Cafe Soleil is a restaurant located in the Club Quarters hotel, just outside of Farragut Square within the Golden Triangle district, and 2 blocks from the White House.  For 12 years, they have been serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week to hungry tourists and locals alike.  With as long as they have been around, and the neighborhood they are located in, you have to bring your A-game when it comes to the discerning food palates in our nation's capital.  Should these crab cakes get the presidential seal of approval, or should their recipe get vetoed?  Stick around and find out!

If your visit to the nation's capitol has you wanting to meet Capitol Hill staffers, then heading over to the Capitol Lounge is going to be high on your list.  The Lounge is a popular venue for both staffers and locals alike.  Adorned in political memorabilia, there is normal dining/bar seating upstairs, outside seating when the weather cooperates, and shuffleboard and pool downstairs (with another bar!).  Some consider it a dive, others call it a sports bar.  You may just call it your new home for happy hour.  The CCR was out celebrating DC Beer Week and happened upon the Capitol Lounge, who had a special running all week long honoring beers from cities that helped to kick off the whole East Coast microbrew movement (Baltimore, Philly and NY).  Pairing beers from those cities with special sliders, it was only appropriate that they pair the Baltimore beers with, what else, crab cakes!  How were they?  Read on to find out!

Cedar Crossing is a cozy little wine bar and restaurant tucked away next to the Metro station in the Takoma neighborhood of DC (while next to Takoma Park, MD (right on the border, in fact) it is still in DC).  As little bistros go, this one is your typical DC establishment -- a little bit of all types of cuisines, no real one style or genre defining their menu.  A date spot that is not too pretentious or fancy, and somewhere where the locals like to hang out.  The chefs will even come out to talk to you and see how you like your entrees.  And don't even get me started on the beer selection.

So while they do have a set menu, they also like to put different items on special.  I've passed by this place a few times this past summer where crab cakes were on special, but had usually already had dinner at that point.  So the last time I noticed that crab cakes were on special again, I made a special point to go in, as you never know when they'll be coming back.  Once you walk inside, the entire place was filled with the smell of sweet, delicious crab (mind you, the place isn't very big).  So was the special of the day truly special?  Let's find out!

Once nice days, nothing beats going outside for lunch. And working close to Farragut Square, the food trucks are always near, rain or shine. So on this particular springish day in February, the CCR found themselves checking out the scene, and came across a truck that was featuring jumbo lump crab cakes. "Champagne taste on a Sarsaparilla budget" That truck would be Chef Driven DC. Now, crab cakes aren't always on the menu, but this week they were, and we venture to think they'll be on the menu again. So are they worth the wait, or should you try something else? Read on and find out!

We've written about food trucks before. Frankly, we love them. There's nothing like getting out of the office for lunch and going to an outdoor food court that is different each day. Yet, food trucks are like the epic white whale - there one day, gone the next. Sure, you could use the various online methods of stalking your favorite truck. But with the sheer volume of food trucks on the streets these days, it is hard to keep up with them all, let alone know who is still in business and who is new to the scene. The DC Crab Cake & Co. truck is one of them. They've been around since late 2013, and already had food the first time we saw them. So we recently came across them and had to try them out. Was it worth the wait? Let's find out!