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Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery, a Las Vegas Chain "Breastaurant" at Dulles Town Center Not Coming to Wheaton, and Closed in Sterling


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Website (NOTE: if your work monitors your computer, you may want to view this page on your phone): http://tiltedkilt.com/dulles/

(just had to say that - there's nothing R+ rated on it, but let's just say it's not something you'd want your boss to see on your screen if he/she was behind you)

Location in Mall: Right inside the entrance across from the detached P.F. Chang's and Cheesecake Factory.

So after a somewhat trying day, having just found out about this place the night before, I decided to see whether what I'd read about it being 'better than Hooters' (which, let's face it, isn't hard to do) was true.  First, the waitresses are *much* more scantily-clad than Hooters - the standard 'uniform' being a mini-skirt (complete with a sporran 'micro-purse') and matching bikini-style push-up tops.  The skirts leave exceptionally little to the imagination, but they're no shorter than you'd see at any club in DC on the weekend.

Before I get started on the food, however, I do have to talk about the waitresses and the 'service.'  I found the waitresses exceptionally attentive...but almost *too* attentive.  Evidently in the Hooters of ~ye olden tymes~, the waitresses would 'gab' with the guests, and as they've become more successful, supposedly the practice of the waitresses playing the 'false pandering' card has fallen by the wayside (except with big tables where they can play the men against one another and rack up the bill)...and kind of for good reason.  The practice is still very much alive at Twisted Kilt, however - if a seat is available (and, I'm presuming, if the place isn't packed), your waitress will sit down and make small talk with you, asking you standard questions (where you're from, what kind of music do you like, sports preferences, etc.) occasionally interweaving suggestions from the menu (both food and drink) into the topic of conversation.  The 'killer' is, that *all* of the waitresses in the place are looking to get you to part with as much money as possible (~Strip Club Rules~), because soon after you start gabbing with your main waitress, a 'friend' of hers comes up and makes it a 'two-front war.'  At tables with 2+, this can turn into a situation where you're suddenly swamped by just as many - if not more - waitresses, all of whom start besieging you with questions and making PG-to-PG-13-level 'girl talk' among themselves, asking you to be the 'arbiter' in playful little arguments/tete-a-tetes they get into.  Evidently they've only been open around a week and a half, but it's very evident they've been coaching these girls (none seemed older than 20) on how to refine their 'mindfucking' skills for quite some time.  Even the tables seem low enough that the waitresses are able to ~bend down~ just enough to flash their 'appetizers' at you.  These girls *clearly* pool tips, even though I never explicitly asked.

All of this happens while you're still in a position to order more food, once you've gotten your entree orders in, suddenly the 'relationship' you have with your main server becomes far more businesslike.  You don't get 'hovered around' anymore (quelle surprise).  One advantage to the system they have in place is that the waitresses are constantly in motion - unlike other restaurants, where your server can disappear for 5-10 minutes at a time, the 'gang' effect means that you can flag down your waitress' 'friend'/partner-in-crime and know she'll be back to you promptly.

Okay...the food.  First, the prices are high but not exorbitant for a mall-based restaurant.  Entree prices seem to hover around the $10-15 mark - beer is ~$5-6 for a 20oz tumbler.  Figure each person is going to rack up ~$15-20 each, minimum.  The most attention is focused on you during the time when you're most likely to order appetizers and booze, obviously.

Whenever I visit any sports bar (with or without 'boobage'), I always fall back on easy staples.  I started with fried pickles, which for $7-9 (I can't remember which) were good enough, but they did try to steer me towards a costlier appetizer.  Sorry, girls - fried pickles pair exceptionally well with Yeungling.  The portion size was more than enough for one person - for two, it'd very much live up to the name 'appetizer.'  For my entree, I tried their 'F.A.B. Burger,' and found it decidedly underwhelming.  I've eaten quite possibly thousands of burgers in my almost 35 year life, but I'd never had a *deep fried* burger patty...

...and if what I ate is resplendent of what they're supposed to taste like, I might not eat any more of them in the future.  I could distinguish no difference whatsoever between the taste of a cooked-well-done sit-down chain burger patty and this supposedly 'deep-fried' one.  Now...this might be because they've only been open a week and a half and their cooks haven't quite gotten the practice down yet.  But I have to stress that at ~5:30pm, this place was *maybe* at 10% load.  For my side, I'd read in other Yelp reviews that the 'premium side' Garlic Parmesan fries were 'to die for,' and while I liked the taste, they were soggy as all hell.  I ended up eating them Euro-style with a knife and fork to keep from accidentally dropping anything on my shirt.

