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Hershey's Restaurant - on Oakmont Avenue by the Washington Grove Train Station in Gaithersburg Since 1952


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Is that the "don't even consider going here" emoticon?
Went once about five years ago, remember thinking this is ok. Not great but ok.

Never been back since and not feeling like I am missing anything.

Want fried chicken - Go to RTC.

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Went once about five years ago, remember thinking this is ok. Not great but ok.

Never been back since and not feeling like I am missing anything.

Want fried chicken - Go to RTC.

I love the fried chicken at Ray's too, but I could still feed my entire family at Hershey's for less than my bill would be at Ray's. I haven't stopped going to Popeye's occasionally either. Fried chicken is never trite.

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Is that the "don't even consider going here" emoticon?

Truth is it's been so long, I can't remember what I ate. Went for lunch a few times when I worked nearby (1991-1992). But I suppose it's the kind of place that doesn't change much over 15 years, either. American family food, I think. Maybe we should do a Twenty Dollar Tuesday here. :lol:

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Truth is it's been so long, I can't remember what I ate. Went for lunch a few times when I worked nearby (1991-1992). But I suppose it's the kind of place that doesn't change much over 15 years, either. American family food, I think. Maybe we should do a Twenty Dollar Tuesday here. :lol:

$10 Tuesday, even!

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I love the fried chicken at Ray's too, but I could still feed my entire family at Hershey's for less than my bill would be at Ray's. I haven't stopped going to Popeye's occasionally either. Fried chicken is never trite.

My sentiments. Apparently there must be a RTC/RTS reference in each thread. Sort of like a where's Waldo. Quite tedious too. I have been to Hershey's many times and the place has "homestyle cooking", which can vary from day to day. So the fried chicken can range from pretty good to o.k. For the record, my love affair with Popeye's is coming to end, 8 bucks for a 3 piece of "not nearly what it once was" chicken has sent me away. Pollo Campero has picked up the slack.

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Last week, Tim Carman had some positive things to say in his blog about Hershey's fried chicken, so it was inevitable that there should be a reckoning. Flush with an unexpected success at the MVA emissions testing station in Derwood, I headed up Oakmont for an early celebratory supper.

As reported, Hershey's fries to order, so you'd better plan for a good 20+ minute wait from placing the order to your first bite. I tried the 2-pc white meat, with mashed potatoes & gravy, and hushpuppies as my sides. The chicken strikes me as a good, honest, straight-up fried chicken...fried to a dark blonde color, but basically a home-style fried chicken. I'd guess it's just dredged once in the seasoned flour, which itself seems generously salted but light on any other spices. Nice crisp crackle to it, and the white meat stayed moist all the way through, but not to the nearly miraculous level of Gillian Clark's. It looks to have been deep-fried, from the uniformity of the color. For less than nine bucks it's a good deal, but not something that I'll be craving next week: its only real fault is that there's nothing special about it. Solid, but IMHO falls a bit short of the top tier(1).

I liked the hushpuppies, which also had that homemade formed-with-teaspoons honesty about them. However, the mashed potatoes were forgettable; despite showing a few stray bits of red potato skins here and there, they'd been whipped to extreme smoothness and were dangerously close to becoming wallpaper paste. Ditto the starchy brown gravy, probably made from granules.

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(1) And I mean the DC-area top tier. Because the legendary Willie Mae's Scotch House in New Orleans really skews your whole perspective on fried chicken.

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We were there last week - it's around the corner from my daughter's drama school, so we go once in a while.

It seemed saltier this time than last, and not as peppery, so wonder if they changed their dredge?

The sides are mostly forgettable or inedible, though you can get a side salad as one of the two included sides, and it's at least fresh if not exciting.

P.S. Reheats in the oven real nice a few days later. Urp.

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I made it to Hershey's last night. Some friends have moved to Germantown and I noticed the place by the side of rhe railroad tracks that carry the MARC trains toward Frederick. II looked the menu up on the internet and they had Southern style chicken livers and fried chicken. So we went there last night. I did have the livers and the chicken and they were both excellent. The place has a very red neck bar look (although the clientele are not) and you enter through the porch where people are smoking. The service is OK but we did get served. Let's call it "good honest food" and be done with it.

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Let's call it "good honest food" and be done with it.

As clear an opinion of Hershey's as there can be.

It really is a disappearing breed, the "neighborhood restaurant." (Listen to me - "I'm old!") They present a lot of local bands, one of the few places in Montgomery County to do so. Fair "warning": it's entirely folk, blues, or honky-tonk.

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I have been told they recently did a renovation and knocked down the wall between the bar and restaurant. I am planning to go in the next few weeks to check it out. It has been a while since I have been there.

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I haven't been, is this place worthy of adding to my website featuring southern restaurants? I'm taking recommendations! southernrestaurantsdc.com

I'm not sure I've ever been here, and if I have, it was when I was a child. I would pay attention to the above posts, as it probably hasn't changed much if at all.

Why don't you start a thread, called "Southern Restaurants," and ask the members what they think the best places are? Put your website in your signature file (I can help you if you can't figure out how) so you won't even need to mention it in your posts. People know you're here and will be glad to answer your questions.

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I haven't been, is this place worthy of adding to my website featuring southern restaurants? I'm taking recommendations! southernrestaurantsdc.com

I haven't been in a while either...but...your question is really a two-parter:

1. Does Hershey's fit the scope of "southern restaurant"?

2. Do they have the quality you wish to convey on your website?

Only you can really answer those, especially #2. But I'd say I'm not really sure about #1 as they simply make "homestyle" food without trying to be any particular cuisine that is south of here. So does just regular-old neighborhood cooking count as southern on your site, as we're south of the mason-dixon? Or are you looking for specific genres, like cajun, low country, etc?

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I have been told they recently did a renovation and knocked down the wall between the bar and restaurant. I am planning to go in the next few weeks to check it out. It has been a while since I have been there.

The look and feel of the restaurant side has definitely improved since it has been merged with the bar side. No doubt the larger combined footprint is better to accomodate musical acts to draw more traffic. The menu has not changed.

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