Jallie's Baked Beanz

Although it's been open for a while now (a year or so?), this was the first time John and I went to Union Jack's. Ever since Uncle Jed's closed, the gang has been looking for a new place to watch sporting events and drink beer. Union Jack's has become a new group favorite.

We went on a rainy Sunday afternoon at the beginning of playoffs. I expected the place to be a bit more crowded, but the ability to actually get a chair at the bar was rather nice. Most of the gang had been there for the 1:00 game and already had a round of snacks, so I didn't get to see/taste any of that.

Being a British joint, their menu consisted of a pretty good line-up of apps, salads, burgers, sandwiches and traditional Brit fare. Many dishes were named after various famous Brits. I opted for the Fish & Chips (no fancy name on this one):


I probably should have placed a quarter or something on the edge of the plate so you could see exactly how BIG this piece of fish was. It was a good 9 inches in length and maybe 4 inches wide. The plate was oval and fairly large, although it doesn't look like it in the picture. The fish was nicely cooked, crunchy and not too greasy/oily. Served with a side salad, pickle and tartar sauce for $11.95. I washed mine down with a nice Blue Moon Belgian White.

For dessert, we ordered a slice of cheesecake with cherry topping. Sorry... we dug into it before I could pull out the camera. The "slice" was more like a sliver, and "cherry topping" is a generous name for the three maraschino cherries and cherry juice drizzled over top. There was also chocolate sauce drizzled over it as well, which made this very generic cheesecake one step above "eh".

We enjoyed the atmosphere and there were lots of dishes on the menu I'd like to try. So we'll be back, I'm sure.

Union Jacks
4915 St. Elmo Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20814
(301) 652-2561

New Year's Eve, John and I attended the wedding of a family friend's son. There was the traditional ceremony, with a reverand, mixed with a Thai blessing ceremony. But you're not here to read about that...

I'm not sure if the food was catered by the country club where the wedding was held or not (I'm guessing it was). We noshed on stuffed mushrooms (I think it there was bacon and bread crumbs in the stuffing) and shrimp salad in little mini phyllo cups (not pictured). I'm not sure if there were any other appetizers being passed around. It seemed like the selection was limited to the mushrooms.

The main course was a buffet of roast beef, chicken in a creamy sauce with mushrooms, rice pilaf, mixed veggies in a cheese sauce and red potatoes in a butter sauce. The beef was deliciously rare. I didn't try the chicken but did sample the mushrooms and cream sauce.


Sorry about the plate of half eaten food... I didn't think to take the picture before I started digging in. It was late... I was hungry.

Of course, you can't have a wedding without CAKE! And a beautiful cake it was...


There was a layer of yellow cake with some type of berry cream filling and a chocolate cake with chocolate filling. I got chocolate and John got vanilla and we sampled some of each. The "twinkie cake" (as my friend, Diana, would call it) was very light and moist. The chocolate layer was more dense. I think I liked the vanilla more.