Mon Ami Gabi — Restaurant in Bethesda

An alumni dinner at Mon Ami Gabi was a nice consolation in making me momentarily forget and feel better about how much I owe in dental school debt. We were treated to a four course dinner where we were given a prefix menu with 3-4 selections for each course (except for salad course). My classmate and I decided to split each course to sample as many items as possible. We opted for warm Brie and scallop gratinees for appetizers, chicken pillard and mustard salmon for entrees, and profritoles and chocolate mousse for desserts.

They started us off with warm, toasty house made French baguette with soften better. Carbs and I are inseparable - I especially appreciated that they spent the time and effort in heating them up! These baguettes were the perfect munch as they worked up our appetites on what were to come!

Scallop gratinees - they turned out to be too good to share. I polished my plate clean before acknowledging "oh ya we were supposed to split". The cheesy, bubbly cream over the sweet, caramelized onion baked over meaty, whole scallop. Wished there were more than 3!

Mustard salmon - moist, flavorful, made to perfection. Paired with citrus sauce over the buttery, creamy mashed potato - what a nice contrast!

Chicken pillard - the chicken was a bit dry for my taste. However the baked kabocha squash and mushroom sides were beyond delicious! I would order this dish again just got the sides alone!

Profitoles - puff pastries filled with giant scoops of vanilla ice cream and drenched in chocolate fudge sauce - what is there to not love? Pure scrumptious!

Chocolate mousse - light, smooth, and airy - everything a chocolate mousse should be! Loved the extra crunch from the dark chocolate puffs and the additional creaminess from the whipped cream!

Since I have a reputation of insatiable appetite, all leftovers were generously offered to me. I was able to sample the traditional steak and creme brûlée. Tbh I'm not a big red meat eater - the steak was a bit tough and I didn't think it was all that special. However, the dollop of herb butter over the steak was a nice touch!. The creme brûlée on the other hand was out of the world! Rich, decadent, so so so good. Already had eaten 6 courses worth of food, my stomach managed to expand further and finished everything.

Overall, what a treat! Service was beyond attentive even in a private, large group setting. Price can be a bit steep but well worth it! Happy belly = happy alumni. Hope my school hosts all future alumni events at Mon Ami a Gabi! I will be sure to clear my...

Hadn't been to Mon Ami since before the pandemic -- many visits during many years beforehand -- and I saw a marked change. The wait staff is much younger and far less experienced now...a sign of the times. Upon being seated in the main dining area, one chair edge of the tablecloth had visible brown stains and/or a dirty cloth was simply left on the table covered by a clean paper top sheet. Upon notifying the waiter, he asked if my party wanted to relocate to another table, which we didn't, yet the waiter didn't make the appropriate decision to change the tablecloth. That should have been a no-brainer. One of my party called over the manager to get that done. A customer should never have to ask for an unsightly or dirty tablecloth change, particularly in an upscale restaurant. There were also some lesser but still valid service foibles such as not providing straws with soft drinks, not clearing the many bread crumbs all over the tablecloth after my party enjoyed the delicious, crusty bread before the first course arrived, and not providing ketchup with fries...and then the waiter not bringing it after asked, so, a bus boy flagged down and asked for it, i.e., "WE need ketchup, please," but only one half-filled very small metal cup of ketchup for just one of the two obvious dishes with a mound of French fries on each was brought...and, a third request had to be made and an inordinate wait to receive it.

The waiter had a very pleasant disposition and the restaurant was busy but he needed to check back more frequently to ensure all was OK, particularly due to having forgotten to bring the meal condiment. Also, my steak au poivre, which I've had many times at Mon Ami, had a larger than acceptable amount of un-trimmed fat -- a first for me there.

Having worked in a fine-dining restaurant a hundred years ago -- tuxedo uniform, presenting live lobsters on large trays for patrons' personal selections, etc. -- my detailed training picked out the problems quickly, however, despite that background, as a guest of this restaurant, I still expect better trained wait staff.

Not at pre-pandemic standards of service or food quality, so, a bit disappointing. Won't be at the top of my list to visit again next...

It was a dark and stormy night and it was that time during the holidays that's after Christmas but before new year's. So time is almost a haze. My grandfather in-law swerved us to this fancy establishment where we had a reservation. We were instantly seated and began looking at the menu. I will say that they have a very nice selection. The server came to our table a couple times before we ordered but didn't stay very long or ask us for our drink orders. Finally we start ordering. And we ordered our drinks, appetizers, and entrees all at once. They refilled our waters one time the entire night. And they messed up my grandmother in-law's drink order.

One of the appetizers we ordered was the deviled eggs. They were so good but there were only 3 of them. I find that odd because it's an odd number. When making deviled eggs, one deviled egg is half of an egg. So since there were only 3 deviled eggs, their chickens must have laid only half an egg.

My food though was soooooo good. The food at this place is really good. When they brought it out, they put all the food in front of us and we started eating. I look over at my grandmother in-law and she looks concerned. She says this isn't what she thinks she ordered. We managed to flag our server and it was in fact not what she ordered. So once again, they messed up her order. They brought her new meal out quickly though. Again, the food tasted soooo good.

Our server didn't really come back to our table for a long time. And while we were eating, we kept hearing glass breaking from what I assume was dishes being dropped. But that's okay because it distracted from when my in-laws kept trying to talk politics. I'm so glad the food was good.

Someone finally came to our table to clear plates and my grandmother in-law ordered a refill on her drink which they got wrong again. We had to flag down our server for dessert and for the check. But we finally got it. We paid and began our journey home. When we went outside it had stopped raining and all was calm.

So there you have it. The story of the time we went to my friend Gabi, I mean Mon Ami Gabi. Would I go back? Possibly. The food was...