Tatte Bakery & Cafe | Dupont Circle — Restaurant in Washington

Apparently the chef will not leave bread off of any of their dishes. I asked if they would just place the bread on the side, no they won’t. Do they have a gluten free menu? Yes. All with GF Bread. I wasted 10 minutes of everyone’s life at the cashier.

First: there is no sign that says “we cannot leave off bread / ingredients / substitutions” prominently on the door. (And follow up, why is it that confrontational to make it without bread? Even Burger King will leave the bread off for you, and that’s fast food chain.)

Second: there are no menus nearby anything EXCEPT the cash register. You get to the register with a list of everything you need to speed read because you’ve been in line for 10 minutes and then you wind up, only then, seeing they have EVERYTHING with bread on it. Wouldn’t disposable menus near the door make sense when there’s a line that long so people know what they want BEFORE they get to the register?

I know it’s a bakery, but it’s also a full kitchen and cafe with hot food (they serve eggs and bacon and salads and shakshuka and the like). I am mystified that they won’t simply leave the bread off.

I held the line up for 10 excruciating minutes while the cashier simply repeated “no, can’t do that either.” This is how it went:

“Can I get this without the croissant?” “No, the chef won’t do that.” “Ok, can I just have it on the side?” “No, it must be ON the croissant.” “Ok, what do you have with eggs and spinach that doesn’t have bread?”

She turned the register over and showed me a photo of a scrambled egg and tomato dish with goat cheese on toast. She says:

“You can add spinach to this.” “Oh, so this is a dish where the toast is optional?” “No, it has to be made on the toast.”

I am clearly not getting through to this woman. I want anything in the house with an egg at this point and no bread. So I ask:

“Let’s try this a different way, do you have gluten free options?”

She hands me a menu. Jokes on me, every one of the dishes is made on gluten free bread. I say “So basically, your chef will make everything on bread.”

I stare ruefully for a further 20 seconds and then say “I’ll just go somewhere else.”

The staff could work on, I don’t know, being even modestly concerned that a human being is in front of them? The vibe in there is that the staff would just step over your body if you collapsed, never mind about calling for help.

Look, I like a bakery item now and then, but just personally I don’t like heavy carbs in the morning. It’s just too early for heavy food for some folks, me included.

Further, I wasn’t asking to pay less, or even to substitute it for something else. I was happy to pay for the bread, they keep the bread by not even plating it, and it can be sold twice and save them costs.

I don’t know, I had hoped I could get better service from a local business than I could from a large corporate behemoth like Burger King. It isn’t a Michelin Star restaurant: objecting to leaving the toast out of a scrambled egg dish seems...

Tatte is a convenient, “aesthetic,” and popular brunch joint in town, and while I’m not opposed to going every once in a while, I wouldn’t describe it as an outstanding experience at all. While the food is pretty good, I find it to be overshadowed by the mediocre service. Managers here are noticeably rude to their staff, and the staff non-surprisingly seem unhappy and irritated every time we go. Nonetheless I’ve been plenty of times and can share both the good and the bad.

The good:

I worked here a few summers ago, so I’ve tried everything (every. single. thing.) on the menu. My favorite dishes are the shakshukas, lamb hash, smoked salmon/avocado/egg sandwich, and avocado tartine. The breads are all amazing too. I love the sourdough and pain de mie.

For drinks, I recommend their matcha lattes or seasonal lemon seltzer drinks.

The interior is super bright and “Instagrammable,” making the whole experience very trendy. There’s outdoor seating too which is nice on pretty days (all seating is first come first served).

The meh:

A place that specializes in pastries and baked goods should have the best of the best, but their baked goods (specifically the cookies, brownies, and tarts) are somehow super sweet yet lack any flavor complexity. Maybe time for a recipe switch? If you do get a pastry, try the Kouign Amann, strawberry turnover, or chocolate snail. Those are good.

To me, the coffee is fine, but I’ve heard others say it’s too acidic. The matcha is a good alternative if you're bothered by acidic-tasting coffee.

The cafe gets extremely crowded and hectic during brunch times, meaning (1) long lines and waits for tables (2) chefs/staff will not accommodate very simple requests/changes & (3) service becomes a bit unfriendly which can ruin the mood.

It’s also not a good place to do work on laptops for extended periods as there are very few outlets (goes for all the locations I've been to in the area). ————- If you want the best service, try avoiding weekend brunch rush hours. Or if you enjoy a more bustling, chaotic brunch energy, see ya there on a...

A negative mark for service should be possible. Could these people be more disinterested or rude? It was more than an hour before closing time but they wanted to serve everything in paper bags. When we asked for a plate for my husband's croissant, they dumped the bag onto the plate. They have all these ovens in full view but they won't/can't heat a ham and cheese croissant. They slammed my bowl of lukewarm soup onto the table, spilling it over the sides, without even looking at us. They yelled at my husband for taking the "wrong" route back from the restrooms; they kept trying to deliver other people's food to our table; our coffees eventually arrived, also lukewarm, only after my husband noticed a server standing with 2 coffees and no idea where to deliver them. Cutlery was impossible to find so I used my finger to butter my sourdough roll, which was inexplicably sweet, but that's American bread for you. Is it worth going? Well, we have had slightly better experiences here. Never great but not as bad as this all-time low. If you want a good choice of food and cakes in this area, there isn't much else. And now here I am again, months later, needing to fill in 30 minutes before a meeting at Dupont Circle. The menu says they have iced herbal tea so I ask for an iced peppermint tea. ”No ma'am, we have Moroccan Peppermint tea and it comes hot ” "So you don't have iced herbal tea then?" "Yes ma'am, we have blood orange hibiscus iced tea." "Oh, ok. Well I guess I have that then. To have here." "Iced tea comes in an ice cup. Is that ok?" (Having no idea what an ice cup was, and already feeling worn down, what else could I say?) So here I am, in the stifling heat of an un-airconditioned café with my sweetened pink drink in a plastic cup and a plastic straw (so last century). The service...