The Shops At National Place

Moe’s. For southwest food is good and tasty. The staff is friendly. Will eat there again.

Surprisingly great sushi.
When you get off of the escalator DO NOT walk straight in front of you to that sushi shop.
Turn to the right and walk until you feel like you are leaving the food court. Directly in front of you will be SoHo which is a buffet and I have never been there. But directly before SoHo on your left is the sushi I mentioned.
They serve a great selection of sushi that come in massive pieaces and hats really what its all about.
Along with ample seating in the tiny sushi restaurant it offers a refuge from the overwhelming number of high school and middle school students that flock to the food court during their field trips.
They go after Moe’s and FiveGuys like they are never going to eat again. Consider yourself warned.

This food court used to be much better, but many of the options are now closed. SoHo, Naan and Beyond, Quiznos and the smoothie place are all gone now. The SoHo space is being taken over by the nursing school in the National Press Building.
The food court still appears to be busy at peak hours (weekday lunch) so I’m not sure what’s going on. Are there plans to renovate the space? Is it competition from District Taco and Roti across the street? Is it the result of businesses moving from Metro Center to Gallery Place and Mt. Vernon Square, cutting demand for food places near Metro Center?

I come every week for Moe’s Monday: Burrito, Tortilla Chips and Drink for $ 5.95 + tax. Moe’s offers a cool fountain drink called Vanilla @ Peachtree. LOVE IT. The server behind the counter fills up the sodas, but he did a half fast job of it and I asked him to fill it up to the top. He gave me a funny look, but he eventually complied. The line was not as long as it usually is during lunch rush (possibly because of the holiday week) but normally the wait is not bad at all.

Disappointing food court in which all stalls use disposable cutlery, cups and plates. The amount of waste from here daily must be incredible. How hard would it be to use proper plates and cutlery and employ someone to wash dishes and help reduce the waste from food? Go somewhere else which doesn’t contribute such waste to our environment.

I go there only for Soho which is the best sushi. I have use the restrooms and they are not that great. A lot of seating is well located and you have many different places to choose of.

It’s pretty good for a food court. Lots of options and room for seating. Try not go at peak lunch time but a little later or earlier and it’s not as bad. Moe’s and Naan and beyond have some pretty good vegetarian options. For around 10 dollars you have lots of options for lunch. Nothing really super awesome, but hey, it’s a food court. If the food trucks up the street are boring and you want a place to sit down, it’s not bad place to be.

The food court was good and fairly comprehensive. I wouldn’t get the Pizza ’cause DAMN! But, if I worked in the area I’d be at Naan and Beyond once a week. The layout is a bit strange and when it’s not busy you feel like you are in a Post Apocalyptic zombie film other than that it’s cool.

Like most of these reviews, this is a review of the food court here. It is probably the best food court I have been to in the area in terms of crowd management and the wide selection of different foods. I like SoHo Market, Quiznos and Meiwah a lot, and I am meaning to try the kabob place near the entrance as I have heard great things about it.
One warning: DO NOT go here during prime lunch hours during tourist season (late may through july I think). It is an absolute zoo and just an awful place to be — overrun with massive groups of kids and confused, slow-​moving out-​of-​towners.
I recommend this food court for all other times of year!

Although I generally try to avoid food courts, this one is by far the best around. Ronald Reagan and Old Post Office both gross me out. There is good lighting in National Place and it is kept clean. There is a good selection of foods, and I can usually find a seat quickly. The place is always mobbed with tourists, and the lines can get long, but everything moves pretty quickly.

Good mix of food options, but a little on the pricey side.

I’ve been coming to the Shops at National Place since I was in high school. I’ve seen it transform from the open air atrium with the dyeable shoe store and a haagen dazs ice cream kiosk on the first floor and the Boston Seafood Restaurant on the basement level to this thing that it is today: a haven for scads of neon-t-shirt-wearin’-tourons who don’t know how to behave in public. If you see a tour bus pull up in front of this place, run do not walk to the nearest exit. If you absolutely have to get food at this place during the touron onslaught, go to the Indian place. There’s never a line there because there’s no voucher for the Indian food in the touron coupon book they hand out.
Beware the tourons.

