The Marketplace, An Uncommon Cafe

I was there today, and everything is fine, but this owner make employees sweep with a broom for children, making the body lean forward, hey! you who buy food there, do something against injustices so, the person who was sweeping is a human being and if the owner does not care, maybe Worker’s Compensation will hear what I have to say. Being tild for a long period of time generates a very intense pain in the back. I hope the owner get another little broom, maybe it’s made for her, so she can sweep the floor!

Been getting salads from this place for the past 3 years. The cold salad bar selection is great, and the contents are consistently fresh. The hot buffet selection is hit or miss… and is a collection of Chinese food and «other» hot items like lasagna, leg of lamb, salmon (used to have this Thursdays), fried chicken, etc. Everything is fresh, however.
The sandwiches are loaded with meats, but the bread is the standard stuff you can get at the supermarket. Some deli quality bread would really make things a lot better.
Great place if you want to watch what you’re eating during lunch, and my go-​to place in the summer time when I’m watching my diet.

I don’t know who is making their fried chicken, but I hope the owners treat that person with extreme care and respect.
I happened to be in Ballston on a weekday and because I’d spent the morning running errands and hadn’t eaten since the night before I was starving. Dangerous starving. Eat a plump tourist starving.
Based on the name this place wouldn’t have been my first choice. I was under the impression it was one of those smugly organic places where you pay $ 9 for a dab of hummus and a lettuce leaf on whole wheat. But it was that or CANNIBALISM SHOCKER ROCKS BALLSTON.
Thank Dagon I was W-​R-​O-​N-​G. I walk in (barge really, I was very hungry) and stop dead because there are buffet tables. Not at all what I was expecting.
Then (because I was hungry, which = grouchy and glum) I thought it would be one of THOSE buffets. You know, where everything tastes like it is three days past its best by date and each bite, even of the fruit, contains the RDA of sodium for a football team.
WRONG and WRONGER.
There is a little bit of everything here and everything I had was delish. Plus, it is fun to eat fried chicken, seaweed salad, fermented bean sprouts, ribs and mango slices all in one go. They also have a great selection of teas.
It cost me a lot less than I usually pay for a salad bar salad out in bloody Gaithersburg and I haven’t eaten that much in ages. It is probably a good thing for me that they are closed on the weekends. I’d soon have to go through doors sideways if it weren’t. (But I really wish they were open on weekends!)

*blech*
The $ 8+ for a deathly salty lunch I tossed in the garbage, leaving me to
settle for the chobabi yogurt in my fridge instead.
The Marketplace looked intriguing especially because I was starving and had nothing but yogurt at home. After paying $ 1 to park, I entered and was happy to see fruits & veggies. I did a quick walk thru of the two buffet sections, refrigerator drinks, and order-​your-​burger area to get the lay of the land. I ended up choosing about 6 mini-​scoops of vegetarian buffet items, all with an Asian slant: cucumber salad, steamed tofu with watercress, other tofu in sauce, sesame noodles, steamed kale, green beans.
None of my choices were edible. truly. Maybe the chef was inebriated since my choices were either swimming in sesame oil or salt. My stomach curdles just thinking of it.
How can you mess up steamed tofu? Or noodles? Or Kale? Or green beans? I sure can’t when I cook it at home.
don’t go!

I love this place. The salad bar is big with lots of choices. The food is better quality than most lunch buffet places. I just recently had fried scallops that they serve on Friday. The things are so sweet and fresh tasting. The salad bar is phenomenal. A+++. Of course, charging by the pound makes it dangerous, and they put weighty stuff on the buffet. The made-​to-​order food is good too and a better value

I came over here because I live a few blocks away and my bf used to come here all the time bc it was right across from his work.
I was CRAVINGGG a salmon salad… but then I noticed that there were no salads that were made by the workers, but only the salads in the buffet bar.
when I asked the lady she said they have baked salmon at the bar. so I thought, okay… i will make my own!
I took a look at the salmon… it was not appealing :(so I just grabbed some salad and it came out to be 2 buckaroos! why make a salad at home when you can grab some salad here?
they do have a great deal of options for a buffet, I think I will def be back to try some of the sandwiches once i am eating carbs again! :)

