Atrium Café

Decent little café, considering it’s located within a museum (those are generally never good). The Atrium café is located on the bottom level of DC’s Natural History Museum and serves up some excellent fare. I visited with a friend (who works at the museum) recently and we had a great lunch. They have healthy salad options, as well as grilled nuggets and sandwiches. There is plenty of seating inside the café, but do note that it can get very crowded during lunch. Overall I really enjoyed it and think they have some awesome options to choose from. I was impressed, considering that it’s a museum restaurant (and those are generally not the best).

This café is located inside the Smithsonian natural history museum. It’s quite a big place but it was super crowded when me and my boyfriend came. I guess it was because we went on a Saturday that was on Labor Day weekend. So the kind of food they sell is similar to cafeteria food. The way you get your food is also cafeteria food way. You get a tray, walk down the line and tell the workers which item of food you want.
I got the mushroom arugula & goat cheese sandwich. This dish reminds me of a place called bruxie that is located in LA. The bruxie in LA is absolutely amazing, but this sandwich I had here was semi good. The flavors were exactly the same because it had all the same ingredients, except for the bread. Bruxie has a waffle bread, while this café had it with sesame bread, but it did not taste good. The bread was extremely hard and chewy to eat, it was cold and didn’t make my dish taste yummy. I ended up eating only one side of the bread and all the stuff inside of the sandwich separately.
My boyfriend got the chili and he said it was pretty good here. There was a ton of meat so I didn’t dare try it myself, but it looked very hearty. The workers behind the kitchen look very blehhhh. You can tell they totally hate their job. Cash registers also don’t look so happy. Would I come back? Probably just to eat a snack if I was super super hungry lol

Atrium Cafeteria would be a more accurate name than Atrium Café. And during lunchtime, with the crowds at the National Museum of Natural History having no place outside the museum to go eat, this place is complete pandemonium! There are many serving stations — places to get sandwiches made to order, a place to pick up an already made cheeseburger, already packaged salads, etc. But this is one of those places where it’s so crowded that you can’t tell if people are standing in line or just milling about. $ 6 is a lot for a hamburger that’s just been sitting around. All dishes, forks, etc., are disposable. A cafeteria lunch for two people for $ 30 is pricey.
The seating area was so crowded that there were no empty tables left. We asked someone if we could sit next to them, and they were kind enough to oblige. When I said to my dining partner, «you don’t pay for admission to this museum, but you pay for everything else,» the people around us overheard me and smiled in recognition.
The National Museum of Natural History could actually get a lot of revenue out of a proper restaurant, with table service, glassware, chinaware, metal knives and forks, etc. Many museums raise funds this way, and the customers gladly pay the price, knowing it’s not only for the food, but also to support the museum.