If you come here at lunchtime, you will find yourself in the marvelous world of D.C. men in blue button-​down shirts. Blue shirt men will be everywhere. They will also make the sushi line reeeeallly slow. My friends love the teriyaki, which is comparatively cheap, but I’ve never tried it.
Naan and Beyond is my favorite. Spicy, but I like that. Good vegetarian options, although their mango lassi is a little too thick for me.
The «sweet tea» from that place to the left of the entrance is worst thing I’ve ever drank.
The food-​by-​the-​pound place in the back is reeeally expensive and they only take cash. I learned my lesson the hard way. In fact, most of the food here is fairly expensive. Again, this is the fault of the blue shirt men, who earn way more than they should.
There’s lots of options (sushi, Chinese, naan, etc) and it’s convenient for everyone who works near Metro Center (ie, most of D.C.). So if you work here, you should go. Take coworkers and try to get a big table. Enjoy.

Yes, like most of DC this place is stuck in a time warp of bad late 80s mid 90s décor, design, taste, layout and general lameness.
Forget the fact that the men’s section at Filene’s Basement barely has anything you couldn’t find at any TJ Maxx or Ross and proceed directly to the food court here, again stuck in the bad parts of the 80s and 90s but ignore that and go for the food because Naan and Beyond, 5 Guys, and Grill Kabob all have awesome food that are luckily not sandwiches and salads in an area where there’s sandwich and salad shops abound.
Honestly, if you work in that area and you are sick of Au Bön Pain, Corner Bakery, Cosi, and Philips this is a great place with lots of variety that as I stated before are thankfully NOT SANDWICHES AND SALADS.
If you want my recommendation, the best food is at the Grill Kabob an awesome blend of Afghan and Iranian food that far surpasses anything else in that area.

The food court is pretty brand new in the last 2 years. It’s very convenient for employees in the area. Moe’s is good. Just went there today for lunch. I’m not crazy about getting sushi in the food court. I guess with sushi I prefer a little more upscale restaurant. I haven’t ventured to some of the other ones in the court.

A great lunch spot if you work downtown or if you’re travelling with your family on a DC vacation. This food court is not your typical foodcourt (as jaye f. states). I personally recommend the ‘close talker’ salad from Moe’s. It is quite tasty. The tikka shrimp (with mango sauce) at naan & beyond is also very good! So, take a break from the cosis & abps and enjoy a huge number of choices at this food court.

my previous experience with national place was as the larger of the filene’s basement locations in dc (since i just moved from boston, this was high on the priority list.) however i MUST write and tell you all of a near-​religious conversion: THE FOOD COURT.
i know, it sounds stupid. food courts suck. i hated food courts, except when they have a chick-​fil-​a, but then i hated the *rest* of the food court. but not *this* food court, friends, pinky swear. the street entrance is near F and 13^th, with a big sign that says «EAT». was doing some freelance work across the way and i went to this food court seriously *five* nights in a row, and didn’t run into one bad meal. delicious!
night 1: naan and beyond, tikka chicken in a naan wrap with mango sauce. yes!
night 2: good/​bad combo lo-​mein.
night 3: wicked awesome tofu teriyaki (the place also serves sushi, but had been put away by the time i got there).
night 4: moe’s burrito (the least of my meals, and still pretty tasty). and
night 5: wait. maybe it was 4 nights. but i *desperately* wanted a five guys burger and fries, maybe that’s where the «five» came from.
details! this is not your average food court, with lots of other tasty spots.
two caveats: first, i was eating right before closing time (7pm), when the place was nearly empty and everyone was super-​friendly. i can imagine the place would be hellaciously swamped with workerbees during weekday lunches. second, as i was entering one night, an *enormous* school group was leaving, all matching-​blue-​shirted and rowdily full, and to me sitting in the same time zone as them would be one of the deeper circles of hell. for those possibilities alone, i subtract one star.
otherwise, food-​court nirvana at last! i kind of miss it, especially since i work at the watergate and foggy bottom is a food *desert*.