Brown Bag

$ 25 minimum delivery charge? I just want breakfast without leaving my desk. Next time I will take orders from the entire office.

I try to abstain from writing bad reviews. I even tried to send this directly to Brown Bag through their website but it kept getting rejected. So here it is:
I tried BB for the first time today. I was excited about the bangkok bowl with quinoa and tofu. Unfortunately, it’s just not good. To start with, it’s visually unappetizing. Beyond that, it’s a totally mushy gruel. It has way, way too much sauce and the tofu (which is supposed to be sauteed) is basically raw.
The service was totally fine but I will not be back to try anything else.

The concept is really cool but it still took a long time to get my food. The food was also not so good. I got noodles and I thought they were lacking flavor. It was just a subpar lunch to go experience.

Great place to eat! great food, real ingredients!

I just got my lunch from here today and was incredibly disappointed. I eat here regularly because it’s across the street from my office so it’s good when I’m in a rush. I’ve never been overwhelmed with it, but sometimes convenience is key. Today, I needed to grab an early lunch so I ran over to order a sandwich. Seeing as it was only 11:30am, the place was empty. When I got back to my office and picked up half my sandwich a huge piece of charred bread fell off the bottom of it. I mean, this was almost the size of the entire half of my sandwich. It definitely wasn’t from my sandwich because I had a whole piece of bread still there on the bottom of my sandwich with no gaping wholes. Employees were literally sitting around waiting for the lunch rush to start. There is no reason the panini maker was THAT dirty. I ate the sandwich anyway because I was starving and will be in meetings until late this evening, but if I had an extra few minutes I would’ve returned it and asked for my money back because that is disgusting. Next time, I’ll go next door to Jack’s. You definitely lost my business today. If I get sick from your lack of cleanliness you’ll be hearing from me.

Great for Breakfast with fresh made to order food. The service can a little bipolar depending on the day. Worth the trip!

This place is amazing and wholly underrated. It’s fresh, delicious, affordable and the staff is extremely nice. I’ve had the salads, noodles, muffins, coffee and sandwiches from here. Not one complaint to be found. The seating is spacious and airy which isn’t always easy to find in downtown DC. I can grab breakfast and lunch for less than $ 15 a day and it isn’t dripping with fat and unnecessary calories or chemically engineered ingredients.

I have tried Brown Bag on 20^th Street twice now, as my office is right across the street. Both times ordering in person have been quick and so convenient. The level of customization is awesome, but their set menu options are also great. I customized a sandwich the first time, and got a menu noodle option the second time… Both of which tasted good and were sizable portions. The only somewhat downside is the price, but you definitely get what you pay for. It’s probably just as expensive as any other good lunch location in this area. Staff was really nice, and they are constantly giving out coupons for your next visit.

Went to the 20^th Street location for the first time last week. We both got the Voodoo Chicken Wrap. My meal was completely devoid of taste and the chicken and wrap were ice cold. Needless to say, I will not be coming back. Stay away from this place.

I really want to give this place at least a 4 but I just can’t do it. The food quality is really high, which is what keeps me going back. I’ve probably been there at least 6 times now. I’d held off on reviewing for awhile because they were new and I wanted to give them time to work the kinks out. Well they’ve been open for over two months now and they have still messed up every single item I’ve ordered — salad, sandwich, pasta — they always forget at least one ingredient (usually a premium ingredient that you pay extra for).
I love that they have online ordering but I’ve yet to take advantage of it because I know that if I don’t watch them make whatever it is I order that I won’t get whatever it is I order.
They’re also pretty sloppy with presentation. Sandwiches always fall apart, the pasta lid isn’t closed and ends up spilling all over the bag, etc. This place has so much potential and the people who work there are generally friendly. If they would just pay a little more attention to what they were doing, this could be a little gem.

I got the pasta with alfredo sauce and peppers. the food was actually very well made and I loved how they load the cheese on top very generously. but for a brown bag model to work I’d expect the wait to be shorter.

I wouldn’t go back here for breakfast again because…
Service:
Where to begin? The cashier was lazy and not friendly. I had never been there before and didn’t know the ordering process, so I asked her. She looked at me like I was an idiot because I didn’t know I had to fill out a piece of paper or where to bring that piece of paper. Boy, was the manager a jerk to his staff! Here’s a recommendation — instead of chastising your new employee and making patrons uncomfortable, show him how to do everything correctly and apologize to customers for the wait!
Food Prep:
The guy preparing the food was clearly in the process of getting trained and trying to do a good job/​spend time completing each order well. He took about ten minutes to give me a toasted bagel with butter because he went to check the chicken on the grill and spent a ridiculous amount of time making the two bagel orders that had been placed before mine. Who waits ten minutes for a bagel with butter? I would have walked out had I not already paid.
Food:
My everything bagel was bland, over-​toasted, and barely had any butter on it. The butter was spread with a knife but had been completely melted, so of course very little actually made it onto my bagel. Big fail, Brown Bag.

