Cafe Soleil in Washington, DC, DC

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Telephone:	+1 202-974-4260
Website:	www.cafesoleildc.com
Address:	836 17th St NW, Washington, DC, DC, 20006 b/t N H St & N I St
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:	250 ftFarragut West 0.2 miMetro Bus 3Y 7Y 11Y 80 S1 16Y OmniRide G MTA Commuter Bus 0.2 miMTA Bus Stop
Categories:	French American (New)

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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations	Yes
Delivery	No
Take-out	Yes
Accepts Credit Cards	Yes
Good For	Lunch, Dinner
Parking	Street
Bike Parking	Yes
Wheelchair Accessible	Yes
Good for Kids	No
Good for Groups	Yes

Attire	Casual
Ambience	Classy
Noise Level	Average
Alcohol	Full Bar
Outdoor Seating	No
Wi-Fi	Free
Has TV	No
Waiter Service	Yes
Caters	No

Today

Today	7:00 am – 12:00 am Closed now
Local time (Washington, DC)	05:27 Wednesday, 16 July 2025

Business hours

Monday	7:00 am – 12:00 am
Tuesday	7:00 am – 12:00 am
Wednesday	7:00 am – 12:00 am
Thursday	7:00 am – 12:00 am
Friday	7:00 am – 12:00 am
Saturday	7:00 am – 1:00 am
Sunday	7:00 am – 12:00 am

Description

Specialties

We take great pride in our atmosphere and food preparations. Fine Dining, Happy Hour, great times, and awesome service

History

Established in 1997.

First opened in the early 1990’s as a French Restaurant operating under the name of «Vox Artis» and struggled to gain a mainstream following among DC business professionals. Early in 1997, the restaurant began operation under new business name of «Café Soleil» and continued to build a great reputation with local businesses. in 2009 the business changed hands once again, and we have kept the same name and concept from previous years! Current owners and father son duo, Alex and Dick Heidenberger, have made many changes to bring Café Soleil up to the high expectations of the DC restaurant faithful! We have added numerous specials, happy hour, and and more extensive menu to meet the demand in our market. Our menu changes regularly, and we are always open for suggestions and new ideas. Email Alex directly: hido80@gmail.com if you wish to have a more personal response. Cheers, the Soleil Team

Meet the Business Owner

Alex H.

Business Owner

Hi, I am Alex, owner of Café Soleil. I am originally from the DC area and am proud to be the son of fellow restaurant owner Dick Heidenberger. My father has been in the business for over 30 years, and we take great pride in the «people» aspect of our business. Without YOU… we have nothing. We love our staff, our customers, and the vendors we work with. I have been all over, and I still travel to the Bethany Beach area weekly to work a few bar shifts at Mango’s. So, I will catch you in the lounge at Café Soleil for Happy Hour tonight when ya swing by. Cheers, Alex

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20 reviews of Cafe Soleil

No registration required

Mary Beth L.

Place rating: 2
Arlington, VA

The ambiance was very charming! But the food was meh. I had a lamb burger, and the bun was one of those sesame seed buns that you buy in bulk at Walmart. I was with coworkers for lunch, and everyone’s meal was very generic. The décor (super cute French bistro-style) did not go with the food (bland, uninteresting). Unfortunate.

Nathan T.

Place rating: 3
Arlington, VA

Love Café Soleil for its lamb burger and the quiet ambience. This time I went in to have my favorite appetizer (warm brie) and the restaurant stopped it some time ago. This was their best appetizer and I don’t understand how they could do it. They have good desserts as well — although I didn’t eat any during my latest visit!

Mitzi M.

Place rating: 4
Knoxville, TN

I just finished a great lamb burger! I ignored the bun had goat cheese and caramelized onions. Had good wine and service was very good. I was alone so no large group. The bar tender served dinner. I saw other reviews but due to convenient location took a chance and it paid off.

Abbie R.

Place rating: 1
Pleasanton, CA

The service was good but there is a reason this restaurant was empty at dinner time. They serve a nice warm bread roll to start that is ok but I ordered the duck a l’orange which was vet under whelming for the $ 26 price. It looked like it had been microwaved and was basic broccoli rice and over cooked duck with a store bought orange sauce. Maybe a $ 7 microwave meal from Safeway but definitely not $ 26 in downtown DC

Justina T.

