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I believe Mayorga is gone. Quartermaine's does have free wifi though. B&N area is a bit of a hike from NIH. About a 15 min walk.

I'm not a coffee drinker but i think carribou coffee has free wifi. It's on old georgetown rd about a 10 min walk from NIH campus.

Almost forgot. I also ate at tin fish for lunch. I thought the fries were better than the fish (i got the standard fish and chips). However, i'm always happy when i can buy a 32 oz beer :-D. Thanks for all the information everyone. I think i have enough places to fill several trips to San Diego now. Carolyn, i def. have a sweet tooth and will be checking out this pastry shop. ← ←

Well i just got back from San Diego last night. The weather was incredible and i'm somewhat sad to be back in sweltering 90s temperatures w/ humidity . As far as food I didn't get to eat out for dinner as much as I would have liked as there were tons of conference parties w/ free food. Places I did eat however.... Cafe 222 - The breakfast here was awesome. I got the 2 + 2 + 2 with waffles and the waffles were absolutely fantastic. Very very friendly staff also. J6 - I was staying at the Hotel Solamar, so i ate breakfast here almost every morning. Really liked the sourdough toast and the scrambled eggs here. I also ate dinner one night and had the lobster salad and the lamb. I really liked the lobster salad's dressing which had a bit of sweetness and saltiness. The lamb was a bit of a disappointment, as I was hoping it would be a bit more rare. It didn't have that silky texture that i tend to like from my meats. The lamb came on a bed of vegetables, an assortment of beans mostly. I believe there were a handful of pine nuts in there as well. The vegetables could have definitely used more pine nuts or something starchy to go along with it. So essentially i enjoyed the breakfast here far more than the dinner. I should say however that the wait staff was fantastic at j6. Very friendly. Chive - I got the mussels with diced celery, tomato, and horseradish and the kobe beef. The mussels were very good, with just the barest hint of spicyness. The diced celery and tomato was very good also. The kobe beef was also very good. It comes raw with a hot stone that you cook it on and an assortment of dipping peppers, oils, and sauces. This was probably the best dinner i had. I ate at the bar, and the bartender was very friendly and chatty. Telling me good local bars to go to in San Diego. The only thing is the incredibly small portions at this place. I could have probably eaten another meal. Freds Mexican Cafe - at the insistence of friends who wanted margaritas. Pretty standard Mexican/tex-mex food. Good Margarita. Kansas City BBQ - Again at the insistence of friends. This place was horrible. I've had better ribs at a chain restaurant. Forget the name... some brazilian restaurant in Horton plaza. Decent... i'm wary of all you can eat buffets though. The beef cooked in garlic was probably the best meat here. I tried to get my friends to eat at Napa grill but i think they were put off by the price . JWs Irish Pub - Inside the hyatt. Standard restaurant bar/restaurant. Good burgers, but the cobb salad was very average. I believe that's just about all the places I tried. I should say a friend of mine and I tried to eat at some Australian place called Bondi. We sat at the outside bar and waited for quite a long time. When a waitress finally walked by and we tried to get her attention she rudely said 'gimme a minute.' We waited another few minutes, got fed up and left. So that's about it. I'm really jealous of the weather you guys have out there in San Diego. The city itself... it's interesting i guess... wasn't really for me. However, i chalk it all up to the location i was at (gaslamp). It seemed like the tourist/party area. Thanks again for everyones recommendations. Thanks for all the information everyone. I think i have enough places to fill several trips to San Diego now. Carolyn, i def. have a sweet tooth and will be checking out this pastry shop. ←

Thanks for all the information everyone. I think i have enough places to fill several trips to San Diego now. Carolyn, i def. have a sweet tooth and will be checking out this pastry shop.

java script:emoticon(':blink:') smilie Wow! Thanks for all the recommendations. I'll def. be back with my take on SD and the food. Thanks again. Try the pinned topic above, quite a few of the recommendations are actually downtown. I think you can probably avoid the $50 lunch and $100 dinner, but you need to understand one thing going in...The Gaslamp and the area around the Convention Center are prime tourist territory and the prices will often reflect that but not always the quality of the products. You will have good access all over the downtown area via the trolley system. It's easy to use and not terribly expensive. The orange line stops right in front of the convention center and you can take it 2 or 3 stops north to the America Plaza stop and transfer to the blue line. That will take you to the Gaslamp and Little Italy. So, here goes with a list of likely suspects, many have links to their web pages in the pinned SD topic above In Little Italy - on India Pete's Meats - hole in the wall, decent meat sandwiches, cheap, don't blink you could walk by it. Mona Lisa - good sandwiches Assanti - good everything Fillipi's - 60+ years in business in SD, meatball subs are good, red-checked American/Italian food. Buon Appetito - pretty good Italian, sort of upscale Vincents - good Italian, dinner Shakespear Pub In Little Italy - on Kettner Bud's Lousiana Food Shoppe - very good. Owner used to have a resto in New Orleans Waterfront - former dive bar with pretty good burgers, crummy fries Fringe of Little Italy - 1st and State Pappalecco - new gelateria, owners have 3 shops in Pisa. They also do paninis and light salads Downtown Cafe 222 - breakfast and lunch place, outstanding Cafe Chloe Chive Candelas - continental Mexican Stingaree - see and be seen, under 40 crowd Confidential - see above Dussini's - see above Tin Fish - literally just across the street and trolley tracks from the convention center Molly's - upscale and in the Marina Marriott BUT this is not your basic hotel resto. Extremely good food, great wine pairings and they are really into supporting the sustainable agriculture movement and serve a lot of products considered sustainable. Fish Market (upstairs) - in Seaport Village JSix - 6th and Island, also doing the sustainable thing. Napa Grille - top floor of Horton Plaza Panda Inn - see above Salad Styles - lunch only, salads Basic Urban Bar The Field - tons of micro brew on tap, Irish breakfast Oceanaire Seafood Room - great happy hour, you can walk there form the convention center Red Pearl Croce's Chopra - Afghani Grant Grill - very upscale Westgate Hotel - very upscale, $$$, dinner only San Diego Reader click on the link to restaurants, then on the link for Downtown/Gaslamp . You can read all the reviews for the places in this area. Tin Fork reviews are for hole in the wall, inexpensive options; this guy is really right on with his reviews. Naomi Wise does the more mainstream and upscale places. SignOnSanDiego This is the site operated by the SD Union/Tribune, find the link to restaurants in the left hand column and you can search by type of cuisine or neighborhood; Downtown and The Gaslamp are searchable options. Not aware of any Korean BBQ in the downtown area, nor is there any particularly good Mexican. Candelas is pretty upscale Mexican, usually gets good reviews, you can definitley eat there for less than $100 including beverages. Oceanaire Seafood is good for seafood, stick to the straightforward presentations. They also have a very good oyster bar. Happy hour is frequented by the lawyer/executive, be and be seen, power networking crowd. Have fun and let us know where you finally ate. ←

