Milk Bar — Restaurant in Washington

I really, really wanted to love this place. I have now been here many times since opening, bought three 6" cakes, many other little items, most of their coffees and some of their ice cream.

My main problem with Milk Bar is that virtually everything is pre-packaged. I wouldn't mind this as much if the cost was lower, or it didn't effect the quality of their items, but it does. All their cookies (besides the Wednesday lab ones) are pre-packaged. It kinda bums me out when I'm spending $3.50 on one cookie for it to not be freshly made.

Their ice cream is really a taste preference thing. To me the cereal milk tastes sour and I could see people taking it as spoiled tasting. Cereal milk also seems to be the base for all their ice cream, so all the ones I have had so far have that sour taste to it. It's a neat concept but I don't like it.

The biggest bummer to me are their cakes. The 6" ones are $50 (which is expensive to me, but worth it if they were amazing). They seem to almost be pre-packaged as well. I'm assuming they're not baked here and are instead shipped in from another location, but I'm not sure. I have bought three "6 cakes now. The first one, a birthday cake, was pretty good I thought. I went out on a limb and tried a different one for my birthday and it was SUPER dry. Like "has been sitting around for a week" dry. I eventually gave them another chance and got a birthday one again figuring maybe the second cake was just a fluke...but it had the same problem as the second cake, super dry...to the point where I just threw out 1/2 of it after being in my fridge not even three days cause the sponge part was bone dry to the touch.

It's bad enough that that happened at all, but when spending that much money you'd expect them to be wonderful, at least fresh tasting and last more than two days from pick up. Like I said it's a shame cause I love the concept of new/weird/interesting flavors, but I just can't justify spending the money they ask you to spend for not being fresh.

Sadly I won't be a regular customer anymore. I may stop in for a bagel bomb from time to time (one of the few items I did really like) Maybe give it a try, but be prepared for almost no baked good being actually made there and paying a hefty fee for most items (i.e. $9 for a pretty small shake, $9 for a small slice of cake, $6 for a small/dry/pre-packaged piece of...

First of all, we had walked inside the store, and my mom wanted coffee. I had told her to try the birthday latte because my sister had recommended it. My mother said, “it’s a birthday latte, it’s going to be very sweet.” I tell her yeah that’s the point of a birthday latte, it’s sweet and delicious. She goes ahead and orders the birthday latte. We try the latte, and I must say, the latte was absolutely disgusting. Tasted nothing like a birthday latte, and I see pictures on the official milkbar instagram page of a birthday latte with sprinkles. No sprinkles on our “birthday latte”. Our latte tasted just like a normal unflavored/unsweet latte. Now, all of this isn’t the reason why I am going to give a horrible review. I just thought that this was probably a mistake, and that maybe the guy taking our order made the incorrect item. Me and my mom go and ask the guy and tell him that, “Hey, I don’t think this is a birthday latte because, it’s very bland/bitter, and isn’t sweet at all, and it doesn’t even constrain a birthday flavored taste”. Again, this latte didn’t taste like anything but bitterness, and was totally disgusting, and no flavor of birthday flavoring. I also tell the guy that there aren’t any sprinkles on the “birthday latte”, like I ad seen on the official milkbar instagram page. Again, this is where it gets bad. The guy is very rude, says he added the birthday syrup, and we tell him, this doesn’t taste like anything but bitterness, and he is so rude, and starts telling me and my mom to stop telling him how to do his job, and how we need to stop trying to act smart. I work in fast food and can see his perspective from this, but this is no way to treat a guest, especially that early in the conversation regarding a concern. Didn’t feel like arguing, told my mom just add some milk and get out of this place. Also, people taking the order after us, I had noticed that he was being very boring, as if he hated working there, he’s not paying attention, and honestly not being respectful/being straight out rude. Giving the events that had happened here, I hope the employee is given some sort of disciplinary action/talk from the manager. Never coming back to this location, and also not recommending this place to any...

I saw Christina on an episode of Chef's Table, and her story was inspiring and her food looked amazing. So when I was planning my trip to DC last summer, and I learned there was a Milk Bar location there, I got really excited. So on the way out, the day closest to my birthday, I stopped in and picked up the order I pre-ordered online, the Milk Bar Sampler.

I chose the Sampler, because it had a little bit of everything! A slice of the pie, two three-packs of cake pop truffle balls, and six cookies. Excellent. I mentioned the pre-order, by the way, because I definitely recommend going that route if you come here. They were definitely understaffed, the line out the door did not move at an efficient pace, and I heard that many of the orders at the front of the line were sold out. So, heads up.

As for the food itself, the pie was heaven. The Crack Pie (I know the real name) was so soft and unctuous and was just the perfect amount of sweetness. I would recommend getting a whole version of this every time. The truffle balls and the cookies were also good. Less above average than the Pie, but still very good.

The second best thing in the sampler was the Compost Cookie (The original sweet and salty kitchen sink cookie, with chocolate chips in a deep vanilla base, plus Milk Bar’s five recommended food groups: pretzels, potato chips, graham crackers, coffee, oats, and butterscotch). So if you come, get the whole pie and a six pack of this cookie. Done.

Overall, this place was really good. The hype and the marketing probably gets it tons and tons of business. I really enjoyed it, and I will probably come back the next time I'm within 25 miles of...