Place rating: 1
CANAL STREET, NY

This place is ehhh – nothing to write home about. My boyfriend and I stayed at the Club Quarters which was a great hotel; welcoming, clean, and down the block from the monuments.
We had pancakes that tasted like they were pre-made with smoked salmon (which was extremely dry, didn’t even know that was possible) and scramble eggs that looked like they were made by a 5 year old.
The service was nice and friendly but didn’t make up for the lack luster food. It’s so unfortunate that this restaurant is downstairs/connected to a great hotel.

Jen C.

Place rating: 1
Red Bank, NJ

I was staying at the Club Quarters for a work trip and went for lunch with co-workers, party of 6. Given that there was a major snowstorm I was prepared for spotty service. However the waiter never placed the order for my appetizer, and inexplicably placed my entrée order ‘to go.’ The woman who seated us was rude — when one of my party asked a question about a menu item she snapped ‘I’m not a server.’ Three of the six of us thought there was something wrong with our food — undercooked or just unpleasant.
The biggest concern we all had was hygiene. Staff was seen touching garbage or computer touch screens and then touching people’s food. While I appreciate that people came in during an extreme weather situation to open the restaurant, there is no excuse for unsanitary food handling.

Thang H.

Place rating: 1
San Francisco, CA

Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.
Went here for lunch on Jan 24, 2016. Our waiter was very defensive and the staff was very unprofessional. There were a host of offenses and bad food (this if from a variety of dishes):
* My fork was dirty and when I told our waiter he gave me attitude when he replaced it.
* The staff was swearing in Spanish to each other thinking we could not understand
* The chicken in the salad was spoiled and not edible
* The tuna was spoiled in the Nicoise salad and not edible
* The steamed broccoli was spoiled
* The rice tasted did not taste fresh
* The waiter forgot to order two dishes that one person in our party ordered
* A bar staff changed the trash in front of us and did not wash their hands. He handled drinks and glasses right afterwards.
* Told the waiter I was gluten free. My gluten free duck d’orange came with sauce. I told him I ordered without the sauce because I was gluten free. The same dish back to me with the sauce wiped off. You could still see residual sauce on the duck. They re-ordered the same the same dish for me. Several pieces came back barely cooked. I gave up.
Please do not eat here.

Helen M.

Place rating: 1
San Francisco, CA

A group of colleagues and I went for lunch at Café Soleil during the Snowmaggedon of Jan 2016. We had a terrible experience dining here. The servers took quite a while to take our order, even though the place wasn’t too busy. We didn’t think anything of it since most downtown places were running on skeleton staff due to the snow storm.
Then the food started to arrive. Three of us ordered the French onion soup (that was quite decent) but only two arrived. I ordered a salad with chicken. The chicken had a really bizarre texture to it, almost like fake meat. It was not at all appetizing. A gluten free friend specifically requested no sauce on his dish, but this was ignored. When he asked for it to be made again he commented that the rice accompanying the dish tasted abnormal. My friend whose soup arrived late also had her tuna salad turn up right at the end of the meal when the rest of us where finished. The tuna was not cooked very well, and that too apparently had a strange texture. To add insult to injury, we saw one of the wait staff pick up the bun from a guest’s burger to check what was inside with his bare hand. We also saw him changing the trash without gloves or washing his hands after, as he then proceeded to serve people. They did deduct the late dishes from our bill, but all in all I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone. We all left feeling rather nauseous.

Bob R.

Place rating: 2
Alexandria, VA

Let me start out with the caveat that I only sat at the bar and had a minimal meal. Nonetheless, I was disappointed after entering the place with higher expectations. The two stars may be generous, but since I didn’t have much, I don’t feel right scoring lower.
It was a Friday evening at 8:00, and the place was not crowded at all, which should have set off warning bells, especially considering the location. I mentally wrote that off as being caused by the rain. I was by myself, so I sat at the bar, ordered a beer and perused the menu.
The first thing I noticed was that it was very pricey. I also noticed it wasn’t really French — almost more Italian, but not really. I was tempted to get a full meal, but decided on the calamari appetizer.
The small portion of calamari looked like it came straight from a frozen bag of food service product. It had thick even breading on it. The baby octopi were edible, but the rings had the the consistency of silicone washers. I literally could not chew them, and had to swallow them nearly whole, washed back with a mouthful of beer. This is what gives a normally delicious dish a bad name.
To make matters worse, they were served with ranch dressing for dipping (!!!) — not marinara which is expected. I couldn’t finish them.
I didn’t want to risk disappointment on another appetizer, so I just ordered the crème brûlée for dessert. That was also pricey, and rather shallow in a small plate. The sugar crust on top was cold — they were obviously pre-browned and stored in the fridge. They crème itself was good.
I won’t be back, and don’t recommend, but as mentioned previously, that is based on one visit with limited menu items.

