Cafe Jenna

Pretty tasty breakfast! Ordered a bagel and lox with a peach tea. The bagel was perfectly toasted and had just the right amount of cream cheese and onion. Would definitely go back when I’m in town!

This place has some of the rudest employees. I work in Crystal City, so I went there for lunch. The man making my sandwich acted like he heard me and just started to make my sandwich with what he though I said. He was completely wrong (probably because he couldn’t hear anything I sad). Instead of asking me to repeat myself louder, he went on to make my sandwich. I asked him to stop because he was making it wrong and he acted like he didn’t hear me, so I waited for him to finish. I then told him I didn’t want tomatoes and that I requested mayo. He gave me a dirty look and threw the tomatoes off the sandwich. I then said I wanted mayo too, he slapped some mayo on the lettuce then threw the meat on there and closed the sandwich. I then politely said, that I wanted more vegetables. I really didn’t appreciate the attitude he gave me because he failed to listen to me. He didn’t even care to hear what I wanted on the sandwich before he put what he felt like I would want. I told him to keep the sandwich and left. I could hear him telling everyone that I didn’t tell him what I wanted on the sandwich as I was walking out. There are so many different places to eat for lunch, find one where you don’t have to be treated like you should be thankful that the employee making your food came to work today. This place is not worthy of charging $ 10 for a small sandwich.

They were out of turkey. –1 star. They charged me another $ 1.00 for a slice or two of provolone cheese. Another –1 star. $ 8.24 for a sandwich, on white bread that came out of a package, and that tasted just a bit above average. Could I have made the same thing at home? Yes. Because I was starving, I got the roasted chicken, which wasn’t a bad choice. At least they’re not using packaged meats. I might try them again sometime… if they have turkey. I only went to Jenna’s because Potbelly had a line that looked about 30 minutes long. Who wants to wait 30 minutes in line for lunch?! Not me! But some people do it. Doesn’t give you much time to eat and get back to the office though. But Jennas had zero line and only a few customers.

Small café inside the Crystal City Shops. Came here for breakfast. Nothing fancy at all but the price was cheap for what we got. Wasn’t a huge fan of the coffee, but would probably come back if I was in the area got breakfast.

Great little independent breakfast/​lunch spot, an escape from the $ 25 breakfast buffets in the surrounding hotels. Near a Starbucks with long lines where you pay 50% more for coffee and a sandwich. Tasty omelet, good coffee and very pleasant service. Support the little guy!

Joined Unilocal just to review this place as a heads-​up to others. I came here about two months ago with my family for brunch. The place was completely empty, and yet it still took them forever to prepare the food. That wouldn’t have been a big deal, but the real issue was that they somehow got two or four orders completely wrong, and then they started arguing with us and getting defensive when we asked for what we ordered instead. The woman at the counter eventually (and with great reluctance) agreed to prepare what my wife and my Mom had actually ordered, but the attitude was out of this world rude. I forgot exactly what they ordered (something with eggs), but I had a bagel sandwich and it was cold and fairly tasteless. Sorry Café Jenna, but I won’t be coming back and I urge others to steer clear.

Crystal City mall is a strange, strange place. Everything shuts down around 4pm and there is a mish-​mash of odd stores and semi-​creepy lunch places within the underground tunnels. I’ve poked around at many of the lunch places, and Café Jenna is one of my favorites.
Café Jenna offers the most amazing roasted turkey sandwich I have ever had the pleasure of eating in my life. It is SO DARN GOOD! If you look indecisive when you go up to order, they’ll often offer you a slice of each type of meat to taste test. A co-​worker of mine says the Reuben is to die for (I haven’t tried it yet) but she raves about it. I have always enjoyed my lunch!
Tips: You need to be VERY DIRECT and SPECIFIC about your sandwich. Ask for toasted bread. Tell them more/​less of each ingredient you want. This ain’t Subway with pre-​determined serving sizes! Add coleslaw to your turkey sandwich – MMM.
Food isn’t cheap, but it’s delicious. I feel that it’s a bit healthier in its preparation than traditional Subway sandwiches (like, no plastic in the bread and such). I’d absolutely recommend a trip here if you’re in the creepy Crystal City area for work.

