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Showing results for tags 'Rockville Town Square'.
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My wife, son and I went to the Greystone Grill in Rockville (33 Maryland Ave, in the new Rockville downtown) last night after the movies. Admittedly it was late, about 9:30, but our experience was not one to make me want to return. Things started well, the place has the right look for a modern steakhouse/grill, stone hearths, a good mix of banquettes and tables and lots of glass and steel. The server, an nice young man who was just trying too hard, offered to give us a tour of the menu (like I needed that) and there was a reasonable (for Montgomery County) wine list. I even noticed the wine lockers and asked about them. For $1500 (a year) you can have your own wine locker and they will store and serve your wine for you when you come in, but you have to fill it with wine that you can buy in Montgomery County, so that is a major waste of money. They offer a fairly nice selection of wines by the glass too and you can order a trio of three ounce pours of any of the by the glass wines for $13. The bread was piping hot and very good, and came out quickly. But things went down hill from there. I ordered the trio of wines, a Pinot Grigio to go with my appetizer, and Pinot Noir and a Cabernet Sauvignon to go with the steak I ordered. Unfortunately, it didn't show up until after the appetizers were done and gone, and I even tried to eat them slowly to give them time to get the wine to me. For appetizers I ordered the Crispy Cheese and Smoked Salmon, described on the menu as Haloumie cheese layered with smoked salmon and pesto. Served with horseradish scented creme fraiche. Actually it was some salmon between two layers of cheese, lightly breaded and deep fried. While it wasn't awful, it was pretty weak and much less interesting than it sounded. My son had the Greystone Skewers, strips of beef, marinated, grilled and drizzled with peanut sauce. It was actually quite good. My wife ordered the Calamari Rockefeller, which turned out to be fairly good, but not exciting fried calamari. For entrees, my wife ordered the Mango and Mandarin Salad. It came with blackend shrimp, fresh blueberrys and raspberrys, Mandarin oranges, on top of greens tossed with a Champagne vinaigrette, finished with sliced Brie cheese, sliced red onions and toasted almonds. She specifically asked for the vinaigrette to be served on the side. When the salad came, it was dressed (overdressed in fact, a constant problem with the salads here) and had to be sent back to be done correctly. However, when the properly served salad came out, she pronounced it to be very good. I ordered the Flatiron Steak. I ordered it medium rare, and it came Rare, but I didn't complain since I really prefer it to the rare side anyway. It was quite good. The entrees come with a side and a salad. I got the Greystone salad, greens, candied cashews and crumbled Maytag bleu cheese tossed with raspberry viniagrette. It was tasty, very fresh, and very overdressed with the viniagrette. (Word of warning, ask for the dressing on the side and send it back if it doesn't come that way unless you like your salads soaked in dressing.) I ordered the sautéed mushrooms as my side, but when the steak came, it was with the Yukon Gold mashed potatoes. I pointed out I had ordered a different side and my server brought me a bowl of the mushrooms. He shouldn't have bothered, the potatoes were better, as the mushrooms were simply white button mushrooms that had been quartered and sauteed in some herbs and were very ordinary and unexciting. My son ordered the 12 ounce Fillet. It came cooked rare as he asked but he thought it was ordinary and lacked any ommpf; but that the steamed broccoli was quite good, served with a roasted red pepper butter sauce. He also ordered the wedge salad, but thought the Maytag blue cheese dressing didn't taste any better than what he got out of a bottle from Kraft. So bottom line, the steaks are pretty good, but not great, and pricy. Sides are hit and miss, salads are not bad, but overdressed, and the service was poor. Entire dinner before any tip, $125 for the three of us, and that was without dessert. If I was one of the young professionals who are buying all those condos around there, I might be willing to eat here, because it is a nice space, and seems to have a very nice bar. But there are plenty of places where I can get better service, good steaks, and good wine for less. I think they are trying too hard and just don't get it yet. If they straighten out the service problems, and quit trying to be as pretentious as they are, they might be worth going to on a semi regular basis, but I don't know if I'm going to give them the chance to change my mind. I certainly wouldn't make a trip to go there. -
I was in R'ville Town Sq. for a client meeting that ended at 11. I was hoping that Carbón would be open by then but they didn't open until 11:30. So I stood outside, tried to get some work reading done, for 30 minutes. As soon as they opened, I rushed in to order 1/4 chicken dark and chicharron. For sides, I had some rice, fried yucca, and iceberg lettuce. Let's start with the chicken, even without the skin (which I discarded), it was tender and flavorful - a very good Peruvian chicken. I also like the chicken at Super Chicken and Crisp & Juicy - I can't really rank them in any order, they're all good. The chicharron was pretty good, moist and flavorful. There were still some fat clinging to the meat, which is good for those who aren't counting cholesterol. I took a few pieces home as a treat for the dog on Halloween. The yucca were underfried, the rice was nice 'n salty, and I don't eat iceberg lettuce. ETA: My other option was Oro Pomodore for pizza but since I had already gone to Pupatella the night before, I decided to do Peruvian instead. -
