DonRocks Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 The other day, I saw a huge group of school kids hanging around outside Old Country Buffet in Fairfax (in Fair City Mall). I've also noticed a couple other places on Little River Turnpike inside the beltway that seem like they're designed exclusively for tour buses (way back from the street, huge parking lots, signs offering pizza, etc.) - how many of you have actually eaten at MaGill's? With the demise of Market Inn, I guess this leaves the Southwest Waterfront (which has, I believe, the largest restaurants in DC - Pier 7 alone must be able to handle 1,000 people). China Garden in Rosslyn (the one upstairs) seems like a good bet. You wonder how these places stay in business; I guess that's how. So I'm curious, where else in the area have you seen the dreaded tour buses prowl, unloading their cattle? I suspect there's an entire trade journal devoted to this, but I haven't bothered to search for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CajunJason Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 My bet would go to the Pentagon City Mall food court as hosting the most tour bus passengers on any given day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cajcaj Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Not sure it really counts, but the National Place food court for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rieux Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Bucca di Beppo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcandohio Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Hard Rock Cafe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezy Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 There's a Korean restaurant in the Barcroft shopping center on Columbia Pike that always seems to have 2-3 tour buses parked beside it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tujague Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Armand's Pizza on Massachusetts Ave NE near Union Station. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Foodie Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Armand's Pizza on Massachusetts Ave NE near Union Station. Ding ding ding! We were at Union Pub the other night and saw no fewer than 4 buses stop in and drop kids off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwertyy Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 In the Ronald Reagan Building, the food court is essentially impenetrable from April to September because of all the high-school tour groups clutching food vouchers. On the bright side, aside from the coffee at the Italian place, the food choices are so abysmal I generally don't have any desire to penetrate it anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TedE Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Ollie's Trolley. There always seemed to be matching t-shirt hordes in and around there when I walked by in the summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhone1998 Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Ben's Chili Bowl is fitting this description more and more these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodeats Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 China Garden always has at least two parked in the evening during the times I've driven by. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plarkins Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Peter Pan Buffet at Fairfax Circle always has busses of Asian tourists out front. In fact, 7 years ago, my Chinese roommate took me there. I thought it sucked, so I'm curious how it draws the ethnic crowds at a large scale....and apparently small scale since my roommate knew about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BookGuy Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 I live a block from the China Garden which is one which is big enough to serve several bus loads of tourists, most of them Asian. It is across the street from where Tom Sarris's Orleans House used to be and I would walk past there as buses dropped off slews of senior citizens from what I like to imagine was Nebraska getting to eat in a sophisticated Washington DC place. "It has to be good, Mary. They have a salad bar." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jparrott Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 China Garden does a large Chinese wedding banquet trade, and, as its location is close to neither an abundance of wedding ceremony locations nor an abundance of easy parking, some of those buses may have been chartered by wedding organizers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escoffier Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 There's a Korean restaurant in the Barcroft shopping center on Columbia Pike that always seems to have 2-3 tour buses parked beside it. That's Han Sung Oak and they have a large back room they run (mostly Korean) tourists through. Fortunately, it doesn't impact the front part of the restaurant which happens to be a reasonably good Korean restaurant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodeats Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 China Garden does a large Chinese wedding banquet trade, and, as its location is close to neither an abundance of wedding ceremony locations nor an abundance of easy parking, some of those buses may have been chartered by wedding organizers. Nope. I was there when two of the buses unloaded once, and it was definitely not Chinese wedding banquet. It was the wave-the-red-flag/umbrella/pole-and-follow-me tours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanMike Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 That's Han Sung Oak and they have a large back room they run (mostly Korean) tourists through. Fortunately, it doesn't impact the front part of the restaurant which happens to be a reasonably good Korean restaurant. Yeah - first time I went there, there were 2-3 buses outside, but almost no one in the front of the restaurant. Sometimes I just think they're parked there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escoffier Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Yeah - first time I went there, there were 2-3 buses outside, but almost no one in the front of the restaurant. Sometimes I just think they're parked there... They have an agreement with Dong Bu (a NYC bus company) for feeding Korean tourists to the DC area. They must do 2 and 3 day tours for the "retired" because most of the riders are "of a certain age" (which I'm rapidly approaching ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thistle Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 I've always wondered where the hordes of buses that visit Mount Vernon feed their passengers, maybe they all eat at the food court & the Mt. Vernon Inn? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nashman1975 Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Fuddruckers in Annandale. Always went there before my weekly bowling league. We went down the road to taco bell/KFC if we saw the busses. It's apparently relocating though somewhere else now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Freshman Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 My bet would go to the Pentagon City Mall food court as hosting the most tour bus passengers on any given day. Agree. It seems the food court is jammed with kids all the time, not just summer. The poor souls with toothpicks can't get the free samples out fast enough. The busses are always lined up out front, the street vendors furiously selling FBI t-shirts, DEA hats and my favorite: the Witness Protection Program neon tank top. I just can't imagine that the kids that buy those are going to go home to Topeka or Toledo and rock those shirts at school, strolling the halls like they're the shit. But what do I know? I'm from here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimRice Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Union Station Food Court gets a ton of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Cosy Restaurant in Thurmont. Someday I am going to eat at Shamrock, just to say that I did. "Dinners include Salad Bar, Vegetable or Starch and our own Baked Bread." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMango Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 My bet would go to the Pentagon City Mall food court as hosting the most tour bus passengers on any given day. Agreed! Someone should conduct a time lapse photography project of the masses, often dressed in matching t-shirts, swarming the food court each day. Especially during summer months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanchai Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Back in the day (late 80s/early 90s), I could testify that sitting at the nexus of the then Sheraton and the Omni Shoreham hotels, Murphy's of DC would be the recepient of tour buses full of German tourists all armed with 6 words of English: "One steak, one beer, separate checks". As a former waiter there, I still wake up in the middle of the night screaming, sweating and swearing at them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genevieve Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Hard Rock Cafe The one next to Ford's frequently has tour buses full of high schoolers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destruya Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 My bet would go to the Pentagon City Mall food court as hosting the most tour bus passengers on any given day. Which is really disgusting given this particular situation: http://www.arlnow.com/2010/08/16/ballston-pentagon-city-mall-food-courts-cited-for-pests/ I know it's been nearly two years, but given where the food court *is* at Pentagon City, I'd imagine it's impossible for them to keep the rats out. Putting it in the basement was a really, really poor design decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Wilma Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Near the tourist mobs of Mt. Vernon, two tour bus hot spots are the Old Country Buffett on Rt. 1 south of Alexandria and the Roy Rodgers in the Belle View Shopping Center, just of the GW Parkway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanMike Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 I noticed a bus or two outside the Bob Evans right at 495/95 in Springfield - the one I have no idea how you actually GET to... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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