Washington Cafe

This place is by no means classy, don’t get me wrong, but if you find plastic checkered tablecloths, really random 80s food posters, and what can only be described as an indoor tiki bar endearing, which I do, then you’ll probably like it. Also in summer you can sit outside, so then the atmosphere isn’t an issue at all. The waitress isn’t bubbly or anything but she gets it done, and she’s never gotten my order wrong or something like that. Mostly I just come cause I like the food and it’s cheap. It’s really like a diner in terms of quality, price, and choices. In short, don’t come here on a first date or anything, but for a Saturday afternoon lunch its definitely one of my defaults.

I ate here hours after arriving in DC, finding little else open downtown on weekends and before I knew about Unilocal.Big mistake.
The place, while small, was not cozy. I think the owners were trying to save some money because the lights weren’t on. My friend and I had to sit next to the window just to make the experience a little less scary. And even then, there were so many posters plastered on it we didn’t get much a view of downtown. Overall, the place was sketchy.
Likewise, service (if you can call it that) was erratic. There are generally two major reasons why servers are bad – either they’re unprofessional or just don’t care. Ours was guilty of both. Initially, all she wanted to do was hurry us through our order. However, after the food arrived (which took forever given there were only 3 tables), we never saw her again and had to flag her down for the check.
To complete the Dining Trinity of No No’s, the food was also lackluster. Writing this review, it took me 5 minutes to remember what we had – I think it was something like a cheeseburger and pad thai. The burger was okay and the noodles kind of weird – I almost wish it was worse, so it’d be a bit more memorable. I guess seeing those two things on the same menu should have been a big tip-​off.
In conclusion, this is the perfect example of what life can be like without a little guidance from Unilocal