Tag Archives: Spice Crossing

Cheap Eats in Rockville

By Max van Balgooy on | 7 Comments

The September 2011 issue of Washingtonian features “cheap eats,” those places where “some of the area’s most exciting eating can still be had for $25 or less, tax and tip included.”  Of the one hundred restaurants listed, Rockville features eight of them:

  • A&J Restaurant, 1319-C Rockville Pike (in the funky colorful industrial strip mall just south of Woodmont Country Club). Specializes in dim sum from northern China, and while this restaurant is incredibly popular (the parking lot always seems packed), I’ve always preferred the dim sum from the south (give me a Hong Kong dim sum palace any time!).
  • Carbon, 100-F Gibbs Street (Rockville Town Square).  Haven’t eaten here yet, but it serves Peruvian-style charcoal-grilled chicken and is owned by the same family as La Canela just down the street.
  • China Bistro, 755 Hungerford Drive (just north of the Giant).  Haven’t eaten here because I’m still working my way through all the Chinese restaurants on my end of town, but I hear this is supposed to be the best place in MoCo for dumplings (and who doesn’t like Chinese dumplings!).
  • La Limena, 765-B Rockville Pike (just north of Wooton Parkway, near the IHOP).  I can’t believe there’s a Cuban place in town I haven’t tried, but here it is.
  • Pho 75, 771 Hungerford Drive (just north of the Giant).  One of the five Pho 75 restaurants in the DMV specializing in the satisfying Vietnamese soup.
  • Sichuan Pavilion, 410 Hungerford Drive (just north of the fire station).  And again, another Chinese restaurant to visit once I finish south of Beall Avenue.
  • Spice Crossing, 100-B Gibbs Street (Rockville Town Center).  One of my favorites.
  • Viet Goel Tofu (aka Lighthouse Tofu), 12710 Twinbrook Parkway (between the Rockville Pike and Viers Mill Road).  I recently overcame the odd name and ventured inside this Korean restaurant to enjoy an endless assortment of appetizers followed by a delicious silken tofu soup served in a sizzling stone bowl.  Nothing like a meal with a show!

Nearby in Gaithersburg  or NOSG (North of Shady Grove Road, which is not in Rockville)

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The Latest and Greatest Restaurants in Rockville

By Max van Balgooy on | 4 Comments

The January 2011 issue of Washingtonian magazine is devoted to the area’s 100 very best places to eat and I’m proud that Rockville was included four times:

  • Addie’s (actually, it’s in White Flint but I’ll adopt them because it’s such a good place)
  • Againn (this is for the DC mothership, but we have a version of it in Rockville on the Pike)
  • Cava (in the Fallsgrove neighborhood)
  • Spice Crossing (in the Town Square)

Living in Rockville, we have a bit of a headstart on DC residents on a couple other winners:

  • Volt in Frederick (outstanding restaurant in a great historic building; so popular you need to make reservations weeks in advance)
  • Mannequin Pis in Olney (a Belgian-style bistro in a very ordinary strip mall).

These lists are always fun because they provoke conversation and encourage you to try out new places, so in that spirit, here’s my unofficial and incomplete addendum for the best places to eat in Rockville (in no particular order): Continue reading →

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Great Places to Take a Date in Rockville?

By Max van Balgooy on

With Valentine’s Day coming up, Washingtonian magazine has just listed the 158 great places for a date but Rockville barely gets a mention.  The only places that made the grade are:

Really? Really?  Are there no other great places to get a drink, listen to music, see a show, go dancing, have fun, enjoy a meal, do something different, or even pop The Question in Rockville?  Here are my suggestions:

  • Lots of romantic restaurants in town, including La Tasca or Cava (fun to share small dishes of food)
  • Take a stroll along Rock Creek (trailhead at Linthicum Street and Marcia Lane in Twinbrook)
  • Go rock climbing on the indoor wall at the Civic Center Park.

Any other suggestions to help out the romance-impaired?

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Three of the Very Best Restaurants are (mostly) in Rockville

By Max van Balgooy on | 2 Comments
Rockville’s Spice Xing

The January 2010 issue of Washingtonian magazine lists a couple restaurants in Rockville among the “100 Very Best” in DC, Maryland, and Virginia.  They are part of an exclusive club that includes Komi (#1), the Inn at Little Washington (#11), and 2 Amys (#28).  We’re delighted that the restaurants in Rockville are being recognized and that a few of them are meeting an extraordinarily high standard for quality.  Here are the gems in our fair city:

45.  Cava, 9713 Traville Gateway Drive (west of Fallsgrove).  “If all you know about Greek food comes by way of family-style diners trading on heaping portions of mousaka, this cozy mezzeteria—the creation of three Rockville natives and longtime friends—will be revelatory.  It straddles the lines between authenticity and modernity, between lightness and heartiness.”

52.  Spice Xing, 100-B Gibbs Street (Rockville Town Square).  “The sibling restaurant to chef Sudhir Seth’s Passage to India [Bethesda] trades the elegance and formality of its big sister for a more casual and vibrant experience.  It’s a looser operation but the profusion of flavors emanating from the kitchen—complex, vivid curries, lovingly rendered street snacks, well-blistered breads—is testament to the commitment to authenticity.  A tantalizing roster of cocktails complements—and balances—the heat in the dishes.”

77.  Addie’s, 11120 Rockville Pike (across from the White Flint Mall).  “What has come out of the kitchen at Jeff and Barbara Black’s folksy first restaurant can best be described as uneven.  But now it’s a different story with Nate Waugaman behind the stove.  Gone are the scattered attempts at fusion fare and in its place are house-made charcuterie (plus a whole lot of excellent Benton’s ham from Kentucky) and rootedly American roasts and fish dishes.  Finally, the food has one personality, not 15.”

Rockville has very porous boundaries and only Spice Xing is actually inside the official city limits, but these three restaurants call Rockville as their home, so we’ll welcome them.  Do check them all out since they’re so close (Addie’s is one of my favorites for a special occasion, Spice Xing for an inexpensive lunch downtown, and although I’ve never been to Cava, I’ve heard lots of good things).

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