McCormick and Schmick's 7401 Woodmont Avenue - 301.961.2626 Cuisine: Seafood Recommended Dishes:Seafood Review:Excellent seafood, one of Bethesda's best overall This is the Bethesda outpost of the fancy Pacific Northwest chain. It offers fresh seafood from around the world and a large menu that changes daily. It's lovely inside and offers private booths if you call to reserve one early enough. Food is just wonderful with seafood of all kinds, but even if you don't love fresh seafood they'll have something for you. Tends to be expensive, but you can actually keep it reasonable by eating off the light menu or the bar menu. Very highly recommended.
Cesco Trattoria 4871 Cordell Avenue - 301.654.8333 $15.01 - $30 Italian food from two of the biggest names in D.C. area restaurants - Francesco Ricci and Roberto Donna. The food is not only your basic Italian pastas but a great variety of seafood, veal and other specialties. The waitstaff is friendly and knows their food and wines very well. It can be crowded and on the loud side especially on weekends but it's a fitting atmosphere for Italian food. Expect to spend time over your meal as the service is very relaxed. Cuisine: Italian Recommended Dishes: sea bass Review:Relax and enjoy it If you're like me you don't normally spend 3 hours at dinner. Here you will and if you relax you really will enjoy it. The food is fabulous. Ask your waiter for recommendations on food and wine and follow them. Cesco is consistently present in the top 50/100 lists of Washington area restaurants and it deserves it. Review:Very good Italian fare comes at a price This is owned and operated by renowned chefs Roberta Donna & Francisco Ricchi. The food is great, but the tables are packed together -- if there are only two in your party expect to hear the conversations of everyone around you. Kind of annoying, when you have to pay big bucks at such a fancy restaurant. Service ranges from adequate to quite good. I personally feel no need to go back when the same quality food can be had for less at Il Pizzico in Rockville, with more comfortable accommodations. Review:One of the best Go to Cesca in the summer, sit outside, and you'll think you are in Italy. The service is excellent, and the food always superb - the prices are in line with other restaurants in the area and the ambience is much better.
Review:One of bethesda's bargain restaurants Pleasant atmosphere, decent service, low prices, this is a great place. I like the vegetarian chili, but they're all good (if you order the texas chili, you have to ask them to drain the grease though, otherwise you'll have a month's worth of fat at one sitting). The grilled chicken wing appetizer is great too, as are the jalapeno poppers, and the beer battered onion rings. Speaking of beer, there's a nice selection at Hard Times, too.
Aangan 4920 Saint Elmo Avenue - 301.657.1262 Outdoor dining Cuisine: Indian / Pakistani Review:Friendly with fresh food, tends to be spicy This is a good choice for Indian in Bethesda. Atmosphere is pleasant and the service is friendly. Watch out, a lot of the dishes tend to be spicier than their counterparts at other Indian places though.
Bacchus 7945 Norfolk Ave. - 301.657.1722 $15.01 - $30 Lebanese food in a warm, cozy environment. You can make a meal out of the appetizer sized mezze or go with the entrees. Cuisine: Lebanese Review:Delicious middle eastern cuisine This is one of Bethesda's treasures. Not cheap and the seating is a bit cramped, but the food sure delivers. If you're a frequent diner in Bethesda, you're doing yourself a disservice by not eating here.
Cafe Bethesda 5027 Wilson Lane - 301.657.3383 Review:Lovely eclectic cuisine in a pleasant but cramped atmosphere A thoroughly enjoyable meal with good service, but cramped accommodations took away from the overall enjoyability. A shame, too, since it is a nice looking restaurant. Maybe cutting the number of tables in half would be the answer (which would leave the place with very few tables). Still one of Bethesda's best.
