Our Experience with American Girl Food in DC

{Pin It}

Last week I shared about our trip to the American Girl Tyson’s Corner store in DC. One of the things we did during our trip was eat at the American Girl Bistro for a late lunch.

My experience was different than many others. I read (and was told) rave reviews about the bistro. Atmosphere is awesome, food is fantastic. Well, they had the atmosphere part right.

We were pretty disappointed in the food and service. It all started with us having to wait 25 minutes after our reservation time. Mind you our reservation was at 2:30, so we were STARVING!  So after waiting almost 30 minutes we finally get a table.   Only to wait another 7 for someone to come to the table to take drink orders.

Okay, maybe they were super busy or I just shouldn’t have high service standards.  BUT, I was still optimistic at this point…

American Girl Food:

It was okay.

The artichoke-spinach dip was fine enough for a few bites. I wouldn’t go as far as saying it was good, yet it wasn’t terrible. Monkey did like his pretzel bites and Lulu liked her fruit fondue.  Fruit fondue is basically fruit on a stick with strawberry yogurt.  I really don’t think you can mess that up.  Okay, I take that back.  You could mess it up, so that part was good.

My spinach salad was great, but Lulu wasn’t a fan of her chicken tenders.  She ended up eating 1 tender but all of her mac & cheese.  Monkey and hubs thought their burgers were disgusting. They both thought the meat and buns were just awful. To the point that they didn’t eat more than a bite. They did eat the fries (which were “okay” according to my son) and salad that came with it, however.

Overall, the food didn’t meet our expectations.

You can see a sample menu HERE.

 

Now, the special chair for LuLu’s American Girl doll with her little crown and own cup & saucer was pretty darn awesome. We also enjoyed the birthday goodies (we purchased the bistro birthday package). Lulu was given a nice birthday surprise to take home and we took home the rest of the birthday cake. The cake was good and the ice cream that came with it was good. The presentation was super cute.

While it is defiantly an experience and I’m glad we ate at the bistro and splurged for the birthday package, I won’t eat there again. Our next trip to the American Girl Store will be for shopping and we’ll eat elsewhere in the mall.  Better food and a lower price tag.

I would love to know your experience with American girl food!