Conveniently located in my new work building! Actually, there’s a trap door downstairs that leads you right inside the Marketplace, only I don’t remember where the trap door is, so I actually had to walk outside and around the building to get there.
Anyways, I went for lunch yesterday, lured by the scent of home-​cooked (ish) food wafting into the lobby. The selection wasn’t too shabby: from fish to short ribs to roast chicken, with a range of vegetables. I got a piece of the rotisserie chicken, with mac & cheese, spinach pie, scalloped potatoes, and a roll. All tasty, except the food was significantly less warm by the time I got back to my desk. :(Aside from that, it was super ace to have a hot meal at lunch time that wasn’t ludicrously priced ($ 8). Although, I did nearly have to knock a little man out when he stood in the way of me and my scalloped potatoes.

They’ve definitely got the «uncommon» part down: food that’s a few steps up from regular buffet food, and prices that are lower to boot (though to be fair, the fact that they’re not located in downtown DC has something to do with the latter).
If you’re reading this, chances are you work in a downtown commercial district. And undoubtedly, you’ve gone to one of those ubiquitous, pay-​by-​the-​pound buffets before. Invariably, you’ve uttered at least some of these lines:
«Dude, is this fish or chicken? Or both?!?»
«Should yogurt be served under a heat lamp?»
«Is meat loaf really supposed to be blood red on the inside?»
You’re also probably used to the infamous scoop o’ eggs that, once spooned onto your plate, still mysteriously retain the shape of the steam tray.
I can safely say that I haven’t experienced any of these issues at The Marketplace. But it gets even better: they actually have decent food (shocker, I know!). On any given day, they’ll usually have a whole turkey, ham, and/​or chicken that you can carve the meat off yourself. Fried chicken that hasn’t been sitting out under a heat lamp until it forms a turtle-​like shell. Corned beef and cabbage. And for breakfast, they have a separate tub of scrambled eggs that they top with cheese. Their sausages have a hint of maple to them. Really, for a buffet, it defies what buffet food should be. Oh, and they also carry Jones brand soda. It’s made with actual cane sugar and not that HFCS garbage.
I don’t know if they’re going for seductive mood lighting, but the lighting is really subdued, a far cry from most buffets that are lit up like a philosophy major before his midterm. It’s just a tad more conducive to eating.
Now, as a public service, I’d like to provide you with some time-​tested helpful buffet hints:
1. Circle the buffet area once so you know exactly where to go and in what order to get it. Don’t be like Custer: deploy some recon ahead of time.
2. I don’t care if you can pick it up in your hands: use the effing tongs. I have a good idea where those fingers have been. And mister, I don’t like it one bit!
3. If you’re coughing up a lung, please do everyone a favor and grab a sandwich instead. Don’t feel the need to put the sneeze guard through its paces.
4. Getting food is not like an all-​night lovemaking session. No one’s going to judge you on your performance. Scoop the damn food onto your plate and stop holding up the line.
5. Expanding on number 4… please, please don’t be this guy/​girl: «Oh, goodness gracious! There’s just sooooo many choices! Where should I start first? Oh, I don’t know… I’ll just stand here, staring off into space, holding up the line. Okay, I’m done. Let’s see… I simply MUST scoop up the food carefully and slowly. Mustn’t spill anything. Oh dear, I’ve got hot next to cold. Oh, that shan’t do! Oh dear…» Okay, you get the point :)
The verdict: While no one is ever going to confuse buffet food with gourmet food, it should still be *good* food. Most places seem content to deep fry the hell out of everything and leave it to harden. This is one of the few buffet places I’ll actively seek out, as opposed to visiting simply because I can’t think of anyplace else to go.