Best holes in the wall in Bethesda/Rockville/SE DC? [MD/DC]

Going for a quick jaunt to see some friends in the Rockville area. I’m normally based in south Brooklyn. What’s good around here lately? I used to check Tyler Cowen’s blog regularly but it has really fallen off lately on updates, plus he was never good at covering MD anyway. My friend thinks Sheba is probably the best Ethiopian around in MD, any thoughts? Thinking of checking out Yekta Market & Kabob Counter for lunch on Sunday as well, since there isn’t a ton of Persian in NYC.

Also, the Chinese bus will drop me at lunchtime at Stadium-Armory in DC (greater SE/Lincoln Park area, I guess?) so is there anything decent for lunch around there? Maybe some good Mexican or Salvadoran? Some of the results on Yer Evil Lumping-together of Provisions-reviews (aggregator) look a little bougie for my cheapskate blood. Is everything gentrified on this side of the river these days? I haven’t visited DC much in the past 25-30 years, so forgive any naivete. Maryland Ave./Bladensburg Rd. didn’t used to look as nice as what the aggregator is spitting out now. Might just go up to the H Street Corridor if no other ideas pop up.

1 Like

Sounds like you are seeking out items in Rockville you don’t already have in Brooklyn…

There are more Uyghur living in the DC area than anywhere else outside China. Eerkin’s is the best around. Go for the eggplant salad, the gambian soman, and the lamb skewers.

Kuya Ja’s Lechon Belly is a tiny Filipino spot that, in addition to its namesake dish, usually has specials on weekends worth paying attention to.

Z&Z Manoush Bakery makes flatbreads to order… I think there is only one table, but it probably doesn’t get used much. I had the ‘toum raider’ but I would ask for the toum on the side. It is very powerful.

La Limena, Peruvian, has an excellent chupe de camarones as well as spot on empanadas. Not a hole-in-the-wall.

A standout dish is the crispy tofu at Mandarin Express, a place with Yunnanese specials. It’ll make you wonder why this is not on every street corner. Excellent dumplings as well.

3 Likes

These sound amazing, thanks!

I second lechon belly. I’ll be posing on it soonish.

I seem to recall a second Uyghur place in Rockville that made The NY Times Best in Washington Right Now list.

Steve also tipped me off to Chuan Tian Xia, which I much enjoyed on a lunch visit recently.

I live near the original Brooklyn location of CTX (which has never impressed me much compared to what I can get in Flushing — Alley 41 in particular puts CTX to shame) so I’ll skip that one, but thanks!

Oops. The Uyghur place, Bostan, is in Arlington. The Rockville place is Pupeseria Mama Amelia – and in Wheaton, Taqueria Sabor Mixteco, where I ate recently and enjoyed the food.

I thought Bostan was pretty bad, FWIW.

Thanks for the tips! I also talked to FlemSnopes and he mentioned enjoying Z&Z Manoushe as well, so that was a top priority. Indeed, that was my favorite. I got the toum on the side w/the “toum raider” as you suggested, but I guess I’m a garlic fiend because I had no problem polishing that off! It was great. My friend got “bizza” which was lovely too. I haven’t seen anything quite like this in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Wonderful quality flatbread, just perfect.

My friends also took me to Sheba, which was quite good if not great — the “spicy” dishes were a little under-spiced for the likes of me, maybe toned down for white folks, but the injera was very good. Next time we’ll have to try Chercher, which Flem recommended.

Mandarin Express — what a unique wacky Rockville experience! I haven’t been to a hole in the wall run by a slightly crotchety Chinese grandma since I was in China briefly in 2007!

The crispy tofu was a little repetitive but texturally delightful, one of those dishes that was actually more flavorful as leftovers, since the slightly sweet sauce became more pronounced, though it obviously lost the crunch.

My more adventurous friend got a tasty Yunnanese noodle dish with pork and sour cabbage.

My less adventurous friend got some kind of Americanized Chinese nonsense (which actually wasn’t bad — it was sweet and sour something IIRC, and surprisingly it actually included the sour flavor along with the sweet). I didn’t bother to get a photo of that.

Great trip — also saw some awesome art at the Hirshhorn and enjoyed browsing the shelves at the Friends of the Library in Rockville. I’m excited to come back in 2025 and hopefully hit up Chercher, maybe Kuya Ja’s Lechon Belly, maybe Eerkin’s (since one of my friends loves central Asian), or perhaps Bob’s Shanghai 66.

3 Likes

Great to see such awesome pics of Manoush, et al. You did quite well for yourself.

The tofu dish at Mandarin Express is definitely meant to be shared, among other dishes… whenever I go I see it at every table.

Thanks so much for the report back! If you ever want some more adventurous mouths to feed, arrangements can be made…

2 Likes