MEGABYTES EATERY
ADDRESS: 14100 Sullyfield Circle #100, Chantilly, VA 20151
WEBSITE: http://www.megabyteseatery.com/
If there was one place that I knew that I wanted to head back to while back in the DC area, it was the Udvar-Hazy Center, an extension of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, located out by Washington Dulles Airport. The museum typically didn’t open for the day until 10AM, so I decided to head out that way from the city, which was still a bit of a trek. I thought that it’d be good to get a late breakfast / early lunch before heading inside the museum, so I ended up scoping out some spots nearby.
I was originally looking for breakfast food, and found myself looking through the menu of Megabytes Eatery, which was located only about five minutes away from the museum itself. There really was a variety of different Asian-themed food items to choose from, as I was able to spot dishes from Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and also Hawaiian cuisine, in addition to your classic breakfast selections. It definitely sounded right up my alley, so I decided to give it a shot.
When I was first pulling up into the area, I was a bit surprised to find myself in a business park, with the exteriors of the buildings looking more like corporate offices. I was looking around to double check and make sure I was in the right place when I saw the sign for Megabytes Eatery at the end of the one of the buildings.
When you first step inside, the counter to order was immediately to your right, along with a ton of snacks that you could purchase lining the rest of the way down. The food prep stations as well as the flat-top grills were also right there, and the middle of the floorspace was dedicated to seating. I thought that it was also pretty cool that the restaurant shared the space with a coffee shop called Loud’n Roasted, which looked like they had quite a few different interesting coffee concoctions on their menu. If I wasn’t going to Udvar-Hazy right afterwards, which prohibited outside beverages, I totally would have picked up a coffee after I finished my meal.
Even though I originally wanted to stop by this place for breakfast, it was already too late in the day when I got there and they had switched over to their lunch menu. Tacos, sandwiches, and bowls were the primary options offered, but it was the lunch combos that caught my attention. The Spicy Chicken Tempura combo was sounding pretty good to me, so it was an easy choice.
True to the computer-themed name for the restaurant, the décor on the walls also reflected that, adorned with motherboards, graphics cards, floppy disks, cell phones, routers, and a whole assortment of other stuff. Having built a computer myself, I certainly recognized some of the components that were hanging up right on the walls.
My lunch combo took probably no more than about five minutes to put together and got delivered out to my table. I thought that the portion size was just right for a lunch portion, with one tempura chicken breast served on a bed of rice, along with a scoop of mac salad and a Spam musubi. The chicken itself was still moist, with the crispy breading on the outside and finished with a tangy and spicy sauce on top. Can’t go wrong with Spam musubi either, which also had a sprinkling of furikake in between the Spam and the rice as well. The mac salad was pretty average I thought, and probably could have used just some additional spices to help give it another layer of flavor.
For the people working at the offices nearby to Megabytes Eatery, this is super convenient to come on over to either get breakfast, lunch, or a coffee at Loud’n Roasted. In fact, there were some people I saw while I was eating that looked like they were doing exactly that. The draw for a place like this is that they offer good food at a good price. Is it a spot that I would go out of my way to visit? Probably not. But if I’m looking for a breakfast or lunch option while in the area, it’s definitely a place I would put on the radar.
Let’s now take a look at the Megabytes Eatery Dish Spotlight. Asterisks (*) below mark my recommended dishes.
** Spicy Chicken Tempura Lunch Combo **
Tempura chicken breast topped with a spicy and tangy sauce, served over a bed of rice. Includes Spam musubi and mac salad.
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And finally, here are my rankings for Megabytes Eatery:
Food: 4.25 / 5
The quality of the food was good, and all three of the components of my lunch combo had good taste as well. There’s certainly a bit of variety on the menu that you can choose from.
Atmosphere: 4 / 5
The setup inside is definitely very functional, with a mixture of two- and four-person tables in the main dining area. There’s plenty of electronics décor adorning the walls that align with the overall theme of the place, driven by its namesake.
Service: 4 / 5
A young kid helped me out at the register and also helped to bring the food out to my table, under the supervision of (presumably) the family that owned the place. He did a good job and also helped to answer a question I had on the menu as well. The food arrived out at a pretty quick pace, too.
Price: 4.5 / 5
I thought that the pricing for the food, for the amount that you get, was very reasonable. The $13 that I paid for my spicy chicken tempura combo had a good amount of food for a lunch portion. It seems like other items on the menu are priced just as fairly as well.
Overall:
16.75 / 20
(84%)
Categories: Restaurants, Virginia
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