Cheap Eats

The Washingtonian's "Cheap Eats" dining guide came out last month. I subscribe to the Washingtonian, but other than the 100's Very Best guide that comes out every January, the next most popular issue is June's "Cheap Eats".

I like that there is always a fold-out guide that lists the name of the restaurant, type of cuisine, address, neighborhood, phone, etc. This makes it very easy to skim the guide to look for a particular restaurant meeting your interested criteria.
Online there are even a nifty little symbol next to each restaurant if it is also one of the 100's Very Best.
ttp://www.washingtonian.com/restaurantreviews/3/index.html

I haven't been to many of these places that are listed as "cheap eats" but there are a few that I have frequented. I noticed that Artie's in Fairfax was listed as a cheap eats restaurant. I think that it's interesting that Artie's was included, but not any of the other restaurants owned by the Great American Restaurants group, like Sweetwater Tavern, Mike's American Grill, Coastal Flats, Silverado, because their menus are almost identical in each place. I wonder what set apart Artie's from the others?

I have visited this place only once because the last time that I went, which was on my birthday, was such a disaster. When I mean disaster, I mean disaster.
I remember distinctly waiting a very long time for our appetizers, and when we asked our server, he told us that he had lost our order and the kitchen is working to get it out to us.

The manger on duty brought out our appetizers, and apologized, but we were not compensated in any way. Not even a free dessert. I was even more angry when our entrees came out almost immediately after the appetizer. Well I will most likely never go back there again...
All the other places on the Cheap Eats ... maybe I will have better luck with.