Cost - $$

Service - B-
Pines of Rome isn’t a very high-end Italian restaurant so the service isn’t anything to write home about - they are fairly polite and efficient so as long as they get that white pizza out in < 10 minutes I’m happy.

Food - B+
As I mentioned in the preface they have the best white pizza in the world.  By far.  In fact, I would recommend getting the white pizza as a shared appetizer and then getting it again as the main course and finishing up with white pizza with some whip cream for dessert.  I’ve also tried the other dishes and they are fairly good but nothing that you can’t make at home yourself.

Decor - C
They have those typical cheapy plastic table mats and sticky wooden furniture.  Clearly they don’t use a lot of their profit on furnishing the restaurant.  There is something sort of quaint and authentic about how scaled back the furnishing in the place is.

Feel - B+
Pines of Rome has been a mainstay in Bethesda for many years because they deliver great Italian food at a good cost with no frills.  They are like the Southwest Airlines of Italian food in the DC-area.  They are a great spot for families or couples simply looking for a quick bite to eat before catching a film in downtown Bethesda.

Pines of Rome is located at 4709 Hampden Ln, Bethesda, MD 20814.

Cost - $

Service - B
You order your food and pick it up at the counter for the most part. There isn’t really a whole lot to say about the service apart from the fact that I’ve never had any sort of issue with the people working at the counter. When I’ve gone with people who spoke farsi, the people behind the counter always warmed up a lot.  In some ways the overall experience is actually better not dealing with the types of waiters and waitresses you might get at some restaurant where most of the dishes are less than $10.

Food - A
As I mentioned, the kabob at Moby Dick appeals to Persians - but also to everyone else in the world.  If you don’t like eating food at Moby Dick then you literally don’t like to eat food.  Over the past fifteen years I can’t recall one person ever not liking the food there.  In fact, I can’t recall one person not lighting up at the suggestion of eating there.

Decor - C
The decor doesn’t have to be very good but actually they make sure it is clean and sanitary.  You don’t feel like you are eating at some of the other kabob houses I’ve seen in major cities.

Feel - B+
I know there is a level of sentimentality in regards to my feeling for the place but I can’t help but be happy every time I visit the place.  If it were just a little bit healthier (if you order a platter with rice and bread it ends up being a ton of carbs) I would probably eat there at least once per week.  You can go there with your family or you can go there alone (which I’ve done numerous times).  If you are in Georgetown you can even hit it up after you go drinking.  Just a classic DC-establishment.

What’s the Buzz:

March 1, 2005 - Moby Dick House of Kabob (Drift Reality) - Moby Dick has the best Iranian food that I’ve ever had that isn’t home cooked. They bake their own bread and it is out of this world. They have somehow managed to perfect their cooking technique to the point that the kabob comes out perfectly. The Kabob Kubideh is simply mouth watering, as is the Jujeh Kabob. Full Article…

August 11, 2000 - Moby Dick House of Kabob (Washington Post) - “Call me Ishmael,” I said to my friend Jahanshah, “and I’ll call you Queequeg.” We had just entered one of my favorite holes-in-the-wall in Washington, the Moby Dick House of Kabob. Why the name Moby Dick? Avast, seafarer, I’ll keep you in suspense for a moment on that one. Let’s just say that when an Iranian restaurateur started Washington’s Moby Dick chain in 1989, he was building on one of the legends of Tehran, not Herman Melville’s tale of the whale. Full Article…

Moby Dick’s House of Kabob is a chain of kabob restaurants located throughout DC, Maryland and Virginia.

Cost - $$$

Service - A
I couldn’t have asked for anything more. My server was the nicest guy in the world and knew the menu back-and-forth.

Food - A
The food was possibly the best in Bethesda. I went with the pickiest eater in the world and she even agreed that the food there was good.

Decor - B
Feel - A

In my humble opinion there isn’t a better place to take a date in Bethesda. The place just feels warm and comfortable. You leave feeling happy.

What’s the Buzz:

October 26, 2007 - Rock Creek Restaurant in Bethesda, MD (Drift Reality) - This past weekend I decided to take the initiative and seek out a new restaurant in DC. After a bit of digging, I struck upon Rock Creek Restaurant in Bethesda, MD (incidentally, why is it that every restaurant’s Web site either looks like it was built by a college student in 1996 or tries to be uber-hip with ridiculous amounts of flash and a lounge soundtrack). Full Article…