Ocean Terrace Cafe

While some complain about the price, museum entrance was free. My bowl was very fresh and flavorful. I am vegetarian and very pleased with having a bowl/salad option since most places are just fried foods or prepackaged gross salads. Very tasty! I just wish they had more dressing options but I would still eat here again and again.

I did not know this cafe existed! We needed a cold drink and stopped in. The selection of sparkling water drinks was great. I got the orange grapefruit AHA. My friend got a packaged gluten free chocolate brownie. The place was big and bright but there were a lot dirty tables. There is a large section for staff. It seemed disproportionate. I loved the murals in the walls. The salad buffet looked good- I'd try it in the future. The coffee and sweet section was closed. But there were coffee and sweet options at the buffet.

We were unlucky enough to roll into the terrace cafe just as they closed the main service, leaving us to only grab the readily available offerings from the coffee bar area. The chips, drinks, and baked goods we had were fine, but relatively expensive due to being in the museum.Hopefully one day we'll get to try the whole thing and revise our rating. The view is pretty great!

Overpriced, tasteless, and poor selection. Avoid it and hit the one on the ground floor.

Ok, I'm giving this 3*'s because of the convenience and decent menu variety for a museum cafeteria. Food is decent but the only complaint is the prices are $$$$. A simple lunch for my family of 4 cost $100! Two of my group were kids so we didn't get too much food. Depending on when you get here, it can be pretty crowded. Of course, we came here right at 12:30, so it felt like the Hunger Games when you were out trying to find a table to sit at. The sea of teenage humanity overwhelmed the cafeteria during this crazy lunch hour as numerous high school tour groups were here at the museum. Shame on me for not remembering you need to eat before or after the lunch hours. Anyways, the food did the trick and we were able to power on through the rest of our tour of the Museum of Natural History.

Food is fine but just eat at a food truck outside. It's way to expensive ($16.95 a pound for salad and $13.05 for an average sandwich)

Best chicken tenders and fries in all of DC. The rest of the reviews should be ashamed of themselves. A great lunch and you get to walk around the Natural History Museum.

Way overpriced and the food is stale. The only good thing about it is that it's convenient. I recommend hitting one of the food trucks outside (National mall) for lunch or dinner. A lunch here for two will run you $35-45. If you have kids you are easily looking at $70-80. Not worth it.

Not worth it. Expensive and poor quality b staff was rude. Tie trapped not anything else around.

I eat at the natural history museum whenever I'm there for work trips. I love the idea of a veggie-forward place to eat, but I have thus far been disappointed by the food in the ocean terrace cafe. I've tried two of the salads and both were just ... bad. I normally adore salads, but I didn't get close to finishing either, which is a bummer because they each cost about $12. For example, in the Sweetly Rooted salad, the apples slices were poached or soaked in a sickly sweet sauce, and the bed of raw Brussels sprouts and cabbage was way too bitter to eat more than a few bites. The chai latte from the coffee bar was tasty ($6), but there were no non-dairy milks behind the counter or next to the self-serve coffees. Everything in the cafe is very expensive. If you're looking for vegetarian food, I think you'll have better luck in the Atrium cafe.