Washington Street Ale House

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Washington Street Ale House is located in downtown Wilmington on (surprise!) Washington Street and has been around since 1996. The restaurant served upscale pub and tavern food alongside handcrafted beer and microbrews in a restored downtown building. The exposed brick walls, 19th century photographs, oak floors, fireplace, and open porch give the ale house a great warm ambiance. While Washington Street does not brew any of their own beers, they do have 20 beers on-tap many of which come from local breweries.


Mike’s Take:
It’s hard not to draw comparisons to Iron Hill Brewery when you visit Washington Street. The menu and décor are very similar. In fact, I ordered the same cheese steak eggroll appetizer that I had at Iron Hill. Here is where the restaurants start to differ. Washington Street Ale House’s food is definitely a little more upscale than Iron Hill’s both in presentation and price. The cheese steak eggrolls were very good, but could have been cheesier and a slightly bigger portion would have been nice. The delicious sautéed onions on the side were definitely a saving grace. For my meal, I had a chicken fajita salad. I found the entre to be a very interesting twist and combination of the common taco salad and fajita choices. The name certainly is a good descriptor of what you get…Chicken, peppers, onions, guacamole, sour cream, etc. all in a semi-soft fajita shell. The fajita components were not anything above and beyond what a typical Mexican restaurant would serve, but the concept was certainly interesting and unique. My biggest complaint with WA St. Ale House is that they’re not a brewery and don’t have exclusive beers (like Iron Hill does). They do a great job of filling their 20 taps with local beers, but there’s definitely an added appeal to a pub-type restaurant when they have their own beers. Washington Ale House has a great atmosphere and is a good (if not great) choice for dinner in Wilmington.


Washington Street Ale House
1206 Washington Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
(302) 658 -2537
www.wsalehouse.com

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