Silver Diner in Greenbelt, MD

On the morning before I headed home from the Washington DC area, I visited a restaurant called Silver Diner in Greenbelt, Maryland after doing some hiking in the nearby Greenbelt National Park. I didn't realize it when I went into the restaurant, but Silver Diner is a chain based around the Virginia and Maryland area.

They apparently attempt to use local ingredients in their foods. The sign on the table told me that they partner with 15 local farms. It's nice to see a semi-large chain doing stuff like this.

I ordered the Local Farm Raised Bison Huevos Rancheros. This came with a chorizo and bison hash, over easy eggs, peppers, salsa, scallions, cilantro, goat cheese, chunky avocado and fried tortillas. This was very tasty (and the second time I've had bison on this trip), but it was almost too much meat. The huge mound of meaty hash definitely overshadowed the eggs and other toppings. I also would have preferred soft tortillas rather than crispy tortillas. Soft tortillas seem like they go a lot further than fried, chip-like tortillas.

I enjoyed my breakfast, but overall Silver Diner did seem a little too pricy. The average menu price seemed to be about $12, which compared to other breakfast places is really expensive. This was even worse than Ihop's pricy breakfasts...

Mitsitam Cafe in Washington DC

While sightseeing in Washington DC, I stopped for lunch at the cafeteria in the National Museum of the American Indian. The restaurant is called Mitsitam Cafe and is set up with different stations, each serving traditional (I hope) Native American foods from different regions of the Americas.

I ordered something that they called an Indian Taco from the booth serving foods from the Great Plains region. This consisted of a large, fluffy piece of fry bread topped with buffalo chili. Cheese was melted over the chili, and then was covered with lettuce and tomato. I really have no clue if this is something that is traditionally eaten by Native Americans in the Great Plains region, but it was pretty tasty. It couldn't actually be eaten like a taco since the chili completely covered the fry bread and silverware was used. The chili was slightly spicy with large chunks of bison floating around. The lettuce and tomato almost seemed like an afterthought how they were just thrown on top of the plate, but I ate it all and enjoyed my Indian Taco!

The Mitsitam Cafe was on the expensive side with my taco costing just over $12. Since it was inside a museum, I suppose it's equivalent to theme park prices so it really wasn't too bad for better food. Compared to the food options at the Air & Space Museum next door (McDonalds), this was definitely the better option as far as Smithsonian snack bars go!