Review of Market Lunch

The Market Lunch is a hole in the wall restaurant located in the Eastern Market. Despite the name, it is famous for its breakfasts.

It is also famous for the huge line you have to wait on in order to get your food. Once you have your food, there is one long counter where you can scarf it down and move on.

The place is not particularly atmospheric, at least not until they rebuild the historic Eastern Market building. On weekends, it is jam packed with families trying to get an inexpensive breakfast out.

They are famous for their blueberry pancakes, but I just had to try the eggnog french toast with the apple cider syrup. Chris had a crab and mushroom omelet with potatoes. The overzealously, charming proprietor also talked Chris into getting the grits.

The French toast was made with super soft homemade white bread and, while it was good, it was almost too gooey. The apple cider syrup was like sweet, syrupy apple sauce and definitely improved the situation.

Chris's omelet was cooked perfectly, filled to the brim with fresh mushrooms and real crab, and seasoned well. It was delicious, with the exception of a small bit of crab shell I had to pick out of my teeth. The potatoes were nothing special, but the grits were as good as promised - creamy and buttery, but with some texture and seasoning.

All the food we had was generously laden with butter. This is definitely not the place to come on a diet. The whole thing cost us $20 exactly.

If you can stand the kids, and getting your feet run over with strollers - and if you don't mind being shoveled along as soon as your done eating - you can get some very good food at prices about as reasonable as DC has to offer.