| Address | 1319-C Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852 |
|---|---|
| Hours | 11:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. Mon-Fri; 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. |
| Phone | (301) 251-7878 |
I loved the noodles and dumplings. Beef noodle soup will be my new winter time favorite. The food here is cheap!
The food is always excellent and you leave full. My only gripe is that the waitress was unable to void a duplicate order of my scallion cakes because she couldn't work the computer and didn't want to admit it. She just said the computer wouldn't let her void it. I hate BS like that. So I paid for it, but didn't leave her a tip.
A&J is a wildly popular joint serving the increasingly trendy small dishes known collectively as northern dim sum. Small plates are the rage elsewhere—tapas and meze and such—but the Chinese don’t have to play catch-up to anyone; there is a whole canon to try. Start with some pan-fried, and greasy, buns filled with vegetables or pork, move on to some spareribs, and finish with a bowl of dumpling soup, having a few things in between. Cold, spicy cucumber slices cut the meaty tastes well, as does the seaweed salad, and shredded tofu with mushrooms gives great mouth feel. These cold, garde mange-type of plates are needed to cut the heavy stuff. Oversized, pan-fried pork dumplings are a bargain but the too-small and too-few steamed shrimp dumplings are not. A bowl of cold noodles with hot and sour sauce is a nice starch option; even better are those noodles with a sesame sauce. Thousand-layer bread is puffy and sharable but the dense scallion pancakes should burst with more flavor. Weekend mornings bring more Chinese breakfast choices—you’ll wait in line to get in— but if you didn’t grow up devouring sweet soymilk, fried dough sticks, and sesame biscuits, you’re unlikely to crave them. A&J has the kind of menu that has you planning your next meal there before you’ve even ordered this one. There are just too many soups and buns and small plates to sample. It has a diner-like atmosphere; the tables are close together and the service is casual yet efficient. It’s not the place for a special event or intimate conversation. You’ll leave full, since too many choices go heavy on the oil. Even the cucumbers are swimming in it. Yet you’ll also leave wanting to sample more.
I've been to A&J on three occasions and I like it better every time. It can be a bit of an ordeal when crowded, but my last visit was during a calmer period, right after the weekend lunch rush. The staff is abrupt, but they get the job done. The food is delicious, slightly greasy, and surprising. I try and get one new thing every time I'm there and I haven't tried one bad thing yet.
Asian Churros. The warm spicy soy milk with fried dough. It's Asian Churros and I could eat it every morning this winter.
Northern style/Taiwanese Dim Sum, which roughly means more wheat, less rice-based dishes.
Also excellent were the small salads of bean curd and mushrooms or greens.
(This is dim sum that is veggie friendly.)
Excellent for dim sum and fresh noodles. Loved the wide noodles with peanut sauce. Very clean and pleasant atmosphere. Great service, maybe just a little slow with water. Tea is waiting for you at the table, though.
