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Good, but not great

4 Posted on 05 / 13 / 2013

Three of us were hungry when we got here. We were really looking forward to the vegan nachos. Not much on them. We had a lot of empty tortilla chips.

We asked if they could make tempeh Reubens with the vegan mayo. They were really good, but a little oily. I would ask about the oil next time.

The choices were plentiful and interesting. The beer was good and we liked that they had local options for so many items. We should have ordered fries with one sandwich and the fruit salad with the other.

Atmosphere is really cool although could get a little loud. The desserts were yummy. The service was a little slow, but not really a problem. Tell them in advance if you have a deadline. We were not in a hurry and did appreciate not being pushed to order. However, our server was sometime not around.

Would be great for a gang or a date. They have breakfast, lunch & dinner.

We would have liked to hung out for the entertainment and would definitely come back.

Pros: Plenty of choices, Cool atmosphere, Uses local items
Cons: Oily foods, but ask, Service was 80%

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Great place!

4 Posted on 03 / 19 / 2013

Fantastic restaurant with a great message!! Lots of vegan options and vegan desserts!

Pros: Lots of vegan options, Vegan desserts, Great cause

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love it and hope to visit again

4 Posted on 01 / 24 / 2013

I ate at this location twice while in DC over the weekend. My husband and I are both vegan, so when I saw B&P mentioned on a vegan blog, I had it in the back of my mind. We ended up heading there for a late lunch. We both ordered the house salad with a scoop of vegan tuna salad. I thought the salads were delicious, but with the garbanzo beans it reminded me more of an eggless salad. The service was good, and we didn't have to wait to eat, and I could see that the menu had a number of great vegan options.

Fast forward a couple days, and we wanted to try some items on the dinner menu. We tried to hit up the 14th street location, but they had a 90 minute wait. I called 5th St and was told there was a 30 minute wait. They don't take names by phone, so we quickly headed over. It probably took us 10-15 minutes to get there, but we were seated immediately upon arrival!

Our waitress was extremely nice and apologized for a short delay in taking our order. My husband and I shared a wheatberry and spinach salad (excellent) and vegan calzone (delicious!). We ordered the coconut tofu bites as an appetizer. The taste of them was sweet toasted coconut, but they came with a savory plum sauce. I would definitely order all of these items again.

I like this location better of the two DC Busboys and Poets, because it is not as busy, so there is a shorter wait (or none) and the staff doesn't seemed stressed out. I also like the interior of the place, too.

Overall this is a good restaurant choice if your group will have meat-eaters, vegans, and vegetarians, as there is something good for everyone. The prices aren't cheap, but you get a good amount of food for the cost.

Pros: no (or short) wait to be seated, delicious vegan options, great atmosphere
Cons: sort of a walk from Metrorail

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delicious community-focused restaurant

4 Posted on 12 / 19 / 2012

I'm just finishing up my lunch and couldn't be happier. The service is excellent, food is delicious and the atmosphere very inviting. I had the vegan tempeh panino, which I was a little nervous about ordering because sometimes people don't do tempeh well. Happily, here they do! It had a nice smoky flavor that I really liked. I'm vegan and felt that I had a good amount of options; lots of things I wanted to try. I may come back for dinner and will update when I do!

Pros: Veg*n options, Good service, Good tea choices
Cons: Can't think of any!

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Fantastic Restaurant!

4 Posted on 09 / 28 / 2012

Great veg options including an amazing vegan mock-tuna salad sandwich made with chick peas. The sweet potato fries are so crisp and light - not oily at all. Also love the tempeh sandwich and the vegan cheesecake. Great atmosphere as well.

Pros: great food, delicious desserts

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Good Breakfast

3 Posted on 09 / 08 / 2010

We ate breakfast here and thought that our wraps were competent tofu-scramble affairs. This is not a vegan restaurant but we appreciated the clearly-marked vegan options on the menu.

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Shirlington Location

4 Posted on 03 / 29 / 2010

Just had dinner at the Shirlington (Arlington,VA) location of Busboys & Poets. Very nice coffee house atmosphere, plenty of vegan/vegetarian opions on the menu as well as other choices that make it a good choice for "mixed company". Serving size was scary big, I had the veggie burger with a side of mixed fruit, the burger was served with avacado, sprouts, onion, and tomato.