Capitol Grounds Coffee

I was in the neighborhood looking for a quick but healthy lunch. I’m currently happily munching on their GW Veggie Special. Spinach, Provolone, Tomato, Roasted Red Peppers, all on toasted Focaccia. Absolutely delicious and tastes light and fresh. It was served up so fast, too! Thank you, Capitol Grounds!

Capitol Grounds Coffee is a clean unassuming café located on Pennsylvania avenue.
While it is a modest café, it offers a nice selection of breakfast items including bacon, cheese and egg croissants and simple bagels and cream cheese. In addition to the breakfast sandwich options, they have a wall of drinks to choose from! Anything from snapple, aloe drinks, fancy water, what have you… AND they have in house squeezed juices as well! So if you want a little more love in your morning juice, that is an option for you at a slightly higher price than the mass produced items in the fridge!
All the items on their menu are VERY reasonable! I have been incredibly happy with the price of my morning coffee and egg/​cheese/​bacon croissant ($ 7). In addition, the staff is friendly and efficient. You can be in and out of there in 5 minutes!
During those 5 min of waiting, you have the option to watch the news. It is always playing, and easily viewed on a flat-​sceen fixed to the ceiling. It’s kinda nice to catch up on the news on your way to work/​school.
One more note: There is outdoor seating available. Seating inside is limited to a bar-​like set up facing Pennsylvania ave. I wouldn’t recommend Capitol Grounds as a study location, but for a quick bite to eat and coffee it’s perfect!
Bottom line: The «go-​to» morning café.

Consider me impressed — for a small joint that seems pretty basic, this place is nice.
Capitol Grounds Coffee is a little corner bodega-​type coffee place on Penn Ave, but it never really seems to be very crowded or noisy. I’ve never really noticed it all that much — hell, I didn’t know it had food — but that may just be because it’s in a public-​but-​perhaps-​not-​obvious location. The place is immaculate and the staff are nice.
I got a Cuban sandwich, which was excellent. I can’t complain about it at all — it was just darn tasty. The drinks are weirdly sized and the cooler setup is a bit strange, but that’s not really an issue in my book. The price for my meal was a teensy bit high, but not unusually so for the area.
All in all, as many others have said, this is an excellent alternative to Starbucks.

This place is only good for coffee. Stopped in to grab a sandwich and a pellegrino and the guy at the register charged me $ 14.00. I asked him to look again since my turkey sandwich should have been max $ 7 and some change.
He then overcharged the next guy in line and he had to ask him too.
My sandwich came not as ordered.
Therefore, stick to coffee and pastries here and you will be fine.

Cute little coffee place that’s pretty convenient, but super nice people. One of our group had a scraped knuckle, and without asking they kindly came over and got us a band aid and alcohol wipes.
So kind!

Good for grabbing a quick, custom made bagel or sandwich. Limited outdoor seating but right by Farraghut Square.

I alway love there coffee. I know it’s just around the corner. It near by and they have good breakfast sandwich. They have small amount of high chairs counters. there table in the summer time. But after a time homeless people start walking around to see if they what hand out.
After time I move my health care in Falls Church and now in Tyson’s Corner area.
But they have great coffee and customer service. breakfast sandwich is good but lunch. You have to find out.
Sunday afternoon when a lot of place close. Homeless women asleep and was mess all over her self. I just wanted to cry. But one the bus and it started to move counted do anything.

They have a business model that meets the need for a primo location. The employees’ attitude suggests that the owner stops by no more than once a quarter and the vibe of the joint is soulless.

I walked into this place on a cold November day looking for a treat. I noticed that they had a «caramel mocha» on the menu so I ordered that and a pumpkin muffin. The woman took my order and went to a drawer and scooped out some powder from a tub and put into a cup over by the espresso machine. It didn’t even occur to me that it was my order until she handed it to me. Mocha from a powder? Gross. But whatever, I had to get back to work. As I left I sipped it. It tasted more like a chai than anything mocha! There was nothing chocolate about it, much less caramel. I turned around thinking maybe she’d misheard my order. When I asked her, she pulled open the drawer again and pointed to the tub. «Caramel mocha», she insisted. It doesn’t TASTE like caramel or mocha I tried to explain. «Did you want espresso mocha?» ARGH. I wanted to shout at her «ALL MOCHA HAS ESPRESSO!» I’d like my lattes and cappucinos «espresso» too! Instead I just sighed and left.
Pumpkin muffin was pretty good though.

Tons of food options in this little corner coffee shop, but unfortunately no wi-​fi. I had an Americano and a veggie panini and both were very good.

Coffee here is great! I got the Caramel Mocha and as a huge coffee fan it was definitely worth the money! Their egg and cheese croissant is delicious as well.

Great coffee and bagels. Sandwiches are good for lunch too! I would say this is a little more expensive to pick up yogurt or snacks but it’s quick and easy. I’ve had the grilled cheese and chicken pesto sandwich, with were both good. I typically pick up an everything bagel with cream cheese (the bagels are large and very chewy) with soy milk coffee!

