Three cheers for Gelico, El Tipico and China Bistro

Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2005

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Brian Lewis⁄The Gazette

Gelico’s table includes (clockwise from front) Greek salad, chicken portabella calzone, portabella pizza with baby spinach and roasted red peppers and spaghetti with meatballs.

Several tiny restaurants in close proximity can energize a shopping strip. These three, opened during the last six months, are worth discovering.

Gelico Café & Pizzeria

757 Hungerford Drive, Rockville

301-279-7474, fax 301-279-9191

Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Friday-Saturday 11 a.m.-11 p.m.

Entrée prices: $6.50-$11

Credit cards: All major cards

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Limited delivery (minimum order $10)

Why Gelico? The name of this 2-month-old café recalls Angelico, the owner’s previous restaurant in the District. A native of Turkey, he presides over a Mediterranean kitchen where gourmet pizzas, pastas and calzones meet sandwiches, pita wraps and lavash rolls.

The sleek café’s tables, seating about two dozen, have the look of brushed steel. The wall sconces resemble Venetian glass. The music bears a pleasant Brazilian stamp one day, Italian another.

Pizza is a good starting point. The dough is fresh as is the mozzarella. Spinach and artichoke (with mozzarella, feta, fresh tomato, caramelized onion and garlic herb sauce to boot) is one of seven gourmet pizzas. If they don’t suit, create your own pizza from a choice of two dozen ingredients.

Portions are large, I warn my friend. Still, all she can say when her ‘‘small” Gelico salad and our calzones arrive is ‘‘Oh, my gosh!” and ‘‘Good heavens!” These golden brown beauties are made from the same 10-inch base as the small pizzas. One puffy hemisphere holds meatballs, cheese and marinara sauce, the other chicken, portabella mushrooms, cheese and spicy roasted red pepper sauce.

For a lighter alternative, try the warm lavash rolls. The super-thin Eastern Mediterranean bread encases the same chicken combo, steak and cheese, spinach and artichoke or my favorite, roasted eggplant and pepper with red onions, kalamata olives, feta, mozzarella and pesto.

El Tipico

763 Hungerford Drive, Rockville

301-217-0568

Hours: Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m.-9 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m.-9 p.m.

Entrée prices: $4.99-$12.50

Credit cards: None

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Pollo al carbon (Peruvian style charbroiled chicken) and authentic Mexican-Salvadoran food are the tickets at El Tipico. Windows frame this corner eatery where high and regular tables seat about 26. The floor is covered with terra cotta tiles and tiny ceramic houses accent the walls.

For breakfast, you can indulge in a plate of huevos rancheros-casamiento (fried eggs with ranchera sauce, rice and beans and corn tortillas). At lunch or dinner, you might catch a whiff of mariscada, a hearty soup made with fish, shrimp, mussels and scallops, or pescado frito from the open kitchen. The menu gently reminds patrons that ‘‘fried fish is not boneless.”

What calls my name is the charbroiled chicken, dark brown and covered with seasoning. Enjoy it whole or by the half or quarter with two sides. The golden-colored deep-fried chunks of yuca (cassava) and sweet-tart cole slaw are first-rate accompaniments.

Beside the carryout counter, a refrigerator case has bottles of sangria and coconut juice, Inca Cola and Mexican guayaba or strawberry flavored bebidas.

China Bistro

755 Hungerford Drive, Rockville

301-294-0808, fax: 301-294-6299

Hours: Monday-Friday 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.

Entrée prices: $7.50-$9.25

Credit cards: AE, D, MC, V

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Catering

At lunchtime, space is at a premium. Sixteen fortunate diners sit at tables, some of necessity communal. Four more take places at the counter. Another four wait along the wall for their orders.

Asian faces abound. At a neighboring table (all tables actually are neighboring), three men sit with two children and three plates of dumplings. The Dumpling House menu lists eight varieties of dumplings. They are served 12 to an order, and the men are sampling three of them. Sorry that a plate of assorted dumplings is not an option, we order Mama’s special dumpling. The most popular choice, these plump morsels are filled with pork, shrimp, chives and Napa cabbage.

Although you might not guess from looking around, man does not live by dumplings alone. The full menu, nearly 100 items long, contains the familiar (my tablemate, a cognisenti, pronounces the crispy sesame chicken excellent) and the not so familiar. Vegetarian fare includes General Tso’s chicken (made with bean curd), orange peel beef (black mushroom is the substitute) and eel strips (versatile black mushroom again).

China Bistro offers free delivery within a three-mile radius (minimum order $12).