Alfa Piehouse

‘Pie’ might be something of a misnomer, you might be expecting a blueberry pie or even a chicken pot pie based on the name. What you’ll find here are delicious pastries made from flaky phyllo dough and filled usually cheese, veggies, or meat.
In either case this was an awesome lunch, and very well-​priced. I ordered the Kisi pie, with yoghurt and olives in it. Very tasty, and I think it would be complemented well by a side salad or soup next time. I was very tempted to order the baklava or orange pie, both of which look amazing.
I appreciate that there is something other than the usual sandwich or burrito in this area. This was a great little place and I would definitely return.

The best Greek pies and baklava I’ve had. Tina the owner is amazing! Very sweet lady. 5 stars for sure!

Decided to check this place out for lunch and was pleasantly surprised. The décor inside is lovely and the food was delicious as well. Not sure what the difference between most of the pies are (pretty much spinach and feta in almost all) but I’m sure you can’t go wrong. I also tried the orange pie for dessert which was very orange-​y in a good way. I only wish it was a little softer/​more custard-​y but it was yummy regardless. They also serve La Colombe coffee which is one of my faves. The Greek woman (owner? chef? Not sure) working there was very sweet and helpful. Check it out for a nice weekday lunch.

You know it’s a good Greek place when you walk in to several old Greek men hanging out in the restaurant!
We were welcomed right as we came in and I ordered a simple sandwich which came with oranges. After ordering at the counter, the server quickly brought us our lunch. I ordered a ham sandwich on sesame bread with tomato and some kind of herb sauce. The oranges were so sweet and juicy. The sandwich was served on a beautiful blue and white plate, which made me feel like I was having a fancier meal than what I paid for.
The pies looked very good and fresh. I wished I had the appetite to try the baklava too! I definitely recommend this for a quick, fresh, and locally owned lunch!

Really really enjoyed my first visit here. I got the Bougatsa Spinach and Feta pie. The fyllo was crisp and tasty. Delicious!!! I’m also very impressed by the photo book menu and the story of the founder. The wall art and book are elegant elements in this little taste of Greece. I look forward to more Mediterranean healthy lunches and breakfasts. Cheers!

I brought my younger brother here while we were visiting the monuments and museums on the mall. Our family is Greek, so we have high standards when it comes to food and friendliness. Alfa met them and then some! I will definitely be back.
Food: The food was simple and affordable, but very good: sweet and savory phyllo pies, salads, and Greek desserts. Clearly homemade on the same day.
Service: The service was outstanding: attentive staff and incredibly welcoming owners! The family — husband, wife, and son — alternated baking and chatting with customers. When the dessert they were baking turned out to be tasty, but unpresentable, the wife brought around complimentary slices for all customers in the store!
Atmosphere: Small storefront ideal for takeaway or small groups. There is barstool seating in the window and a long, family-​style table ideal for eating with a small group and making friends with strangers.

Pretty standard breakfast/​snack food from the Balkans — banitza/​burek typical for Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and other Balkan counties. Nothing like home, but give it a try if you haven’t been exposed beyond the standard US food. Eat it with yogurt! Nazdrave!

When I say I was the first person to try this place I’m not kidding — lol I worked right next to the place when it opened and would always pop in asking when they would be operating… well the day arrived sometime in July and they had plenty of samples laid out for me to try. I loved the spinach pie despite the greasiness and would order it for lunch along with a salad. Their chocolate cake was quite good also (I forgot what exactly it was called) and so were the rest of the pies including sweet and savory ones.
The chef who is also the owner was around in the beginning and was very welcoming and would always give me lots of samples recognizing me from the first day I popped my head in to inquire about the pie place. I hope to return whenever I’m around to eat a piece of that greasy spinach pie with some coffee.