Typical café style breakfast. Had the big breakfast and it was good. The breakfast potatoes were delicious I’d say a lot better than most! Will be coming back here :)

I’m not sure why this place gets such good reviews. It’s a small place inside of a strip mall. The food is mediorce, at best. We came here after going for a run one morning. We almost left once we got here, but decided we were too hungry to search anything else out. We ordered breakfast sandwiches and burritos. I could honestly make this better at my own home. I couldn’t even finish my sandwich. People were not very friendly and felt like we were putting them out by ordering food. And the coffee… it was soooo bad. I actually like crappy restaurant coffee, it’s nostalgic at times. But this was undrinkable. Please don’t eat here, unles you are having low blood sugar and have to eat the moment you walk by or are going to pass out. If not, do yourself a favor and eat somewhere better!

Decided to give this place a shot after walking by it a million times. Immediately received food poisoning from a roast beef sandwich. Still recovering

Recently (April 2013) they had a change in management and probably not for the best. They are now selling over priced sandwiches, removed the TV (this was the only place in Crystal City underground with a TV!) and one employee that had worked there for 9+ years left them due to the new managament.
I believe the previous owner was struggling and had sell it or get a new partner who is trying to become more profitable by increasing prices! Instead of getting more customers, they are losing the few loyal customers they had.

We went to Café Jenna for brunch around 10 a.m. on a weekday. We both had a breakfast sandwich with sausage, egg and cheese. One on an english muffin and the other on white toast. Both were very good & fresh, served very hot. You order at the counter & they brought it to us. 2 breakfast sandwiches, a Naked Red Machine drink for less than $ 11. Very reasonable. Located in the Crystal City tunnels. I would definitely go back for a quick and tasty breakfast/​brunch.

Come here every so often for breakdast because of the proximity to my job. Food is good and customer service is great too. Also, the cheap prices are a plus too. If you’re in the Crystal City area and want a good breakfast sandwich, this is your spot.

Really good place to grab a bite to eat and friendly staff. I’ve purchased both breakfast and lunch here and it’s always good! I also appreciate the unsweetened iced tea that’s available.

Thanks to LivingSocial another breakfast adventure took place at Café Jenna. Using their (LivingSocial) on-​line order taking system, I ordered smoke salmon with cream cheese on a bagel, BLT sandwich, and fries to redeem my $ 10 voucher.
The take-​out order was ready for pick up as promised. The cashier nicely packed the food along with napkins and ketchup. When sitting down to eat I noticed the breakfast bagel had more than enough cream cheese as it was oozing out from the bagel. Rather than OD from cream cheese I went ahead and wiped off the excess cream with a napkin. However, the sandwich continued to fail as the smoke salmon tasted too salty. Fortunately BLT sandwich and fries delivered as expected! The fries were big, fluffy and without the grease while the BLT tasted fresh.

I loved this place. My husband and I went for a quick breakfast that wasnt too expensive and we loved this place. Everything was made to order and it tasted amazing! Its not expensive either, makes it a perfect place :)

Employees and service: 5 stars
Food: 3 – 4 stars, depending on what you get. Sandwiches are decent at worst. The wheat bread isn’t very «wheaty» though. Be nice if it were more legit.
Coffee: 1 star. Is it THAT hard not to burn coffee?
The coffee is the one reason why I rarely go here. Much bettter coffee at Potbelly (seriously) and the breakfast sandwiches are about the same.

My family and I went to Café Jenna while staying at the Crystal Gateway Marriott. Café Jenna is a convenient walk from the hotel through underground tunnels, and by the way one can get to Café Jenna through the same tunnels if staying at the sister property of Crystal City Marriott.
Regarding the taste of the food, it really depends on what you get. The omelette thing that we got was super bland and didn’t seem to have any salt added. However, the soup and ½ sandwich combos packed good flavours and the salads easily covered three to four healthy portions apiece. Nantucket Nectars are carried in their coolers, so we grabbed a few. Ended up spending, with tax, about $ 24.00 for three people eating way past their fill for brunch one late morning. One more thing, the people working there were actually nice and offered friendly customer service, which are both uncommon in that metro area. The menu board is quite large, with a variety of items to fill you up for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and a later lunch.

Yum Yum…
They have the best breakfast! I never had lunch here but always get their breakfast. Everytime its always in and out in less than 10 minutes with great food in my hand …

I love this place. I know it’s just a lunch counter joint, but the food is good and cheap. I had their version of the reuben and i thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m a reuben snob.
If you’re sick of paying too much for lunch and work in Crystal City like the rest of the corporate drones (like myself) wandering the halls. Go here. It’s surprisingly good and the people that work there are nice.
So what to get: the asian chicken salad is awesome. The sandwiches to include the panini are really good.
Buy your food here and walk outside to the park and eat your lunch.