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Review content:
By Julia Beizer Friday, April 16, 2010 At a glance: It would be easy to overlook the little red roadhouse across the street from the Rockville Metro station. It's a tiny, nondescript building with little more than a sign and some icicle lights to set it apart. But inside Al Carbon, Milvia Dinorah and her husband, Jose Luis Serrant, have created a spare but welcoming space where you can sup on flavors from all over Latin America. The concrete walls in the small restaurant are painted shades of red and yellow, and tin coffee cans serve as planters for the greenery in the window. On a recent Sunday afternoon, a man performed instrumental versions of classic rock tunes on a wooden flute and sang spirited songs in Spanish. On the menu: For dinner, Al Carbon offers a broad menu of tapas dishes that traipse across South and Central America. It's hard to go wrong with the arepas, a specialty of the owner's home country of Venezuela; the crispy crust yields to reveal a soft corn pancake. A Peruvian-style ceviche is bright with citrus and cilantro, and topped with ribbons of bell pepper and red onion. Tacos are done right here. Warm corn tortillas hold cubes of grilled steak and a dice of tomato, red onion and cilantro. The small plates generally are priced between $3.50 and $7.95 -- and it takes only two or three to fill you up. The Bandeja Paisa is easily the best deal on the menu. Order this dish and a wooden platter arrives with a piece of grilled steak, a link of chorizo, fried plantains and a fried egg along with rice and beans. It's enough food to feed two, especially if you order a few small side dishes. The brocheta is another great entree. Simple rounds of beef, chicken and vegetable are infused with the scent from the wood fire. The meal is presented at the table on a huge metal skewer. It's worth noting that the menus are subject to change. The dinner menu includes the small tapas dishes detailed above, but don't expect to find those on Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday nights. On Sunday, it's lunch all day long. On Tuesday nights, the restaurant offers only three dishes, so Milvia can take a night off. The three -- carne asada, chicken breast with pesto and steak tacos -- are among the best and are available with rice, beans, salad and slaw; each dish is less than $10. On Thursday, the restaurant recently added a fajita and sangria night. The lunch menu is geared toward the grab-and-go crowd and includes such dishes as a fajita sub -- grilled steak and stringy peppers and onions on a sub roll. The restaurant also offers breakfast. At your service: Dinorah says she wanted her restaurant to have the comfortable feel of "the house of an old lady." She achieves that through the decor to some degree, but ultimately it's her welcoming presence that helps drive that point home. "Have you been here before?" she asks on my first visit. When I answer no, she endearingly tells me that I've "wasted half" of my life. But beyond the great welcome, the service could use some work. There is often a long wait between courses, and some people are served long after others at the same table. I've dealt with more than a few panicked servers. Dinorah knows this is a common customer complaint. She says lunchtime service is much more efficient because the dishes are prepared for quick service. My advice: Expect a delay and pass the time chatting up your dining companions. The dishes are worth the wait. What to avoid: The fish, simply cooked in banana leaves, needed more flavor to sell it. The papas rellenas, a breaded-and-baked bomb of stuffed potatoes, seemed like the kind of dish best left at a sports bar. Wet your whistle: The fizzy, fruit-laden sangria is a popular alcoholic tippler. The restaurant also offers Latin beers, sodas and juices. Bottom line: There are plenty of restaurants vying for your dining dollars near the movie theaters at Rockville Town Center. Add this one to your list for a pre-movie bite -- just be sure to allow enough time before the show.
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