dinwiddie

I think that the point Mark is making is that the restaurant cannot address your complaint unless they know about it. If you have a problem with the service or the food, it is only right that you should politely discuss it with the manager of the restaurant then, not post an annon. rant or complaint. There is nothing wrong with posting about a bad experience, but if you puruse any of the posts about a horrible experience, one of the first posts in response will normally be "did you tell the restaurant?" Of course, if it is so bad that your are fuming, it may be better to wait until you calm down to discuss it with the restaurant, perhaps by phone or e-mail the next day. I have had experiences at "good" restaurants that ruined the experience, normally because of horrible or rude service. I find that discussing it with the manager in a calm and reasonable manner works wonders. In some cases, meals were comped, but I never expect that. In other cases, I was invited to return with a gift certificate, etc. But the point is, if the restaurant does not know who you are, or when it happened, they cannot try to fix it for you.

I usually go for the seafood, the hake is very good. I don't eat there that often (just too many places to go) but when I do, I usually look to see what is on special.

Authentic Spnish food. Lots of seafood, well prepared. They use lots of olives, capers, etc. Good place to get Spanish wines as they have a reasonably priced wine list that is mainly Spanish. Very pretty dining room, not too crowded, and the service is efficient and friendly. Not the easiest place to find, but worth looking for. I've never been disappointed, and if anything, suffer from going too often.

This is my favorite Chinese restaurant in Rockville. The menu is extensive, and I have never had anything that I didn't think was cooked perfectly. The squid deep fried in salt was tender, delecate, and served on a bed of lettuce and roasted garlic and onions. The Dungeness crab with ginger and green onions was wonderful. Try the seafood hot and sour soup for two. It comes in a bowl with enough for 4 at least. The whole fish Hunan style was spicy, crisp skinned and wonderfully moist and flaky. While the seafood is the star here, the other dishes are also very good. It can get crowded but it is worth a wait. The seafood is kept in tanks in the restaurant and is brought live to your table for approval before cooking. We have always had a wonderful meal there.

This is a Greek restaurant where you can get Italian and American food. The people there are very friendly and try to make you comfortable. There is a small salad bar and nightly specials. Gyro's are great and the lamb is very good. They have a nice Sunday brunch. We often eat there when we are passing by and don't want to be too fancy. Try the dolmas, they are quite good. On some days they have a Greek buffet that is quite a good deal.

My wife wanted us to take her out for brunch in the country for her birthday so I made reservations at the Comus Inn for Sunday brunch. The Inn is at Sugarloaf Mountain in Montgomery County MD. (Dickerson, MD, about 10 miles south of Frederick MD) Brunch was excellent. The Inn, the original part which was built in 1860, has undergone a major renovation recently. The views are nice, overlooking the rolling hills of the western part of the county. The buffet brunch on Sunday features a pancake station and an egg station. They will make any type of eggs you want and bring them to your table so you don't have to wait as they make them. I had some excellent Eggs Benedict, the eggs poached to my specifications. My wife and son had the Eggs Comus, poached eggs on home cured bacon over a slice of brioche with hollendaise. The pancakes were so light they almost floated off the plate and they would make them with whatever you wanted (the boy had blueberry and chocolate chips) They also had a carving station with roast beef and roast pork. The bacon and sausages were also very good, not overcooked and very flavorful. Very nice cheese blinzes, a wonderful rockfish in a lobster/champagne sauce, tiny muffins (chocolate and blueberry) that were so light they melted in your mouth. The usual biscuts with sausage gravy, roasted potatos, nicely done and crisp veggies, a house smoked ivory salmon that was to die for, and a dessert table that was out of this world. Service was superb. Plates were wisked away as soon as they were done with, and when you left to get another plate of food, you returned to a newly folded napkin and fresh silverware. Coffee cups were always kept full, water glasses never empty. As I said before, if you ordered eggs or pancakes at the buffet, they were brought to your table as soon as they were done. The damage was $28 per person, with drinks extra (coffee and tea came with the brunch) We all left so stuffed it almost hurt, but thought it was an excellent brunch. The Comus Inn has an excellent wine list which they were glad to let me look at. Running to 24 pages or so, with almost 600 selections, they have a cellar of about 4800 bottles. Of course this is Montgomery County so the prices were high (after all the county is the wholesaler and marks everything up 35%) Well balanced, there were some bottles there that I hadn't seen on other wine lists in the county, such as a 94 Ridge MonteBello, several years of Harlans, a 97 Grange, several years of Latour, Haut Brion, etc. All in all an impressive list, especially for this county. At dinner they offer four and five course dinners. The menu looked very interesting and reasonably priced for a fancy dinner. (I think it was $89 for the five course dinner.) I might have to try it soon.