Cafe Deluxe 4910 Elm St. - 301.656.3131 $15.01 - $30 Large open space with dark wood and brass. Serves bistro style food in a white table cloth atmosphere. Entree's run from $8 - $15 and sandwiches around $8. Cuisine: American Review:Good food in a nice setting The atmosphere is rather bar like with the large bar area, dark wood and brass but the food is much better than your average bar fare. They seem to feature a good number of fish and seafood dishes though I wouldn't call it a specialty. Waits can be quite long and I'm not sure it's worth it but it's certainly worth a visit when it's not too crowded.
California Tortilla 4862 Cordell Avenue - 301.654.8226 $5.01 - $15 Huge California style burritos in a casual atmosphere. Besides the traditional burritos California Tortilla serves specialties like Thai Chicken and Greek burritos. You order at a counter and seat yourself wherever you can find a spot. Help yourself to one of the many hot-sauces available. Lunch or dinner will run about $6 - $7. Ask for a bonus burrito club card and when you collect 7 stamps your 8th one is free. Cuisine: Tex-Mex Recommended Dishes:Thai chicken or blackened chicken ceasar burrito Review:Love those burritos Huge burritos with fresh ingredients at a cheap price. Add the wall of hot sauces and what's not to like. I've only eaten here on weekends and at dinner but even when the line is long it moves fast. I imagine weekday lunch tables are hard to get.
Fairmont Bar & Dining 4936 Fairmont Ave. - 301.654.7989 Takeout Cuisine: International Review:Too Bad They Allow Smoking My boyfriend and I used to go to Fairmont every Friday nite. We knew the bartenders, the waiters and the owners. Recently they've changed their smoking policy at the bar. Smoking is permitted after 9:00 p.m. and the bar really isn't separated very much from the dining area. They lost our business.
Grapeseed 4865 Cordell Avenue - 301.986.9592 $15.01 - $30 An "American Bistro and Wine Bar" Grapeseed features an extensive wine list all available by the glass and a menu comprised of both tapas (appetizer sized portions) and entrees. Every item on the menu is listed with the wine that inspired it as a recommendation. In nice weather the front of the restaurant rolls up (a sort of glass garage door) to turn the front half into a semi-outdoor dining experience. Cuisine: American Review:The wine is king If you choose your food to match your wine then this is the place for you. I've never seen a place with as many wines by the glass (of course it is a wine bar). You can easily make of meal of the Tapas and order the matching wine with each. You'll end up quite happy but with a light wallet. On our first trip we each ordered 3-4 tapas and two glasses of wine each and the bill was about $35 each. The restaurant is small so be sure to call for reservations on a weenend evening.
Grillfish 4866 Cordell Avenue - 301.941.9058 $15.01 - $30 One of a chain of hip fresh seafood restaurants. This branch is in a high ceiling, very open space. It is almost all hard surfaces and with the music playing can get loud but that seems to appeal to the young professional crowd. Dinner entrees are around $15 and heavily weighted toward fish though there are a few chicken dishes. Cuisine: American Recommended Dishes:Grilled fish of course Review:Seafood for the under 40 crowd While O'Donnels tends to cater to the over 60 crowd this place seems firm entrenched with the 30 somethings. The food is very good and it's nice to see fresh fish in Bethesda. Not a place I'd bring kids.
Il Forno Pizzeria 4926 Cordell Avenue - 301.652.7757 $5.01 - $15 Pretty much your basic pizza place. The pizza's are made in a wood burning oven and they serve all the traditional topping you'd expect. The dining room is rather small but they have a nice sized outdoor dining area that is semi-enclosed in questionable weather. Cuisine: Italian Recommended Dishes:Pizza Review:Good pizza Probably the best plain old pizza parlor in Bethesda. Pretty much the basics but they do offer toppings like artichokes and feta cheese. Atmosphere is vinyl table clothes but they do have servers.