Really enjoyed lunch here. I tried the Bougatsa Spinach & Feta Pie at the recommendation of the lady working behind the counter, and it was delicious. Many of the menu items involve some combination of fyllo, spinach, and feta, but you probably can’t go wrong with any of them. A friend also ordered the Kihi Cream Pie, which was also a very tasty dessert. I finished lunch off with some kind of Greek sour cherry juice (good if you like sour cherry flavor).
People working here are polite, helpful, and clearly know their menu. I will definitely come back for lunch.

FINALLY! Something 100% High quality, Greek pies place in DC which I LOVE. I noticed that they use high quality ingredients such as feta cheese. You should definitely try this place, is great for a snack, lunch or take out. They do catering as well. My favorite is the feta cheese pie and the mpougatsa the vanilla custard one. I m obsessed for the Greek mountain tea, I go there 3 – 4 times per week and I definitely recommend this place

Mighty tasty Greek pies and pastries. Not what an average American considers a «pie.» Rather, light and flaky filo dough-​filled delights. Great for lunch particularly. Served on real plates with real silverware. Extraordinary in our disposable culture.

The food was great and the service was fantastic. I had a Myconos pie, and my wife had a salad with some smoked salmon and a couple mini pies. It was all so good, we decided to get desert, and got a galaktoboureko to split. I’m no connoisseur of greek pies, but everything I had here was great, and the woman behind the counter was so nice. My wife and I will definitely be back, and hopefully soon.
My only complaint is that they close a little too early during the week, and are only open on Saturdays until 4pm. I wish they had hours that were friendlier to people who live nearby but don’t work nearby. But if doing so were to compromise either the quality of the food or the service, than having them available for lunch on Saturdays will have to be enough.

Wow! So impressed by Piehouse. We were in the area having visited the Renwick Gallery’s opening festivities, and pulled up Unilocal to see where we could get lunch. Unilocal,you did not let us down! Piehouse is a find, and a keeper. Delicious, affordable food; nice people; beautiful environment. Really can’t say enough good things.
The name piehouse suggests what you’ll find here – spinach pies, cheese pies, potato pies, and then of course dessert pies. All Greek. There’s also a nice menu of salads (I got the protein salad and LOVED it; great smoked salmon and lots of flavors), sandwiches, and soups. My husband got a big pie and then we shared some mini pies so we could get lots of tastes. We then got a dessert (Galaktoboureko) that was giant and delicious from the first bite to last. There were also some marinated olives and sundried tomatoes for anyone to take with a toothpick.
The people who worked there were so warm and welcoming. They shared samples and advice, and made us feel very at home.
You eat at a beautiful, long, wooden table, or at a window seat. Both are pleasant. It really was like stepping into another world for a meal!
And all this for a little over $ 30.
Can’t wait to be back (we’ll definitely be back), and can’t wait to share with friends (and clearly Unilocal!). Wonder if they do trays for parties? A big platter of various pies could be a great thing to bring!

A solid 4.5 star performance. I tried 6 pies — don’t judge me! I didn’t eat them all myself, though I could have, I shared them. Here are my thoughts: Bougatsa (filo stuffed with custard like crème — this is my GO TO when in Thessaloniki and IMO, the standard bearer of a quality bakery.) I would’ve preferred it to be warm (so I suppose I should’ve asked them to warm it up) and fresh out of the oven, but obviously, you need to nail the timing right out of the oven to get that fresh-​flaky, gooey, texture that I so love. The key thing though — the favor — was on point! I also tried the spanakopita (spinach and feta cheese) which was a little salty, but really that’s not a huge deal breaker for me since it just means they went heavy on the feta, which I love. An apple-​pie, lovely light and just sweet enough. Same with the pumpkin pie — had the right balance of sweetness and flakiness that I was looking for. The meat pie was the big surprise though — amazingly flavorful, perfectly spiced and a hearty combo of a little cheese, tomato and meat. I think there is either veal or lamb mixed into the ground beef because it’s so tasty. I’ll ask next time when I order it again. Ordered a large Greek salad to eat there and was THRILLED with the size and variety of the contents: red, yellow and orange bell peppers, tasty cucumbers (not the tasty water logged things form the grocery store, these tasted more like grandma’s garden or from a farm share), flavorful hothouse tomatoes, romaine lettuce, just enough red onion, a large handful of Kalamata olives, and a block of feta on top accompanied by capers. A light drizzle of olive oil and just a touch of salt, this thing was perfection! Oh lawdhammercy, my mouth is watering just writing about it!!! Location is super easy to get to via metro, or walking if you’re downtown and now that they’re open on Saturdays, I will definitely be patronizing frequently. The attached photos are snapshots of pieces of the pies, not the entire portions since we dug into them right away and didn’t get to photograph them in all their glory. Sorry about that… I’ll post better photos next time… which will likely be soon.

