3318 M Street Northwest
Washington D.C., DC 20007
(202) 965-6005
Open Mon-Wed,Sun 8am-10:30pm; Thu-Sat 8am-12am
Now that the spring weather is starting to slowly come upon us, I like to try and take advantage of any restaurants with outdoor seating. So on the first comfortable Sunday of March, my buddies and I tried to find a place to have brunch in Washington, D.C. and decided on Kafe Leopold‘s.
Located off the main drag of M Street in Georgetown, Kafe Leopold’s is a yuppi-ish, European joint with clientele that falls under the category of either having western European decent and/or upper middle class Georgetowner. Needless to say my friends and I don’t really fit into either one of those categories, so we were sort of out of place (but not uncomfortably so).
With the goal of trying to get one of the tables outside, we came upon Kafe Leopold’s and the couple dozen other people trying to do the same thing. There are about twelve tables on their patio, however only about five of them can accommodate more than two people. And by the way, the outdoor section is dog friendly if you decide you want to bring your pooch along.
My party was hungry enough that we decided to pass on waiting for outdoor seating and signed up for first available. The wait was long; we were told 30 minutes and it ended up being more like an hour. The host was apologetic and checked in on us several times, which softened the irritation a little, but still an hour wait was a pretty long time. We couldn’t really blame anyone however. Sunday brunch is a time to lounge around and enjoy the company of the table you’re at, so we couldn’t really fault the current patrons who were enjoying their meals slowly. Like I said, the clientele was very European.
When we did get seated, we were taken indoors. The interior will remind you of a IKEA dining room, with a lot of white space all around and the solid, modern looking furniture. The only hint of color was a curious orange couch in the middle of the room which reminded us of Gaudi’s bench in Park Guell in Barcelona. There was also a fairly large display case of mouth watering pastries and cakes sitting there and teasing our rumbling stomachs.
Once seated, we ordered a few appetizers and bunch items. I had a Mrs. Palmer cocktail (Sweet Tea Vodka, Lemonade, and Ginger Beer I think) which was the best part of the meal (sadly). The croissant I ordered (I succumbed to the temptation of the pastry display) was buttery, flakey, and quite good, but nothing special. We ordered a prosciutto platter as an appetizer as well, which was alright as well, except for the fact that it annoyingly showed up with our main dishes.
My $15 chive and cheese omlette however was pretty boring and I probably could have made a much better one myself at home. The omlette came with a small green salad and three small pieces of toast (which added up to maybe one piece of white bread), and those didn’t really pair that well with the eggs. One of my friends ordered the same thing and had the same reaction. Our third friend had the Belgian waffle with chocolate and he too was underwhelmed by his meal because the waffle itself was no larger than a frozen Eggo waffle (probably better to get your brunch waffles at Belga Cafe in Eastern Market).
Bottom line: All in all, the experience wasn’t horrible, but it’s not worth it unless you get the outdoor seating on a nice day. But I’m always willing to give a restaurant a second chance and I might go back to try their regular lunch/dinner because those menu items did look much better on other customers’ tables. C+
Here and There 