Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe

Weekend trip to DC and return to a favorite cafe.

So sad that the food was awful. Cold omelette with cold corn inside and very little crab meat. Hash browns were also cold. Love this bookstore but will not be back to the cafe. :(

Great service. Not good food

Always fun. Always buy books first.

We were in D.C. for a conference and tried different restaurants every night there was not something planned with the entire conference. We ate at four different restaurants and I enjoyed the food at yours the most. I really appreciate the ambiance with the books and other people who appreciate books.

I love this place for their delicious food, great drink selections, and an incredible bookstore attached with all the best reads. A must-go-to in DC!

Always love Afterwards Cafe

Wish the portions were a bit bigger

Great food, great coffee, friendly staff and fun Indy book store. Try the banana Johnny cakes if you’re going for brunch!

The food was fantastic and they had a great beer selection and drink menu. I also loved walking out of the restaurant and into the book store. The service was a little slow but overall we had a nice time.

I went to Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe for jazz night with my boyfriend, and my experience was overall pleasant. The music was a bit too loud to enjoy conversation, but we were mostly there for the music anyway. I also wish that the lights were a bit dimmer. It felt a little too bright in the main seating area.

We ordered a side of seasoned fries and a few drinks. The fries were delicious and came out very quickly. However, we had to wait quite a while for our first order of drinks. Then once we received our drinks, we never saw our server again, so by the time we were finally able to order another round of cocktails, the jazz was over, and it was time to leave. While we wished we received our drinks sooner, the specialty cocktails were very good and reasonably priced. I should also add that it was very packed and I only saw two servers waiting tables, so that was definitely the reason for the slow service.

I will be coming to jazz night again despite the slow service. We enjoyed the band very much at Kramers, and I will be sure to recommend it to my jazz-loving friends.

Our visit to DC was made even by having a lovely breakfast at Kramerbooks and Afterwords Cafe!
I loved the Crab Omelette! So much so, I had it two days in a row.
Would definitely recommend!

I love Kramerbooks & Afterwords cafe. The food is great, the service is good, and you can’t beat the after dinner book browsing.

HOWEVER. Their main bathrooms upstairs were filthy. Two toilets were clogged. A third was clean because the latch on the door was broken. One of the sinks didn’t work (there’s only 2). And there was a pile of mildew on the floor underneath the blow dryer. The whole place needs a thorough cleaning and possibly a full on renovation.

Great food small portions for the price.

The food here is truly average. I would recommend it for a drink or a cup of coffee if you like energetic, cozy bookstores. However, the food is just not good. We've come here several times and each time it's just as lackluster. The Greens and Grain Bowl promised a sauce that was nowhere to be found, so it was dry quinoa and unflavored. We've really tried to like Kramerbooks for food and just don't! On the plus side, it is a truly fabulous independent bookstore that you really should patronize. #shoplocal #shopsmall

Outstanding service and brunch was amazing! I live this place - it’s a must visit when in DC

Took too long to be seated. We waited almost an hour

Birthday brunch.
Service was slow. Food was not cooked as requested. Our reservation was lost.

If you have food allergy, be careful. Not a full blown reaction but mild reaction. Food was great, service was the worst I’ve had from there in 6 years. Still love the restaurant

My hang-up was the food. I've eaten there before and had really delicious stuff. But this time I'm not sure what happened. I would recommend checking them out. Just be selective with what you order. Great vibes and cool spot though.

Starters and entrees brought at the same time instead of separately and in sequence, sense that they wanted us out of the door as fast as possible

My favorite place to have breakfast in Dupont! I love the waffles.

Terrific and eclectic evening. Listening to Blue Dot Jazz Troupe was most enjoyable! They are great! Nice addition to the Cafe experience. Browsing through the stacks of books was a nice way to close the evening.

We are repeat customers who love to visit when we’re in town. It’s a great atmosphere, great service, and wonderful food! We will definitely return again!

Definitely not a recommendation or repeat restaurant. Still ended up waiting for a table 15-20 minutes after the reservation time. Drinks were very slow getting to the table and waters were never refilled. Requested cooking cornbeef hash little more and was served burnt.

Food was wonderful!!! Excellent mimosas. Super cute little cafe!

Crab omelette was exceptional.

Went to Kramerbooks for a farewell lunch with some coworkers. I love the idea of having a full restaurant inside of a bookstore. The waitstaff was quick, amazingly attentive, and very kind, and the food was fantastic. I ordered the crab cake sandwich and it was easily top three of all crab cakes I’ve had, which is saying a lot when you live this close to the Chesapeake. Highly recommend, would definitely go again, and might even purchase a book as well next time!

I had a great dinner at Kramerbooks I had one of the steak sandwich specials. I also had the hot chocolate which was awesome!

Disappointed with food, it was blah. My niece had the poker and didn’t like the sausages or bacon. Quality was not good.

I absolutely never review places. I am a server myself and know how reviews can be frustrating to read. But I came with my friend for her birthday and the service was terrible. We ordered appetizers and entrees yet both came out at the same time. They were placed on the table and we were not given the opportunity to question their arrival. Our server never checks back in with us. Not once. We had to call someone over. My entree got cold and soggy I could not eat it. My friend ran out of water. We would have ordered more drinks and dessert even, but being completely ignored makes that impossible. The service needs some serious work. A two bite check would have been enough.

We visited a little later in the evening and it was wonderful! I like bed the pow pow chicken and the Mac and cheese! Our server was the best!

I definitely would recommend Kramer’s to a friend. Particularly the Kramer’s burger. Holy moly!

Had what was listed as a Cuban sandwich; although they used pork, that was as close as it got. Amount of pork was also disappointing. Service was rushed, to say the least. Outdoor table was very loud.

Typical DC, crazy-big portions , high prices. Waiter did not offer us daily specials menu, I discovered when neighboring table got that. Getting bill took forever. Smaller portions at half the price, and I might be back. Noisy, hot sun streaming in. Not a quiet calm place for weekday lunch.

Meh. Not as good as I had hoped. Went here for lunch before visiting an exhibit nearby, and were seated inside (even though I requested a table outside, and there were plenty of tables available). It took quite a while for a server to come and take our order, including water While waiting for the food, I asked our waitress if we could switch to a table outside because it was really loud inside. She said she'll move is in a moment. Our food came, and one of my orders -that was supposed to come out before the main course- was forgotten. We were able to relocate to a table outside though, which was great. The food was all right. My boyfriend had the eggs benedict and said they were average. I had the duck confit salad. The duck was good, but the frisee was overdressed, almost soggy, and it was rather haphazardly slapped on the plate. The buttermilk biscuits were really good though.

Hot food, pot pie, was cold, coffee was cold; service was excellent in fixing errors but it took awhile as place was busy.

Poached eggs were overcooked. Benedict was supposed to served on a homemade biscuits but came on toasted burger buns. Horrible for not being busy.

There for book festival Will go again. Piped in music outside too distracting.

The portion sizes have decreased significantly since I was last there, there were out of both of our dessert choices, the service was underwhelming, they shoved us in a tight corner, the bathroom was out of order, and both of our dishes lacked much flavor, especially for the price. All in all, a disappointment for a place I’d hyped up to my guest.