Spy City Cafe

Not good… neither the food or the service. They all look bored to death and so goes the food. There are much better choices nearby.

Food was not so great, got the chicken salad and just ate enough so that I was no longer starving. Would skip next time in DC.

This is my #1 spot to go to for a delicious affordable breakfast. The menu is good and the food is soo yummy. I love the pancakes, chedder cheese scamble eggs with potatoes! It’s a cuzy spot good for family meals. The service is friendly and fast. Another plus is that its close to Gallery place for things to do after. Try it, you will love it!

I was really hungry on my way toward the Smithsonian and stopped here to get breakfast because the prices seemed okay. When I walked in I couldn’t figure out if I ordered at the register or there was a waiter. Of course I received no greeting from the staff who were too busy having a conversation to care. When I approached them to ask I had to wait a minute for them to finish their conversation and acknowledge me.
I ordered silver dollar pancakes and a coffee. The coffee was bland, and when my food came out it was 3 thick pancakes. I suppose I thought silver dollar pancakes were closer to the size of silver dollars. I’ve had them at other establishments. The pancakes weren’t bad, just a little heavier than I had planned before going for a long walk.
I’m sure there are other places to get pancakes that have much better service.

This café looks great from outside. Words like «killer sandwiches» decorate their windows, and you think «i bet there’s somethign good to eat here.» Then you step inside and discover that they have their own version of espionage going on.
If you want to eat something remotely healthy, don’t eat here. It’s that simple. Everything is processed and made the cheap-​and-​easy way. The menu offers side dishes such as fruit or vegetables, but when you try to order them they don’t have them. The lazy management shrugs and half-​apologizes, not really caring that their menu is incorrect or that they don’t have healthy options.
The only reason this establishment exists is that they are attached to the Spy Museum. If they were free standing, they would have closed their doors ages ago.
Abort mission!

The food was mediocre and the resturant put me in the mind of a diner.
I found myself questioning is this a self service resturant or do we get waiters??? Kind of a awkward mix between the two. Overall I did find it interesting that one of the staff members was a former CIA agent (retired) and had some interesting conversation as well as some good references on what to check out in the city.

Atmosphere was a little diner-​ish, which isn’t my favorite, but it was clean, the staff wad friendly and the service was great. We had the Zola bites breakfast and it was excellent. The kids had the pancakes, muffins and a breakfast sandwich — all were very good and reasonably priced. Would definitely recommend!

It was okay. It did the job, and the salad I had (Chinese chicken?) was really good for «museum food». Prices were what we expected for museum food too.

This is a very confusing place… You can’t really tell if you get waiters or if it’s self-​service.
I needed a place to hang out before the spy museum opened and it was the closest. So I just walked up to the cashier and ordered a soda. First, she was rather apathetic… The breakfast special looked cheap for ~6 $. But my soda was $ 3.30… For that price, I should have gotten the breakfast special or the coffee…
Mind you, it was one of those Dog Days of DC, so it was 100 degrees at 9 am, so at least it had good ac… but there were a lot of fruit flies.

The turkey burger was very moist. The fries were surprisingly good.
The lemon packets for the water, make for a refreshing beverage on a hot day.

this review is for breakfast only:
Gotta say this place is great for breakfast and very affordable too. Breakfast for two was about $ 12 and everything was cooked to order. Only wish I had been able to stick around and try out the museum.
One downer: I will always be haunted by the fact that I did not order the strawberry pancakes special on offer. Sigh…

I’ll keep it short, because the other reviews sum it up pretty well.
I ordered the lunch special, a «pulled pork sandwich on a sesame bun». The $ 3+ charge for a fountain soda is ridiculous. The food arrived and they brought three bbq pork sliders on non-​sesame buns; no chips, no explanation, just not what I ordered. The food was decent and the girl at the cash register was nice enough; she handed me a survey to take to my table. Nice timing.
Small menu, some good items, but really — mediocre at best, or to quote the menu, «some things are not as they appear».

We stopped because it happened to be across from the National Portrait Gallery. I didn’t expect much, but was pleasantly surprised to see that they had a breakfast menu available after 11am. My boyfriend ordered the malted silver dollar pancakes and thoroughly enjoyed them. I ordered the cheddar egg scramble and was pleasantly surprised by how well seasoned the dish was. It was savory and delicious and actually tasted like something my mom would make. This probably has something to do with all of the latin people working there.
I will say that we found the place just as confusing when we walked in. They should post signage about where to order. Also, we didn’t get our orange juices until halfway through the meal.
Food great. Service and management Meh.

My friends and I went here because we were lured by the new «Zola Bites» menu — as Zola’s a fabulous restaurant (go check out the Unilocal reviews on it) and right next door.
Meh. I’ve had better. I have even had better museum food (go check out the Newseum for fantastic museum food.)
First off, the service — craaaaaazy! There’s no real clear idea if you need to go to the counter first or if you go find a seat. Plus, the counterpeople just have this air of cluelessness about them.
The food was not too bad, some of it was tasty, some of it was kinda meh — I guess the only good thing was the free refills on drinks.
If you’re coming here to go to the museum — I say pass and go to the Subway across the street.

