Welcome to an endless summer of excellent food, desserts, and beautiful decor at this West Coast-themed restaurant in Rockville’s (North Bethesda) Pike & Rose town center outside Washington, D.C. With your first step into Summer House Santa Monica, you are greeted by a bright summer feel, a cookie bar, and the smell of great food. While the menu has a wide variety of food, we predominantly come here for the tasty brunch because we are the Brunch Boys. Regardless of the season outside, this place feels like Summer every day.
This place is listed as a diner on Yelp, but this is probably the most modern diner I’ve ever been to. However, it defines itself. The place is fantastic and should take my money and feed me excellent nom nom. Every January 1st, Summer House hosts a PJs Brunch where your whole party can get some gift cards/deals on food for wearing some pajamas. Even the staff gets into it and wears fun outfits.
After a few visits, we can say that this is one of the best restaurants in the metro area. Some DC nomsters might say it is too far; well, gurl, the place is worth it. Metro Redline is only a few minutes away. Plus, as an additional bonus, some adorable eye candy is working here that gays and girls might appreciate XOXO.
Beautiful Decor
We rarely mention the restaurant’s decor or atmosphere, but this place is so beautiful and well decorated that it needs to be highlighted. This is one of the brightest, lightest, and beautifully decorated restaurants. It truly showcases summer without being overbearing. The decor is straightforward and clean, and this nomster loves using neutral shades with splashes of bright colors. The person that picked every item did a fantastic job. Now I’m wondering: can they come help decorate my place?
Smoked Salmon Hashbrown Benedict (5 NOMs)
There is no brunch without a fantastic egg dish. These perfectly poached eggs definitely fit the bill. It takes a lot to impress these nomsters as we are big egg lovers. During this weekend brunch, Summer House raised the game to a new level that few restaurants can match. Beautifully prepared runny yolk eggs with light hollandaise sauce on top of thinly sliced grilled salmon and super crunchy hash browns made for intense flavors that satisfied us nomsters. The hashbrowns are crunchy but not overcooked, matching everything else’s soft texture. If salmon is not your thing, you can order this dish with candied bacon instead. This is probably our brand new favorite place for eggs Benedict.
One minor change we’d make had to do with the salmon. We think this would be even better if the salmon were smoked. We tried our friend’s smoked salmon and fell in love with it. The next time we visit the Summer House, we might try to see if we could substitute for some. This was an excellent dish, but adding that smokey flavor could have made it into our 6 NOMs club of OMG AMAZ-BALLS DISH. Price-wise, this is on the same level as most restaurants, but with such high quality, you are getting far more for $13. So if you are a brunch-loving hungry nomster, this is a must-try.
Hashbrown Eggs Benedict (5/5 NOMs)
Eggs and bacon are best friends forever, especially when they are joined in this brunch-coming dish. Yet another fantastic dish from the egg masters of Summer House. They sure know how to make an egg lover like me happy! Why would I even order anything else? These eggs were perfectly prepared, and I loved the giant slab of thin pork belly bacon. It’s not often a restaurant that gives you enough bacon goodness. Most would do like 2 or 3 slices, and that’s it. You can’t even see most dishes here because of all the bacon on top. Those slices pair well with lovely giant eggs with perfectly runny yolks. We enjoyed that their Hollandaise sauce wasn’t heavy, allowing the other ingredients’ flavors to shine through. We were split between giving this 4 or 5 NOMs, but we’re giving a whole NOM point just for the bacon amount in this dish. This is a great value as well. For $13, you get a dish that will leave you one happy nomster.
Fresh Berry Waffles (3 NOMs)
Let’s get berry happy with some waffle noming. Is this a dessert or an entree? Who cares! This is brunch, meaning breakfast is lunch, and lunch is breakfast. This large and thick waffle would satisfy any food-size queen like us. It comes with an assortment of fresh berries, whipped cream, and Vermont maple syrup. While the waffles are nice and thick, they are still very soft and don’t require a whole bunch of syrup to swallow them. After all, it’s excellent to swallow when eating something so big ;). For a waffle dish, this is enough to share with a friend. The $11 price tag makes it an affordable dish to share or eat all by yourself.
Gluten Free Cookies (5 NOMs)
The dessert bar is far better than an alcohol bar when it has so many gluten-free cookies. You heard it right; they have a bar just for desserts, fully stocked with sweet goodies like cookies, s’more bars, and so much more. We are fans of these giant cookies with their crunchy, gooey, and sweet flavors. The bar has many choices that make you feel like a kid at a cookie store. We went for the chocolate walnut and chip cookies because chocolate is always great. Since these are gluten-free, we can enjoy more than one, right? These aren’t the cheapest cookies at $4 each, but they are worth it.
S’Mores Bar (6 NOMs)
Upgrade your nighttime campfire treats at the dessert bar. It’s fun exploring the new Town Center and all the unique restaurants it has to offer. We felt like wide-eyed kids again when we saw their dessert bar with many different sweets. As soon as you bite into this glorious creation, you realize how rich and thick it is. It’s a compact brownie so dense in flavor, and it’s like eating several brownies in one. And it’s all covered with a thick gooey layer of chocolate and topped with yummy S’Mores! Every bite is like pure heaven. While it may look small, this dessert has a flavor far more significant than its size. It’s even aheap nom –for just $4; you get far more taste than your mouth can handle! Such a flavorful dessert would make a perfect end to your Summer House Santa Monica nom nom adventure.
11825 Grand Park Ave North Bethesda, MD 20852