Even though I am Washingtonian, I have never dined at Ben's Chili Bowl until yesterday. The place is nothing to speak of, but was very crowded with the advent of a huge tour group.
I ordered a half-smoke with chili and onions and my husband ordered a large beef hot dog. We got fries, milkshake and homemade cake to round out the healthy meal!!
I was so so disappointed with the chili. Couldn't find a bean or a fragment of meat in it. And, to add insult to injury, the onions they use are reconsituted onions.....little dried onion flakes that they been soaked. Yuk. What happened to good old fresh chopped onions that give you heartburn long after the meal??? And, no shredded cheese was offered on my hot dog either.
I noticed that the cheese fries are covered with "cheese" sauce, but we just got our plain. They were okay, but the oil they were fried it had a food flavor and probably should have been changed.
They offer turkey hot dogs and all beef hot dogs, but no kosher hot dogs. My spouse said that the all beef was just fair. Kind of pricey too at $5.20. Roll was just a plain, cheap roll. A nice potato roll would have been much better.
Milkshake was small but good. Cake pretty good (they don't bake it there), but not enough icing.
All in all, I'll go downtown next time to give their other restaurant (ben's next door) a try as I heard that the short ribs are good. However, Ben's Chili Bowl, is a DC landmark and has sustained years of business so they must be doing something right. Perhaps, I am just too picky.