Community Canteen

Yes, Virginia, there are two Community Canteen locations within walking distance of one another. This one, on Sunset Hills Road, is the lesser-​known and more private location, as it’s actually located inside the office building at 12 011 Sunset Hills Rd., and not within the gilded confines of Reston Town Center. If you’re looking for a less hustle-​and-​bustle lunch where your meal is made-​to-​order and it’s easy-​pay counter service style, this is your place. Don’t be deterred by the off-​the-​beaten-​path side entrance (south side of the office building exterior); the parking is free and a little easier all-​around than the lunch rush in RTC.
The format is good for a one-​size-​fits-​all approach. Choose from a made-​to-​order salad, sandwich, or panini/​wrap, and complement it with one of their fresh soups, if you like. Prices are very reasonable, especially for the salads, where you aren’t nickle-​and-​dimed for every single add-​in. There’s a good selection of refrigerated bottled drinks, and they also offer a legit coffee bar for your coffee/​tea/​pastry needs.
Service could be a bit friendlier; feels a bit lazier here compared to the RTC location. It also feels like a «secret» location; there’s little-​to-​no signage, and I think it would behoove them to boost their visibility by being more visible. It’s never busy here the way it is at RTC. Overall, it’s a reliable spot for lunch that won’t break the bank or go beyond your allotted lunch break. If I worked in this building or anywhere closer, I’m sure I’d be walking here regularly and feeling proud of myself for avoiding the RTC madness.

Felt like I got conned today. Bought a $ 100 gift card last year as a Christmas gift and was given a free $ 25 to use this year (which I thought I would use myself). However, I have to use the $ 25 in one visit, which I was never told when I bought the $ 100 card. Never going to buy those again. I thought I was alone about the feeling and few people standing next to me also agreed that they felt the same way.
How about the food, you may ask?
Had the Chivto steak sandwich today. It was flavorless and too simple for me (maybe a sause would have tied all together). It might be best to stick to their best known food, which are custom salads (should have listened to the person in front of me and should have observed the longer salad line.)

Love this place. It just gets a little hectic in the RTC location during a weekday lunch.

I’d love to be able to give this place a good review, but I just can’t. The food isn’t too bad, but the menu is small without much variation, and the food is definitely overpriced — even for Reston. It’s just not very tasty to be honest. The worst thing is the setup and service — everyone just approaches the counter with no line, and the customers (unfortunately not a lot of brainpower there from the folks working in the building — much less than you would expect from a company like Bechtel) just walk up and order, cutting line, very rude. Unfortunately the workers also ignore the people who were there first, and play right into the rudeness of the other customers, so the whole thing turns into quite a cluster — handing you the wrong sandwiches, someone takes yours, etc. — very disorganized. I’ve actually stopped going there completely, between the $ and the disorganization, there are much better values out there for sure.

Breakfast pastries are the bomb… I usually pop in on my way to the office and pick up my sandwiches to go. One stop shopping. And the coffee is awesome!

I had a LEYE giftcard to use, and since I’m no longer able to frequent my favorite Lettuce restaurant, Antico Posto (If for whatever reason someone high up is reading this – please bring one to D.C. pleeeeeease!) …I decided I would try this place for lunch.
So Scott H.‘s review about the location was spot on. It’s weird and tucked away – exactly the way I like it! However, I was easily able to find parking in the row of spaces directly across from the one he was talking about and they weren’t marked as «reserved» so I don’t really think parking is an issue.
I’m taking off a star because it was weirdly organized. They have a section for salads, and a section for sandwiches, but there were a bunch of neckbeards just standing around and I had no idea where the line started or ended. I figured it out eventually and I got a chicken and brie panini, and then an iced latte (shout out to Metropolis coffee!!). It was tasty, and worth the money. I’ll definitely be back.

I went here for breakfast this morning and was pretty disappointed. First, this place is hard to find. It is technically in the building located at 12 011 Sunset Hills Road, but once you turn into the office park, there is no indication where to find the restaurant. You have to walk in the front of the building, through the lobby (that has no directory), out the back and hang a left. The restaurant opens to the outside of the back of the building.
Anyway, we show up at 10:28 and they stop serving breakfast at 10:30. We would’ve been there at least 5 minutes earlier if there had been some signage. I ordered a breakfast burrito and the lady behind the counter asks me if we want one or two burritos. My husband was still looking at the menu, so I told her just one for now as he doesn’t know what he wants yet. A few seconds later he also asks for a breakfast burrito and we receive an unhappy look.
Anyway, my complaint isn’t about the service (which was otherwise pleasant), but the food. When we ordered the breakfast burritos, the woman took two crêpe looking things out of a dish on display behind the glass and threw them on the burritos. It turns out those were the eggs that had been previously cooked into a tortilla shape. First, I have no idea how long those had been sitting out (as I mentioned, we got there at the very end of breakfast), and second, it was a puny amount of eggs. I can’t imagine it was even one egg per burrito. I’ve posted a picture.
Lastly, and I don’t think we got food poisoning or anything like that, but both my husband and I were feeling unhappy in the tummy area about 30 minutes after breakfast. Not fun.

No, I’m not confused … at least about this. I thought I was at first, but I’m not. There are two different «Community Canteen» locations in Reston and, yes, they’re less than a mile apart. If you live or work in Reston, you’re likely familiar with the Community Canteen location in Reston Town Center, adjacent to Mon Ami Gabi. But very few know of this other location just across Sunset Hills Rd from Reston Town Center, nestled on the ground floor of a cluster of buildings that hold many federal contractors. (An example of just how unknown this locaton is, I added the location to Unilocal but waited two weeks to finish my review. And I’m still the first review.)
Community Canteen (and Mon Ami Gabi and Big Bowl) is part of the Lettuce Entertain You (LEY) restaurant group. I am a frequent diner of Mon Ami and use LEY’s rewards program to the fullest. They sent me a rack of ½ price dining coupons for all of their area locations, and I stumbled onto this Community Canteen location while on their website making plans to redeem the offer. I had no other reason to go to this Community Canteen location except for sheer curiosity … and a desire to avoid the hustle and bustle of RTC.
When I arrived, two things were apparent to me. First, nobody has reviewed this place yet because it is damn hard to find. When I said nestled into a group of office buildings, I literally meant it. You’ll see a mention of CC as you turn in, but finding it from there is tricky. If you head towards the back toward the parking garages, you’ll should see it to the right. And speaking of parking … that the second thing I noticed, that this location offers little in avoiding the parking issue of RTC. There is one lonely spot out front labeled «Reserved for Community Canteen». I don’t know if I could park here, but I did. Otherwise, you’ll have to park in the parking garage.
Otherwise, this is very similar to the Community Canteen in RTC. Each location will have one or two different menu options, and the CC website does a good job of keeping that up to date. Otherwise, its the same menu. I ordered «The Italian», which ham, sopressata, and, oddly, turkey with provolone and a house mayo. Despite not being a traditional Italian sandwich, it was better than I expected, and the bread was fantastic. I also ordered a latte to go and, just like the RTC location, they make a pretty good latte at this CC.
The one advantage of this location is that it has a completely different vibe, and it is much quieter. The one in RTC is very busy, always rotating people in and out, and is a place a lot of people meet there for coffee or a snack to chat. This location has more of a vibe of a university study hall. Very quiet, people eating alone, usually while reading or working on something. If I worked in that building cluster, I could see myself coming here a lot for a late lunch to get away from the noise of the office. Actually, I may still take the short drive here and do that regardless … just as long as my spot out front is open.