A&J - Rockville, MD

My dad took me and the bf out to lunch last week for my belated birthday (snow and football season = dad's busy) so I picked the Northern Chinese-style dim sum place called A&J. Located on Rockville Pike in a small shopping center, there's limited parking, but its free. The closest metro station is Twinbrook on the red line. You can't really see this place from the road because it's down a hill, which is why I never knew it was there.

Not a huge restaurant, but its more cozy than I thought it would be. This was Sunday for lunch, and it was pretty packed in there.

When we walked in, everyone started speaking to us in Chinese, and I'm like "I don't speak Chinese", so the server came back with a menu in English. To order you just circle the ones you want. There are no carts being pushed around like Southern Chinese-style dim sum. The dishes came out whenever they were ready, and was fairly quick.


Sliced Beef- Marinated & Cooked w/Bean Paste ($4.15)
It was served cold, but had a nice flavor too it.

Smoked Chicken ($4.15)
It had a very smokey flavor and was tender.

Braised Pork on Rice ($3.25)?
By process of elimination, this should have been Braised Pork on Rice, but it doesn't look like it. They would bring each dish out and say the name in Chinese, so for the most part I could guess what things were, but I'm not sure what this one is. Wasn't very memorable since it tasted plain.

Pan Fried Pork Dumplings/Pot stickers ($6.25)
They're very long, perfectly cooked and you get 8 of them. These was the table favorite and a recommendation of my coworker.

Scallion Pancake ($3.25)

Nice and crispy, with the yummy flavor of scallions.

Thousand Layer Pancake ($3.25)
Similar to the scallion pancake, without anything in it, so it was a bit plain for me.

Steamed Beef Dumplings ($2.85)
You get 4 of them, and they were soft and had the right amount of salt.

Sweet Soybean Milk ($1.55)
The bf ordered this because he thought it would taste like Silk soy milk or Almond milk. It definitely has a stronger soy flavor, and its not as sweet as Silk brand.


The environment was much more calm than dim sum restaurants that have carts. The food wasn't greasy and I didn't use ANY soy sauce because everything tasted fine on its own. I wish we had ordered a soup dish or noodles just to see how they were. This is a 'cash only' restaurant. Food was so cheap - 7 dishes, a drink, free pot of tea for 3 people was around $30, and we were stuffed!

1319 Rockville Pike
Ste C
Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 251-7878
http://www.yelp.com/biz/a-and-j-rockville

Mon-Fri. 11:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Sat-Sun. 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.