The owners are really nice and helpful making suggestions for first time-​ers. The spinach and feta pie is delicious, as well as the orange pie. I also had a pie with potatoes that wasnt as good as the spinach pie but overall the pies are great.

Checked the menu on the way in, and saw several offerings that made Alfa seem like the right choice for breakfast. More than a bit misleading, though, because almost none of the pies in the case match what’s on the menu. I improvised and the spinach spiral was very good, but given that this is a fast-​service joint and not a farm-​to-​table place with daily experiments by an innovative chef, the menu and the actual food should match up.
The yogurt bar had the same problem, only worse. I ordered and paid for the 1^st item on the yogurt bar menu, which included a variety of nuts and pomegranate. «Yogurt bar» implies something a bit fresher than a prepackaged, hermetically-​sealed cup in a case after the cash register, but, alas, that’s what it turned out to be. And none of the pre-​packaged yogurts bore any resemblance to what I’d ordered and already paid for.
On the plus side, most of the customers while I sat an ate an unknown pie with unknown yogurt appeared to be Greek, so the basics must be legit. Or the proprietors have lots of local relatives. Too bad the execution is so unreliable.

It’s pretty good. I’m not carb loading as much as I normally do these days, so someplace like this might be the exception right now. I wish there was more evidence of meat options; I’m not knocking vegetarians when I say you can have veggie-​only AND meat options on the menu.
That aside, the food I had was good, fresh. Filo spinach pie was worth the premium cost.

I walked past the storefront on my way to a doctor’s appointment. I stopped and did a double take after reading «PIEHOUSE». My entire time in the waiting room I was thinking about pie and that I would need to go get a post-​appointment treat.
Appointment over I headed back and was wondering if I’d get apple or pecan or maybe lemon meringue. I walked into the store and was immediately greeted and welcomed. I looked at the big, bright counter filled with pastries. It was only then I realized this was a display case full of Greek pies! My mind was already set on something sweet, but all those spinach and meat pies looked fantastic. And I was impressed with the number of vegetarian and dairy-​free options available. I was offered a sample of the vanilla custard pie which was delicious! Although as soon as I saw the double pumpkin roll my decision was made for me. I’ve been craving a bit of Fall in my life and this was perfect!
I ordered one along with an iced coffee. The pumpkin roll was served on a wooden cutting board and topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon. SO delightful. Maybe enough for two people, but I could have eaten two by myself! My coffee was spot on as well.
This isn’t super close to me but I would definitely go out of my way to visit again!

I’ve only been here once — just discovered it today. It’s advertised as a Greek pie house. I am impressed with the menu, especially with the selection of vegan food available for breakfast. I just ate the Paros, and it was good! Very satisfying. I know I will be stopping by here on my way to work as much as my wallet will allow.

In a few short weeks since it opened this has become my go-​to place for coffee and lunch. Usually the vanilla cream pie with an Americano coffee in the morning and a spinach and feta pie in the mid-​afternoon.
I’ve been working downtown for a decade and this is my favorite place in the vicinity of Pennsylvania and 17^th.