Gaffney's Restaurant Bethesda

I chose Gaffney's as the site for my birthday dinner this year - classy, but not pretentious. The restaurant featured American and soul food. In fact, there was way more Cajun/Creole on the menu than I expected. We shared the red pepper hummus and calamari to start, which were both good, but your standarad fare. For my entree, I had the Bayou Stew, wanting to try something a little different. The Stew was great - the seafood and collard greens were enough to distract me from the creamy thick mustard sauce. It was heavy, but I was smart and didn't eat too much. Portioned, this was a wonderful dish. The other entrees on the table were a mix: the broth of the Sesame Crusted Salmon was too salty, the Fish-N-Chips were good, not special, the Steamed Mussels were what you would expect from a decent American restaurant, and the Pesto Chicken Penne was flavorful, but heavy. For dessert, the house gave us two bread puddings, which were well done, but not exceptional. Overall, the food was good, but it could have been better and I think I was hoping it to be better.

4/5
http://www.gaffneys-restaurant.com/