Garden Cafe

I was pleased with my meal at Garden Café. I was hesitant to try it with only 3 stars, but I was looking for something conveniently located in the smithsonian and was pleasantly surprised. It’s not a huge buffet but there are definitely enough choices to fill your plate. The main meat dish, which was chicken today, was a little dry but everything else was very good and of good quality. Not a typical buffet.
Our service was perfectly fine. I thought the waitress was very nice.
Atmosphere was probably the best part of the experience. Very pretty and French-​like. Would definitely come back.

3 stars for the location and ambience, 2 stars for the food, and 1 star for the service.
It’s a lovely venue, but the food is only nice to look at. Almost every dish in this Greek buffet was poorly made or just so-​so. The 2 soups were a little better.
The service is plain awful. On 2 recent occasions, it was virtually impossible to get the attention of the waitresses to get water, order drinks, have dirty dishes cleared, or order dessert. It was like hailing a cab at rush hour in Midtown!
At the end of the meal, the waitresses were then very friendly as they handed us the bill. Really, is that enough to earn a tip?
this place could be so much better. What a shame.
Tip: Avoid this place and the Cascade cafeteria. Buy your lunch beforehand and then sneak it into the cafeteria instead for a much better, and less expensive, experience

The reason for the three stars is the awesome location.
The original salads at the Garden Café inside the National Gallery of Art are amazing. The featured meat is not. For years they had coq au vin, which in my opinion was not cooked fresh, had been prepared from frozen. The meat often had a bad taste and odor and I stopped going to the Café and stopped taking guests.
Now they have replaced the unsavory and disappointing coq au vin with better meats, but they too are not cooked fresh – probably purchased cooked from a supplier – and are dry and rather tasteless. Putting some salad dressing on the meat helps.
As I said, the salads, as well as the cheeses and soups are amazing and fresh made and the fact that the restaurant is inside the museum makes the experience a good one.
Occasionally, some salads have ingredients that are tough and they should be eliminated from the menu.
Service is rather slow so be prepared and some of the hostesses have not been trained in customer service. For starters, a smile wouldn’t hurt.

What a beautiful venue to eat in!
There is a beautiful fountain and bushes and classic architecture.
They had a buffet for $ 20 plus dessert.
The buffet had chicken and turkey which were dry.
They had artichoke and roasted cabbage which was tough to eat and flavorless?
They had some rice and beans which was also flavorless.
They had two soup choices which were good.
They had a yam salad that was good and 2 green leaf salads that were descent with some ok bread choices.
They had a nice cheese selection with grapes and cranberries which was good. They had a choice of berries or sorbet for dessert which was ok.
I dont understand why the food couldn’t taste fantastic for such a high end venue?
It looked nice but that’s all?

Before I start my review, I have to mention the SANITATION was not that great. ALL of the bottom of the plates had food particles sticking to the bottom. It kind of bothered me but I used them anyways. A little food dirt don’t hurt right? Not sure if I ever had a sanitation problem like this before at a restaurant.
Like all the other reviews, the selection is limited but the quality is slightly better. In my opinion, not worth the price. Unfortunately, they didn’t have charcuterie the day I went :(
FYI, even though the desserts are on the buffet list, supposedly it is NOT unlimited. But even if I were to go again, I would still ask for more helpings to the dessert! LOL!
The selection was strawberry sorbet, cappuccino gelato and mixed berries. I had one of each with an addition to the strawberry sorbet. The desserts were delicious!

A wonderful presentation. The food was delicious. Definitely one of our better choices for dining while in DC. Our waitress, Wouby, was excellent; very attentive and kind. This lunch was very enjoyable.

Buying car insurance is an easier process than figuring out HOW to eat here.
Has the person running the show EVER seen a buffet?
I got yelled at by some worker, because I picked up pasta AND salad on the same plate.
But no, every stall has 3 different pricing scenarios and you need to read 3 pages of signs before you can fully understand the rules of regulations of HOW to use this buffet.
There are also 3 or more people per stall either looking at you while you pick the food (some of it is based on weight) or telling you what you are supposed to do (some of it is a-​la carte or 2 of this 1 of that combinations.
The stalls are open on both ends so you never really know if you’re supposed to pick or the person is supposed to serve you.
Full comprehension of ‘Buffet User Manual’, onsite training and a lecture recommended before you visit and have lunch

20 $ buffet with a tiny cart. Terrible service! The tables r super small and since no one comes to pick up ur dirty plates its quite a conundrum.