I'm of a mixed mind about this place.  It's way better than Hooters at what Hooters 'does,' but I have to begrudgingly give the 'point' to Hooters simply because I've never had a bad meal at one (just boilerplate 'grub,' really).  But the attention you get from the waitresses at Tilted Kilt can border and occasionally exceed excessive at times, especially if the restaurant's not that busy and they're able to ~gang up~ on you.  I never felt as if I was being given the hard sell, but at the same time, I'm well aware I was very much being sold a 'bill of goods.'  I'm definitely going to visit again, if only to see if their Shepherd's Pie is edible, but I'm not going to do so very soon.

It's definitely a ~unique dining experience~, but this is definitely not a *family* dining experience.  It would be exceptionally interesting to see if the same procedure is foisted upon tables where a fiancee, girlfriend, or wife is present - because if it isn't, this place could very well get the motto of, "Come for the food, then stay as long as you can to avoid the fight afterwards."

One more thing to mention - most of the male staff that service the dining room wear Utilikilts.  I didn't see a single one not sporting a surly demeanor or facial expression the entire time, too.  They're definitely equipped to handle trouble, though - one of the guys behind the bar looked like he moonlights in a biker gang, which is good, because I could see socially-awkward/challenged guys buying into the 'attention' here and potentially stalking the girls, who go out of their way to tell you which nights and shifts are theirs so you can come back and 'visit' them.

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1 hour ago, StarStraf said:

We went to one in Vegas, the waitresses are just the same if women are present.  My memory of Vegas was fun atmosphere but mediocre food

 At some point in early 1982, Gino's had just sold its entire chain to Marriott but the Ginos executives or a small cadre of them kept two locations.  They turned them into something called H I Ribster.  It was a ribs themed restaurant/bar with waitresses that wore very skimpy outfits.  Very skimpy. 

These were ex Gino's operators.  While they spoke about the quality of the food, preparation and processes were heavily systemized as would be the case with any operators from the fast food industry.  Actually the food was at least pretty good, the beer flowed and the drinks were strong. The Annandale location was one with which I was very familiar. I represented the food operators trying to get landlords to lease space to them and this concept.  Basically I contacted many landlords and worked my dangest to get the landlords to come over to Annandale, eat the ribs, have a drink or 3, and have them ogle the wait staff. I rather enjoyed the work.  Meanwhile in the next year the first Hooters opened.   Of course Playboy Clubs had been around for some time, and all sorts of other food and beverage places with similar themes.  

Anyway, as long as they continue to emphasize the breastaurant element of the chain, and don't completely screw up the food, this is a concept with a good track record and from the description in the first post these operators seem to have doubled down on the breastaurant element of the establishment   Well team:  "Live long and Prosper"  

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On 4/27/2016 at 5:45 AM, Destruya said:

Website (NOTE: if your work monitors your computer, you may want to view this page on your phone): http://tiltedkilt.com/dulles/

(just had to say that - there's nothing R+ rated on it, but let's just say it's not something you'd want your boss to see on your screen if he/she was behind you)

Location in Mall: Right inside the entrance across from the detached P.F. Chang's and Cheesecake Factory.

So after a somewhat trying day, having just found out about this place the night before, I decided to see whether what I'd read about it being 'better than Hooters' (which, let's face it, isn't hard to do) was true.  First, the waitresses are *much* more scantily-clad than Hooters - the standard 'uniform' being a mini-skirt (complete with a sporran 'micro-purse') and matching bikini-style push-up tops.  The skirts leave exceptionally little to the imagination, but they're no shorter than you'd see at any club in DC on the weekend.

Before I get started on the food, however, I do have to talk about the waitresses and the 'service.'  I found the waitresses exceptionally attentive...but almost *too* attentive.  Evidently in the Hooters of ~ye olden tymes~, the waitresses would 'gab' with the guests, and as they've become more successful, supposedly the practice of the waitresses playing the 'false pandering' card has fallen by the wayside (except with big tables where they can play the men against one another and rack up the bill)...and kind of for good reason.  The practice is still very much alive at Twisted Kilt, however - if a seat is available (and, I'm presuming, if the place isn't packed), your waitress will sit down and make small talk with you, asking you standard questions (where you're from, what kind of music do you like, sports preferences, etc.) occasionally interweaving suggestions from the menu (both food and drink) into the topic of conversation.  The 'killer' is, that *all* of the waitresses in the place are looking to get you to part with as much money as possible (~Strip Club Rules~), because soon after you start gabbing with your main waitress, a 'friend' of hers comes up and makes it a 'two-front war.'  At tables with 2+, this can turn into a situation where you're suddenly swamped by just as many - if not more - waitresses, all of whom start besieging you with questions and making PG-to-PG-13-level 'girl talk' among themselves, asking you to be the 'arbiter' in playful little arguments/tete-a-tetes they get into.  Evidently they've only been open around a week and a half, but it's very evident they've been coaching these girls (none seemed older than 20) on how to refine their 'mindfucking' skills for quite some time.  Even the tables seem low enough that the waitresses are able to ~bend down~ just enough to flash their 'appetizers' at you.  These girls *clearly* pool tips, even though I never explicitly asked.

