DAYS OFF DELI & GRILL
ADDRESS: 22608 Three Notch Road, Suite 3, Lexington Park, MD 20653
Last Thursday afternoon, my friend Jason and I were talking about where to catch the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four games on Saturday. We named off a bunch of different places, but ultimately decided to pay a visit to Days Off Deli & Grill. The fact that I hadn’t been to the place yet also helped the decision; I’m always up for trying a new spot.
The restaurant is located just off Three Notch Road, across the way from the San Souci shopping plaza. You can tell it’s got a sports bar-esque theme going from when you step in, with quite a few flat-screen TVs above the bar and on the restaurant walls, along with a massive projector screen to the right. The dining area itself is not too large; it’s only about four tables deep and then you’re at the bar.
Jason and I sat down at one of the four-person square-tops, lining ourselves up with a good view of the screen for the basketball game. Our waitress, Irene, came over not too long after to give us some menus and ask if we wanted any drinks. For the food, there was a wide variety of things to choose from, ranging between burgers to wraps, subs to cheesesteaks. For the drinks, they have a good number of beers on tap, while also featuring a few from Yards Brewing Company, a Philadelphia microbrewery.
We came up with the game plan to spread our order out a little bit, since we wanted to stay for the duration of the Villanova / Oklahoma game. For our starter, we initially tried going for the Philly Nachos, but was told that they were out, to my dismay (it sounded pretty good). Our backup was the buffalo rockfish bites, which were good. The rockfish was moist and the buffalo sauce wasn’t too overwhelming. For me personally, however, if the rockfish bites were just crisped up in the fryer a little more before tossing in the sauce, it would have hit the spot. The wasabi cucumber sauce that was drizzled over top was also not too overbearing, since the wasabi flavor sometimes has a tendency to do so.
The rockfish bites were enough to hold us over until about halfway through the game’s first half, so when our stomachs started to rumble a little bit again, we put in an order for a “build your own” cheesesteak. Because we felt like our arteries need to take a dietary assault, we chose to get 3 types of cheese (pepper jack, provolone, whiz) and bacon on our cheesesteak. It didn’t take too long for the sandwich to come out of the kitchen, and I could tell that we made a good decision with our toppings. The chopped steak was put on top of the cheese, so it was a different interpretation than previous cheesesteaks I’ve had before. The bacon did add another depth of flavor to the cheesesteak that complemented everything else really well. The hoagie roll was toasted just enough for a crisp outside and soft inside. Overall, it was a satisfying cheesesteak, but wasn’t one that gave me that “wow” factor.
With a wide selection of food, friendly staff, and ample screens to be watching sports, it makes Days Off a good place for catching a game, grabbing a quick bite, or just chilling out after a long day at work. I left my initial visit with a positive impression, and I’ll be looking to come back sometime and have a sample of something else off their menu.
Let’s now take a look at the Days Off Deli & Grill Dish Spotlight. Asterisks (*) below mark my recommended dishes.
** Buffalo Rockfish Bites **
Fresh rockfish breaded and fried, tossed in a buffalo sauce, and served with a drizzle of wasabi cucumber sauce on top.
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Build Your Own Cheesesteak — Pepper Jack, Provolone, Cheese Whiz, and Bacon
Cheesesteak with your choice of ingredients, served with a side of fries and a deli pickle. 1/2 portion shown here.
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And finally, here are my rankings for Days Off Deli & Grill:
Food: 4 / 5
There’s certainly a large selection of dishes to choose from that it might be difficult to decide at first. From the two dishes that I tried, I thought they had good overall flavor.
Atmosphere: 4 / 5
The whole sports bar feel is enhanced by the various articles of memorabilia that decorated the walls. Ample TVs to tune-in to different sports make it so there isn’t a bad seat in the dining room. The lighting was also dimmer (aided by the tinted windows), which helped add to that bar feel.
Service: 4.5 / 5
Our waitress Irene definitely helped us to have a pleasant dining experience. She came back to check on us often, asking how the food was and if we needed any drink refills. She had recommendations for what to choose on the menu and was keen to answer any questions I had.
Price: 4.25 / 5
Granted, any of the seafood items on the menu is going to cost a bit of a premium. Everything else, however, is very reasonably priced, with good portion sizes to boot.
Overall:
16.75 / 20
(84%)
Categories: Maryland, Restaurants
Chu On This 
Nice post