Cafe Phillips

If you want a sandwich you have to come here. They use real meat, not that weird processed «meat» that most places use. Your turkey comes right off the bird just like at Thanksgiving and the ham and roast beef are real as well. You get a ton of meat on your choice of bread and toppings. It’s a little more expensive than a $ 5 mystery meat footlong but worth the price.
This is easily the best place to grab a sandwich downtown.

I didn’t go here for about 3 years because I had so many bad experiences with their coffee tasting awful. I went this morning, and the coffee has improved some. The sandwiches are also tasty and generous with the eggs. There is plentiful seating, both at tables and in low chairs. My biggest complaint is that since leaving, I’ve smelled like a cafeteria/​fried food all day – it’s clinging to my clothes. Gross.

Best Sandwiches in the city. Uses fresh just out of the oven, whole meats that they cut piping hot right in front of you. Fresh veggies and toppings as well.

My update for Café Phillips is that I ordered their chicken noodle soup today, well after the lunch rush.
I enjoyed the soup a lot! I thought there was a good amount of flavor with the simple ingredients. It could have used a touch more salt, but that’s what the saltines are good for! I also ordered the soup around 2.30 which is normally when soup looks like the bottom of the barallel and discarded, but when the lid was uncovered from the pot, there was a lot in there and it looked pretty fresh!
The one thing I would change is the actual pasta they used. They used farfalle, which I thought to be too large for the soup. Perhaps if it was a smaller pasta it would be a little easier to eat. Not that it was difficult to eat, but a smaller pasta that didn’t need to be broken up, would be better in my opinion.
The soup breakdown is,
The soup: Yummy!
The Value: Phenomenal. I got a large soup for $ 3.03 plus three packages of saltines.
The Experience: Good. It was after lunch, there was no line, everyone was still friendly.
Would I return?: IfI think it’s pretty obvious that I’d go back.
So, thanks café phillips for another wonderful experience!
PS: I picked up a breakfast sandwich a few weeks ago and it was also good. I got just the basic egg and cheese on wheat bread. It was a very large sandwich and very simple. Good value too for less than $ 3 including tax!

Café Phillips is the best lunch joint in the metro center area. It is a lot of bang for your buck.
The soups change every day and are inexpensive. I highly recommend the Curried Lentil or Chicken Enchilada soup.
The egg sandwich is huge and only 2.09.
I have only had the turkey and pork sandwiches for lunch but both are great. The meats are carved in front of you and the toppings are much better than you would get at any other local place.

I had turkey sandwich on whole wheat; topped her off with fresh cranberry sauce, sprouts, onions, and brie. Nommed. The turkey was fresh off the bird, not processed. Also you get unlimited free pickles. I’ll definitely be coming back!

Café Phillips was like a bad blind date. All the build-​up and anticipation (plus getting yourself all gussied up to go), only to find that a total letdown awaits — despite everyone else’s insistence that «you’ll love him/​it» and that «you two would be perfect together.» I mean, really, folks, what’s with all the Café Phillips love? Is it just me?
Ummm, I think not…
I give Café Phillips 2 stars for our rather lackluster first date.
Ok, first the good things (focus on the positive, our mothers say, right?):
1. Ambiance — if you’re dining in, this place is spacious and inviting. It does the «come into our living room /​restaurant dining room”-schtick even better than Panera or Starbucks do, but it still feels like a lunch spot for the buttoned-​up D.C. power crowd. Good seating for groups or solo diners.
2. Value — Prices are comparable to most other lunch joints in downtown D.C., but you will get «more» for your money here. And by «more» I mean that your sandwich will be topped with a whole pound of (so-​called premium) deli meat (and presumably, its accompanying sodium and cholesterol), barely held together between two disappearing pieces of bread. I kind of wish Café Phillips paid heed to the old adage, «Less is more…»
Now, on to the stuff that really matters –
3. Service — The cash register staff was friendly, but the guy fixing the sandwiches — not so much. I don’t know why sourpusses seem to always find their way into customer service-​oriented roles. Or is it that dealing with customers makes one a sourpuss? Alas, the proverbial «chicken or egg» question…
4. Taste — Despite the fact that my sandwich was piled high with freshly carved turkey, and the fact that I had my pick of toppings (I went with avocado, lettuce, and tomato) and bread (I chose whole wheat) — the sandwich was blah! Ho-​hum. Bland. You couldn’t even taste the toppings (especially considering the razor thin layer of guac he added to ONE slice of bread despite the half’a turkey he was serving up). What the sandwich lacked in flavor it tried to make up for in size. But nothing turns me off more than someone who is long on style and short on substance. Not a good look, Phillip…
Even worse, I was suckered into buying one of the overpriced $ 3.29 carrot cake cupcakes at the register after being told that it was «really good» and «made fresh daily by a local bakery.» Well, these, too, were lies. All lies. This cupcake was dry (almost like it had been frozen a few days ahead), had a weird base (kind of a like a spice cake that had too much… I dunno, nutmeg? all-​spice? something… dropped in), and had a sickening cream cheese frosting that tasted exactly like cream cheese (in a – «am I eating a bagel?» kind of way). Zero freaking stars for the ten bones I dropped on this disappointment of a meal!
I’m giving Café Phillips two stars overall, and that’s me being generous. Phillip has some redeeming qualities, but I have already prepared my «it’s-not-you-it’s-me-so-let’s-just-be-friends» schpiel.
Is a second date in the cards? No.
Ok, no, not unless Phillip is paying this time.
Just sayin’ — a girl’s gotta eat…

So after wandering around my regular DC haunts and not finding a sandwich of any interest, I happened upon this place and decided to give it a shot. I got a vegetarian wrap on a spinach wrap and it was delicious. The guacamole was probably the best part, but everything was fresh and tasty. The only thing they could use is a slightly better chip selection. While they had the basics, the only low fat choice was soy chips, and while I have no problem with them, I was really in the mood for some baked lays. Oh, and I wish the pickes you can get on the side were bigger. It was definitely worth the price and was very tasty.

Just like the other Café Phillips, carved meats piled high on your choice of bread. Sometimes when I go in the afternoon they are out of roast beef, but there is usually plenty of fresh carved turkey.
Their soups are good as well, especially any of the chicken ones (chicken with farfalle and chicken with rice).
A soup and roast beef sandwich will set you back $ 11.15, but it is well worth the price.