Barrel & Crow review: Good food at a fair price in Bethesda

This review appears in The Washington Post’s 2015 Fall Dining Guide.

Barrel & Crow

Sauteed shrimp with grit croquettes will make a diner pleased to eat amid salvaged barn wood and old airport windows, as will golden fried chicken and waffles, their crevices sweetened with strawberry-rhubarb compote. The Mid-Atlantic meets the South in a main course of mackerel with charred corn and pickled ramps. Not content to dish up what everyone else is serving, the chef finds a way to make each plate special: Beer-braised short ribs are better for their sauteed cornbread, and chocolate pudding gets competition from delicate shortbread cookies. (Credit for the latter goes to pastry ace Rita Garruba.)

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Good help is hard to find, evinced by friendly but forgetful servers. Palermo grills a great pork chop, but can someone, anyone, please find me a knife to cut it?

Barrel & Crow: 4867 Cordell Ave., Bethesda, Md. 240-800-3253. www.barrelandcrow.com.

Open: Lunch Monday through Friday, dinner daily, weekend brunch.

Prices: Lunch $11 to $15, dinner $18 to $29, brunch $11 to $26.

Sound check: 65 decibels / Conversation is easy.

Previous: No. 10 The Grill Room | Next: Beefsteak

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