good stuff eatery

good stuff eatery
303 pennsylvania avenue SE (between 3rd street & 4th street) washington, DC 20003
tel: 202) 543-8222
hours: monday-saturday 11:30am-3:30pm, 5:30pm-11pm

what was consumed: vegetarians are people too shroom burger, spike's village fries, cliff’s homegrown vidalia onion rings, soda (they had a few bottled beers, but i wasn't feelin' it. i know, weird)

so, christine (sister) had been to good stuff eatery a number of times before i got a chance to go (she, of course, rubbed it in my face each time - thanks for nothing! haha). in her defense, every time we tried to go, it was a sunday and good stuff eatery is closed on sundays (yes - one of the (many) downsides). finally, when thinking about where to go and have dinner, some other friends and i decided to check out chef spike's DC eatery.

right when i got there, there was a huge line ... which, of course, only led me to wonder if there would be enough seating (per usual, these worries were in vain. people don't seem to sit around at good stuff eatery; rather, they eat, then go). when my friends joined me, we grabbed a table and reviewed the menu. i then took the menu and went downstairs to order. after ordering, they give you a buzzer that goes off when your food is ready (it sort of took a long time. long compared to fast food restaurants, that is. and because the mood of the eatery is fast food-esque, i couldn't help but to have fast food preparation expectations).

after 15?20 minutes, our food finally came out. we were quite excited about the food, but i have to admit, i thought the burger portions were quite small ... especially for the almost $7 price tag. maybe i'm just spoiled. anyway, i took a bite of my mushroom burger and immediately thought that my $7 was worth it. 2 portobello muchroom caps stuffed with/separated by cheese. lovely lovely cheese. the entire patty was covered in a panko crust (which was a bit too thick for my liking) on a bun that seemed more like potato bread than anything else. my "burger" also had all the regular fixin's - lettuce, etc. yum. i had a bite of the other burgers and while they were also quite good, my mushroom burger was my favorite. good think that's what i ordered! haha ...

in addition to the burgers, we got an order of the fries (which i totally recommend) and the onion rings (which i don't recommend so much. clumps of onions (i.e., not rings) were fried together, leaving the onion bites uncooked. i just happened to prefer my onions cooked when deep fried).

in other comments, good stuff eatery is definitely more fast food than sit down. there isn't much ambiance and it's fast food style in that you stand in line, order, wait for your food, eat, then go. this doesn't really matter to me, though.

and for those of you looking for the pseudo-celebrity, you'll see spike running around, running his business (as any good business owner should). while we were unable to catch up to him with camera in hand, there were some other people who did. next time, teresa, we'll get photos! hee hee ...

honestly, i probably won't come back to good stuff eatery for a standard burger. as many other reviewers have also mentioned, i'd probably go else where for a fast food-esque burger (i.e., five guys ... or just sit at home missing in 'n out. ahhh, in 'n out). but for the portobello burger and the fries? most definitely. in fact, i'll probably be back just for that. thanks, spike!

online: www.goodstuffeatery.com