Eating in Maryland

It's been three weeks since I've been living in Rockville, and here are some of the places I've eaten at so far.

Silver Diner - your typical 50's diner. The menu is just a little small, but has the main necessities. I've had the meatloaf dinner and the open-faced turkey sandwich, both of which were decent. We frequent this joint mostly out of convenience, since it's located a short walk from the apartment. ★★✩✩

Cheesecake Factory - its reputation precedes it and it doesn't disappoint. The meal prices are very reasonable for the monstrous portions, it's just the price of the cheesecake that gets you. I had the spicy meat pizza, which was delicious and also lasted a good four meals for me. You have to stop eating purposefully to leave room for dessert. I had a slice of lemon raspberry cheesecake, which was a great combination of sweet and tart. ★★★✩

Asian Spices - 3333 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC - Asian fusion. The deep fried onion cakes weren't by any means authentic, but were still really good. My curry laksa noodles were very tasty, but seemed like it was just the luck of the draw; two of my friends ordered the same but the soup base seemed inconsistent amongst all three dishes. ★★✩✩

Maria's Bakery - 1701 Rockville Pike # B, Rockville - America's version of a Chinese cafe. It had the staples, like Portuguese chicken, spaghetti bolognese, etc. Can't compare to Toronto calibre but not bad when in a bind. ★★✩✩

Chili's - we went for the two-can-dine-for-$20 deal - great value. You get two full-sized entrees and an appetizer to share, from a select list. The Texas cheese fries were fantastically cheesy. I had a half-rack of chipotle ribs, but they come in other flavors too, and loaded potatoes as a side - definite win. Service was great as well. Next time I'll have to try the molten lava cake, and apparently there's a white chocolate version too! ★★★★

The Original Pancake House - I had the pancakes, eggs & hash brown combo, which is a great choice if you want a bit of everything. For a fee you can substitute buttermilk pancakes for specialty ones, so I had blueberry pancakes served with fresh blueberry sauce - well worth the upgrade so that you can try out their different types of pancakes without having to commit to a huge tower of them. They also employ an efficient system of clearing tables by having patrons pay out front, so the wait wasn't very long. ★★★★

Tastee Diner - 7731 Woodmont Ave, Bethesda - great grilled tuna melt, delicious crispy fries. Roast beef sandwich turned out pretty soggy though since they piled the mashed potatoes and gravy on top of the actual sandwich. Small joint, so the service was good, and prices were reasonable. ★★★✩