Just had a sour experience here.
After riding my bike to work, I was starving for breakfast. I kept thinking I wanted a bagel and cream cheese, so started walking to the Gallery Place Dunkin’ Donuts. On the way, I walked by the Spy City Café to look at the menu after hearing they were now offering breakfast. This was merely meant as an information gathering mission. But then I saw that their Friday special was one of my greatest weaknesses, Biscuits and Sausage Gravy. I dropped my bagel plans and headed in. The interior is stylish and has spy-​ish decorations all over. I was led to the cash register, placed my order and swiped my credit card.
I then waited for my food. Fifteen minutes passed by. The restaurant was full of middle school aged kids demanding food rudely from the man behind the counter. I couldn’t gather if they just got whatever food they wanted out of some package deal. One overweight girl took an entire plate of bacon, after telling the worker that she didn’t like eggs, bread, potatoes or any other breakfast staple. I’d say her all bacon diet will really put her on the path to long term health.
Anyways, fifteen minutes passed standing there. I’m sure I was giving the stinkeye to the staff. I had a meeting at 9, and thought getting breakfast would take 5 minutes. Finally, a manager came out, asked what I was having, said it would be another 10 minutes for the biscuits and gravy, and asked if they could give me something else. I only went there for the promise of biscuits and gravy. There could not be an easier dish to prepare. ALL YOU DO IS DUMP GRAVY ON BISCUITS. There is no actual cooking required to prepare the dish. So, Spy City Café needed a total of at least 25 minutes to prepare a daily special of biscuits and gravy. Since I had a meeting, I took their offer of an egg and bacon croissant and a refund. Unfortunately, after checking my bank account, it appears the original charge has shown up, but not the refund. At this point, I’m not holding my breath that they actually process the refund. I appreciate the manager stepping in and getting me something to eat, but this experience was just abysmal. Especially for a dish as simple as biscuits and gravy. Anyways, the 2^nd star is purely for the manager’s efforts. It was very very close to a 1 star experience, especially when Spy City Café attempts to make a slightly more upscale quick service experience.
The croissant sandwich was fine, but nothing special. It’s just scrambled eggs and bacon on a croissant. If that was what I had wanted, I could have just got it at our office’s cafeteria for half the price.
Even with this awful experience, I may go back on another Friday to try the biscuits and gravy at some point. I’m just a sucker for the dish. Hopefully Spy City Café won’t need 25 – 30 minutes to prepare the easiest dish in the world to prepare. Also, I’ll hope a pack of the most annoying backwater kids in the world aren’t surrounding me.
I should have just gone to Dunkin’ Donuts for a bagel.

Thanks to my fellow Unilocalers for steering me clear of an eating mishap at this place.
But the other day, the Wife and I decided to do the «Spy In The City» thing… pretty fun, but that’s for another review. We had a little time to kill before our reservation, so we decided to get something to drink.
Lo and behold, the Spy City Café actually has Moxie Cola! I haven’t seen this stuff since my last vacation to Maine when I was a kid. The taste is completely unique… and honestly, not for everyone. So don’t go blaming me if you don’t like it.
Anyways… just an interesting note on the place. Easily worth two stars. I will continue to avoid the food.

Damn!!! $ 3.30 for a 16 oz. plastic cup of soda!!!

‘No fries… Ok, can I have chicken fingers? No chicken fingers, ok… How about pasta salad? No, well hell can I have a glass of water?’
Sucess!
Water was good, workers were rude. I would recommed going across the street to GB.

My cousin and I came here after I met him up from his Chinatown bus trip from NYC to DC. He said he wanted fries and I really did not want him to come all the way to DC for Fuddruckers, so I decided we should go the spy café.
He ordered the shrimp corndogs along with the fries. He said the shrimp corndogs tasted «odd,» but I guess that’s just ’cause its an odd concept that can’t be good. The fries were pretty good — much better than Fuddruckers.
The best part of the night though was playing the cryptowheel game with some other random diners. The first round I didn’t fully understand the rules but by the second round I got the hang of it. I ended up losing though.

You better just order the «Mystery Dog,» because no matter what other cleverly named wurst you order, you will be looking back and forth between the menu description, the picture of the hotdog, and the $ 8 cryptic mess of mayonnaise, intestine and soggy moss (or bread, if you’re lucky) that’s all about to combine unwillingly in your esophagus.
Yeah, I’m a health nut. I don’t like mayonnaise. I don’t like more grease on my food than food on my food. That doesn’t matter. When I order the «Red Square Dog,» I want what I see in the picture, and what I read on the description.
The picture shows a scantly clad Hebrew National dressed in red peppers, mustard and some green vegetables I can’t identify. Looks delicious, seriously. The description matches the picture. Somewhere, between me ordering, the cashier translating the order into Spanish for the line cook, and my arteries pre-​hardening for the cholesterol adventure they foresee, something went wrong. Something went very wrong.
I am greeted with a giant red tray, and a pile of coleslaw, orange sauce, and sad, withering lettuce in the corner of the tray. Upon further inspection, I realize there is a little cardboard thing underneath, which would normally contain a hotdog. I was curious where said hotdog was hiding, so I excavated the rubble and confusion off of the mysterious specimen. There, beneath the warm cocoon of unsolved condiments, was a hotdog and the memory of a bun.
I did eat the dry, shriveled hotdog, but only after its cries for mercy became unbearable. I dumped the rest of the gook into the trash and vowed to only order hotdogs from the organic hotdog vendor outside the Smithsonian on the National Mall. For your sake, I hope you do the same.