with their XXXX hot sauce. I ordered the Honey BBQ but it was too spicy for me so I gave it to him. After realizing, it was blue cheese that I was eating, I kindly asked for ranch dipping sauce.

My boyfriend also ordered a bowl Terlingua Red Chili, which was topped with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, and raw onions. Despite the description of having a spicy kick from championship chilies, it was not spicy to me. I was surprised that the chili was not served with cornbread as described on the menu.

I ordered the Chili Cheddarburger. This burger was topped with Cincinnati Chili and shredded cheddar cheese, served on a toasted bun with lettuce, tomato, and pickles, and crispy fries. The Cincinnati Chili consisted of ground beef, tomato, and sweeter spices including cinnamon. I asked for the burger to be cooked medium rare but it was much rarer than I had liked it. There were parts of the burger that was not cooked to the point you could see the strands of raw ground beef. It was gross, unedibland I’m never ordering a burger from...

Let me start off with the fact that the staff and even the chef were absolutely amazing! Their service and friendliness was so emensely kind and comforting. The staff was very attentive and helpful! As for the food....

My friend absolutely loves their grilled wings so I decided to give it a try, I got naked wings and let's just say it was not good. There was no flavor to the chicken, it was tough and over cooked, I honestly couldn't eat it, but the staff was so nice I didn't say anything about it. My friend still loved their wings but they like over cooked chicken and I do not. I also don't like char flavor which these have. The wings are also served with blue cheese.

I also tried the onion rings, the plate came out massively full with at least 25 giant onion rings! Unfortunately the batter seemed overly wrong with maybe a super starchy texture and the batter wasn't seasoned. On top of that they did serve a sauce to go with it but it was weird and tasted like a mayo with cucumber.

The fries are the same style as five guys fries so they are mushy and oily. These also came out unseasoned.

They also have cornbread, which was moist and tasty and served with salted butter. This was the only thing that I liked here.

As for drinks they have a few beers on tap and a small bar.

Overall I would possibly come back and try it again because the staff was so nice but I'm also weary of...

Gordon Ramsay and Kitchen Nightmares couldn't save this place. My friend and I were visiting a friend at a nearby nursing home. This was the closet restaurant around. We got there around 4 or so. We were the only customers there. That’s should have been the first clue… the place was filthy and old. Our booth had food crumbs on the seats. We ordered sweet teas, the server brings them and leaves. I had to get up to ask for a straw.. They weren’t sweet.. then another server came up to take our orders.. I ordered a cheeseburger with fries and my friend ordered the chili burger with onion rings.. and we asked that server to please bring us some sugar for the teas.. he forgot.. we had to ask him again.. My burger was obviously a frozen, pre made patty.. tasted like rubber… the bun was ice cold and hard.. How do you not grill the bun of a burger?? The fries were few and far between but the ones that were served with the burger were squished and greasy.. My friends onion rings looked like they had been made ahead and nuked in a microwave.. they weren’t crispy at all. Her chili burger had shredded, cold, unmelted cheese just piled on top. Her burger’s bun was hard and cold as well.. back to the atmosphere… The owner must love white Christmas lights and pics of old Hollywood cowboys.. because they are everywhere. And covered...