Moon Gate Asian Restaurant & Bar

They changed the parking. It’s not free after 6 anymore. That’s the greedy county. Don’t blame the restaurant. Also, look for reviews under Foong Lin now.

I don’t get it…
First of all, this location is now the House of Foong Lin (I have submitted a note to Unilocal). Moon Gate deserved 3.5 to 4 stars but I cannot say the same for House of Foong Lin. It is important to note that Foong Lin cuisine is Cantonese so you can’t expect the same kind of food but it did not meet my expectations regardless.
My fiancé and I ordered 3 dishes:
Beef and broccoli
Eggplant with hot garlic sauce
Shrimp with walnuts
The portions fit the price… for about $ 13 a dish, each filled a circular container about 5″ long to the brim, enough for a group of about 4, so there were leftovers. It also came with 2 containers of rice. All the dishes seemed to be cooked by throwing all the ingredients together and not systematically when each ingredient should be added.
The beef and broccoli had an equal amount of beef and broccoli (which I like) and the broccoli still had a tiny crunch. You could taste the flour/​cornstarch on the beef which gave it a weird slimy texture. My fiancé who is not picky and happens to be Cantonese, was the one who noticed. The sauce was also bland. The eggplant and hot garlic sauce was not at all spicy and lacked much flavor. It was just a bunch of sauce with onions and eggplant. The shrimp and walnut dish was interesting. It was basically a stir fry of shrimp and veggies in a lot of broth-​like sauce. It was topped off with some caramelized walnuts and garnished with sesame seeds. We didn’t understand why crunchy walnuts would be topping a soupy dish but we actually enjoyed eating the walnuts alone.
We did not enjoy our meal and were upset at how much we spent (about $ 40) on three dishes we didn’t enjoy. To top it off, the fortune cookies were thin and brittle! Ok, I know they don’t make these in house but it was an upsetting end to a unsatisfactory meal. Sadly, we won’t be coming back even though it’s conveniently located from our home.

**Foong Lin is back in business in Bethesda, he has recently bought this restaurant out, and is bringing all of his original items back and making this the best chinese restaurant in Bethesda. Good Chinese food, and very accommodating. Drinks are awesome here also, very heavy pours. Hope to see you here, next time it’ll be a different restaurant name!

I never understood why this place got such high ratings. I used to live about a five-​minute walk away from moongate and my experience with them was most of the sauces seem to be completely uninspired and very bland, not much more then what I could do it home.
As close as it was to me I so wanted it to be the best place around that I could brag on and go to lunch once or twice a week, but despite the great reviews that this place used to get on Unilocal I never experienced such good results.
One thing that used to occur to me is that I always used to get carry out, and I wonder if perhaps the dining in experience was somehow better, but I have some doubts about that.

This restaurant changed management in the last two weeks. (end of Dec 2012)
My favorite Chinese spot is GONE!
1) my favorite lunch specials are gone — No more crispy shredded chicken, and Hunan chicken is no longer on lunch special
2) egg drop soup is gone
3) good service is gone
Seriously, the service was terrible… The waiter was very unable to answer questions and generally unhelpful, they forgot to give us our tea, we had to ask for everything we needed instead of them checking up on us. It was incredible slow too! And they were very inhospitable.
There was a woman yelling on the phone for about 10 minutes about how the other people didn’t pay the rent and how she couldn’t get anyone in to work today (day after Christmas). Very disrupting.
They refused to do dishes that used to be on the lunch special menu as a lunch special anymore.
Not going back! My favorite spot is gone and I would be embarrassed if anyone who I recommended this place to before (when they were great) ended up going here now.

Bad bad! The sauce for the spicy Hunan wantons was the same as for potstickers!

I love the food here. The pan-​fried meat dumplings are particularly good – flavorful pork with just the right amount of dough. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to share them and get and extra order to go. The orange beef had a crispy coating surrounding tender meat, with a just a bit of heat in the sauce. It would be 5 stars, but the sweet and sour pork had an odd, unpleasant texture. In future we’ll stick with beef and chicken dishes, which are always delightful.
The service is always very quick, dishes arriving while still steaming hot. The staff is pleasant. Their décor is a bit dated, but the food more than compensates.

I don’t know what happened to this place, but it is not good anymore. The egg drop soup is still good, and we tried the szechuan pork dumplings, which were good, but everything else we got was just bland. The portions are pretty stingy and the prices are higher than other restaurants in the area. Spring Garden in Tenleytown is cheaper and the food is better.

Very pleased with the food. I got lunch take-​out, so I can’t review the eat-​in experience. But my meal was very good.
I got a lunch special, hot & sour soup and hunan chicken. The soup was flavorful. The hunan chicken had just the right amount of moderately spicy sauce. The chicken was moist.
Overall a very good meal for the cost.

My family and I have been going here for years now. I really like this place. The food is really good, the prices are good. I’ve had so many different things on their menu over the years and I can’t remember not liking something. I remember the eggplant being good and the duck is to die for.
4 stars because I think this place has a lot of potential but hasn’t lived up to it. Overall good food and good staff.

