Local Review: The Barking Dog Restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland

Bethesda, Maryland is filled with businesses, and therefore is a great location for restaurants looking to draw in the lunch crowd. The area with the most restaurants has become known as restaurant row and that is where you will find The Barking Dog Restaurant. The Barking Dog Restaurant is located at 4723 Elm Street in Bethesda, Maryland. The Barking Dog has become known as a restaurant where you can get an affordable sandwich for lunch any day of the week, and you can catch some great specials twice a week. Not only that, but The Barking Dog is also known to have a fun happy hour after work which includes $1 off every alcoholic drink on the menu including the twelve beers they have on tap.

On a recent Friday afternoon a coworker and I went out for lunch at The Barking Dog. Unfortunately for us it was our first trip and we looked over the menu too quickly making our choices to realize that on Fridays from 11 am until 3 pm The Barking Dog has discounted steak subs. There are only two steak subs on the menu and they usually sell for $8. On Fridays though between 11 am and 3 pm you can have these for just $5, which is a great price for a sub in Bethesda, Maryland where everything seems to usually be overpriced.

Even though we didn't realize the special, we did find that the menu at The Barking Dog, even without the special is reasonably priced. Most sandwiches or subs are just $7-9 each. These include reasonably good "dinner fry" style french fries. Those are the thick ones with plenty of potato inside as opposed to the thin ones you find at many fast food restaurants and also with many lunch orders at standard restaurants.

The menu includes 11 different subs and club sandwiches, and the Turkey and Pastrami sub did catch my eye. It is turkey, pastrami, served hot with melted swiss cheese and barbecue sauce on a rye bun. I was tempted to get this, but instead chose on of the five chicken sandwiches on the menu. I had the bourbon chicken sandwich and my coworker went with the buffalo chicken sandwich. We both were impressed with the size of the pieces of chicken on the sandwiches as they stuck out way past the edges of the buns. The buns were tasty as were the sandwiches. The fries mention above were also pretty good, not great mind you, but better than the average french fries.

We ended up spending $25 on our meal for the sandwiches and tip to our friendly waitress. This is about average for lunch in Bethesday, Maryland. The Barking Dog has quality food, and we will be coming back. Not only does The Barking Dog in Bethesda, Maryland have the steak sub special on Fridays for $5, they also have $5 plain hamburgers all day on Tuesdays. You order a hamburger and then add 50 cents for each topping that you choose on Tuesdays. We will probably make our next trip on a Tuesday to try their hamburgers out.