Has anyone been to Sabang recently. We used to to often, but I haven't been in about 8 months. As I remember it Sabang is a very good Indonesian restaurant. The satays are very good, the soups are extreemly tasty and very authentic, and the rst of the food is very well prepared and presented. I especially like the whole fish in kalio sauce. The location is a little hard to find, and because of that, this place is seldom busy. We never had any problem just showing up and getting a table right away. Indonesian food is probably best described as a cross between Indian, Thai, and Chinese, but distintive in it's own right. One of our favorite ways try a lot of diffenent foods was to have one of the tasting meals for two. There are three or four different ones offered, and all give you a good overview of the food. I had heard that they were not doing well and I'd hate to see them close up since I always enjoyed it when we went.

Mark's Duck House isn't in Montgomery County. But any place that is Robert Parker's favorite must be pretty good.

There aren't any Great restaurants in Olney except MP, but there are a few good ones. Belle Notte is good for family style Italian, Hunan Delight in Olney Town Center has a pretty good Peking Duck, Wasabi Zen has good sushi, and BJ Pumpernickles for deli food is fun. I'm not a big fan of the Olney Grill, but some folks like it. Places I just do not like in Olney are the Olney Ale House and the Grand Marquis Restaurant in Olney Town Center.

Sunday is obviously the best day of the week for dim sum. Kinda like going out to Sunday dinner after church. The selections are better and more numerous. Each place has its strengths. NF has a much larger selection than the others, but like I said does not normally have duck feet. Both NF and GF have great selections of interesting steamed dumpings. I haven't been to Oriental East recently, but I like their dim sum, just not the space, too narrow and cramped. I haven't tried Hollywood East on the Blvd. yet either, wanting it to get into stride before going, besides with NF and GF to go to, why? Silver Fountain has always been where we go when we just don't want to drive as far as NF or GF, so we haven't been lately, but I always felt that I was getting less than great treatment because I am not Chinese. I often had to ask for things as the cart attendants would just assume I didn't want something. While I don't want tripe, there is little else I won't try. Of course, I prefer the steamed stuff to the fried. I'm a baked cha siu bao fan myself, as I don't really care for the steamed ones. O love the steamed spareribs in black bean sauce. Another place that serves dim sum in Wheaton is China Chef. While we don't go there very often, the dim sum there has been very good on occasion. Like I said, all the places have strengths and weaknesses, and there are a couple of things that China Chef does that are very good.

We occasionally have dim sum at Silver Fountain since it is close to the house, but like NF and GF much more. Add to the list of likes sticky rice in lotus leaf (7 treasures rice)

Unfortunately, NF seldom ha duck feet available.

Actually, my wife likes to order Pho at Taste of Saigon.

Soul Roll. Brisket, caramalized onions and cheese wrapped in an egg roll wrapper and deep fried. They cut them in half and serve them with a spicy chili/cheese dip.

Great cornbread. The brisket is good too. I really like the apple crisp dessert (really a small apple pie,) but it is big enough for a lumberjack.

Each place prepares it differently. The whole foot, usually with some leg meat, is prepared. You eat the skin and webbing. The feet are lots of bones that you just put on you plate after you have stripped them of everything edible. Sounds gross, but tastes delis.

Tell them that Jake's dad sent you. You should try the soul rolls. BTW, they make a great crabcake too.

