H Street Coffeehouse & Cafe

Update: oh well, they closed. Sidamo it is for coffee shops then.
Great place. I don’t understand the negative reviews for food or staff. Coffee is always right and food (prepared breakfast and lunch sandwiches) is surprisingly tasty for a coffee shop. The 1 star off is for pretty much a total lack of character or ambiance outside of «ikea modern», but they make up for décor with ample seating, a bright atmosphere, and big front windows.

So I’m at H Street Coffeehouse for the first time, drinking my nearly 4-​dollar milky/​weak cappuccino out of a to-​go cup (huge pet peeve) and trying to tune out the overly loud lite rock (Dave Mathews, help!) combined with the sounds of the barista, who has been loudly arguing with someone on the phone for the last 10 minutes. On top of that, the wifi keeps kicking me out for no reason… yeah, I won’t be back.

Good eggs, not great ambiance — I wish they had comfy chairs and softer music!

Great iced coffee! Much better than starbucks. However, the staff could be a bit more upbeat, they always give off the persona that they wish they could be anywhere else BUT at work.

I stopped here just before noon to get a good cup of coffee and get out of the muggy DC air.
I walk in and immediately greeted by two beautiful women. Both looking so eager to take my order. I was actually a little nervous because I had no clue what I wanted. I was in a coffee shop and since this was my first visit, I just said one moment and looked at the menu. Thinking to myself, I bet there’s something up there I could say. After about 30 seconds I ask, so you got any good coffee? Lol. Smh. They smiled and said, its all good, what do you like? And again, the pressure was on. So I said, well I really like white chocolate mocha. And they said, we make that. Me: excellent! I’ll have the medium. Quick question, do you have free wi-​fi they said yes. So I propped up my iPad next to the window and waited. In a couple minutes my coffee was up. My white chocolate mocha was very similar to one of Seattle’s finest establishment located on almost every street corner in America.
I highly recommend H Street Coffee Shop. The wifi is nice and fast. And the coffee is good. I caught a nice spot in the window watching the people pass by.
Thanks ladies for great service, a great cup of coffee and great smiles.
I’ll be back for sure.

They are cool. Stopped for breakfast at Tony’s around the corner.
I asked for a Vanilla latte and they don’t carry vanilla — huh?!? Well I got the Mocha Latte instead for the BF and he liked it. I got a English breakfast tea.
Overall, cute coffee shop. Affordable prices.

Decaf iced mocha was great and large coffee was good. They had raw sugar which is always a plus. It was a little hot in the place but they opened the door for some air circulation. The food didn’t look too appealing and the drink menu could be a little bit more creative (i.e.: maybe some creative seasonal drinks for the summer/​fall, etc.?). The staff was friendly and attentive when I went. Lots of good reading material in the form of magazines and local papers if you wanted to hang out.

Not a fan. I go here sometimes because there isn’t really another coffeeshop on the eastern end of H street. Overpriced, not comfortable, just generally not a place you want to hang out in.

My dark roast Lavazza was barely hot. Hot coffee is a must. The cashier/​server was friendly.

The service was not great but the food was pretty good. It was a standard coffeeshop. I got a blueberry bagel with cream cheese and my boyfriend got a bacon and egg sandwich. We also got coffee. The sandwich was really good and had a great amount of bacon. The cream cheese was just a little philly cup. The bagel tasted pretty good as it was toasty and soft at the same time. Nothing to rave about but not too shabby either.

My better half and I are in the neighborhood for a few weeks. We love this place. The brewed coffee is excellent. I like the dark and my wife likes the light roast. And, the blueberry muffins are perfect, lots of berries, nice crunchy top. The bran muffins are great, too. Staff is very friendly, though they do get flustered when it’s busy.

I’m writing another review of this place, this time it’s even worse than before. There’s just no excuse at this point and I can’t wait for another coffee place to open up and just totally put this place out of business. They’re just not even trying anymore at this point. Expect cold coffee and just about everything on the menu to not be available after 10am.
I’ve never sat in there for wifi or anything because the staff are so grumpy and apathetic it just gives the whole place crap vibes.
The only reason I go there occasionally is because it’s right around the corner and if I’m out of coffee or want to grab a quick breakfast I’ll wander over there, but they never have anything from the menu available, the staff are slow and bad at their jobs and it’s just not even worth the trip over there anymore.

