Leftbank

great brunch!
the steak & ceasar salad is yummy! great mimosas… hmmm i want some now!

We go there for a quick bite on the early side of the evening during the week.
Although the service can be a tad slow, I think the food there is well presented and delicious.
We were surprised by this. Go there and eat!

I know the owner of left Bank. I am not going to give my review and be biased towards him.
I think Left bank is a 4 star place. It is a nice club/​lounge in Adams morgan, has tasty food and the DJ on Fridays (only night I’ve been there) was really really good. We were dancing all night long, there wasn’t a song that we did not like.
You can come here whenever you want to have a relaxing fun night loaded with good drinks and good French food.
You can’t really expect aaaamaazing food in Adams Morgan, so please don’t hurt yourself over this. The reason I say this is not because I didnt like the food here, because I did state above that I loved the place, the drinks and the food. to clarify, I mean for the people who rated left bank and made comments about how the food was not amazing.

Sat down for dinner on a Saturday night. I actually kind of liked the vibe. Despite the fact it was mostly empty, it took at least 10 minutes for a waiter to come over to say hello. After ordering drinks and dinner, it took another 10 minutes for the wine to come. Food came out almost immediately after that. Timing was all out of wack.
My white pizza was good and my girlfriend’s stuffed trout was ok before you realized you had a mouthful of bones. Bones-​a-​plenty in that dish.
We only went in due to a
certificate, but considering the slow service and ok but not great meals, I wont be back.

Like most of the other reviews here, I found Left Bank to be very «ok.»
Went for brunch with 3 friends because Diner was too crowded and loud. the atmosphere is great with the french doors opening onto the street. The food is rather bland. I had the huevos rancheros which was watery and rather tasteless. Drink prices were a bit high, $ 7 for
a bloody mary.
The stuffed french toast is great. Not bad, but I think I’ll pass the next time.

Was able to secure a $ 25 gift certificate for $ 2 on
($ 35 mimimum required), so figured I would check this place out for dinner.
We arrived at 7 and there were no patrons inside (this is a Thursday), so my girlfriend and I decided to grab a quick drink at the Reef and returned at 7:45. It was still dead. Only one group of three having drinks. The weather was great though and they opened up the outer wall, almost making it feel like you were outside.
As far as food goes, we split the hummus guacamole as an appetizer. It was definitely an innovative and solid dish, mixing a chick pea purée with avocados and tomatoes. However, despite having jalapenos, it could have used a bit more of a kick.
For an entrée I had the pork tenderloin. It came with a sweet soy reduction sauce, bok choy and mashed potatoes. All were very good. This was definitely the highlight of the experience, minus the company I was with, of course.
Overall, I would recommend this place if you come with
gift certificate in hand, but would probably skip on a full priced meal.

This place is quite inviting for a sunny day brunch! The food was pretty good, but I won’t go again. The service was just awful. The hostess sat us (party of 5) at a nice booth right away — the restaurant was not crowded except for the private room in the back.
The waitress came over about 10 minutes later and said «just to let you know, we have a party of 40 in the back so all of our burners are going and we aren’t putting food orders in right now.» No apology, and no time quote on when they would start taking *food* orders at this *restaurant*
I asked for some free drinks to compensate for the wait time, and were subjected to the waitress’s disgust from there on out. She also only comped 3 out of 4 drinks, but we just didn’t feel like arguing the bill. Too bad, because the food actually wasn’t that late and tasted good!

Weekend brunches here are delicious. Just try the stuffed french toast. It’s unheard of how good it is.
They also have a beer called the trappistes rochefort there that is very exotic tasting. Its a bit pricey, but if you’re hung over from drinking too much miller lite and you want to try something a bit different, i’d say go for the trappistes.

Not my typical Adams Morgan spot, but I’ll try most things once. I went here after an intense yoga session, when Tryst was too full and the Diner was starting to be played… As much time as I’d spent in this neighborhood, I’d never stopped in and decided to see if it suits me. My little burger was cute — but I was still hungry. I had no idea that the restaurant served dual purposes. I went in, say, about 8 at night and it was a very chill environment. A few ppl were having drinks — some of us were ordering food. An hour later, I could barely hear my friend’s conversation and the place was getting packed… club/​bar scene was not what I was expecting, but I should’ve done my research. Oh, the price of spontaneity… In all, it was a nice experience, but I just went on the wrong night — sweatpants, not a cocktail dress.

