Arirang, Rockville MD

We had lunch with a couple of friends this past Saturday and they mentioned Arirang.  Then I couldn't stop thinking about Korean food!  So after church on Sunday, we drove to Arirang on East Gude Drive.

The interior decor is clean and traditional.  The tables are set fairly apart that you don't feel overly crowded.  There's a bar area that faces directly to the door where you're greeted with smiling waitresses while they prepare the small complimentary dishes.

unique wallpaper in Korean language

pleasant interior

nice picture menu

I love their picture menus!  It made it that much easier to order (also that much more enticing to order everything....)  We ordered three entrees.  One for each of us and another bulgogi dish to share.  Bulgogi was the first to arrive on sizzling hot iron platter!  And with it, came the complimentary small Korean dishes (can be refilled on request)

Here are the small dishes, they were all pretty good!

steamed broccoli with sesame oil

Korean stable - Kim chi

marinated/cooked egg plants

spicy white turnip, yum!

bean sprouts appetizer

cooked Korean potato, loved this one!

bulgogi

The bulgogi entree was average, didn't blow me away but didn't disappoint either.  It was just a good beef bulgogi dish.  An especially 'safe' dish to order in Korean restaurants!

cod fish and vegetable stew

rice for cod fish stew

This was my entree, I ordered the cod fish with vegetable stew.  I loved it, the price was a bit steep but there were big chunks of cod fish and some shrimp and mussels, along with my favorite vegetables like onions and squash.  The vegetables really soaked up the spicy broth and tasted good.

spicy seafood noodles

This was his entree, spicy seafood noodles.  The noodles itself was nothing special, definitely not hand-made like Lotte food court seafood noodles.  The broth was above average spicy but they stacked up with a lot of seafood and goodies.  We ended up taking some of this home because we couldn't finish.  This was actually the cheapest dish out of the three pricing at around 10 dollars.

Overall, Arirang is an above the average Korean restaurant in the area.  Of course the price is also above average, we paid about $46 for 3 entrees for lunch, yikes!  But I'd definitely come back again, the atmosphere is nice and I love their fresh small dishes.

FoodiePop's rating: 4.2/5

 

Arirang

1326 E Gude Dr
Rockville, MD 20850

Cafe Promenade, Renaissance Hotel, Washington DC

On a Sunday afternoon, me and the girls ventured out to Washington D.C.'s glorious Renaissance hotel for the famous Mayflower tea.  We arrived around 2:50pm but circled around a bit to find street parking.  The valet parking for the hotel cost $24 so we opted to park for free (thanks to our driver!).

We walked a few blocks to the renaissance hotel.  The hotel had beautiful lobby and deluxe accommodations, apparently, it is a luxury line under Marriot hotel group.  We quickly found the Cafe Promenade, a beautifully decorated restaurant with skylight and gorgeous chandelier as the center piece.

Cafe Promenade

We were led to a booth right under the skylight and the chandelier.  The booth was comfortable, and felt private from the entrance of the cafe.  We were quickly greeted by the waiter with the menu and the tea choices.  I opted for the chamomile and mint, it had wonderful flavors!  The table setting was very delicate and neat, and the china and tea sets were all gorgeous as well.  I must give them a lot of props on attention to detail, all the silverware and tea accessories were clean and spotless, and the table was laid out beautifully before we sat down.

Mayflower Tea selections

 

Table setting

My pot of tea

cream & lemon for tea

beautiful tea set

Then these adorable two tiered platters came.  We all had our individual platters filled with goodies.

tea snacks & sweets

As far as taste goes, I was not crazy about their tea sandwiches because the bread was mostly dry and the flavors were very ...distinct.  The desserts were mediocre at best and tasted store-bought.  The only remarkable item was probably the crab and egg sandwich and the mushroom sandwich was somewhat descent....

We chatted and had one pot of tea after another, it was a beautiful afternoon spent with good company.  As far as overall grade for the afternoon tea, I would give maybe 2.5 for the taste but +0.5 for the beautiful setting and decor/ambiance.  As far as visiting again?  Not sure about that since you can bring the good company anywhere and still have a good time :)

FoodiePop's rating on Afternoon Tea: 3/5

Cafe Promenade - Renaissance Hotel
1127 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington DC

Sno Dream - Montgomery Mall, Bethesda MD

I've tried Sno Dream twice already, both experiences were pleasant.  So I think this review has been way over due!  Here's a little background on the term 'snow ice': "Snow ice 雪花冰 originated from the tropical island of Taiwan. Unlike traditional Taiwanese shaved ice, snow cones or Hawaiian shaved ice, what makes this low cal, low fat treat truly unique, is that the flavor is frozen directly into the ice before being shaved into ribbon like sheets and then deposited into a cup for your convenient enjoyment."  (http://www.snodreamusa.com/)

The first time I visited, they only had 4 flavors of snow ice available, original milk flavor, green tea flavor, mango flavor, and I believe lychee flavor.  The second time I visited, they've expanded to 10 flavors!  The store is right across from 'Boss' store in Montgomery mall, I don't think you can miss it.

