Drago's Seafood Restaurant

This place has a lot of hype for a hotel restaurant, but as someone with a seafood allergy I really do not care. However, since I was staying in said hotel, this was a perfect place to eat with 7 of my closest friends (or, 3 of them and 4 grad students)! We waited at the hotel bar for a bit and then were forced to "be counted" before we could either make the reservation or sit down. A bit weird and potentially age-ist? Anyway, the waiter was pleasant and I ordered the boneless short rib, which was a huge hunk of meat. It was tender as promised, and was decently good but I think I actually liked the other restos in NOLA better. The service here was notably quicker, though, and more willing to make substitutions. Still, it was too awkward to finish my meat, and it was really expensive for what it was.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Chef Tony's Restaurant

This place is in downtown Bethesda, aka it's by NIH (my part time job). I let my dad pick the place and this turned out to be a decent pick, since even though it's a seafood resto and I'm allergic to all seafood, they had plenty of other non-fishy pasta and chicken dishes. Whew. I will say that the entryway to the place kind of smelled like a bathroom air freshener, which was weird, but the inside was nice and dark, chill, and low-key. There were fishtanks! And the other people eating there seemed like regulars who come all the time, which makes sense but is also a good sign. They didn't have the first beer I ordered, and the service was a little bit slow (which is annoying because the parking is by meter and they don't take cards so you have to use the stupid parking app etc etc) but overall it was a good experience. I ordered the Chicken Marsala which randomly had a tomato-marsala sauce instead of just mushroomy, but it was good and plenty filling. Dad seemed decently happy with whatever fish thing he ordered, too.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10