New steak frites restaurant coming to Rockville Town Square. From the Rockville Town Center announcement: "82 steak out will offer a truly unique steak frites dining experience modeled after a long time European tradition, now with an American flair. Enjoy Steak and Fries (or sweet potato fries) with your choice of house or Caesar salad served with our super secret sauce for only $18.82!" -
Thanks to all the guests at Passage to India, Bethesda whose continued patronage and support encouraged me to open my second restaurant SpiceXing in Rockville Town Square. The menu features contemporary Indian dishes and a lot of dishes influenced by the foreign cultures that came to settle/rule the Indian subcontinent. Once again the recipes are original as collected by me from various households and I am indebted to all those friends who tolerated my persistence in US and in India. There are a lot of small plates, which make sharing several of them quite enjoyable. Look forward to meeting all the DonRockwellians in Rockville. Sudhir Seth www.spicexing.com -
This place has become a regular for us since we can all find something we like. No wine list to speak of, but the food is very good. Taste of Saigon has some of the best Vietnamese food in the area. Their specialty is a black-pepper sauce that is a perfect combination of spiciness and sweetness and can be served on a variety of meats and seafood (I really like it on the soft-shell crabs.) My wife goes for the soups normally, and my son and I are almost certain to have a steak, especially with the black-pepper sauce. Another favorite is the lime-marinated steak. I have also enjoyed the steamed whole rockfish with black beans and scallions and the venison with curry and coconut sauce. The menu includes over 100 dishes, including a range of noodle dishes and several of French origin. The restaurant is located in the back of an office building on Hungerford Drive (355) but the atmosphere is cozy and elegant. In good weather, you can sit outside in a really nice patio dining area with trees and shrubs that seclude you from the parking lot. Service has always been good and the prices are reasonable.
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Check out this article about Peru's National Day. There's a small sidebar dedicated to Peruvian food and drink. -
Another sign of the decline of fine dining: arguably, if not hands-down, the best crab cakes and lobster roll in the DC area are to be found at this casual brain-child of long term veteran of the DC restaurant scene and friend, Bob Bloch. Certainly, and without a doubt, the best value. A near perfect crab cake of pure, sweet (mostly) East Coast (in winter!) and (some, in the off-season only) Gulf Jumbo Lump, 5 oz, no shred, no filler, no bread crumbs, perfectly seasoned and broiled. (Mind you, this 5 oz cake has more Jumbo Lump than any 8 oz stems and seeds cake that you pay 250% more for downtown). Only flaw--the homemade tartar sauce is a bit too sweet from sweet pickle. Otherwise perfect. Better than my Crab Royale (better crab, better recipe, better execution), and at least on a par, arguably better, than the Crab Bomb at Jerry's and the Crab Imperial at The Prime Rib-- to my mind, the only other true examplars of crab excellence in a market where every chef and his publicist is expected to trot out his "signature" crab cake to prove his commitment to regional blah blah blah and local blah blah blah and passion for blah blah blah and to tell the story about the inspiration and life-lessons blah blah blah of summers fishing with Paw-Paw on the blah blah blah and how his children now blah blah blah. And also the best lobster roll outside of New England/New York/Long Island whose only sin is too much lobster bursting out of the twice-toasted bun and not quite enough mayonnaise. Also, the bun could use a little more butter (but I say that about Maria Schneider too). Bobby is a true food purist and it shows in his exacting reverence for both the ingredients and the heritage, traditions and authenticity of these iconic specialties. Also excellent: a delicious but not overly decadent mac and cheese with elbow macaroni, maytag blue, Parmiggiano Reggiano and aged Vermont cheddar; an achingly, hauntingly traditional New England Clam Chowder; and a bracingly refreshing, perfectly earthy cole slaw. The fries are perfectly executed--both cured (!) and double-fried (p-nut oil)--and best in class, if suffering a bit from bitterness in the skin, more of which should have been trimmed off before cutting. But I think fries and the attention paid to them reveal the weakness in American dining, and I think all of the fries in this country pretty much suck (except, oddly enough, at the Georgetown Cafe--more on which later, should the subject ever come up). But here's the real kicker--his key lime pie beats mine. No contest. Gasp. Sigh. The website is bobbyscrabcakes.com and maybe one of you technologically gifted marvels can link it and/or post the menu so that everyone can see how shamefully, shockingly non-contemptuous his prices are.
