Busboys and Poets, Washington DC

From Vegan Gastrobot

I loved Busboys and Poets.  I loved the atmosphere, the waitress was very friendly, it was very artsy and the food was delicious. It was like a combination of coffee shop, restaurant, book store, art gallery, performance space, everything all combined into one (and very popular). We stopped by around 3 in the afternoon on a weekday and it was packed. We were seated at a short table with a very long couch on the one side and comfy chairs on the other. Very relaxed just hang out and sip a coffee all afternoon and when you get hungry have some food kind of feel. I loved it. We tried the vegan pepperoni calzone (vegan mozzarella, veggies, vegan pepperoni in a whole-wheat crust). This was really tasty, though not as good as the calzones we get in Olympia, WA. They used mozzarella daiya cheese with pepperoni and lots of veggies. If the crust would have been amazing this would have been a top contender for best calzone. The crust was really thin and good, but not great. Overall I would order this again.

From Vegan Gastrobot

We also ordered a Peanut Butter Banana Panini (peanut butter, banana, and agave nectar). We opted for the sweet potato fries as a side. The panini was delicious - very creamy and sweet, but really how can you go wrong with peanut butter and banana? You really can't. The sweet potato fries...well they are one of my favorites! These however I did not like that much. They had a lot of cinnamon on them and I just did not like them. A lot of people like their sweet potatoes with sugar and cinnamon and marshmallow and all kinds of sweet thing on them, but I find them way too sweet that way and prefer them plain and simple. Just fried and a little bit of salt would have been perfect. I wish I would have known they were dessert fries as I would have ordered a different side. This is the only item that I was disappointed in.

From Vegan Gastrobot

They also had a vegan brownie so we had to try that. It came with a scoop of vanilla coconut ice cream and a sliced strawberry. This brownie was amazing! It had mousse on top of it and was very rich and chocolaty. The ice cream did not have a strong coconut flavor and was really smooth and creamy. The combination of the ice cream, brownie and strawberry was perfect - just a small piece of each with each bite was wonderful. I would definitely order this again.

Overall - I highly recommend Busboys and Poets. The food is delicious, the service friendly, the atmosphere very relaxing and artsy.