I haven't been to the one in Tyson's (why bother, the one in Rockville is close by). What is interesting is that Taste of Saigon really shows the French influence on Vietnamese food. This is not your typical hole-in-the wall place. It is a fine dining restaurant in many ways. But the menu is huge, the food very good, and the service has always been very good. My son asked if he could get the recipe for the black pepper sauce. He was told that it is a secret and he'd have to marry into the family to get it. Since the hostess was one of the daughters, and very attractive I must say, he said that he'd consider it when he was of age.

Since my son and I both like duck feet, it has gotten to be a running joke with us. We were in NYC at Ho Song Fook (I think that is what it is called, it's on Bowery) and the kid, who was about 11 at the time, asked the server if there were any duck feet. She went over to the steam table and ladled out about 12 of them into a bowl and brought it over. Delish. The table next to us had a Chinese family, with two kids about my son's age. The kids looked at him like he was crazy eating duck feet. But the father gave him a big grin and asked the server for some for himself.

It is on Chapman Ave on the corner of Twinbrook Pkwy. one block from Rockville Pike. It is across the street from the Guitar Center.

Urban BBQ in Rockville opend back up on Tuesday, Sept. 6. The place has expanded, there are now tables and chairs instead of just the stools. They now serve sodas from the fountain (don't worry, they still have the great root beer), have a beer and wine license, and have three TVs. When I was in there one was on the Food Network, one on CNN, and one on the game. The food is just as good as ever. (I just had to get some of the dirty wings, I'd been jonesing for them ever since they closed for renovation.) Stop by, I'm sure Lee and Dave would be glad to see you.

Since I live in MD, I don't find much reason to go as far as Eden Center when there are lots of great places much nearer. But there is great Vietnamese food in Eden Center I agree.

To each their own. I like the place, especially since I can have them make my pizza the way I want it. I also like being able to get a decent bottle of wine, unfortunately since it is Monkey County, I can't BYO from my cellar, but at least I don't have to drink the plonk that is so prevelant elsewhere in the county. I agree that Mannequin Pis is great, if you can get past the haphazard service. Bernard is a great chef (and a friend). I love the mussels there. And the Belgian beer and wine list are good too. But it is hard to get into since Washingtonian Magazine has given it three stars. Since I leave near Olney, I eat in Olney restaurants often. I wouldn't recommend making a trip from DC or Northern VA just to go, but it is nice for Olney and the folks are nice.

Actually, I seldom eat at Benjarong anymore, prefering Ruan Thai in Wheaton and Amina Thai in Rockville.

Ricciuti's is located in the historic Olney House, on Route 108, just off Georgia Avenue in Olney MD. It started out years ago as a pizza and Italian sandwich restaurant, but over the years has transformed into a nice restaurant with great wood fired pizzas and a fine dining menu (Italian for he most part) with a very good wine list, especially for Montgomery County. (They have a Wine Spectator award) The core of the restaurant is still the wood fired pizza oven. Pizzas come out crisp and hot, with lots and lots of toppings available. While they are not cheap, the pizzas are nothing like what you get at the usual Pizza joint. The restaurant is located in the Olney House, a large historic house in Olney, MD. There main dining room is upstairs, with two smaller dining rooms, a bar, and the carry-out space on the first floor. The food is excellent, reasonabley priced for the type, and the service is pretty efficient. There are always specials, and the chef has a nice list of standard fare that is very tasty. Most of the menu is Italian but I have enjoyed some excellent soft shelled crabs there when they were in season. My wife loves the eggplant Parmesian, but the star, and biggest draw, are the pizzas. They have a long list of speciality pizzas and you can compose your own. They never have a problem substituting toppings for you, and the list of toppings avialable is about thirty items. The wine list is excellent and for the County, very reasonably priced. There are always 7 or 8 wines by the glass, some half bottles, and full bottles that range from the ordinary to the sublime. Stemware is very good, not those little glasses that so many places use. Wine service is professional and discrete. Nobody tries to keep filling your glass when you don't want them to. They are on OpenTable for reservations. They get very crowded on weekends, so make a reservation. If you live in the area, you already know that they do a huge pizza carryout business. In the summer they have a soft icecream window outside. On nice days you can eat outside on the patio in front of the restaurant. Parking is ample behind the restaurant.