All of this happens while you're still in a position to order more food, once you've gotten your entree orders in, suddenly the 'relationship' you have with your main server becomes far more businesslike.  You don't get 'hovered around' anymore (quelle surprise).  One advantage to the system they have in place is that the waitresses are constantly in motion - unlike other restaurants, where your server can disappear for 5-10 minutes at a time, the 'gang' effect means that you can flag down your waitress' 'friend'/partner-in-crime and know she'll be back to you promptly.

Okay...the food.  First, the prices are high but not exorbitant for a mall-based restaurant.  Entree prices seem to hover around the $10-15 mark - beer is ~$5-6 for a 20oz tumbler.  Figure each person is going to rack up ~$15-20 each, minimum.  The most attention is focused on you during the time when you're most likely to order appetizers and booze, obviously.

Whenever I visit any sports bar (with or without 'boobage'), I always fall back on easy staples.  I started with fried pickles, which for $7-9 (I can't remember which) were good enough, but they did try to steer me towards a costlier appetizer.  Sorry, girls - fried pickles pair exceptionally well with Yeungling.  The portion size was more than enough for one person - for two, it'd very much live up to the name 'appetizer.'  For my entree, I tried their 'F.A.B. Burger,' and found it decidedly underwhelming.  I've eaten quite possibly thousands of burgers in my almost 35 year life, but I'd never had a *deep fried* burger patty...

...and if what I ate is resplendent of what they're supposed to taste like, I might not eat any more of them in the future.  I could distinguish no difference whatsoever between the taste of a cooked-well-done sit-down chain burger patty and this supposedly 'deep-fried' one.  Now...this might be because they've only been open a week and a half and their cooks haven't quite gotten the practice down yet.  But I have to stress that at ~5:30pm, this place was *maybe* at 10% load.  For my side, I'd read in other Yelp reviews that the 'premium side' Garlic Parmesan fries were 'to die for,' and while I liked the taste, they were soggy as all hell.  I ended up eating them Euro-style with a knife and fork to keep from accidentally dropping anything on my shirt.

I'm of a mixed mind about this place.  It's way better than Hooters at what Hooters 'does,' but I have to begrudgingly give the 'point' to Hooters simply because I've never had a bad meal at one (just boilerplate 'grub,' really).  But the attention you get from the waitresses at Tilted Kilt can border and occasionally exceed excessive at times, especially if the restaurant's not that busy and they're able to ~gang up~ on you.  I never felt as if I was being given the hard sell, but at the same time, I'm well aware I was very much being sold a 'bill of goods.'  I'm definitely going to visit again, if only to see if their Shepherd's Pie is edible, but I'm not going to do so very soon.

It's definitely a ~unique dining experience~, but this is definitely not a *family* dining experience.  It would be exceptionally interesting to see if the same procedure is foisted upon tables where a fiancee, girlfriend, or wife is present - because if it isn't, this place could very well get the motto of, "Come for the food, then stay as long as you can to avoid the fight afterwards."

One more thing to mention - most of the male staff that service the dining room wear Utilikilts.  I didn't see a single one not sporting a surly demeanor or facial expression the entire time, too.  They're definitely equipped to handle trouble, though - one of the guys behind the bar looked like he moonlights in a biker gang, which is good, because I could see socially-awkward/challenged guys buying into the 'attention' here and potentially stalking the girls, who go out of their way to tell you which nights and shifts are theirs so you can come back and 'visit' them.

I really can't believe I'm saying this, but this was a fantastic review.

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On 4/27/2016 at 5:45 AM, Destruya said:

if a seat is available (and, I'm presuming, if the place isn't packed), your waitress will sit down and make small talk with you, asking you standard questions (where you're from, what kind of music do you like, sports preferences, etc.) occasionally interweaving suggestions from the menu (both food and drink) into the topic of conversation.

As an introverted, married, slightly more than middle-aged guy with not a hint of "game", the idea of servers doing this makes me cringe. I am getting palpitations even thinking about going in there by myself! Great review, by the way!

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Yeah, I have *never* been back to the one in Dulles, though I am curious about what would happen if I did and asked to be served by the surliest and most impersonal waitress there.

...of course, that'd probably make it worse since they'd assume I was looking for a different kind of 'special treatment' in that respect, and not just to be served by an attractive woman without all of the bullshit.  In terms of 'things I never thought I'd say,' thank god Hooters girls are allowed to skip the flirting nowadays and just be 'professionally friendly.' <_<

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