Cascade Cafe

I ordered a noodle soup, it was short of salt. No taste and expensive. The ambience is good with the Cascade, but I don’t recommend.

Although it was overpriced I did somewhat expect it to be so I wasn’t alarmed. The pizza I had was really good just not the price

Sorry but you can’t find a greater letdown after a morning of walking the beautiful galleries than stepping into this place.
The food is predictable and bland and not especially affordable.
Chicken fingers were bland.
Fries were terrible.
Only reason to go here is the location and really nice view of the fountain cascading down the steps.

In town visiting DC & I popped in to this place desperate for a coffee. I cruised the various food stations & was really impressed at how tasty/​healthy/​gourmet everything looked. I had my coffee & a chickpea curry soup & it was Amazing! Gorgeous flavor, simple & healthy. My companion had macaroni, a tomato filled with deviled egg & sausage & veggies with a drink. The price was under $ 20 for 2! An added pleasure.
UPDATE: Dec. 2015: Back for more chickpea curry soup but no luck. Had some great tasting veggies & sweet yams. Because the food is weighed, it was a bit pricey, $ 13, but I find DC food in this area pricey.

National Art Museum…
Way over priced! The museum is free, the café in the basement was WAY over priced! And it closes at 3! Biggest disappointment on the DC trip.
I understand high food prices but a single chicken thigh and one single scoop of Mac-​n-​cheese was 13 $. A noodle bowl 14 $ served by the rudest person I’ve come across (if you’re that unhappy get educated and get a better job!)
1pizza
1 chicken thigh
1 scoop (small) Mac-​n-​cheese
1 noodle bowl
2 small bags of chips
2 milks
1Can cherry coke
1 small fountain drink
50.00 $
Add the rude employees into the mix and you get one unhappy family and an extremely disappointed American.

To be fair, the location is great. The National Gallery of Art is a gorgeous museum and the café, as the name implies, is situated right next to a waterfall. The food, however, was abysmal. I had an overpriced noodle bowl with curry sauce that tasted like water. There was absolutely no flavor at all in the dish. There were many food options and perhaps some may be good, but my experience was of food that was worse than my low expectations of museum food.

Grabbed some lunch while touring the gallery on a Sunday. I went with the build-​your-​own salad option and a small bottle of wine. The salad items were fresh and the salad bar itself was pristine. Price was as expected: tourist premium. Convenient and huge dining area with a nice view of the fountain, but the sterile florescent lighting and utilitarian tables definitely bring back memories of hospital cafeteria dining. Choice and convenience are what make this a passable option when visiting this excellent and expansive gallery.

Convenient location. Like most museum cafeteria, food is so-​so at best and the prices are way too high. However, the museum is free admission so perhaps everything balances out? Maybe.
Had beef stew with Mac-​and-​cheese and green peas. The vegetables were okay, but the mac&cheese tasted grainy and powdery. The beef stew just had too much meat… and yes that is a problem.

Tasty gelato and coffee, just what I needed to perk me up for more touring of the gallery. Unfortunately my fingers got sticky from the gelato and I had to wash them before going upstairs and touching all the Monets.

Someone previously called this Café an overpriced mess — and I have to agree with this regarding the cafeteria portion. Every single worker had a look on their face as if they were just told they were laid off, and I honestly felt bad asking them to do something that’s part of their job. We first went to the pizza station and were going to take a piece of artichoke and goat cheese flatbread when this incredibly horrid and nasty woman yelled at me like I was a small child and said, «YOU DON’T SERVE YOURSELF HERE — READ THE SIGN. YOU DON’T SERVE YOURSELF OVER HERE». Just for the record, there was no sign or any indication anywhere that you weren’t supposed to serve yourself in that particular area. In fact, the handles of all the spatulas that were in front of her were facing the customer (so you do the math). That really irked me. The only individual who was pleasant was the cheerful girl in the bakery section — she actually was friendly, although the mini apple bundt cake we purchased was nothing to write home about.
The pesto grilled chicken pasta with onions, mushrooms and tomatoes with parmesan was actually really great. Even my 1 year old daughter loved it — but charging almost $ 15 per pound of salad is ludicrous and angering. The food in the cafeteria is not worth your money.
The espresso and gelato bar, on the other hand, was fantastic. Very nice take on an affogato, although as an affogato purist, I was disappointed at the lack of panna. Regardless, I would recommend individuals just to get their lunch (there are sandwiches available) at the espresso and gelato café. Do yourself a favor — do NOT go to the cafeteria area!

