2007 Fall Dining Guide
By Tom Sietsema
Washington Post Magazine
Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007

No one goes to Bob's for the ambience. The industrial lighting, crumb-strewn brown carpet and sweeping view of a parking lot are hardly turn-ons. "If I came here by myself," a leery dining companion confides, "I wouldn't sit down." Yet over the course of dinner, I watch as his mood changes -- smoky, hand-cut noodles with juicy beef strips and a steaming, sputtering-hot bowl of chopped chicken with ginger will do that. So will squiggles of lightly marinated pork tossed with thinly sliced celery, bitter mustard greens and hits of black pepper, one of dozens of possibilities on this Taiwanese menu. (Tip: To get to the good stuff, corral the hostess and ask her what she'd eat if she were ordering for herself.) Not every dish makes up for the restaurant's lack of style -- an appetizer of bean curd skin wrapped around spongy fish cake bears an unfortunate resemblance to bread pudding.

But more than enough does, and the food comes out faster than you can turn this page. The price is right, too. It would be hard to spend more than $15 a head here, including tax, tip and a beer served in a frosted mug.