Restaurants in Olney

The scents of made-to-order sandwiches first started wafting from the doors of The Woodside Deli in 1947, when it began meeting the lunching, snacking, and catering needs of the residents of Silver Spring. Decades of success saw the business overgrow its original location and expand to one in Rockville, where a restaurant menu offers up chewy bagels, meaty diner fare, and philly cheesesteaks dripping with melted provolone cheese. High Holiday and Passover menus offer kosher treats, and catering services can fill bellies at bar or bat mitzvahs, corporate events, and baby’s-first-tax-return parties.

The Jerk Pit’s white wood siding and covered porch might lead folks to think they’re stepping into owner Lisa Waddell Rose’s own house—and that’s likely what she intended. Within the warm, comfortable digs, light-orange walls evoke offerings of carrot juice beside a bar painted with a sun and bright crescent moon. The chefs apply spicy blends of seasonings to transform morsels of chicken, pork, fish, and tofu into traditional Jamaican jerk dishes, served alongside other staples such as curried goat and ackee with saltfish. While sipping on Jamaican soda or sweet iced tea, patrons can utilize the Pit’s free WiFi to download sounds of crashing waves or pictures of the Caribbean's blueberry-flavored waters.

Bright murals of fish swim across the walls of Steamers Seafood House, where diners sit at red-checkered tables chomping crab, fried shrimp, salad, and burgers. An aquatically themed menu celebrates crab with snow-crab legs, crab-cake platters, all-you-can-eat Maryland blue crab feasts, and mysterious choruses of “Under the Sea” every time diners turn the page. When not slurping oysters and mussels from the shell, tearing into a crabmeat burger, or dining on ribs, patrons watch sports on HDTVs stationed in the main room or enjoy the outdoor scenery from the restaurant’s large patio.

Part of a growing community of Ethiopian eateries in Silver Spring, according to the Gazette, Abyssinia Ethiopian Restaurant has served up generous portions of authentic east African fare since 2009. Goblets of traditional honey wine accompany plates of cubed lamb marinated in red-wine sauce or vegetarian dishes with lentils, cabbage, and collard greens. Guests can sop up buttery sauces with spongy sourdough injera bread, or use them to finger-paint admiring portraits of the live musicians who occasionally perform in the dining room.

Bottles populate the menus at Mannequin Pis, advertising the extensive selection of Belgian beers and primarily French wines that lines the dining room's shelves and windowsill. Originally founded by Belgian chef Bernard Dehaene, the restaurant "feels as if it were plucked from a cobblestone street in Brussels" according to the Washingtonian, which awarded Mannequin Pis a spot on its list of the 100 Best Restaurants in 2011.

Although the menu includes pan-seared trout and roasted pork loin, the spotlight is reserved for its mussels. Kilograms of bivalves bask in one of the chefs' 17 signature broths, waiting to be opened by deft hands or sincere compliments in wine- or beer-based mixtures that incorporate bacon, coconut milk, or lobster bisque.

Perhaps it was his own voyage across the Atlantic Ocean as a child that inspired Italian chef Tony Marciante’s seafood-heavy menu at his eponymous restaurant. Broiled scallops, jumbo shrimp, pure-lump crab cake, cod, and freshwater trout populate the dinner selection, making the filet mignon, chicken scaloppini, and vegetable medley stand out. In his entrees, Chef Tony aims to use sustainable seafood and produce, organic meats, and artisan foods when possible, so the menu changes regularly to correspond with what is in season. The kitchen also accommodates those adhering to gluten-free or vegan diets and those who have never gotten over the scary asparagus scene in Jaws. As soft jazz music plays and colorful lights twinkle over cloth-covered tables, Chef Tony Restaurant easily shifts from a bustling dinner scene to a lunch and Sunday-morning brunch spot. Bartenders pour bottomless mimosas for early-morning eaters, and complimentary WiFi keeps businesspeople from talking noisily on their tin-can phones.