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I tried both green tea and original milk flavors the first time, I preferred the milk flavor.  So the second time I got strictly the milk flavor with red beans, condensed milk, and mochi for toppings!  This combination is simply called harajuku on their menu except I substituted milk snow ice for green tea snow ice.
 

harajuku combo with milk snow ice instead of green tea

The creation was very good except the addition of condensed milk was a bit too sweet for my liking.  I think next time I'll try the snow ice without any toppings, maybe even a new flavor of snow ice!

I even took another close-up picture, see the texture of the shaved ice?  It's unique and melts immediately in your mouth!

close-up

I'm very happy that snow ice has found its way into our area.  I'll definitely visit it again and even try a new flavor.  If you're shopping in Montgomery Mall, be sure you pay Sno Dream a visit!

FoodiePop's rating: 4/5 since it's the only store of its kind in MD

Sno Dream
Montgomery Mall
7101 Democracy Blvd, Space 9024
Bethesda, MD 20817

Silver Fountain, Silver Spring MD

For 2 consecutive weekends, we visited Silver Fountain for Cantonese dim sum.  Yes, two consecutive weekends because I haven't had good quality dim sum from this area for so long!  I went with a friend the first weekend, he arrived around 11:15am and there was a sizable wait already.  We got a table around 11:45am for two and ate for two hours (okay we talked a lot too)!  On the second week, I brought the hubby and arrived around 11am to avoid the wait, we got right in!

The place has been completely renovated from 4-5 years ago.  It's the first of my visit in the recent years and we all loved the place!

Roomy and nicely decorated interior

First thing we noticed immediately, the service at Silver Fountain was about 10x better than Oriental East.  Oriental East had what we called non-existent service because they were so busy and the waiters and waitresses all had an attitude.  At Silver Fountain, within 5 mins of sitting down, 3 serving staff asked if somebody already ordered tea for us!  I was very happy because we had literally nothing to drink/eat for the first 8-10 mins at Oriental East couple weeks ago. 

We quickly ordered the usual chrysanthemum tea and the carts came rolling!  These were what we ordered from the second visit (forgot to bring camera on the first visit).  The dishes were all piping hot and delicious.  My favorite dish was the 鮮竹捲 (ground meat rolls wrapped with bean curd skin), it's the best one I've had in the area!  I must add that their 腸粉 (chow fen wrapped with different stuffing) are all delicious as well, we ordered 2 varieties on the first visit but didn't take pictures.  They have a 腸粉 specialty carts and serves it fresh as well.

鮮竹捲 (ground meat rolls wrapped with bean curd skin)

蘿菠餻 (turnip cake)

蝦餃 (steamed shrimp dumpling)



燒賣 (pork dumpling)



小排骨 (spare pork ribs)

鳳爪 (chicken feet)

牛百頁 (beef tripes)

牛肉丸 (beef meatballs)

魚翅餃 (meat and shrimp dumpling, no shark fins..)

韭菜餃 (Chinese chives and pork dumplings)

In conclusion, this will be our go-to place for Cantonese dim sum from now on.  Definitely not going to Oriental East again if we have a choice.  Silver Fountain had much better serving staff and they had better flow with the dim sum carts as well.  It was about every few minutes a dim sum cart would roll past our table.  You won't go hungry like you would in other dim sum joints!

FoodiePop's rating fro Cantonese dim sum: 4.2/5

Silver Fountain
13533 Connecticut Ave
Silver Spring, MD 20906

Buffalo Wild Wings, Rockville MD

We gathered a big group to Buffalo Wild Wings on a Sunday night.  The place has tons of flat screen TVs!!  It's an awesome place to just chill and watch games, with 20 TVs around, you'll definitely find something to watch on a Sunday night.

We ordered a variety of appetizers, entrees, and wings.  Most of them were pretty good, there were a few that stood out such as the chicken spinach anchovies flat bread pizza, it was delicious!