Food was very good but the service was very slow. Will definitely try again!

I really enjoyed their food! I had a Rock N’ Roll which is a spicy roll with tuna and avocado and I think one other fish in this roll, which I can’t recall, but, they made it soo beautiful that I took a photo and put it on facebook in one of my many food albums! LOL! It was great service and (at the time rather empty) I had just come from the Women’s market across the street which I had never been to. and I was soooo hungry! They made me feel absolutely fantastic! Their food was yummy! I have been searching for a much cleaner Sushi Restaurant… because the Taipei Tokyo I went to (that I usually went to eat in Rockville, Md. severely disappointed me recently!)There was a chef there who coughed and coughed in that part where they fix the Sushi and he never bothered to cover his mouth. I told the manager and they just laughed at me! I would rather prefer to go and dine at a restaurant where they are MUCH cleaner than that! Know what I am saying?!? SO, far I am going to rate Moon Gate with Four stars. I really enjoyed their food and they were sooo nice and kind! I tipped them fairly well! LOL! *smiles*

Moongate has the potential to become our go to Chinese spot. My husband and I have lived very close to this place for a while but have never tried it until last weekend. The service was very attentive and the portions were HUGE. I enjoyed my Hot and Sour soup — it wasn’t as spicy as I usually like it but otherwise it was great. I had the crispy beef and my husband had the soft shell crabs. Both had a tiny bit too much batter, but the sauces were delicious. Overall it seems to be an above average Chinese restaurant that I am sure we will be going to again.

Things I like: Really good prices, $ 9.95 dinner special Monday — Thursday. The ambiance is lovely: two rooms separated by a high stone arch with etched glass windows and a gas log fire glowing in the room you first enter from the street. Some mirrored walls and custom window valances add to the lovely atmosphere. We were last there on a Friday night in January 2011 and the rooms were peppered with many diners, although plenty of seating was available. It never seems to get too loud in the restaurant despite the number of people. My dining partner enjoyed the a special listed the whiteboard, of Asparagus Triple Delight, and I, asking the waiter not to laugh, ordered chicken chow mein, $ 8.50, and one of their drink specials, a long island iced tea $ 5.75. So, now that you’ve lost all faith in me as a reviewer because I ordered the chow mein and the first thing I liked about the restaurant is their really good prices, try out Moongate for yourself. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Other things we’ve liked on past visits are: the Chow Fun dishes, the wonton soup (the wonton noodles are thin and tender, but not mushy, a tasty pork filling, and a yummy broth.), and pretty much whatever we’ve ordered. The vegetables are tender crisp, the portions are generous, and the sauces are flavorful. We always ask the hot oil condiment as my partner likes his food spicy and I do not.

After 2 years, I finally made a trip to Moongate to get some take out. I was encouraged by some of the reviews I got from neighbors and my boss, but ended up with the wrong order. I ordered spicy eggplant with chicken and chicken with snow peas, both standard Chinese dishes. What I got was fried eggplant with ginger and scallions and a vegetarian rice noodle dish. I sure feel bad for the possible vegetarian who got my order although they probably paid less and got 2 meat dishes. Maybe their meat eating significant other was the real winner that night. I think once I give Moongate another try, they could easily be a 3 or 4 star place, but until then please practice getting orders right…

I tried Moongate Restaurant again just to be sure that I wasn’t hitting them on an off day the first couple of times I went. Well, they seem to be pretty consistent in the «not good» department.
While service is good, and the atmosphere is pleasant, I have a really hard time with the poor quality of the ingredients and the lack of skill shown in cooking/​preparation.
One can do better in Bethesda, that’s for sure.

My family has been eating at Moongate for many years and it’s a tradition for us to go there almost every time my husband & I visit my mother. The food and service have always been very good. We ate there two nights ago and our server even remembered my aunt’s favorite dish, despite the fact that my aunt hadn’t been there for many months.
(Update on 9÷12÷10): We ate there last night and my husband & I each ordered the seafood medley special, which was *really* delicious (and quite a bargain at $ 13.95, as we could have gotten two meals out of it — but we weren’t going directly home and therefore we forced ourselves to eat all of it at the restaurant).

After several more lunches here, I felt that I really needed to give Moongate an upgrade.
My FA dines here every Wednesday for lunch and then hits up the Women’s Farmers Market next door and some days I’m lucky enough to accompany him. The lunch special here is a really good deal — a soup + entrée for $ 6.95-$ 8.95 depending on which one you get. They recently changed their menus and added a bunch of new options which sounded great. I had the homestyle tofu and veggies today — it wasn’t the best I’ve ever had but it was highly enjoyable.
What stands out most is the service. Of course, they know my boss well, but I noted how pleasant they were to everyone in the restaurant. Fast, friendly and not overbearing — just right!
They also did some re-​painting in the dining room and they have new menus to go with the menu changes. It was nice and the owner seemed to be very excited about it.
All in all, a great spot for a quick, cheap lunch.