Maxwell M.

Place rating: 1
Washington, DC

Worst dining experience of my life. Went here two hours prior to closing on a date, was hassled by the server to hurry up constantly. Wasn’t given a drinks menu due to the place closing so the waiter just told us what HE could make us, needless to say the drinks were awful. I gave a $ 0.00 tip yet I checked my cc statement and got rung up for a 20% tip. Food was cold, I had been here twice before for lunch and exclusive of this hellish experience the place still would have only received one star, I’d given zero stars if possible.

Ann C.

Place rating: 2
Brooklyn, NY

Crazy story from just tonight’s dinner at café soleil…
First of all, it took an hour for our food to come out. The first waiter we asked very politely after thirty minutes, and his attitude was a little defensive. Without apologizing he explained how we sat down at the same time as many other guests so the kitchen was busy.
The second time we asked after fifty minutes, and the waitress was much more polite, apologizing and checking on the kitchen immediately. About ten minutes after we finally got our food one after one. However everything was obviously quickly put together and tasted quite bad.
The highlight of the story though, was the seafood linguine that came with, yes brace yourself for this, COLD mussels. Cold mussels in the linguine after an hour wait for our food? May I add that this was a $ 25 plate of linguine? So these were previously open and frozen mussels not fresh ones? Completely horrific!
However, the servers acted quickly and nicely to this. We cancelled that order and the manager came to apologize and didn’t count the two drinks we ordered in our bill. So in terms of service they actually did well in my opinion because they really apologized for the mistake.
Breakdown of the other food we got:
Ginger jumbo shrimp $ 22
Plate display was awful, asparagus were old and tough. The whole plate was also incredibly salty and left my mouth salty till now. Ridiculous for the price of $ 22
Veggie sandwich $ 11
Plain boiled veggies on the side and a sandwich that can’t get any more simple. It’s hard to believe that this could go wrong but it somehow did and we left more than half the plate untouched
Heingenber burger $ 18
Actually decent! But the fries were obviously from a frozen package or something of that matter

Julia K.

Place rating: 3
Morningside, Australia

Decent place for a not too expensive dinner. Ideal if your staying at Club Quarters.
The staff was very friendly & the service extremely quick (at 8pm). The crispy Brussel sprouts as starter were delicious, the lobster ravioli more average.
Update:
Went to Soleil out of convenience on my last night in DC too, this time only for drinks during happy hour (4−8pm) and a small dinner from the bistro menu.
Again, the staff was friendly & service super quick. Had lovely mussels in white wine and garlic sauce. Only thing to improve would be a second slice of baguette to accompany it.

Ryn A.

Place rating: 2
Redlands, CA

Went here out of desperation. Not very many options in this district on a weekend. We are here for a week and will not be coming back. Wife had the salmon with the can of pistachios and I had the turkey sandwich.
The only thing I liked was the sriracha mayo for the sandwich.

Berneta A.

Place rating: 1
Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

This restaurant is a portal that sucks away your precious vacation time, don’t eat here!
First off it took 10 minutes to get a menu and drink order placed for breakfast. ‘Twas mind boggling fellow Unilocalers that we were only one out of 6 tables occupied, and there were two servers. When these things take that long, you can’t help but look to your watch to time all your requests. Our coffee arrived 25 minutes after we placed our order and for some reason the server thought the food order we placed was times 2. Who would eat two breakfast entrees and two sides by themselves?!
We also couldn’t help but listen to the gentleman next to us that had to complain 3 times that he didn’t eat meat and kept on showing the server the ham in his Western Omlette
The Blueberry pancakes although good, didn’t have blueberries in them. The blueberries are on the side, the coffee was watered down, and the Western Omlette wasn’t anything to write home about. We were surprised at how small the portions are for the pricing (all breakfast entrée items are $ 10-$ 11)
18% gratuity is automatic for breakfast here, and could explain the poor service. We ate here because we were staying in Club Quarters, you’re better off checking out the French Café across the street of the hotel.

