Bob's Noodle 66 in Rockville Maryland: Authentic Taiwanese Food

Bob's Noodle 66 is a Taiwanese restaurant located on Rockville Pike, Maryland. This restaurant is often full during Friday nights and a popular mealtime spot for the local Chinese community.

The restaurant's main cuisine theme is Taiwanese seafood, sea loofah is available as an entree, and other seafood specialties like soft-shell crab are also offered. Service is mediocre, but my water glass is always promptly filled. Sometimes, when the restaurant is especially busy, I find myself having to wave down waitresses who otherwise are organizing bowls behind the bar area. It should be noted that some waitresses here are uncomfortable with making eye-contact. Patrons should not be offended by this. In East-Asian culture, not making eye-contact is a sign of respect.

The atmosphere is as most Chinese restaurants are: noisy with clinking bowls and conversations in Chinese. The surrounding décor is drab and forgettable. But you never got to a Chinese restaurant for the setting. You go for the food.

Speaking of food, Bob's Noodle 66 has generous portions and base-bottom prices. It is hard to find a better deal in the Rockville, Maryland area. A typical lunch or dinner, plus a cold beer, will set you back about fifteen dollars.

Highlights of the menu include a "Taiwanese hamburger," which consists of a generous slab of pork tenderloin between a slice of soft, Chinese-style bread, seasoned with brown sugar, parsley, and chopped peanuts. This appetizer is a favorite of mine and runs between two and three dollars. Eating two of these will probably fill you up. Another appetizer I especially recommend is the glutinous rice intestine sausage. The name will probably drive the more faint-of-heart away, but the sausage is especially full of flavor and worth at least one try.

The fried rice here is quite mediocre, tasting like a microwave concoction with some frozen squid thrown in. If you want a better, more authentic Chinese entrée, then go for the Taiwanese noodle soup, with egg and slices of pork. Another impressive main dish is the beef with hot peppers. If you are interested in trying spicy food that goes especially good with rice, then this is the dish for you. The fried squid/calamari is also great; this is a dish that is made for Americans, so the flavors are more suited towards those who are used to eating non-authentic Chinese food. However, this seasoned veteran of Chinese cuisine still found the fried squid to be quite delicious. More conservative fans of Chinese cuisine (such as recent immigrants) will probably want to skip on this dish, it may be too oily and "American" for their tastes.

As for desert, I order only one thing on the menu: shaved ice. The shaved ice is freshly made, and comes with various toppings such as red beans (I promise you it tastes better than it sounds, red beans and mung beans are traditional dessert ingredients in China), and pineapple.

The portions for every item I have ordered is extremely large. I have never been able to finish an entrée at the restaurant. Even at home, the entrée usually takes two more days to fully disappear.

Overall, this is a good place to go if you want authentic, Taiwanese-style food, you get a lot for a great price. If you are not sure about what to order, waitresses are helpful with suggestions.