1. O’Brien’S Pit Barbecue
City: Rockville, MD
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (301) 340-8596
Address: 387 East Gude Drive
Description: Casual and inexpensive, O’Brien’s has endured for years as a popular stop for some of the tastiest Texas-style barbecue around. There is other, newer competition, but O’Brien’s holds its own with favorites like chili dogs, pork spareribs, and beef brisket. Side orders like beans and rice and spicy onion rings have plenty of pizzazz, too. O’Brien’s is open for lunch and dinner nightly.
2. Tower Oaks Lodge
City: Rockville, MD
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (301) 294-0200
Address: 2 Preserve Parkway
Description: With its cedar beams, enormous stone fireplaces, antique wooden boats suspended from the ceiling, and wraparound windows facing a nature preserve, there’s little about the Tower Oaks Lodge that reminds diners they’re in the heart of Rockville. And that’s just the intention of this new member of the Clyde’s group of restaurants around the Washington area. It’s built to resemble the lodges in the Adirondacks from the turn of the twentieth century. Entrees range from the usual burgers to the more adventurous pork loin chop served with ham-and-cheese bread pudding and sautéed spinach. There’s also a delicious Atlantic salmon with ratatouille and tomato couscous with arugula pesto. Tower Oaks Lodge is open for lunch and dinner daily.
3. China Bistro/Mama’S Dumplings
City: Rockville, MD
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (301) 294-0808
Address: 755 Hungerford Drive
Description: The Chinese dishes at this Rockville restaurant are satisfying enough, but if you’re like most customers, you’re really coming here for the handmade dumplings. You’re in good company; just take a look around at the Chinese customers who flock here for a taste of Mama’s eight varieties. The most popular choice, Mama’s Special Dumplings, come stuffed with pork, shrimp, cabbage, and chives. Other varieties include beef and celery, pork and dill, and a vegetarian special loaded with mushrooms and bean curd. You can also purchase uncooked dumplings to prepare at home.
4. Mama Wok And Teriyaki
City: Rockville, MD
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (301) 309-6642
Address: 595 Hungerford Drive
Description: If nothing else, you gotta love the name. This restaurant—which features Chinese and Japanese cuisine—has more to offer than that, however. If you’re not squeamish, there’s live seafood prepared to your liking, and the selection’s not limited to fish, as in many other restaurants. According to the season, you’re likely to find oyster, clams, crab, or shrimp. Even if you don’t want to meet your meal before you eat it, the other seafood items are sparkling fresh, and simple preparations show them to good advantage. The decor here is as plain as could be, but when there’s such fresh seafood to be had at rock-bottom prices, who cares about atmosphere? It’s open for lunch and dinner daily.
5. Seven Seas Chinese Restaurant
City: Rockville, MD
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (301) 770-5020
Address: 1776 East Jefferson Street
Description: This restaurant is well known in the Washington area for its seafood, and you know it’s fresh from the minute you walk in and spot the large fish tank full of ocean delicacies. Seven Seas serves both traditional Chinese and Japanese fare, including dim sum and sushi. This small storefront restaurant has also branched out even more into calorie-conscious offerings, both vegetarian and with meat. Seven Seas is open for lunch and dinner daily.
6. Taste Of Saigon
City: Rockville, MD
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (301) 424-7222
Address: 410 Hungerford Drive
Description: This light, pretty Vietnamese restaurant is always crowded despite its hard-to-find location in the middle of a Rockville parking lot. The prices are good—which accounts for some of its popularity—but with so many reasonably priced Asian restaurants in Rockville, that’s not all there is to it. There’s the fashionable contemporary dining room with plenty of light and cheery linens on the tables, the outdoor patio with stylish umbrellas, and there’s the food. Try the whole fish bathed in spices and scallions, intriguing soups crammed with noodles and meat, and stir-fries bursting with fresh veggies. There’s also a location at 8201 Greensboro Drive in McLean, Virginia. Both serve lunch and dinner daily.
City: Rockville, MD
Category: Restaurants
Address: 11618 Rockville Pike
City: Rockville, MD
Category: Restaurants
Address: 15209 Frederick Road (also known as Rock
City: Rockville, MD
Category: Restaurants
Address: 15201 Shady Grove Road
10. Bombay Bistro
City: Rockville, MD
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (301) 762-8798
Address: 98 West Montgomery Avenue
Description: Bombay Bistro is open for lunch and dinner nightly. Please see the listing in the Virginia section.