District Biscuit Company — Restaurant in Alexandria

I saw an article on this place which claimed to have the "perfect biscuit." While I will still crush a fresh Hardee's biscuit and be perfectly happy, I try to keep my biscuit intake down these days, so I really want them to count when I leap off the wagon.

I ordered a standard bacon, egg, and American cheese biscuit. I was one of their first customers on a Sunday morning. The service was quick and friendly, and the food was fresh.

The biscuit is a nice, generous size but not comically huge. You'll be full but not uncomfortable at the end, which will come quickly because you'll likely inhale it. It's GREAT! The biscuit itself is flaky, tender, and buttery. It holds together throughout the whole sandwich, but it is never tough. It knows how to give up at each bite. The surprise dollop of hollandaise adds a bit of extra moisture without making a huge mess or distracting you from the wonderful carbs.

My current standards are St. Anselm in DC and Buford's Biscuits in Leesburg. District Biscuit (DB) is more like St. Anselm in that they are both laminated biscuits vs. Buford's drop biscuits. In my head, I prefer drop biscuits easy-going crumb, but in reality I prefer a good laminated biscuit. The product at DB is slightly more tender than St. Anselm, and you can actually get a biscuit sandwich here. Why St. Anselm serves their breakfast sandwiches on rolls is something I'll never understand. Plus, I don't have to drag myself all the way into DC or out to the boondocks of Leesburg just for a good biscuit. Besides all of that, DB's are just plain better and actually slightly less expensive than their competition, even though my simple sandwich set me back a Hamilton before tax.

I will come back to try the other things (and probably pick up a dozen frozen biscuits), but even if everything else is total garbage, this place is worth coming to just for the biscuits. Here's hoping they're around a long, long time.

Edit: tried the biscuit beignets this weekend. They were alright, but they're just pieces of biscuit dusted in cinnamon (or powdered) sugar. Kind of like when you made "donuts" as a kid by frying canned biscuit dough. The outside is sweet, but the inside is not. In fact, the inside is a bit salty - not worth getting. I think they could really kill the sweet side of the menu by making a second dough and adding a bit of sugar and cutting back on the salt. They could also make an assortment of glazes and created flavored scones. ...

The inside was charming. Biscuit was good, and probably the only thing worth getting from the menu.

Gravy was pricey, $4.25 for a small container. We were dining in, but was served with to go boxes because the restaurant dishwasher was broken. Gravy was too hot for the plastic container, and the lid and bottom were a little melted. We ended up throwing it away because of health concerns. They really should not serve it in that way even for to go.

Other items were a little disappointed. We also ordered a breakfast plate, the egg had butter or some grease on it, my husband felt very sick and couldn’t finish the second egg. Sausage and hash brown taste like microwaved that the center was way too hot.

Service was good, except we were asked every a few minutes that if we need any help (we are kind of the ‘leave us alone’ people).

—————— Update after 2nd try:

We decided to give another try recently. The second time we only ordered biscuits as other items were too greasy and disappointing. Waited in store for almost half hour and still didn’t get the biscuits for take out because of too many customers. Finally we went to ask, and found probably someone else took our order by mistake. We got 1 extra biscuit for free as apology from the store.

The biscuits are really good, and I like how flaky they are. But both experiences were somehow not great.

Also a suggestion to the store - I saw the store really gave up on serving with plates for dining in. For me, as a customer, it’s very unsatisfying to get food in to-go box after paying over $20 for a breakfast meal with coffee, plus tips before getting the food. I want to enjoy the meal after spending this much money, but the to-go box is just reminding me to get out fast. Let alone any effort from the store to do presentations, which is supposed to be part of the price I pay. If you really care about customer experience, please consider make the experience can match the amount of money customers spend there.

We start going to Preservation Biscuit Company in Falls Church now. It’s a little far out and biscuits are not the flaky style, but they have more options, and food is not greasy there and slightly cheaper. Dine in experience is also much better there - they serve food with plates and care about food...

This was my first visit to DBC with my hubby for a mid-day brunch on a Sunday. We found street parking right around the corner. (When leaving we discovered there was parking behind the restaurant.) We walked in, perused the menu, and we were able to order right away. We ordered the French Toast Biscuit, hash browns, and eggs (hubby had cheese on his), as well as White Chocolate Mocha lattes. We snagged a table inside, one of two that were empty at the time. There is outdoor seating, but it was a little chilly and misty today. The vibe indoors was very chill, what appeared to be other couples and families enjoying their meals. We received our lattes first and began enjoying them while we waited for our food. We both appreciated the smooth flavor and that they were not too sweet. Our food was ready within 10 minutes. The establishment bags all orders and you have the option to unbag and eat there or do takeout. We ate there and we were not disappointed! OH MY GOODNESS is all I can say about the moist and delish French Toast biscuits!!! Just a genius combo!! 😋😋 Simply amazing!! The eggs and hash browns did not disappoint either. We were sure that our meals would be finished there when first unbagging, but we quickly learned that was not the case. The food was so hearty and filling, we ended up taking half our French Toast biscuits home. I understand why they bag everything now. Lol. One of the owners was on site, working hard, and checked in on how we enjoyed our meal. His mother was also on site and took our order, which was super sweet because we love to support a quality family business. Needless to say, we will be back because I HAVE to try the Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese biscuit! It was my second choice but I am extremely pleased with my choice today! Oh, and we are vegetarian/plant-based and we were able to find options that work for us. My only mistake was failing to take pics to share before I dug in to my food!! Next time, lol. Check out District Biscuit Company when you are in...