My wife Jun and I usually visit restaurants in DC for our culinary journey in the DMV area. Not only does DC’s dining scene have a lot more delicious restaurants, but the dining scene in Maryland’s Montgomery County where we live is fairly boring. That dearth of destination worthy restaurants has slowly begun to change since our arrival around two years ago. And a good starting point with that positive development is the recently opened Joy by Seven Reasons in Chevy Chase. As much as we are huge fans of the Venezuelan chef Enrique Limardo and his flagship restaurant Imperfecto, I felt at times the chef may be expanding too rapidly (in addition to his original Seven Reasons and Imperfecto, he also opened Joy as well as a new Spanish restaurant called The Saga), which more often than not could negatively impact the quality of each individual restaurant. With that concern in mind, we visited Joy last month with fairly modest expectations. It turned out that Joy is so much more than an average suburban neighborhood restaurant.

As the restaurant’s name suggests, there is something quite whimsical and fun with all the dishes we tried at Joy, which features Latin American cuisine with its own distinct touch. I don’t recall ever seeing swordfish in tostada before, but I encourage more restaurants to try this combination, just like Joy very skillfully put together with strawberry chile de arbol sauce and trout roe caviar for a perfect summer dish. I certainly never had scallops with parmigiano, and yet Joy delivered a major pleasant surprise in the form of Peruvian scallops with the cheese on top. Another standout dish of the night was a fairly humble one with green rice inside of roasted tomato and fried egg on top. I seriously could have this dish for a meal every day, with the texture of the rice, tomato and egg blending quite seamlessly.

Since its opening, the restaurant has gained fame for its $65 colossal short rib sandwich. With the short rib braised for 16 hours, it is the sandwich of pure decadence. We were running out of our room in the stomach around halfway with the sandwich and brought the rest home; it still tasted quite delicious even when we tried it again a few days later at home. For dessert, Joy has a number of different soft serve options. Judging by the way Jun absolutely destroyed the bati-bati with ube soft serve, I think she approved of her choice, and my mango-flavored soft serve (manguito) was also quite delightful.

Getting a restaurant at Joy isn’t too challenging, but I still suggest booking in advance for prime time on the weekends. The restaurant has a number of fun cocktails and a wine list focused on Spain and South America. The casual and inviting vibe of the dining space evokes a feeling that you are at a family party at somewhere chic in Latin America. I am glad that the suburban Maryland is starting to have exciting restaurants, and would gladly make it again to Joy with Jun to try some other dishes. Just follow the restaurant’s motto when you have your own memorable meal there: “Have fun, Get crazy, Be sexy, enJOY.”

KenScale: 8.0/10 (Jun’s Score: 7.75/10)

Address: 5471 Wisconsin Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Website: https://www.joybysevenreasons.com/

Reservation via Tock