Go for the Schnitzel, stay for the desert

If you have been craving veal schnitzel and live in or around Washington, DC you are in luck. Having tried some at a couple of restaurants in the past I was very happy to finally find one that serves the best veal schnitzel around (and this is not an exaggeration).

Kafe Leopold , also called Leopold’s Kafe, is a modern Austrian restaurant that has a cafe/casual setting. The service and attention to customers is first class. The menu choices are unique and most I have never tried before, and the choices of drinks are also nice. We skipped the salad and opted for an appetizer, the Liptauer Crostini, and from the “savories” we chose the Olivenpissaladiere; both were excellent. For the main course we had the Leopold's Schnitzel and the Gegrilltes Lachsfilet (grilled salmon filet) and both were outstanding; the crushed cucumbers, Medjool dates, fennel, walnuts & basil oil that came with the salmon filet is out of this world. Both portion were larger than what you get in many other places. I particularly loved the schnitzel and it will be one of the main reasons I will be going back to this restaurant again and again.

Austria is also famous for its cakes and pastries. We decided to choose from the display at Kafe Leopold instead of choosing from the menu, and unfortunately I cannot recognize these choices in the online menu to tell you the names of what we had. One was a cheesecake (a bit small in my opinion) and the other is the one in the above image. I was told the cheesecake was very nice (I am not a cheesecake fan, so I passed on tasting it), but I can say that the one I had (see image) looked like a pice of art with chocolate shell but on the inside it had one small ball of something with hazelnut and a larger ball of something with almonds, and it was sooo good. I highly recommend this place. One thing you should be aware of is that they add a 3.5% “recovery charge” to the final bill, something some other (not all) DC restaurants also do.