El Mercat Bar De Tapas (***)
101 Gibbs Unit C Rockville, MD 20850
I think hubby and I have found our go-to Spanish restaurant in our part of Maryland. Olé! This place has it going on - amazing food, great service, nice decor, delicious cocktails, and decent prices.
Calamari, pan de tomate, and Spanish Spritz (basically a gin tonic). Although the Spanish Spritz was really satisfying, I wished the restaurant had more gin-based speciality cocktails especially since gin-tonic (or gin-tonica, or ginebra con tonic, etc.) is a popular beverage in Spain. Oh well, I guess you can't win them all.
Croquetas and papas bravas. All good in the hood with these two tapas.
Gambas al ajillo (shrimp with garlic). While this tapa was delicious, I was a bit disappointed that the shrimp were headless. I don't think that I've ever had headless gambas in a Spanish restaurant. Eh, I guess there is a first time for everything.
Seafood Paella with black rice. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture when it first arrived to the bar. Although this was very delicious, the Spanish hubby did not care for the green peas in the paella. He even sent a picture to his mom, and she was like WTF.
Martini de Granada. Ok, so I went a bit out of my comfort zone . . . I probably was feeling adventurous from all the gin tonics. While the cocktail looked pretty, the combined ingredients (orange vodka, pomegranate licor, egg whites, orange, and vanilla bitters) were an acquired taste for me . . . even though I do love egg whites in a cocktail. Like TLC said: don't go chasing waterfalls (in this case, new cocktails); please stick to the rivers and lakes that you're used to (in this case, gin tonics).
All in all, I have a feeling that we will visit this place a few more times over the next few months.