Rockville Area Restaurants On Best DC Area Dishes List

ROCKVILLE, MD — Restaurants in Rockville and Gaithersburg were among those from Montgomery County that made The Washington Post's new "40 Most Essential DC Restaurant Dishes of 2017."

The pair mentioned are Matthew's Grill in Gaithersburg for its Tocino pork and the tom yum noodle soup at Thai Cuisine in Rockville. No Bethesda restaurants earned a shout-out, while eateries in Silver Spring, Wheaton and Kensington also made the list.

The Post determined the top dishes by polling readers, industry insiders and its own staff. It received over 400 submissions and narrowed it down through a taste test. Staff explain, "We curated a selection that could cater to meat-eaters and vegetarians, sweets lovers and fried-food fans, suburban dwellers and urbanites without cars."

The Tocino pork at Matthew's Grill, 213 Muddy Branch Rd., Gaithersburg, is a popular breakfast in the Philippines. The Post describes the Matthew’s Grill offering as "bite-size pieces of pork butt cured in a mixture of brown sugar, sugar-cane vinegar and soy sauce. After their cure, the pieces are boiled in a little water until the liquids reduce into a candied glaze."

Cost is $10; for more information call 301-990-8858.

The tom yum noodle soup at Rockville's Thai Cuisine earns praise for its complexity. The Post describes it this way: "This soup finds willowy rice noodles submerged in a vegetable broth swimming with so many other ingredients that your palate won’t know which way to turn. Among them: ground pork, fish balls, dried squid, fish sauce, crushed peanuts, pickled jalapeños and chili powder. As a final grace note, it’s garnished with fried wontons, adding a counterintuitive crunch to your bowl of Thai soup."

A bowl costs $9.95; for more information call 301-838-4480.

See the full list of the DC area's best dishes here.

Also on the Post's list is the prawn vindaloo at Jewel of India in Silver Spring; the shawarma at Max’s Kosher Cafe in Wheaton; the Bun Bo Hu soup at Mi La Cay in Wheaton; and Kensington's Frankly...Pizza! for its Hot Mess pie.

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