After checking out Brown Bag for the first time, I determined that, despite the gimmick, it was definitely not great, but definitely not bad. And this seems to be the consensus on Unilocal as well.
The aforementioned «gimmick» is the ordering system — when you enter the store, there are stacks of brown bags with the menu printed on them. Pick up a pen, check off what you want, bring it to the counter, and your sandwich is made.
This process really made me appreciate the ability to customize your order (and have plenty of time to do so). There’s a decent-​looking list of «specialty» sandwiches, but there’s complete freedom to make your own. I got grilled chicken with avocado (and lettuce/​tomato/​onion) on ciabatta, with a garlic aoli mayo. They offer cole slaw as a sandwich topping, so I wrote down «On the side» on my bag, and was given a pretty large container of it, so that was cool.
The result was decent, if unexciting. I was excited for the garlic aoli part (I have no idea in the world what aoli is, other than that it’s delicious), but it was pretty bland. Ample chicken and avocado though. I didn’t like the bread much — seemed even harder than your typical ciabatta. I didn’t get mine grilled, since it wasn’t that kinda sandwich, but that coulda made it better.
Overall, I think I just did a poor job of crafting a sandwich, I’ll stick closer to the suggestions next time.
Brown Bag seems about average in terms of value — my $ 8.80 sandwich was definitely not small, but you definitely won’t be stuffed either.
My office catered from here last week, with similar results. Solid sandwiches, with low reviews on the bread.
For variety and convenience, I’ll probably be back from time to time to try another sandwich and the noodles as well.

New location and new option for lunch.
It’s new; it’s not great but not bad hence the average rating. I ordered the north beach wrap. The taste was decent but they could’ve done a better job with the sandwich. First I asked for the sandwich to go and it was served for here. I asked them to box it to go and as they did, the tomatoes of one half of the sandwich fell out. I didn’t say anything about it but I regret it now, this is what happens when you keep your mouth shut in these scenarios. So one half didn’t have tomatoes which was ok. The other half had tomatoes but had way too much Greek dressing, way more than the first half. Definitely a lot messier than the first. With avocado added, it equates to 9.57 total, a lot for a sandwich like that.
I’ll have to try the other stuff. Make sure they do it to go when you request it and make sure you ask them to put the toppings in if they fall out. Lesson learned!

$ 13 and change for a small tomato soup and a roast beef sandwich. Soup was lukewarm and WAY too salty. I took one taste and had to toss it in the trash. The sandwich was OK, but if it’s a deli sandwich you want, go to the West Wing Café across the street and pay less for a way better sandwich.

I really do like this as a lunch option, but they were definitely unimpressive today. When I got back to work and opened my bag, I found that the the «whole wheat» rotini were regular wheat rotini, and the mozzarella I added onto my order (and paid for) didn’t make it into the mix. I’m sure I’ll go back again because it’s so close to my office, but I’m definitely bummed today.

Well this has been a well kept secret. I have no idea when this location opened exactly, but clearly no one thought to alert me! Well the gig is up, there’s a Brown Bag on 20^th and M, everybody.
And, while sandwiches and salads are not anything new, this is a welcome addition to my lunch rotation. Not sure why there are such negative reviews of the other locations – I found the process to be easy, the prices to be reasonable, and my sandwich to be tasty.
As you walk in, you need to fill out a paper bag with your order and your name. They have lots of preset sandwiches, salads, and «noodles,» or you can make your own. This time, I went with what I think is a seasonal sandwich – «Cosmos Chicken” – with chicken, feta, roasted red peppers, wonderful spread, etc grilled on flatbread. Your order will come in the bag you originally filled out. Obviously this bag is brown for Brown Bag. The sandwich exceeded my expectations and did not taste generic. The bread was appropriately soft and didn’t taste like it had come out of the freezer. They also have lots of chips flavors, drinks (regular fountain, cans of cream soda, cups of lemonade) and «to go» snack items like yogurt, granola, and pretzels. The treat counter also looked enticing – rice krispies treats, cookies, and brownies were the main events there.
The staff was helpful and friendly, albeit slightly inexperienced. There was a person helping everyone through the bag process who was also straightening up a bit and answering questions without being patronizing. The people at the register went through the desserts and the loyalty program (a Belly type system where you enter your number on the iPad) with knowledge. I will say that I think there were supposed to be olives on my sandwich and there weren’t; however, I didn’t notice until the end because I enjoyed my lunch anyway. I’ll forgive them because it’s (presumably) the first few days this place has been open. Who knows, though.
Right now, Brown Bag has soup/​salad and soup/​sandwich combos, but I wish they would have a sandwich/​salad combo like Bread and Brew has, who I consider to be their main competitor (for my lunch preferences, anyway). But then again, Bread and Brew doesn’t do grilled sandwiches, and Brown Bag does. So I guess there’s room for both around here.