Relic Restaurant & Lounge

Ugh.

To have fun here, I would probably need an insane amount of alcohol, be 5 years younger and have no other option. Okay, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but the Saturday late night scene is just not for me. And I know this because upon arrival, I was actually inspired to stop drinking and became quite content on calling it an early night.

The layout of the restaurant itself is cute - not too big, not too small, two bars, a funky, pimped out back room with saddles, animal print and crazy chairs and even a nice little dance floor. The music was also a decent mix.

Unfortunately, somehow this formula still failed. It reminds me of calculus. No matter how much I was told a formula worked, it still made no sense to me.

I think a big part of it was the crowd - very young (with a few old cougars ready to pounce), drunk, simple, sloppy, dramatic, without rhythm and just annoying.

The best things Relic has going for it late night is that there is no cover and that the back room is just screaming for a photo shoot destined to cut it as your profile picture.

I would love to give Relic another shot for happy hour or for a dining experience, but for a late night destination, I think not.

Solid new tapas and drinks joint . Metro-accessible (Bethesda, red line +2 blocks).

I was handed some tickets for free drinks on opening night as I stepped off the Metro. I looked in for a free drink (of course,right?) and ate the meatloaf which was (carnivores, take note) to _die_ for. With bacon on top. Seriously. Meat, c'mere. Rrrwwwrrr.

Very good bartenders, great ambiance and sexi back room. Lots of low tables and open space in the main room. Looks like a neat DJ / vibe-control station. Lots of Thievery Corp. downtempo kind of stuff playing during my visit. Can't wait to check out some after hours here.

All it needs now is some people. People, get in there!


Also note: despite what their literature says, the website address is http://rest106.com/

So after posting this review I was contacted by the manager apologizing for the poor service I experienced. I was offered a gift certificate and asked to be a secret shopper and give them a second chance.

Was my review that bad? I think 3 stars gets a bad rep, 3 stars means a place is good! But of course I took them up on the offer and checked it out. I went for dinner and it was absolutely wonderful. The service was on a whole other level. Our waitress was attentive and very knowledgeable about the menu and the drinks they offer. The food, as always, was amazing.

It's nice to see an establishment take customer feedback seriously and improve based on yelp reviews. The service had extremely improved. I'm impressed!

Lisa D. and I decided to try out the Relic happy hour after reading all the specials on yelp. If not for yelp, I would NEVER have found this little gem because it is so hidden on a random street of Bethesda. But thank goodness for the glorious-ness of yelp, because Relic was exactly what we were in need of.

The decor is way overdone in my opinion. It is all over the place: saddles for bar stools, portraits of kings and queens, zebra print footstools, etc. The seating was very cozy though and I was completely comfortable on my sofa as we enjoyed the plethora of specials. As Lisa D. said, I didn't LOVE the white sangria, but it was refreshing...just not strong enough. The martinis on the other hand...wooo heee. Good thing I only had one.

The $3 tapas were small as other reviewers had mentioned but very good. Three dishes were enough for the two of us. We had the spinach dip which was great and our kinda waitress even brought us extra garlic bread chips for dipping. The sliders were adorable and delicious as well. We also tried the calamari which was fine, nothing to write home about.

It was pretty much deserted when we were in there on a Friday after work. Around 8:00 is started to fill up a bit with an older crowd of mostly women and some couples. This might not be the place to go meet people and party, but I am def coming back to enjoy the specials. These days, who can resist a good deal?

Updating because I held my company's Christmas party (60-70 people) here in December. It's not a traditional business Christmas party - we get down - so Relic was the perfect location, and the experience was an A+.

Loved loved loved how they did the food. We did it buffet style, but instead of them having a banquet of food just sitting out that was gross by the end of the night, they put out normal-sized platters of food and constantly refilled them with FRESHLY COOKED food as we ate. Seriously impressive. It never got cold, and (now, you know this is rare for big parties) it tasted just as good as when I've come here for dinner!

The bartenders were generous with the alcohol, and were really great and discreet when I asked them to secretly start giving a couple of our employees "shots" of juice, etc.

The owner, Jesse, was also there the entire time, addressing any questions and concerns and making sure things ran smoothly, and we even got him on the dance floor by the end!

Great place for a bangin' party with an awesome dance floor, sweet DJ booth, delicious food, and professional bartenders. We're definitely planning on a repeat booking next winter!

EDIT--I can't believe I forgot to mention that at the end of the night, they even put out to-go boxes so we could take home all the food that was left! Who does that?!? Had delicious dinner for the next like, 5 days, as a result!

***1/2

Wow I've never updated a review so many times before.

I finally got the same group of friends from NY to come here again after being disappointed the last time.

I arrived later than my partly but was able to quickly located them on the far back table by the back bar.

We ordered a whole crap load of food and drinks, the tapas were much better this time and tasted close to how I remembered it when I first started to come here. Two of my friends ordered the ribeye and the other the NY strip all of them said the steaks were meh at best, but then again for $20 what do you expect right? Also, when the two ribeyes came out they were cut totally different and for a moment looked like different cuts of meat...no consistency control by the chef I guess. My friends inquired about the cuts but the waitress assured them it was both a ribeye.

My burger the black and blue was pretty delicious.

