Sunday, June 7, 2009

Ketchup - National Harbor, MD

For my friend Stray Cat's birthday, around 18 of us went to Ketchup in the National Harbor to celebrate. The National Harbor is a new development with restaurants, shops, hotels, etc, and is located around Oxen Hill, MD right on the water. It's really beautiful to see as you're driving on I-495 towards it.
There is street meter parking as well as a large parking garage.
The outside of the place looks really trendy, and so is the inside.


Here is the entrance, and to your left is the bar and the cool waiting area on the right.


The bar is super cool because it's lit up red! The decor is mostly red, black, white and silver.


The interior has a graphic novel/Andy Warhol kind-of feel with the colors and the splotches of 'ketchup' on the floor and walls and the face.


This was the section that we took over!


The menu is a twist on American classics with their signature item being their ketchup. As an appetizer we ordered their 'Threesome - Garlic Parmesan, sweet potato and old bay fries, served with all five ketchups for $8. They were really good, and dipping them into the unique ketchups was really cool because it created new flavors.


Ketchup flavors from the left to the right are: Maple Syrup, Ranch, Regular, Raspberry, and Chipotle.
Ranch seemed to be the least popular at our table, with Chipotle being the favorite. I actually liked dipping the sweet potato fries into the maple syrup one, mmmmm.

My friend Bat ordered the 'Chicken Wings - tossed in buffalo sauce and served with blue cheese dressing' for $12. He ate the entire thing and said they were good.


I was trying to take pictures of my friends' food that were sitting around me so you guys could get a better feel for the dishes they offer even if I didn't get a chance to taste them.

My buddy Punisher ordered the 'Filet- Flame grilled, Parmesan cheese butter, wild brandy mushrooms and cheddar mashed potatoes' for $24. He said he it wasn't bad, however the portion was small.



Stray Cat's gf ordered the ' American Comfort - Rich tomato soup with grilled cheese, fried green tomato and jalapeno bacon sliders' for $12.
She said the food was really good, however the portion size was a too small.


My friend Marley ordered the 'Over Stuffed Lasagna- Pasta stuffed and rolled with four cheeses and fresh spinach, tomato basil marinara sauce and Parmesan crisps' for $16. Sorry the pic is blurry but he was kind of far away. Anyway, I over heard him say "this is lasagna?" so just for future reference if you order the lasagna, you get this.


I was trying to be healthy and order a salad, but that was a bad idea. I ordered the 'Apple Walnut salad- Baby spinach, apples, dry cranberries, walnuts and goat cheese with raspberry walnut vinaigrette' for $14. I thought for $14 it'd be huge, like salads from The Cheesecake Factory, but sadly it wasn't. It was actually quite small, and either didn't have enough dressing or something, but it wasn't special or worth $14 at all. Sorry.


All desserts cost $8, and my friend next to me got the some sort of Mud Pie thing (can't find the dessert menu online and I don't remember the name). He said it was good but rich.


I got the Banana Nut Bread Pudding with Rum Raisin Ice Cream, and the ice cream tasted like straight rum. It was so strong that no one at the table wanted to eat it.


I wanted to love the place since it just opened and had a cool concept, but the portions were overpriced , and the food wasn't anything memorable. The service was very impressive though, and the manager came to help us a lot with our wine selections, etc. Our server was a really nice and helpful girl, so that made the night fun and easy-going. I would recommend coming here to try the fries since the ketchup is something special. They also offer a lunch and breakfast menu, and the items are cheaper, so that would be a better time to try their cuisine.

152 Waterfront Street
National Harbor, MD 20745
(301) 749-7099
Website

Ketchup on Urbanspoon

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are too polite.. the food is horribly bad here. I cant fathom paying $12 for fries or $19 for reheated food.

She's Savvy said...

I posted a review of Ketchup on my blog a few weeks ago. Yeah the food left much to be desired but the service and atmosphere (wouldn't say ambiance) made up for it. I also loved eating the "Threesome", just thinking about it makes me hungry.

Anonymous said...

I had a bad experience there. My food was overcooked (think burnt), and my husband's food was not seasoned very well. They don't offer a kids meal or kids portions. Their policy is not to seat people for dinner before 5:15, and they won't take names to put on a list. So at 5:00 they had a hungry dinner crowd in the bar area looking at empty dinner tables and bored wait staff looking at the potential customers. The staff at the front was not very welcoming. Overall, I would not recommend this place.

Anonymous said...

The service is HORRIBLE. I agree the staff at the front was stuck up and looked bored. There was no happy greedy. The food wasnt great probably due to unfriendly environment. I definitely would not recommend this place.

Anonymous said...

I was really looking forward to this place opening.
After eating here twice, I will not be going back until they overhaul the staff and hire real professional staff. The food on the floor, dirty menus, overpriced food, chipped glasses and an unenthuse staff makes this place very undesirable. The fact that the gratuity is already included in your total (no matter the size of your party) is obsurd. This is why the staff is uninspired. the dolce group should not have their name attach to this restaurant.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I thought it was just me! This is possibly the rudest, most stuck up staff I have ever met. If the food overcomes the staff, that is one thing, but the food here was HORRIBLE! I will not be going back. You are much better off a Saucity or McCormick if you are heading to National Harbor.

Anonymous said...

I wish I would have seen the reviews on here before spending my money at such a crappy restaurant. My husband and I spent the night celebrating here for one of my husbands cousins. The food was horrible. The best thing on the menu was the "Threesome" French fry appetizer which was $14. My husband and one his cousins ordered the stuffed salmon with crabmeat. The crab meat tasted like stove stop stuffing with cheese, $28! The pasta primavera was just nasty. You can get it with grilled chicken $7 extra and/or shrimp $8 extra. The chicken was extra burnt and the shrimp were still swimming like they were still in the ocean, this was the b-day boys meal. They ran out of the grandaddy burger which was made from ground Kobe beef and ground beef short ribs. They also ran out of one if their fish entered so I had to try and find something else on their petite menu. The crab and corn chowder soup was cold, twice re- warmed. $ 14 for 8 buffalo wings. The service was okay. Ketchup does have some nice drinks, $12 each, I had the Gallagher: Watermelon martini type drunk, tasted like a melted watermelon jolly rancher, "Oh Yeah" vodka and fruit punch kook aid. The service was okay. The catering manager that was walking around the floor constantly was about 7'2, very rude and annoying. Kind of arrogant just like the other reviews have said. This wad a b-day celebration and I was td while making the reservation that if we brought a b-day cake they were going to charge us $25 in our bill. There were exactly 12 people in our party and our total bill was $543.12. Can you believe that????? Ridiculous!!! I will never patronize this restaurant EVER AGAIN!!! A waste of time and money.

Lauren said...

Just returned from going to the DC Ketchup and I was astounded by the price - 2 of us went to dinner 1 drink each an appitizer and an entree with tip came to $103. It wouldn't have been that bad had the food been worth it, don't get me wrong it was good but... no burger is worth $19 none and I live in NY... I was very disappointed beacause I really wanted to enjoy my dining experience.