Sam Woo Rockville

I should title this post "What's missing in DC," mmmm Korean....Prices are a little high because their specialty is barbeque, but I was not disappointed. I ordered the japchae and it was exactly what I wanted and with plenty of leftovers. Waitress was also extremely nice and was very patient with my friends and I, who couldn't decide if we wanted the buffet or not. By the way, the buffet is $16.95 per person. Anyway, I was very happy to stumble in on this restaurant and you just know that being 5 minutes from home, it is going to become a regular.

3.75/5
no website

The Park NYC

You usually hear about The Park's bar/club scene, but my friends and I actually went for my friend's birthday dinner. The atmosphere is great, I loved the "garden" feel. As for the food, it was okay. We started with calamari, which were the usual, but the chipotle dip was a tasty addition. For our entrees, I had the blackened catfish, one of my friends had the salmon, and the other ordered the linguini. All pretty good, but not fantastic. My catfish I found a bit too burnt or blackened, but I did like the flavor of the corn mash. The fish was also slightly over cooked and didn't taste particularly fresh. My friend said her linguini smelled amazing, but that the flavor was less than spectacular. For dessert, we ordered the flourless chocolate cake and banana wontons. The cake was good, very rich. The banana wontons were also done nicely - crisp with a simple banana filling. Overall, it was a fun dinner, the perfect place for something like a friend's birthday. However if you are looking for fine dining, I'd go elsewhere.

3.75/5
http://www.theparknyc.com/index.html

Taste of Saigon Rockville

My first post about a restaurant in my new home of Rockville and it's a downer. Rockville is known for its Asian food throughout the DC metro area and I'm sure hoping that there is better out there than Taste of Saigon. The atmosphere was great, the whole restaurant is more or less outdoors and the decorations are gorgeous, but the food... We had the Vietnamese ravioli to start and then the papaya salad, saigon crepe, and thick rice noodles for our entrees. The best plate was the thick rice noodles, which had a nice sweet salty flavor. The worse plate was the crepe, which was incredibly doughy and thick. When you think crepe, you think thin and crisp, not thick and doughy. We even asked the waiter if it was supposed to be cooked through more and he said it should have been more crisp. Poor execution here. The papaya salad was okay and so were the ravioli. Overall, sigh...

3/5
http://www.eatpaper.net/tos/index.html

Bodega DC

A new tapas restaurant has made its way into Georgetown and surprisingly, it's inexpensive and decent. Both my friend and I who had studied in Spain wanted to check out this new addition. The tapas selection was quite authentic - tortilla espanola, jamon serrano, albondigas, atun, espinacas, paella, gambas al ajillo,... We had difficultly choosing for our little table of two but we ended up with the pan con tomate y jamon serrano, albondigas, espinacas, camerones, and patatas bravas. Nothing was exactly the same as it was in Spain, or at least Madrid, but it was pretty good. The jamon was definitely jamon, but sliced a little thicker than normal. The spinach had the pinenuts and raisins, but could have been cooked down a little more. The patatas bravas had a nice kick to them, but were crisper than usual. And the albondigas had a wonderful red wine sauce, but lacked that unique blend of ground meat. Overall, different, but not bad at all. Each of the tapas was $4-$7, which is more than you pay in Spain, but less than you pay in Georgetown. This will be a repeat restaurant when I'm having a Spanish craving and want something easy and casual.

I should mention that by the time I return to Bodega, I hope the wait staff learns how to take your plates when they are empty.

3.75/5
No website