I discovered Capitol Grounds Coffee because of a lunch deal I found and purchased on Google Deals: $ 15 for 3 lunch combos! (Translation: a $ 5 sandwich combo on 3 separate visits. The combo included a bag of chips and soda/​coffee).
Out of the 3 sandwiches I’ve tried, the most memorable one was the Cuban. This is also a great alternative to Starbucks and Caribou with a large breakfast and pastry menu.

This place’s customer service leaves something to be desired, and they will overcharge you in any way they can. The first time I went I ordered the mocha and forgot to specify what size I wanted. Rather than clarify my order, the cashier charged me for the largest size. I thought, fair enough, that was my mistake. The next time I went I made sure to order the small size.
But the third – and last – time I went, there was a new girl at the register who got flustered when I ordered the lunch special and consequently also charged me for the largest coffee despite my repeating twice that I wanted the small size. The manager took over when I pointed out her error and offered me whipped cream on my coffee, which I took to be good customer service and accepted. Lo and behold, when I got my receipt, they had charged me extra for the whipped cream as well. I will not be going back there, ever.

Not good coffee at all. Beans over roasted and milk are so burnt, it’s no wonder they use so much syrup. How else would you cover up the horrible taste?
Never again.

Microwaved pancakes. Microwaved scrambled eggs. Good spiced chai, but it came from a carton. Nice for grabbing something quick.

Lunch sandwiches and bad coffee at exorbitant prices. Avoid the pastries as they are just plain regular baked goods from costco sold for 3+ times the price and not as fresh as they could be. Dubiously labeled «freshly squeezed» juices will run you about 5 bucks per cup and just about everything else looks old or just unappetizing. While the sandwiches may first appear to be at an average price point they are rather small and unsatisfying. The only item I’ve gotten here consistently is the Capistrano and it is only good as a snack. Otherwise there is nothing particularly noteworthy or remarkable about Capitol Grounds. Throw in the stone faced, order shrieking, barely English speaking staff, I say, go else where.

I love Capitol Grounds and have gone many a work morning to get a bagel but have been sorely disappointed recently because they’ve served me rotten or moldy foods twice in the past month. Just this morning I ordered a blueberry muffin only to find a dime sized patch of mold RIGHT on top… so apparent cashier MUST have noticed before he put it in the bag!!!
I also got a parfait with granola a few weeks ago and that also has blue-​ish green fuzz growing on top.
Love the location and the servers but BEWARE if you are buying any of the food, they clearly don’t check for mold and they don’t make things fresh!!!

Capitol Grounds is by far the best place to get a bagel in Foggy Bottom, and at very reasonable prices. I must admit to being somewhat of a simpleton and usually going with something basic (Plain bagel with cream cheese is perhaps the most frequent dish I get), but my experience with both their staples and more creative dishes (Their Egg, Cheese and Meat Croissant is particularly good) has been overwhelmingly positive. Their pastry selection, while somewhat narrow, is also tasty.
Their coffee is very good as well, usually made fresh when ordered. But best of all is their espresso, which is far better than anything you can get at Starbucks (and only $ 0.75 as well!). I would also highly recommend their Chai Latte. The restaurant also has an incredibly wide selection of drinks other than coffee (Teas, juices, and sodas of every type), so one shouldn’t have an issue finding an appropriate beverage.
Also, the interior has been recently refurbished. I must admit having liked the cluttered, cozy setup Capitol Grounds had before, and I find the new style is a touch sterile, but the environment is still good. Who can argue with wraparound floor-​to-​celing windows on the corner of 21^st and Pennsylvania Avenue?
A side note for GW Students: Accepts GWorld Cards.

This little spot is where I eat when I end up down at Kaiser for a check in of some sort. Granted, it’s not necessarily fair to review a place associated with being sick, but given the fact that I specifically look forward to eating there even when I’m at worst should say something.
The place is not anything ‘special’ per se; it’s a coffee/​breakfast/​lunch spot. There are some stools in front of a window, and lots of chips and cookies and other enticing goodies around.
What I love about it is their sandwich selection. Not only do they have great combinations of meats with stuff like roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, pesto mayonnaise, etc, but they also have a few fantastic vegetarian options. Despite not being vegetarian, I am cheap and get really excited when I can pay less for a hearty non-​meat sandwich and still get full. They also have a variety of breads, including foccacia and other ‘nicer’ options.
My favorite sandwich there is actually probably their grilled cheese, which uses three cheeses (if I remember correctly, cheddar, swiss, and jack? That might not be right…) on sourdough bread. It’s especially good if you add tomato to it, although you risk soggy bread if you wait too long to eat the sandwich.
On top of the good selection, their prices are also pretty reasonable also ($ 5 – 7, rather than $ 6 – 8).
Re: Breakfast– I don’t recommend their bagels as anything special, and I was disappointed in their chai latte (I hate powder-​based chais). However, I have enjoyed breakfast croissants there of varying sorts and don’t have a problem with their coffee (but I am no coffee connoisseur).