Summer 2015 we stayed at thee RI Foggy Bottom (wife and 9 year old daughter at the time). Free breakfast and good metro access were important to us just like the OP. RI Foggy Bottom was very convenient for access to all of the DC sites via the metro and the neighborhood around GWU was nice with restaurants and shops. RI Foggy Bottom is a Cat. 7 and we debated going further out to go for a Cat. 6 and save points. In the end we were glad we stayed closer in at the RI Foggy Bottom.

I am Lifetime Platinum and didn't receive an upgrade nor did I expect one. We were treated very nicely by the hotel staff and the typical RI breakfast was well done. We were only around in the evening for dessert night (out touring the other nights) and the ice cream and waffles were nice. Happy hour along with dessert included house wines and some local beers. Only complaint we had about the hotel is the pool was literally the size of a postage stamp and didn't look clean. It was broken during part of our stay and we decided to skip it once we saw it.

As two adults a longer metro ride may be less of an issue, that said being closer in has benefits for anyone. If you want to stay in DC in a nice neighborhood close to the sites with free breakfast, the RI Foggy Bottom is an excellent choice. If you do decide to stay there, Notti Bianchi the Northern Italian restaurant literally across the street, was very good and highly recommended.

--Jon