I went to Leftbank for brunch a few years back … honestly I was not really that impressed. We only went because the wait at The Diner was over an hour and we were starving.
The food was not that bad … the service was okay … it was just all very generic.
I’d say give it a try if The Dinner or Tryst are too full … otherwise, just pass on by

Old Cities… New Cities… Leftbank. I have known them all and my favorite is still the original Cities like 12 years ago before they became super trendy and renovated. We used to go to Cities almost every weekend back in the day… there was this amazingly hot bouncer that would give us a hard time. Who remembers the old plaster of Paris walls painted in all colors of the rainbow… with the strange looking artwork and the rotating menu? I miss that Cities.
I never liked New Cities and I really don’t like Leftbank. (Sorry Josh) It’s too pretentious and the food really isn’t good. I had the only veggie item — pasta and it was dry and bland. I think it’s good for locals to hang out in the spacious bar area but that’s really it.

We went for a birthday party here and I swear if my friend didn’t have so many friends the place would have been DEAD. The manager must have LOVED her. The music is eh, the drinks are fine, but the reason I give it 2 stars is because they LOST my friend’s credit card (not the birthday girl’s) and didn’t apologize or make an effort to really look for it. Literally the guy took it and then came back and asked for payment and my friend was like what? I gave you my card. And the guy was like oh uhm, I don’t know where it went. So then it became this huge thing with my friend having to cancel his card and all that and the bartender didn’t even seem the least bit sorry. Wow.

Surprisingly, I had the best cappucino in a long time here. Look out Starbucks and Tryst. Coffee was dark, bold and fresh and the foam was perfect. And they didn’t turn my cappucino into a latte, as Starbucks and Tryst tend to do.
My friend’s apple tini was made perfectly: strong with just enough apple flavor.
The DJ played danceable music. This place doesn’t get crowded, so it’s a good spot to have a conversation.
Low Point: bartender was rude and the service in general sucked. Even though there weren’t enough people at the bar to fill the seats, the bartender ignored my friend after he took my order. Yet we were clearly together. He then serviced someone who sat at the bar after us — giving them their drinks even before my drink. We felt pretty snubbed. Then, after saying we owed $ 10 for the two drinks, he charged us $ 13 on the credit card. Sketch. Needless to say, we didn’t consider staying for a second drink.

This is a good place to go for brunch if you don’t want to wait in line, don’t mind paying a ridiculous amount of money for your drinks, and don’t have a big appetite.
The place itself is quite nice to just sit around and chill and the amount of food we got, albeit little, was very tasty.
A very small glass of orange juice costs $ 3, as well as coffee. And sodas cost $ 2 each and they don’t bring you refills unless you ask and the glasses are also really small.
We ordered the french toast with strawberries and marscapone and wild mushroom omelete with goat cheese. The food was very tasty and I’d definitely go back on a morning when I’m not too hungry.
Overall it was a good experience until we got the check and saw the drink prices.

Chic, posh place to have a few drinks on the weekend. It wasn’t overly packed. We didn’t have to wait in line and we got a great table right in the front to chill and sip drinks.
The crowd is very international… seems there are a lot of Turks there. The drinks are made well.
It’s more like a bar/​lounge than an actual bar during drinking-​hours, which means I can dig it.

Having what many have described as the «United Nations» of friends, I love Left Bank. This is a place where you can choose to sit down and relax, listening to the club music or get up and dance your ass off in the front. Get to this place in the summer and they’ll have the front windows wide open.
Be sure to check out the back area. On the weekends, they have a sushi chef back there. Many a time I have been looking for my friends and located them doing sake shots while munching on sushi in the back.