Planned a day to visit the Hirshhorn and in efforts to look up a decent place to grab a bite I found the Garden Café in the NGA.
Atmosphere: ⁶⁄₁₀. a bit stuffy in the back room, but fine in the main (nice lighting in front of the fountain).
Service: ⁶⁄₁₀. girl at the front desk is snooty, and couldn’t give me an estimated wait time before being seated… waitresses though were lovely and mine also had a sense of humor (always appreciated).
Food: 7.5÷10. buffet is pretty good, dessert was really good. warning: if you don’t plan on eating from the buffet it takes 20 minutes to cook/​bring out anything on the menu.
I’ll probably be back.

This is a very delicious and convenient place. We were at The National Art Gallery on a cold snowy day and being able to take a break without going outside was perfect. This a French all you can eat buffet. For $ 20.95 we had:
Comté and herb-​crusted goat cheeses with honey-​candied walnuts and red grapes
Roasted fennel and pears with dried cranberries
Arugula with roasted beets, apples, toasted pecans, and champagne vinaigrette
Roasted butternut squash, brussel sprouts, and red onion with maple-​cider vinaigrette
Braised Cornish game hen with roasted lemons and savory herbs
Pumpkin bisque soup and
Crème brûlée with fresh berries for desert
We enjoyed it so much that we came back and did it for our Thanksgiving lunch. Selection does NOT change every day, but rather with visiting exhibitions. We didn’t mind as everything was delicious. Closes at 3 pm, so don’t miss it.

Im Zentrum der National Gallery of Art befindet sich das «Garden Café Français», wie es offiziell heißt. Offen integriert verbindet es Kunst und Gaumengenuss.
Zum Lunch gibt es ein Buffet ($ 20+), alternativ ein paar wenige Gerichte à la carte. Das Buffet ist «überschaubar»: bei uns gab es eine Suppe, Hähnchenhappen, Gemüse, Salat, dies und das. Eine gelungene Crème Brulée mit frischem Obst bildet den Abschluss.
Mit $ 8+ ist das kleine Glas Wein nicht gerade ein Schnäppchen. Dafür wird Wasser kommentarlos frei gereicht.
Obwohl das Café offen mit der Gallery verbunden ist, ist der Geräuschpegel erfreulich niedrig und ermöglicht Unterhaltung über die Kunst oder … wie es beliebt.
Mit der Rechnung bekamen wir drei Rezepte über die im Menü aufgeführten Gerichte. Eine nette Idee.
Das Garden Café Français ist nicht gerade günstig, aber die Atmosphäre eingebunden in den Hauch der Kunstgeschichte und dem beeindruckenden Gebäude der National Gallery of Art — selbst ein Kunstwerk — ist etwa Besonderes.

This café is located inside of the art museum. And compared to the food options in other museums I was impressed.
The buffet was $ 20.75 and was limited but included salads, tortellini dish, beef dish, cheese quiche, cheeses, grapes and chocolate mousse. The food was delicious. I loved the cheeses, salads and chocolate mousse. It also wasn’t crowded and was classier than your typical buffet.
The only downside was service. We had to ask twice for water and couldn’t figure out who the server was.

Wildly overpriced, albeit in a great location. The service was unbelievably slow. Until they wanted me to pay so they could turn the table. I won’t be back.