3.5. I came her to do some work outside this time around – it’s nice that they have access to bierhaus tables when the restaurant isn’t opened. The shade in the back is nice, but sadly no outlets. As long as i stick to drinks, it’s not bad. I got the mango green tea and peach white tea. I wished the green tea had more tea flavor, but both was still refreshing. Although the staff is nice, they seemed to be disconnected from their customers. Which is absolutely fine with me… when i walk into a coffee house with laptop out and a big bag, i mean business. Ain’t no one got time to chit chat. I would return just to use their outdoor patio if my laptop doesn’t need a charge.

I’m not a coffee fan at all as my visit was for tea while waiting on a friend. My friend order coffee and went on about the great taste of the coffee. H Street is changing and if the coffee is that good to satisfy my friend. It must be a good place for coffee and I can verify my tea was really good. I had the Green Tea and we enjoyed being able to sit at the window viewing the changes on H Street. The Street Car passed by and for a moment I didn’t think I was in DC.

Enjoyable experience; the chai was good and the chocolate croissant was decent (I’m spoiled by another establishment’s pastries).
Service was friendly and efficient. Seats were plentiful for three people on an early, but not too early, Saturday morning.
I wouldn’t hesitate coming back.

I’m not sure why this place can’t manage to just be a great coffeeshop. The space is airy and pleasant, the espresso drinks are well-​prepared (not Peregrine/​Sidamo/​Baked good, but good), the pastries are delicious, and the location is amazing. But every time I go in, the wait is 10 mins longer than it should be, and they are out of something crucial. This morning they had no drip coffee prepared, and they were out of ice. Sheesh.
All it would take is a strong manager who knows how to keep things running smoothly, and I would highly recommend it.

This café is conveniently located and serves decent beverages. I stopped in on a Sunday afternoon and only one person was making food and beverages and ringing up the customers. More than that, several of the sandwiches were apparently out of stock. Despite the wait, my coffee and grilled cheese were decent. The atmosphere of the place is significantly lacking but there’s a decent amount of seating.
Overall, if you want a decent cup of coffee, it’s a good choice. However, the atmosphere is lacking and the service has room for improvement.

Espresso beverages: 4.5 Stars
Ambiance: 2 Stars
Wow, what a difference a change in ownership makes. The coffee at H Street Coffeehouse is good (they use beans from the excellent Ceremony Coffee Roasters Annapolis for their espresso drinks), and they’ve removed the staircase to what was the upstairs bar, which has opened the place up a bit, but all of the warmth seems to have drained right out of it. It doesn’t help that the smell of fried food overwhelms the smell of coffee, not a good quality in a coffeehouse IMHO. Plenty of outlets and bar space in the back to take advantage of the free wi-​fi.

H is for Hipster, or at least it felt that way. Cool indy coffee house on H street. After a day of bumming around, an iced coffee hit the spot. Decent coffee, not great. Lots of locals haning around on their laptops. Old wobbly chairs and tables. Music playing, but not loud. The bathroom was a piggy-​mess.
I’d come back for some coffee if ever in the area again. They did have outdoor seating, which they shared with the bar next door.

Edit: Sadly, H St Coffeehouse has now replaced its Ceremony coffee with bland and unmemorable LavAzza coffee. So disappointing.
This place used to be called Sova. Back then they used Black Cat espresso and it was quite good.
Recently, Sova was bought by the biergarten next door and they changed up their espresso to Ceremony, which is a local roaster based out of Annapolis. The staff is exactly the same, they’ve expanded their menu (yay for actual breakfast sandwiches!), and have completely upped their coffee.
This place is now, easily, my favorite place for espresso drinks in DC. Ceremony Mass Appeal espresso is simply incredible, the best I’ve ever tasted. I’m horribly addicted. I want to go all the time now.
Yes, I am bummed that they removed all of the super comfy couches and large tables. But trading couches for Ceremony was totally worth it.