Five stars for the great time the staff ensured for my niece, her family and their guests at my niece’s recent Bat Mitzvah party. I had not been in the Adams Morgan section of DC in many years, so I had nothing against which to compare this probably trendy place that, from the looks of the neighborhood, undoubtedly has tons of competition.
I imagine that in good weather, the openess in the front of this café-​like venue, together with the big glass doors would make for a delightful dining environment.
On a stand alone basis, the assortment of finger food my sister chose for the adults was uniformly fresh and delicious, and the sound system was excellent because the adults managed to talk to each other in a rear room separated from the main event only by a curtain. Even the pizza and pasta they served the kids seemed all right to me; it definitely was not slurp and burp, and it easily could have been and no one would have complained.
The staff was delightful to the children and one of the bartenders made me two delicious martinis. If I were in that part of town again, I would return for a fully adult experience and to sample the food in more depth.
Thank you Left Bank for making the kids so happy; I think they all felt very cool to be partying in there!

I have passed through here on the occasional Friday night before, as part of an 18^th St bar-​hop (usually on those weird evenings that end up being good old-​fashioned drunken fun but start with the need to find a compromise plan that everyone can agree on but no-​one is actually stoked about). And enjoyed some decently mixed drinks there and some fantastic people– watching/​judging opportunities. I have generally though been fairly ambivalent towards the place.
But this review is about their brunch.
Went this very morning with a couple of chums ahead of a bit of stroll round Crafty Bastards. Firstly, the ‘mid-​90s-​ode-​to-​the-​60s’ décor actually looks a lot better in the day-​time. The pop-​tastic bright whiteness was charmingly distinctive, especially with the doors open onto the street. We sat at a communal table, which was fine because we only communed with a couple who oh-​so-​communally were sat at the other end– yet another example of the vast gap between the ideas and practice of communism. Ended up being a bit of a prime spot to survey all the action from the bar, to the booths to the door-​side tables. The place has a lot of floor space which meant despite plenty of people in there, it in no way felt crammed.
We ordered a brioche basket to share initially. A little more dense than I like my brioche and I wish I had the foresight to request a more tart preserve than the strawberry we received, to contrast the sweet bread. But we happily scoffed it all down, so let’s not sound so snooty– eh?
I ordered the mushroom and goats cheese omelet, which I was very pleased with– perfect fluffy egg. My friends’ orders seemed on top form too– the Mediterranean plate with its array of cucumber, tomato, olive and cheese looked particularly good, and a real change from the norm.
Now, I was going to give this place two stars because of the service. But the problem was really one hapless misunderstanding over tomato juice and coffee, involving myself (with my admittedly dodgy Brit accent — although I did attempt to pronounce it the Freedom-​loving way), a charmingly confused waitress for whom English is not quite yet a second language and an over-​zealous manager who in his eagerness to assuage the problem actually made me feel bad. And the comedy element of the whole episode did keep us entertained over our eggs.
So, with the wisdom of Solomon I have decided it gets the third star– the service attitude was spot on. And have duly added it to my roster of standard (‘let’s just agree a location’, ‘we are too hungover to appreciate anything swanky anyway’) brunch locations.

The lameass bouncer wouldn’t let me in at 11:55 on the eve of my 21^st birthday. He was such a douche that we didn’t even stick around to try again after midnight. It just wasn’t worth it. I understand that rules are rules, but he was just an absolute stick in the mud. Little did he know that I only drank cosmopolitains at this point in my life and would have definitely rung up a hefty bar tap (I proceeded to do so at another bar… Mantis, I think).
He also wouldn’t let in my guy friend who was wearing jeans and sneakers.
From what I saw from the sidewalk, it doesn’t look like a place that I’d want to get in, anyway. So there.

This is a really open and airy restaurant in Adams Morgan — I always see people here as I walk by at night. They have huge glass doors they keep open during the warmer months, giving the restaurant a café-​like appearance.
The menu here is pretty good, but the portions are a tad on the small side. The «bison» burger hit the spot though, without making me feel like a lardass after I ate it. If you come here to drink, you’ll most likely be able to find a seat. At least I always can. It gets a bit flashy at night, and the staff becomes a bit more stand-​offish.