Lauriol Plaza
1835 18th st., NW

(1-5 Eggs)

General: (2.5)

The brunch offerings at Lauriol Plaza is average. The manner it adapts Mexican cuisine to a brunch context makes for an excessively heavy and slightly bland meal. One of the people in our party (still recovering from a too-fun Saturday night) barely touched his meal, finding it unappetizing. Lauriol’s expedient service and selection of seating areas partially made up for its deficiencies in food quality. Dishes ranged from $7 to $27. You might find it a desirable place for brunch if you have a large party, don’t wait too long for descent seats, and see food as a secondary concern.

Ambiance: (4)

Lauriol plaza has enormous dining room. It is spacious, with two floors, all white walls and table cloths, and huge windows two stories in height making for a well light inside. You also get the choice of outside seating next to the sidewalk or in their third story terrace. Its huge amount of space warrants you’ll get a descent table. You’ll also most likely sit somewhere with room to stretch your legs, something you don’t find in DC that often

Coffee: (.5)

Coffee was of very poor quality a brewed very very watery. The hint of flavor you got from their watery coffee, on top of everything, was stale.

Service: (3.5)

Lauriol Plaza’s service was effective. We were sat as soon as we arrived and things was brought to the table promptly. They had a well orchestrated staff. Busboys and servers
checked on the table frequently. The only drawbacks were the impersonal sense you got from the service (between all of the busboys, food-runners, and servers we only saw our server twice). It felt like you were just another number. The server also had a difficult time describing the food and was not able to make any useful recommendations. Finally, they brought the food very quickly, not enough time to talk. This kind of speed in getting
food out is nice when you have large parties.

Food: (1.5)

Like mentioned above the food was heavy and slightly bland. Making up for flavor by adding salt, cheese, and sour cream makes for a bad post-meal gastronomical experience. Don’t plan on being active after having most of the things in the menu, which included a pretty large array of food I by the way. The restaurant did not seem to place too much importance in ingredient quality from the fruits, to vegetables, to the meats. One thing we did enjoy was a ceviche mixto for appetizer, and even though it was pleasant, the ingredient quality limited potential.