Levain Bakery — Restaurant in Maryland

I have a nut allergy so I had to be cautious what I ordered but for food I got...

Chocolate Chip cookie Chocolate Chip Brioche Cinnamon Butter Brioche

In terms of the cookie it was very unique. It was a relatively large cookie (I try to minimize sweet intake) so it took me a few days to finish it. I'm sure most people could break it in half and be satisfied for the day. A LOT of chocolate chips though. I feel like if there was an option for less chocolate chips it would actually be better (I really liked the dough/breading! Very flavorful/buttery).

The Brioche was OK. I mean it's just flavored bread. The quality of the bread was good though and the sizes were large enough to share!

Price was a bit up there but it is good quality food.

Coffee: Ordered a latte but I was stupid and didn't realize it wasn't sweetened. Personally I wasn't a big fan. Took a few sips and threw it away.

SERVICE: Honestly the people working there appeared to hate their lives. But I guess that's to be expected. At least the service was fast. Thankfully they want you out of there as fast as you want to be out of there so prepare to just give your order and get your food to go. No reason to leave a tip.

Overall I'd go there for the cookies (especially if you want to show people something different). Service is unpleasant but fast so kudos to them for at least doing their...

My toxic trait is that I always need a dessert after a meal. I was staying at the Marriott Bethesda Downtown at Marriott HQ and this bakery was a short walk and even shorter drive from the hotel. Chocolate chip cookies are a top 3 dessert for me so the choice was easy once I scanned the menu. Unfortunately I have a walnut allergy so I had to pass on their signature cookie and try the Two Chip Chocolate Chip cookie. I’m so glad I indulged in my guilty pleasure because this cookie was AMAZING!!! I thought I wouldn’t enjoy the thickness of it in fear that it wouldn’t be too doughy and undone in the center, but that wasn’t the case at all! It was baked to perfection, and obviously the best way to enjoy it is warm. It was so good I had to get a second one for the drive back home to North Carolina. I travel to D.C. a few times a year for work and this place will be a staple for my future visits.

The inside of the bakery was small but serviceable. No tables for dining in but that wasn’t a problem because after the calories I digested I needed the walk back to feel better about myself for re-bigging my back lol. Service was straight forward and I like the option to order from the self service kiosk in case other parties are indecisive and taking longer to figure out...

I'd wanted to try Levain for quite some time, after learning that their cookies are ranked among the top in the U.S. -- I wanted to experience that. I was surprised to learn that I wouldn't need to travel all the way to NYC to try them, so made the 45ish minute trip to Bethesda. I found the cookies to be good and relatively unique with their distinct dual-texture (crunchy on the outside, under-done on the inside.) However, I have definitely enjoyed a better tasting, according to my tastes, cookie. Thus, I don't exactly understand the hype. I can appreciate that the cookies are made with more premium ingredients than some others, but on taste alone, I would not be in a hurry to try them again at over $5 per cookie, but I do not regret trying them. They're good, they're just not amazing (to me.) Service was a bit hurried but adequate and efficient. The bakery was very clean inside, if not a bit visually uninteresting -- there was a lot of talk about this place, I think I was just expecting ... more. But here's the thing: the lemon loaf cake is...