The new DJ was much better not abruptly changing the music and keeping a steady flow into the song. A manager I believe came by and checked on us once in a while.

I was watching the World Cup Brazil vs. Spain but the place started to fill up later in the night and my prime watching seat turned into a cram packed area. We called it a night and we left.

I feel that although it improved from the last time I came it still doesn't match up to when it first opened.

Came here last Friday with the Honey - we did not even know it existed, we just felt we wanted to hang out in old Bethesda and bang - we find this place.

Let me get to the point: the finest happy hour specials in Western Civilization. Cocktails are $5. And they come in bigg badd ass glasses. Stemless oval ones that are somehow reminiscent of a starlet's jacuzzi. Not only that, but the cocktails were damned good. I tried my new party trick and asked for the least popular cocktail on the menuand I was rewarded with a superb combination of Licore 43, cognac and yellow chartreuse. Absolutely smokingly hot.

The service was terrific - glamorous, impossibly thin and attentive the servers were working hard. The hostess was micro managing a wee bit and caused a bit of a spill at a neighboring table. A bit later the server who spilt the tray came over and apologized to us that we had to witness that. I found that somehow touching.

I still do not know if they paid a fortune to decorate the place or if they bought a bunch of mismatched closed-outs at a pesudo Euro design store. It's the American gothic ideal of Euro design, as opposed to the real thing. But its suitably louche and luxurious and I oh-so love the daybeds for two in the backroom.

They are hustling and I wish them all success - at one point the chef came out to see how we were doing - every starter that we had was absolutely delicious. A great add to Bethesda.

I'm somewhat conflicted about Relic these days. I held my birthday party in the back room, and it was a definite success -- people drank, danced and schmoozed past midnight, and I got compliments about my choice of location.

However, if you visit Relic around the happy/dinner hour on a weeknight, you can hear a pin drop. It's a dangerous cycle with this place; it's empty when you go, which makes you want to go less, which will lead to the place being emptier.

I dropped by last week, and my group of three was practically the only sign of life. The bartender started chatting us up out of sheer boredom; I felt really bad for her. On the bright side, I got to hear about the new seasonal drink specials that are rolling out this week; she mentioned a gingerbread cocktail and a candy cane martini, as well as something dark-chocolate-y.

The drinks here are hit-or-miss, and the apps aren't all that impressive, but I could be persuaded to come back with a posse. Or just swing by for a winter treat -- I am after all a sucker for peppermint.

I fear we will not be able to get the gang back to Maryland after Relic, and I hate them for that alone.

I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the gang would be headed to Bethesda. I was not familiar with this place, and in reading the other reviews, I have to agree with Ben's review, this may have not been the time to attend. Seems folks have enjoyed this as a happy hour spot. Anyway, my first impression of the nearly empty spot was it seemed like it was trying way to hard. I would be curious to know who they hired to decorate. The antler chandalier just didn't do it for me. I found the large Henry VIII portrait amusing, but that may just be an Episcopal thing. The ottoman I was sitting on was not extremely comfortable and probably raised my scoliosis a few percentage points.

I would suggest that they have two couches facing each other and flank the sides of those with the Ottoman's. Once B left, I quickly seized his couch spot. Once I went to the restroom, L snuck in for the win. It was obvious the ottomans were not appreciated.

I did not eat, but had a few glasses of Cava. I purchase Cristalino Cava at Corridor Wine for $6/bottle retail. It's considered an excellent sparkling budget choice by Wine Spectator. Relic was charging $7/glass and that's ridiculous.

Service was ok. Restrooms were clean.

Bethesda has to have more to offer than this.

Coming here I was TOTALLY skeptical because I had read some sketchy reviews on service and some not so positive reviews about the food...

My beautiful bride brought a great point to light though...as wonderful as Yelp is sometimes you have to take into consideration WHEN the review was done... bars and restaurants change menu's, managers, wait staff faster than the weather changes around here so if someone had a bad experience 6 months ago it might be dragging that 4 star rating into a 3 star quicker than a baby can churn out a dirty diaper after eating pureed asparagus.

So I went in to relic with a new vigor for the evening!

We ordered the Manchego bread and Lamb Chops and a pitcher of red sangria to start the night and every morsel was devoured! For our entree as much as I wanted to order one of the dry aged steaks that were dry aged in Himalayan salt for 21 days I chose to order a dry aged kobe beef burger as I have never had a dry aged burger before. I got with roasted red peppers on it and Charity ordered the Relic Mack which was their version of the Big Mac...MMMMMMmmmmmMMMMMMmmmmmMMMMMM

I couldn't eat it fast enough, every bite made me feel like I had to have another. The combo of the vermont cheddar and the sauteed port onions and the roasted red peppers coupled with a perfectly cooked kobe beef burger on a broiche bun?!?! I had to channel my inner Ed Lover and say "C'Mon Son!!" This was the best burger I've ever had hands down... I want to come back to have another burger maybe the Bison or the Firy burger which looked amazing then come back to try one of the steaks...

The service was great and the decor was interesting I thought it was very Brett Michaels... you know Rock-n-Roll meets the wild wild west meets 14th century France?! Relic seemed to get a bit busy after 9pm as I would imagine the nightlife here would be pretty fun but I have another review to write on where we went after dinner so I can't speak to anything past dinner...