#TBT Restaurant Review: 8407 Kitchen Bar

First of all, please let us apologize for the long delay since our last blog post. Life has been extra busy and crazy for both of us, especially as we were working hard to get through the final month of the spring semester and academic year. But we definitely missed the #HappyTummyList and are so happy to be back! Now on to our review!

The semester was so close to being over and we were incredibly happy to rejoice. In an effort to celebrate the upcoming end of the semester, we decided to go to happy hour at 8407 Kitchen Bar in Silver Spring, Maryland at the end of April (which feels like forever ago!). The restaurant is in a cozy part of downtown Silver Spring, right near the Silver Spring Metro Station. If you go, bring your appetite and change for the parking meters. The restaurant is very close to public parking, which is definitely a plus.

Simone's Review:

After entering the restaurant, I realized that I had not been to happy hour since it was warm outside and so I was excited to have a drink and eat some food. The restaurant's host instructed us to sit wherever we liked, so we sat in the back of the first floor at a comfortable table with some padded bench seating. We decided to order rail drinks since the happy hour drink special was cheap. For our appetizers, we ordered the House-Made Guacamole, Queso Fondido, Salmon Bites, Buttermilk Fried Calamari, and Duck Confit Spring Rolls (that's a lot of food, but wait to hear why we ordered so much). The Guacamole was standard guacamole: fresh, light, and kind to the palette. I could have lived without the Queso Fondido, which was very watery and did not have a lot of flavor. After tasting the Queso Fondido, I recommended that we leave it be, but Damien felt that we had to say something to our server (he can tell you about that later). And then there was the Salmon Bites. You ever eat something that looks odd but it tastes amazing? That was definitely the Salmon Bites. They looked like pieces of the very roughly sliced up fish, but they were so good! Do not judge the Salmon Bites solely by their appearance. The Calamari was good but the real hero was the sauce that came with the calamari. The sauce was this spicy salsa verde and I would put that sauce on everything. And finally, the Duck Confit Spring Rolls were crispy and delicious and were a great way to end our happy hour. The sauce that came with the spring rolls was incredibly yummy and unique as well.

Damien's Review:

Simone and I definitely had a great time at happy hour, especially as we tried to motivate ourselves to get through the end of the semester. I had been to 8407 Kitchen Bar once before for happy hour, and remember all of our food and drinks being wonderful, so I was excited to go again. Our table was in a really nice and cozy space and part of the restaurant. In terms of our food, the Salmon Bites were great. Simone is right: they looked a bit suspect but were really delicious. I would encourage 8407 to think about the presentation of these bites, but the flavor was absolutely there. The House-Made Guacamole was pretty good. I like my guacamole with a little more kick than this guacamole had (a jalapeño would have definitely done the trick!), but I would recommend it for anyone who likes a non-spicy guacamole. The chips that came with the guacamole were corn tortilla chips and had a nice taste. The chips also accompanied the Queso Fondido, but unfortunately, the queso dip was really bland. Although there was chorizo in it, which should have brought lots of good flavor, the dip really fell short. Our server (who was fantastic, by the way), noticed that we didn't really eat any of the Queso Fondido and asked why we didn't like it. When I told him why, he took it away and comped it for us, which was really nice. As such, we decided to stay and order more food. The Buttermilk Fried Calamari and the Duck Confit Spring Rolls were both really delicious. The spicy salsa verde dip that came with the calamari didn't quite pair well in my opinion, but the sweet chili sauce that came with the spring rolls was really amazing and worked for both the calamari and the spring rolls. We definitely enjoyed our final two appetizers.

Our Review:

Overall, we would give 8407 Kitchen Bar a 3.5 out of 5. We definitely enjoyed the ambiance of the restaurant, the happy hour specials, our drinks, and almost all of our appetizers. Also, the service was fantastic - our server was really nice, attentive, helpful, and accommodating. Although we had issues with a couple of our appetizers, 8407 Kitchen Bar is certainly a place we would recommend for happy hour in Silver Spring (it helps that Damien had been before and had a really great experience and great food). And their dinner menu also looks pretty great. Until next time, treat yourself to a great meal with even better company soon!