My Two Cents: It’s Time To Raise Bethesda’s Restaurant Game

My Two Cents is a weekly opinion column from Bethesda resident Joseph Hawkins. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of BethesdaNow.com.

Some Bethesda foodies are upset because popular Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema failed to place any Bethesda restaurants on his latest list of top Washington D.C. area restaurants.

Bethesda Beat bellyached that Sietsema “snubbed Bethesda — again.” The piece suggests a Sietsema bias against Bethesda restaurants, and suggests it’s been around for a long time. It’s a sore spot for a town where the nearly 200 restaurants are basically the main attraction.

I’m a loyal Bethesdian. On date nights — every Friday my wife and I go out to dinner — we stay close to home, usually eating in Bethesda. Nevertheless, as a self-diagnosed foodie, I’m taking sides with Sietsema. I see nothing wrong with the latest “Sietsema snub.”

Joseph HawkinsThe Sietsema list totals 37 restaurants. I’ve eaten at 13 of the 37, including the top four: the Inn at Little Washington, Komi, Minibar, and Rasika. I can’t think of an existing Bethesda restaurant that I’d switch out for any of the 13 I’ve tried.

(Note to foodies: I once had a grilled cheese thing at Rasika that blew my taste buds away. Years after eating the grilled cheese thing, I remember it. I dreamed about it.)

Bethesda’s restaurant scene has some really nice, slightly better-than-average places. Black’s Bar and Kitchen, Bistro Provence, Cesco Osteria, Food Wine & Co., Grapeseed, Jaleo, Newton’s Table, Passage to India, Redwood Restaurant and Bar and Wildwood Kitchen are examples of the solid options that abound in a town that takes a lot of pride in being a restaurant town.

But, in my humble foodie opinion, leaving any of these off the list of the region’s top restaurants doesn’t just feel OK, it feels right.

(Note to foodies: Sietsema’s list includes Jaleo, but only its D.C. location. I’ve eaten at both the D.C. and Bethesda Jaleo locations. Can I detect a difference? Not really. But then I’m not the food critic.)

Looking down the road, future Sietsema lists will also likely not include Bethesda restaurants.

One disappointing aspect of Bethesda’s restaurant scene has been the lack of any really great new restaurants.

In the past 18-24 months, I can’t think of one restaurant that opened in Bethesda that would make a foodie forsake what’s new on 14th Street.

More than once, I’ve tried Bobby’s Burger Palace, Momo Chicken and Jazz, Roof, and Yuzu — all relatively new to Bethesda. While each was good (and worthy of placement on the Friday night date list) each came off as just ordinary. Nothing transformative and nothing that infiltrated my dreams.

What’s really unfortunate is the next batch of new restaurants headed to Bethesda aren’t all that promising either.

I’m just not really feeling the chain restaurants headed to Montgomery Mall. Should foodies really get excited about chain joints like CRAVE? How should we feel that some of our newest and freshest restaurant options are coming via the renovation of a mall’s food court — sorry, dining terrace?

Silver Diner as upscale cuisine? Is that meatloaf with truffle oil gravy?

PassionFish masquerading as DC Coast? Sure, why not. And I’m certain most Bethesdians will fall for a three-ounce, $36 crab cake.

Time to gas up the car and head over to 14th Street. Maybe I’ll see Sietsema walking around.

Joseph Hawkins is a longtime Bethesda resident who remembers when there was no Capital Crescent Trail. He works full-time for an employee-owned social science research firm located Montgomery County. He is a D.C. native and for nearly 10 years, he wrote a regular column for the Montgomery Journal. He also has essays and editorials published in Education Week, the Washington Post, and Teaching Tolerance Magazine. He is a serious live music fan and is committed to checking out some live act at least once a month.

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