I'm going to San Diego in August for a work conference. I'll be staying at the gas lamp district and spending most of my days at the convention center. I was wondering if anybody had recommendations in those areas? As far as price, i don't mind spending money on good food, but can't really eat $50 lunches & $100 dinners everyday. I've tried looking in the forums but most of the recommendations seem pretty far from downtown. Also I won't have a car, but don't mind walking or taking public transportation like the trolley. Any help would be greatly appreciated as i absolutely hate convention center food. I'm particularly looking for a good korean bbq and tofu place, good seafood, and good mexican/latin american food.

As strange as it may seem this is actually my favorite dish at Jaleo. I haven't tried everything there, but i've had a decent sampling of dishes. This is the only one that sticks out in my mind based on taste. Don't get me wrong, i like a lot of the dishes, but this one i love.

I also really enjoyed the chowder at Neptunes. As i'm not from New England (last week was the first time i've ever been to new england), it was probably the best chowder i've ever had in my life. My picture's not quite as nice as Jasons

I was just in boston for a convention last week and decided to try Neptunes based on this thread. Just wanted to say thanks, enjoyed the food immensely. (Got the hot lobster roll and clam chowder) I also loved the North End in general and ate at Regina's as well as tried some canolli's at modern pastry. I'm from DC and i got to say Boston is a great city. Really enjoyed myself on the 2 free days i had there.

I seem to go long periods of time without checking this site. I ordered a roll that had scallops (in some sort of creamy sauce, the sauce almost had a mayonaisy flavor) on top. Bamboo rolls (i think that's what they were called they were covered w/ avocado), a sushi deluxe platter (2 pieces each of salmon, tuna, whitefish, 1 piece of roe roll, shrimp, and a california roll), a softshell tempura roll, and some standard rolls like tuna and california. All of them were pretty good, my favorite being the one w/ scallops (mostly because i love scallops). Don't get me wrong i've had better sushi, but for the price and location i thought it was definitely worthwhile. heh i'm the opposite of you dinwiddie. I seem to love all rice based alcohol. (sake, soju, baeksehju) Maybe it's the asian in me. Oh someone mentioned Tako. If you go there try the okonomotsu sake (if you're into sake), and of course the spicy tuna tempura rolls. I haven't eaten at Joe's noodle house in years and saw it mentioned a few times in this thread. Is it still good? (last time i ate there was around 2000)

I recently tried a decent sushi place in rockville called ni wano hana. It's right next to ben jarong. Crappy sake though.

Thanks for the responses. It was actually for dinner this monday at 8. Just made reservations a few hours ago. I guess it's a light night for dining out so no need for 1 week in advance.

I was wondering how difficult/easy it is to get a reservation here? How much in advance should I make it?

Check out the chicken place or Mi Peru. Both are in gaithersburg and I personally think both are better than crisp and juicy. 18216 Flower Hill Way, Gaithersburg, MD 20879 (Mi Peru) 117 N. Frederick Ave.; 301-519-9100 (The Chicken Place)

Hello, i'm new here and thought i'd chime in with a place that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere... mainly because it's in gaithersburg. It's called the Chicken Place, and is an authentic (as far as i know) Peruvian restaurant. I usually get the Bistec a la Pobre here, (flank steak w/ fried egg on top) and sometimes i get the rotisserie chicken. Service is generally very slow, and the last few times I went the restaurant was getting more and more crowded (I guess more people are discovering it). The Chicken Place, 117 N. Frederick Ave. 301-519-9100 Open Wed - Mon. The other place i'd like to recommend is Arirang on E. Gude in rockville. It is a Korean restaurant, but is not well known for bbq meats. This place is known for it's Jhiggae which is a type of Korean stew. I will warn that it's an interesting dish that not everyone likes, this is authentic Korean food. (I hated it as a kid and love it now) So.... i recommend their soon doo boo jhiggae which is a spicy tofu stew served bubbling hot in an earthenware bowl w/ white rice (also served in an earthenware bowl). Be very careful as the food will be extremely hot and will remain hot throughout the course of the meal. After you're done w/ the rice you pour some water/tea into the rice bowl and get a kind of burnt rice porridge. I'm also not sure if the servers speak any english as the clientelle is almost 100% Korean. Other good dishes that my friends seem to enjoy, dol sot bibimbap, and khalbi dol sot bibimbap. 1326 E. Gude Dr. Rockville, MD 301.279.0023