We ordered a couple appetizers to start off:

ultimate nacho platter

buffalo chips (thick cut fried potato)

Southwest bites (has chicken and jalapeno inside)

I liked the buffalo chips even though it's a real simple appetizer.  It's basically thick cut fried potatoes.  It was a plate of hot and crisp goodness though.  The southwest bites,...not so much.  It was lacking identity.  Nachos were descent, but that's how nachos are, a fail-safe dish.

rib & more ribs

This was good.  Not 'finger licking' good, but it made the grade.  Famous Dave still has best ribs in the area, hands down!

grilled chicken salad

My girl friend ordered grilled chicken salad.  I didn't try this, but it looked descent....

spinach & anchovy chicken flat bread pizza

This was probably the best tasting dish besides the wings.  Too bad they didn't have many flavors for flat bread pizza, otherwise we could order one or two more!

BWW wings

Of course we ordered a bunch of wings.  I think we split 50 wings with 5 different flavors.  We sampled mango habanero, mild, wild, jerk, and hot BBQ.  My favorite was the mild, it had a little kick to it but definitely not in the spicy category.  The wings were good, but I think they'll taste even better with a couple beers.....

We definitely had fun in BWW, it's one of those places where you have so much fun that the food isn't the center of the attention anymore.  But I definitely enjoyed munching on yummy wings while chilling and watching games on a Sunday!

p.s.  Please excuse my dark pictures, too lazy to adjust them...

FoodiePop's rating: 3.4/5

Buffalo Wild Wings
33-C Maryland Ave
Rockville, MD 20850

Cava, Rockville MD - revisited

A girl friend and I wanted to hang out and have good eats for lunch, so we came back to Cava again!  Apparently they weren't really busy for lunch and we got a table right away upon arrival.  Totally different from the night scene here where you have to wait for hours for a spot!

special lunch menu

bar area

We quickly placed our drink orders and both decided on the crab cake sliders lunch special for $11.  We chatted for a while and were surprised that they didn't serve bread basket right away.  So we asked the waitress and she brought them with the meal.  I love their pita bread basket!  The red tomato sauce for dipping was amazing, got a little kick to it but not too spicy.

pita bread basket

tomato dipping, olive oil, olives

Then we got our crab sliders!  The crab cakes were small but had great flavor and not too much filling.  Just enough sauce and veggies on butter toasted bun.  These are the best crab sliders I've had in a while!  The fries were good too, I think I finished everything on this plate!

crab slider lunch special, $11

We will definitely be back for their lunch specials again!  Maybe I'll even be brave and pick something else off the special menu....!

FoodiePop's rating for lunch: 4/5

Cava Restaurant
9713 Traville Gateway Drive
Rockville, MD 20850

Bd's Mongolian BBQ, Bethesda MD

On a sunny Sunday, we took the pooch out to Bethesda row for a nice long walk.  On the way there, we stopped by Bd's Mongolian BBQ.  They actually already closed the outdoor seating section but just to accommodate us and the pooch, they seated us outside upon request!

sitting outdoor at BD Mongolian

If you never tried Mongolian BBQ, let me give you a little background.  Typically, diners choose various ingredients from a buffet of thinly sliced raw meats (beef, pork, lamb, chicken, tofu for vegetarian option), various vegetables, and stack them high on a bowl. After that, you would add a mix of sauces to your own liking from the sauce bar.  Then the bowl is  given to the 'griddle operator' whom transfers them to one section of the large hot griddle in the middle of restaurant. When the bowl is cooked, it is transferred to another clean plate and given back to the customer to enjoy.

Since BD is not very authentic, they also added many menu items for a twist.  For example, they have shrimps, squid, sausages, and meatball.  I actually made a seafood plate that I loved!  BD also gives you tortilla or white rice (brown rice upon request) to go with the stirred fried goodness.  We each created several plates, here are some of our master pieces.

chunky beef rib eye stirred fried with pasta and veggies (his)

sweet and sour shrimp with noodles (mine!)

Overall the place is good for a casual lunch.  The price is reasonable, about 16.99 for all you can eat Mongolian creations.  Soda/drinks not included.  In terms of being authentic, definitely a no, but everything tasted pretty fresh from the bar and it was fun creating different combinations.  We had no complaints!

FoodiePop's rating: 3.5/5

BD's Montgolian BBQ
7201 Wisconsin Ave
Bethesda, MD 20814