mussel bar & grille - bethesda

a's all the way .... we had such a wonderful dinner at mussel bar. it was kinda loud at 9-10 pm on a friday, but what do you expect? it was packed and the place was hopping! our server did a great job, i know he had many tables besides ours. he was friendly, got us everything we needed quickly and made a few suggestions for us.

it is hard to decide what to order off the food menu, so we start off w/ beers. that is also hard to decide, because of their extensive non-standard belgium list. in no particular order: stella, affligem bland, ommegang saison, delirium tremens, rochefort 6, orval, ayinger celebrator and who knows what else!

for starters we had calamari, pork belly and a cheese plate. verygoodway to start out a two plus hour dinner :)

i had to talk my guests into the mussels. i guess they had never had agoodexperience, so i ordered them plain with the white wine (i like farmhouse ale). my guests were surprised they were not rubbery or squishy. they were also surprised to enjoy the frites w/ the different mayonnaise.

the braised ribs were tender and nearly fell off the bone. i usually like dry ribs, but there were delightful detour. the ribs were everyone’s favorite entrée.

we couldn't eat all that was served, but we left fat and happy!

food: a
drinks: a+
service: a
atmosphere: a

oysters..... the west coast oysters were amazing. the staff, fantastic! the selection ofgoodbeer, formidable.

needs to work on service. well, i really was looking forward to mussel bar. the food was good. of course we tried the mussels. my kids had the classic and i had the special. both weregoodbut nothing to write home about.. i think we would have enjoyed them more had the service been better. our waitress never cracked a smile, was rarely seen and forgot to put our dessert order in. we arrived when it was empty and then it did fill up. i know they are just opened a few months but they really need to work on service. there are plenty of places to have mussels... so if they want to the be the mussel bar of choice, work on your staff.

i so wanted mussel bar to be good! it wasn't . the decor and ambience is that of a gastropub which by my book is agoodstart. the restaurant offers a deep selection of belgium beers priced from $8 to about $30 typically for an 11 ounce glass. the vast majority of beers are in the $12 to $15 a glass price range. our waitress was not very knowledgeable about the beers which was a disappointment. the menu is small and very mussel centric. my guest and i both ordered them. we ordered the classic version (white wine, garlic herbs etc) and the shroom (mushrooms cream etc). we waited about 50 minutes for our food to arrive. the presentation is great - a saucepan opened in front of you to reveal the steaming mussels. in both cases the broth was a huge disappointment. the shroom broth was bland missing the rich notes of pancetta and truffle promised in the menu. the classic had a sharpness to it which was not pleasant (too much lemon and an imbalance caused by the white wine). normally the broth is the best part of this dish. not here. to make matters worse, the dish was served with a warm bread that tasted like it was purchased in the freezer section of the local supermarket. where was the delicious crusty baguette that i was expecting? this was bread that no self-respecting european should ever serve. accompanying the mussels was a serving of "frites" (french-fries). unfortunately, all though nice and crisp they were over salted. mussels and "frites" is one of the most common and popular dishes in belgium. there are plenty of restaurants in the area that do agoodjob with this dish. mussel bar, which specializes in the dish does not. even over looking the wait for the table, the wait for our entrees, the glass of ice cold water that the waitress spilt on me and the expensive beer i would still skip this place!