La Fourchette
2429 18th St. NW

(1-5 Eggs)

General: (3)

La Fourchette is located right in the heart of the Adams Morgan 18th street strip. Their brunch and desert selection was fairly large and food was overall good but the poor service of the restaurant severely impacted our brunching experience. The restaurants best attribute is its location. It might make a good place to eat some desert in an afternoon.

Ambiance: (3)

The restaurant offered outside and inside seating. This would be a great place for people watching if you are able to get a table outside because of its great location. There are always plenty of things going on in the restaurant’s immediate surroundings and always people on the move. The interior setting was fairly average for a French restaurant. The dinning room’s exposed red brick wall and murals make for a relaxed atmosphere. This relaxed atmosphere was countered with a fairly small and slightly cramped dinning room.

Coffee: (1)

The coffee we were served for brunch was inconsistent in quality. The round of coffee we were served was comparable to the kind of coffee you get at gas stations or fast-food restaurants. It was very lightly brewed and lacked both body and flavor. Later on in meal they served coffee which was more densely brewed and had hints of caramel in its flavor, but still seemed of low quality. In addition, coffee refills were hard to come by and we had to mostly ask for them.

Service: (1)

The service we received was of the lowest quality. The entire restaurant’s organization seemed inefficient and this took a toll on our meal. Upon first arriving there was a crowd around the door yet no one had spoken to anyone. There was no hostess to seat the people. When we stopped a waiter to ask if we needed to sign up he said to just grab a seat in inside because everyone was waiting for tables outside. We followed his advise and were led to a table, but when we were about to sit down an irate customer approached us and explained they had been waiting for a long time for a table. We gave them the table and went right along to another table that was open to have the exact same thing happen. The third time was a charm. Once we were sat everything took a long and arrived at inappropriate times. Silverware arriving after the food, water arriving with the food (which took a long time to come out), and food orders coming out a different times. Although a large part of the problem was due to the server’s own ineptness, the service staff seemed over-worked and bus boys not well trained and disorganized. The pinnacle of the bad service occurred when our server refilled a half-full cup of tea with coffee and did not notice. It took us a good ten minutes to get someone’s attention to get another cup of tea.

Food: (4)

La Fourchette’s food was its main strength. It offered a good variety of poached egg dishes, crepes, omelets, along with the other usual brunch foods. Everyone was content with their food, once it arrived, and it was overall of good quality. They seemed fairly selective about their ingredients since tomatoes were ripe and sweet and meats delightful. Their array of deserts also deserves mention, but although tasty did not really leave any strong impressions with anyone in our party.