The Garden Café is located just inside the main entrance of the National Gallery of Art. I posted some pictures so make sure you check them out– I wasn’t sure what to expect when I found it online. I chose to do the lunch buffet for $ 20.75 and it was worth it to try a variety.
There were people working very hard to refill the buffet, clean up spills and clear off tables– I was impressed by how hard they seemed to be working. But I was halfway through my meal before someone stopped by my table and asked if I wanted something to drink and then it was 10 more minutes before my water arrived.
I thought the restaurant was quite warm– it was one of the first warm days in DC but it felt a little humid and uncomfortable.
But the food was excellent! The bread was fresh and soft (no butter, though; I’m thinking it was to soak up the sauces), the coq au vin very tender and flavorful, the tomato tartlet interesting and tasty, the shaved carrots were surprisingly good and the salad was in big pieces and hard to eat but also good. I didn’t try the cheese or the salmon but those seemed very popular. I LOVED the chocolate mousse and was thrilled when they brought me a recipe card of it– I will definitely try making it.
It’s a pretty place with tiny tables. It was a treat to try the different food. I would definitely recommend the buffet over the ala carte menu so you can try more than one thing (and as much chocolate mousse as your little heart desires!)

In terms of best food bang for your buck, you should come here (National museum of art). They serve lunch buffet style for only $ 20.75 per person AND its really well prepared classy dishes. Clean, fast service. We came when they had a Russian theme based on the new art meets ballet Russian exhibition so we had caviar, beef stroganoff, pastry lined salmon, and other yummy stuff. Russian black bread was delicious.
Go there early or you might get stuck in a line.
Sometimes your server writes your tip in but today ours didn’t. Guess depends on your luck.

HIGHLY OVERPRICED for what you get. It was convenient, as we were ice skating that day, but the food cost an arm and a leg for no table-​side service. Very touristy, and not really a place I would have gone if my son weren’t starving.

It sucks. Trust me, if you don’t like any kind of American food, stay away from this place. I don’t know when they change to English menu; all I know is that the food makes me feel disgusting for a whole day. There may be other good French restaurants in town, but this one — apparently — has been crossed off from the list. (I personally prefer healthy food, like Japanese or Korean) I was cheated by the high reviews on Unilocal and that’s why I signed up to tell you how I feel! Hopefully next time when I step into the café, I’ll be shocked by the authentic French food.

I read through the previous reviews and expected French, but apparently they’ve switched to an English menu. On the buffet they had a selection of two English cheeses with red grapes or fig sauce, Cornish pasties, English pea salad, bubble and squeak, and I think two more salads featuring traditional English vegetables. The dessert was a cherry, sherry trifle.
The cheeses were my favorite part, though I did try everything on the buffet. I love being able to eat cheese and fruit as a lunch, you can’t find that at most restaurants. The cherry, sherry trifle seemed to be missing the cake part, so it was more of a parfait than a trifle. Maybe the sponge cake had entirely dissolved in the sherry. In any case, it still tasted good.
$ 20.75 is more than I tend to spend on buffets, especially for lunch, but it was good food and so convenient when you’re already visiting the museum.

After touring the National Gallery of Art with my brother and two of his kids, we were starving and throwing reason out the window, decided to dine at the Garden Café. We choose the buffet which featured Italian meats, cheeses, and pasta.
Overpriced and very limited selection. But the food was good. I definitely overtipped the waitress as this was a buffet, but I don’t feel too bad about it :-)

I don’t think this place will suit everyone’s taste buds. It’s mostly bread, cheese, sliced meats, and some rustic French soups.
That being said, this place won’t be towards everyone’s liking especially children. You need to be the type that can just enjoy some decent cheese and meat. This ain’t your typical buffet where you have your french fries next to the egg rolls, ok? We’re trying to classy it up here. It’s a nice change of pace from all the American food that is sold in the area.
Buffet will run you about $ 20, but I feel that you’ll get your money’s worth. especially when you finish off your meal with the chocolate mousse.
Garden Café Francais’s Score — 93 Points

I adore the Garden Café. I try to make it for all their different menus. I’m not sure how many times I’ve been here, maybe six or eight. It is expensive and worth it.
I nearly always get the buffet, and sometimes wine, and sometimes a different dessert. I’ve never had anything I didn’t thoroughly enjoy. I especially like the cheeses.
The service is also very good. The atmosphere is great! This is where you take someone when you want to either impress them or spoil them (your mom, your client, your girlfriend, your best friend).
One of my favorites.