Moa, Rockville

[hungry prof]

It looks like there's no thread on this place. We wandered over here after Kliman mentioned it as one of his "Where I'm Eating Now" places in the most recent Kliman Online. This is a good find and worth checking out. For suburban Marylanders craving Korean, the need to trek out to Annandale may now be over.

Kliman describes Moa as being located in the "fascinating industrial sector of Rockville." Don't know if I'd go as far as fascinating, but it is indeed the type of place that you'd never find unless you were seeking it out. Nestled among various kitchen tile suppliers and across the street from an Italian joint named Amalfi, Moa is small, but not tiny, furnished with wooden tables and benches complete with the grills in the center of the table familiar from many a Korean restaurant.

We arrived at Moa a little after 7pm and immediately got a table for two. At various points throughout the night, there appeared to be a short wait, and the staff definitely seemed to be dealing with more traffic than the norm (and they seemed a bit bewildered by it--guess nobody told them about Kliman's write-up). As best we can tell, the staff consisted of one waitress who literally was on the run all evening long, a host who cleared tables when he could, and then the kitchen staff, one of whom really did appear to be the Mom (and who herself was spotted running out dishes throughout the evening). Service was a bit slow as a consequence of the seemingly larger-than-usual crowd, but we weren't in a hurry and everybody was very friendly and apologetic.

On to the food. It was just the two of us, so we ordered a seafood bibimbap ($12.99), bulgogi ($18.99), and a pitcher of watermelon soju ($14.99). Everything hit the spot. The bibimbap was served in the traditional stone bowl and was filled with rice (nicely crunchy on the bottom) along with shrimp, squid, and (I think) mussels. We mixed in the spicy sauce served with it and didn't look back. The bulgogi was well-grilled meat alongside onions, served with the usual accompaniments--rice, lettuce leaves, sauce, and raw garlic. Again, delicious. The table was filled with all the various little side dishes that one expects at a Korean restaurant--kimchi here, pickled eggplant there, some sort of sausage thing on the other corner. There wasn't a scrap left when we were done. Finally, the watermelon soju--recommended by Kliman--hit the spot and left my wife wondering if there was any alcohol in it (until she stood up at the end of the night).

Around the room, we saw nothing but happy people from a remarkable diversity of backgrounds, including Korean families out for dinner, dating couples, small children, and everything in between. All in all, we can't wait to go back with more people so we can try more dishes.

[SilverBullitt]

Moa has been replaced by another Korean restaurant, Mahdang