Kristy G.

Place rating: 5
Beaufort, SC

We came her right after the 4^th of July fireworks at the national mall. We got here in the knick of time! Place got packed quick but didn’t effect our food or service.
As a group of three we ordered calamari, veggie flat bread, pistachio salmon, and lobster ravioli and everything was really good. Flatbread was simple but tasty!
I’d go back. Check in and you can get a free drink!

Heather G.

Place rating: 1
Santa Ana, CA

The restaurant is dimly lit in attempt to hide its poorly outdated décor and in attempt to have an upscale atmosphere. It feels rather drab and depressing. Although the fact that it was raining outside while I was dining probably didn’t help add to the experience.
I dined late at night. There were quite a few single diners there, probably all on business like myself. The service was initially attentive on taking my order and bringing my drinks, but there was no followup that came after the food was dropped.
Now for the food. My review is strictly for the pistachio crust salmon. I love salmon and order it very frequently in all the restaurants I visit. This place probably had one of the saddess salmon dishes I’d ever had. The salmon sat on top of a creamy leek sauce, which was okay, but that was the only okay part about it. The salmon was way over cooked, and their idea of a crusted salmon was slabbing mayonnaise (or at least i think it’s mayo) on top and putting whole stale pistachios right over that slab of thick brushed on mayo. Mayo is a tricky ingredient to use. It has the power to over power everything else in a dish if not used correctly, and in this case, it was a thick layer that basically made my salmon taste like mayo. The pistachio was stale. I did try to scrape it all off, but that just left me with an overcooked salmon.
The accompaniments of warm arugula and mashed potato weren’t so impressive either. The arugula was way to salty while the mashed potatoes lacked some.
I ate here out of convenience because it was connected to the hotel I’m staying at and it was raining. Overall, my experience here was pretty dismal to say the least. I should’ve taken my chances and just walked in the rain and ate somewhere else.

Christina L.

Place rating: 2
Staten Island, NY

I stayed at Club Quarters, so I just conveniently ordered for pick up to eat in my room. When I went downstairs to pick up, I saw a lot of individuals eating alone, so if you’re here for business. Don’t fret ;)
I ordered the Brussels sprouts and pistachio encrusted salmon. It was an interesting combination of flavors, but it wasn’t anything spectacular. And for that reason, two stars for this slightly below average restaurant.

Andrew C.

Place rating: 1
Chicago, IL

It’s not that hard to make a medium rare lamb burger is it?
Two well done burgers later, I guess it is. They messed up my order twice and then took forever on the second. It was served on the cheapest sesame seed bun ever (McDonalds buns are better than this). Then the waitress asked asked my why I didn’t want my third burger, and then her manager asked and then his manager asked. Just all around confusion about messing up an order.
My seat mate asked for salad dressing on the side and it was on the salad. She asked for scallops and they were burnt not seared…
This place sells you on an air of sophistication and then provides really basic food and paltry service. Save your money

Gregory B.

Place rating: 3
Capitol Heights, MD

«Not Bad»
I don’t like writing Unilocal when I only order a sandwich and fries because I feel like it doesn’t allow the establishment an opportunity to «wow» me. Nonetheless, I came here on a Tuesday for lunch and sat at the bar. The place is nice looking. It has an old money feel to it.
I was going to get the lamb burger, but the bartender said it was not great, so I got the grilled chicken sandwich. I was happy that the bartender was invested enough to give his opinion, but a lot of these reviews are saying that the lamb burger is great. What gives?!
Anyway, I was impressed with the texture of the chicken and my first few bites were good. Midway through, I felt that the sandwich was lacking and needed some honey mustard, bbq, or some sauce to compliment. The fries were alright.
My service was pretty good and I got a free drink for checking in. I told them to make me a non alcoholic version and it was tasty. The manager started chit chatting with me afterwards, perhaps because he realized I was a Unilocaler.

Neal E.

Place rating: 4
Haymarket, VA

We had lunch in here on day — ordered the Spinach salad with a Crab cake.
The vegetables were crisp and fresh, and the Crab cake was savory and tasty!
Service was good!
The only weird thing about this restaurant is that you have to take the elevator up a level to use the restroom.

Cafe Soleil

Washington, DC, United States