I often grab oatmeal in a cafe in the morning:

Starbucks: It is instant oatmeal, but the toppings are very good. You can choose from one (or all) of the following: mixed nuts, mixed dried fruit, or brown sugar, and all there packets probably have double what you need if you are using more than one type.  They usually ask if you want  it “with everything.”

Cosi: The oatmeal isn’t instant and they say it is steel-cut, but it has the texture of regular oatmeal. It is pre-sweetened with brown sugar. You get to choose 2 toppings (brown sugar, pistachios, fresh strawberries, whipped cream, break bars (which are like a hard cookie), or dried cranberries). The toppings don’t seem selected well (although I like choice of fresh strawberries). You don’t need brown sugar since it is sweetened already. Whipped cream and whatever a break bar is don’t seem necessary, since this isn’t a dessert. Pistachio seems like the wrong choice of nuts for oatmeal; slivered almonds would be a better choice. It seems like someone who doesn’t eat oatmeal for breakfast designed the topping choices. I often choose Starbucks oatmeal over Cosi even though the oatmeal itself is instant, just because the toppings are so much better and the oatmeal is unsweetened (so I can control the sweetness with brown sugar).

The Cosi on King Street was out of coffee lids and sleeves, which makes no sense for a coffeehouse/cafe.

Au Bon Pain: The Pentagon City location had two types of oatmeal cooked and ready Sunday morning. The standard one was fine, but the apple cinnamon had too large chunks of the wrong kind of apple -it was flavorless- and the apples should have been peeled (they were ugly). maybe slivers of granny smith would work better. The toppings were fine: raisins, craisins, granola, chocolate chips, brown sugar, etc.

I did notice that Pain De Quotidien (on King Street) has steel-cut oatmeal, but it is twice the price ($6) and to sit there I have to deal with table service and tipping…for a place that looks and feels like a Cosi. I haven’t tried their oatmeal, but I still might; it just feels weird dealing with table service to sit down for 15 minutes.

Update (12/7/10):

I stopped by Pain De Quotidien this morning and ordered the oatmeal to go.  They asked if I wanted whole , skim, soy, or no milk, and I chose whole.  You have to enjoy the chewiness you get from steel-cut oats.  It had some good quality mixed berried on top, and was a larger potion than  Starbucks or Cosi would give (Au Bon Pain has sizing options). The oatmeal was unsweetened, I was not given a sweetening option such as brown sugar, and the berries wouldn’t cover that amount of oatmeal. There is apparently a discount for “to go” orders, so the price was $4.50 instead of the $6 you would pay if you sat down (and then you would be expected to tip the server.) I’ll probably order this one again but ask for sugar.

-JAY

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