This is a great spot to take a break from all the art upstairs and refuel.
It’s nothing fancy. They call it a Café when it’s really just a Cafeteria, but it’s a fairly decent one.
They have a pretty wide selection of food. There are salads, sandwiches, soups, pastas, pizza, rotisserie chicken, etc … I had a salad, a big slice of pizza and a small side of pasta. It was a bit pricey, but we fully expected that. Eating at any museum will always be a bit pricey.
We found a table near the light tunnel and enjoyed watching people go by as we enjoyed our lunch. Everything was tasty. The staff was pleasant. The place was clean. I’d definitely return the next time I spend a day at the museum.

After wandering around the Degas/​Cassatt exhibit, my family and I decided to grab some food.
The café, which as others pointed out is done cafeteria style, includes a premade sandwich area, a pizza area, a make-​your-​own pasta area, a rotisserie area, a soup area, a bbq area, a salad bar, and a mediterenean salad and snack bar. I had a salad along with fries and a water. The fries were hot, crispy and delicious. My sister got a turkey sandwich on walnut raisin bread which she seemed to enjoy. My dad got a salad and rotisserie chicken quarter with two sides and my mom got a salad. We all had bottled still or sparkling water. My dad said the chicken was very tender and flavorful. It came out to about 40 $ for all of us with the 20% off coupon which we received from my mom’s company. We thought the food was very decent, though we also had low expectations based on the reviews.
I would definitely come back here if I was at the National Gallery and was too lazy to go elsewhere.

We only wanted a cup of tea and a bottle of water, but still waited in the longest long ever with the slowest and most inefficient service I’ve ever seen. No apologies for the wait. Everything was overpriced. The bakery items looked really unfresh (and of course there was the usual fly hanging around the display case).

Ugh, this cafeteria is an overpriced mess. Don’t bother.
The burgers are precooked and warmed fresh to order. The pizza tastes like grease on undercooked dough. and the servers are very unfriendly. The even actually go on lunch break leaving precooked food for customers on the counter for self serve while the servers are gone to lunch at 2:30 p.m.(BTW they serve between 11 and 4)
The only decent thing I found was the baked chick but it was $ 9 for a small quarter.
For the life of me I can’t see why AAA says a meal in a museum café is a must do. It’s definitely a must don’t.

Overpriced bad food with very poor attention (next to me one of the servers was making fun of a Russian visitor).
Best I eat in The mall on a street food cart, honestly!

Cascades Café is one of the cafes inside the National Gallery of Art where you can get drinks and/​or food. This place is a cafeteria style next to the bookstore/​shop serving sandwiches, pizza, salads, Mediterranean foods, pasta and a grill of which I’m not sure what was being cooked. On this visit I had the Buffalo chicken sandwich with pasta salad. Nice view down the flat escalator and with the waterfall next to the building.
Food C
Staff C
Décor A
Location B
Health Inspection Grade 2 non-​critical violations

Don’t let the name «Café» fool you — this is more of a cafeteria (complete with busing your own tray) with a decent selection of food and drinks (including wine and beer), all located within the National Gallery of Art.
I had the fried chicken with french fries and biscuits and it was pretty tasty, however feel like the food was way overpriced. However considering the other options in the area, and the fact that it’s free to get into the national gallery, I think it’s worth it to try at least once.

the convenience of this restaurant and the wide selection makes it a good place to go, despite the slightly higher than usual prices. For example, for $ 24 we had a bowl of rice, cup of coffee, bottle of milk, chocolate cup cake and huge egg salad sandwich with tomatoes. We also really like the condiment bar so we can put as much or as little mayonnaise, mustard or ketchup as we like on our food. Sometimes the staff are surly or seem to have an attitude to visitors but who cares when you’re hungry and on your way from one marvelous museum exhibit to another. It’s quite roomy and we’ve always been able to find a table (cafeteria style) even on busy days (weekends). We did find out it closes at 3pm weekdays!

Like in any tourist areas, restaurants always overcharge for mediocre, or even below average food. Cascade Café at least has some good deals, a beautiful view of a waterfall and air conditioning! You can get an entrée + 2 sides for less than $ 15 per person. Their potatoes are delicious. It is located underground between the West and East Art Museums and there is a gelato shop next door with tons of flavors.

Nothing fancy but serves the purpose of getting some food while visiting the art museums.