Bella J.
Yelp
This place has the highest review among restaurants in Bethesda. I however, believe it is a solid 3.5 place. It may very well be the best in town, but I am comparing with all the places I have been to and they fall short.
1. Reservation: necessary.
This place gets full very fast and popular. Apart from 1 table and mine, all tables had patrons who were white and old. Least amount of diversity I have seen in a restaurant these days, I was quite surprised. Nothing wrong with it, just an observation.
2. Service: weird, detached and snobby - 2 stars
I also noticed that men were in full suit and women were very dressed up here. I wasn't looking bad either, I was wearing a blouse and jeans, which was way underdressed compared to others. I don't know if that was at the cause or because I was the only non-white table there when I first sat down.. I felt like the server was talking down to me. He'd start walking away while I am ordering..
3. Food - 3 stars
I don't get what the hype is. Again, probably because they're best given the choice in town. They are not exceptional in any way. Make a drive and try Fiola, Fiola Mare, La Vie... many good places than this.
- Bread - NOT free and you have to pay for. Wait, what? And it wasn't even great, very dry and hard, seems to have just warmed up something that was sitting there a while. Butter is rock solid frozen, hard to apply. Only exception I would let frozen butter if it was in a cute shape and couldn't risk letting it melt, just like Salamander resort does. But not here, so disappointing.
- Baked goat cheese: sounded interesting and not something I tried before, so I ordered it. What a disappointment too. It really is just warmed up not fully goat cheese (a mixture) and surrounded by some tomato sauce like the one you put on spaghetti.. it is not a good mixture.. very colorful, but not good
- Escargot: not good either. First of all, it is always best in shell, which it is Not here. I'd recommend the Thames St. Oyster if you want escargot, just not done right here.
- Truffle and Brie burger: just like any burger you would get in a cheap diner. Not good. Can't taste the truffle, or the brie.
- Mousse: Only ate 10% of it. The whipped cream up top was good, the mousse itself tasted funny. Maybe it wasn't properly stored, it had the taste of mousse if you left it in the fridge and trying to eat a few days later.
All in all food is edible here, may be patrons here just think it is good as they pay more, just like many psychological research has proven. Detach that, it is not a good place for culinary experience.
3. Drinks - 2 stars
They obviously don't know how to make a decent cocktail. At a place like that, they use crushed ice? Come on, keep up with the competition, places use big rocks, or even clear ice with their logo on it. $15+ cocktail and I get crushed ice like in a college campus cheap bar? It diluted the whiskey too fast too.
Wine selection - I am kidding, what wine selection. They have the most basic wine from the grocery store, nothing special to try.
Their coffee was pretty good though.
I won't recommend this place. Comfortable setting to eat, but the food & drinks should be good to make it worthwhile or an exceptional service to compensate for the subpar food, but they had none of it.