Le Vieux Logis 7925 Old Georgetown Road - 301.652.6816 Cuisine: French Review:Great food, nice decor, average service & accomodations This is a worthy little restaurant with great food and lovely house wines. Easily the best French in the Maryland suburbs, too. The service wasn't overly friendly, though, and the accommodations, while better than Cafe Bethesda, could have stood to be more comfortable, considering this is a rather expensive "special occasion" type place. Hard to beat the food though, if you like French cuisine.
Louisiana Express Company 4921Bethesda Ave - 301.652.6945 $5.01 - $15 Small, casual restaurant that specializes in Cajun/Creole food. You can get traditional ettouffe, jambalay and creole with crawfish, shrimp or chicken. At breakfast they serve Cajun takes on omlettes or eggs benedict as well as beignets and cafe au lait. Entrees are typically around $6 or $7. Cuisine: Cajun / Creole Recommended Dishes:it's pretty much all good Review:Great food cheap
Oodles Noodles 4907 Cordell Ave. - 301.986.8833 $5.01 - $15 A pan-asian restaurant specializing in noodle dishes. The restaurant is fairly small with a clean modern appearance. This restaurant is almost always included in the various best bargain restaurant lists. Cuisine: Asian Recommended Dishes:siam noodles, peanut noodles Review:Best bargain in Bethesda and some of the best food Although the restaurant is cramped, there's hardly ever a wait and I can't say enough good about the food. The specialty is noodle dishes (I recommend you don't stray and try the grill menu, stick with what they do best) from various Asian nations, and they are literally all fresh and delicious. The house salad is also a surprisingly large and delicious starter, it can even be shared. A salad and noodle dish will have you completely stuffed and satisfied for $10 or less. This place is a Bethesda must!
Ruth's Chris Steak House 7315 Wisconsin Avenue - 301.652.7877 over $50 Bar,Live entertainment,Private rooms<br>Parking: Available<br>Reservations: Recommended<br>Dress: Ties suggested Cuisine: Steaks Recommended Dishes:steak Review:For this much $, you can do better No doubt about it, this is a decadent place, specializing in big steaks served in sizzling butter. However, for this much money (expect around $150 for two with tip if you don't drink too much and split a dessert), you can do one better by going to Morton's of Chicago downtown or in Georgetown. Everything is a la carte, the steak will come with nothing but about 4 ounces of butter. They make some memorable martinis. Service can be world class, or if you just go for drinks, they can ignore you entirely.
Tastee Diner 7731 Woodmont Avenue - 301.652.3970 $5.01 - $15 A traditional diner complete with bar seating and waitresses that call you "Hun". The food is basic and the atmosphere is as casual as you can get. Cuisine: Diner Recommended Dishes:Cheeseburger; pie Review:Gotta love it If you like a traditional diner you'll like Tastee Diner. You can't really call anything outstanding about the place except the fact that it's one of a dieing breed. The food is greasy but you expect and enjoy that if you eat here. It's a great after bar stop since it's open 24 hours but I could stop in any time to grab a slice of pie at the bar.
Austin Grill 7278 Woodmont Avenue - 301.656.1366 $5.01 - $15 Fresh Tex-Mex food in a bright, boisterous atmosphere. Austin Grill is a popular happy hour destination so expect the bar to be overflowing on a Friday evening. In addition to the Tex-Mex basics Austin Grill specializes in seafood. Cuisine: Tex-Mex Review:Not bad but not worth waiting for Boy, is this place is overrated. Perfectly suitable Tex-Mex but the place seems to have an attitude along with their unreasonably long waits. It's on a par with Rio Grande, but pales compared to Mi Rancho (Silver Spring and Germantown) and the Salvadorean-Mexican restaurant El Mariachi (Rockville). All I can say is after two visits, I can't tell you what the hype is about. Review:just you wait Ok folks i've decided to join the Austin Grill team, if you hate to wait during your lunch hour and want good food I'll do my best to earn your tips. I can't guarentee a short line but I will do my best to serve you fast and treat you good, so give us another try. If you've never been...come on in.
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