Permanent signage reading Bob's Soup Dumplings & Bar is now lit up at night at 7776 Norfolk Avenue in downtown Bethesda, a clear sign that the long-anticipated Chinese restaurant is getting close to opening. The windows remain covered, though, so passersby still can't get a peek at the finished interior.
The restaurant's arrival caps months of back-and-forth over its name and identity. As reported by Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row, the business was originally proposed as a new Bethesda location of Bob's Shanghai 66, the award-winning Rockville restaurant considered among the best Chinese spots in the region. That framing didn't sit well with the Rockville restaurant, and the dispute played out largely behind the scenes before spilling into local press, according to Dyer's reporting.
Rockville's Bob's Shanghai 66 publicly stated that the Bethesda location is not affiliated with it, a message echoed by an employee who told Bethesda Magazine that “the Bethesda eatery is not associated with the Rockville restaurant.” The Rockville restaurant went even further in a statement reported by MoCoShow, saying, “we are NOT opening a Bethesda location.”
A Name Change and a New Identity
The Bethesda restaurant initially went by Bob's Shanghai Bethesda, per the same MoCoShow report, before rebranding to Bob's Bethesda late last year — and its Instagram handle shifted from @bobsshanghaibethesda to @bobsbethesda in the process. Window signage at the space briefly read “Bob's Shanghai” before being covered with white tape to leave just “Bob's,” the outlet noted. The restaurant now appears to be operating under yet another name, Bob's Soup Dumplings & Bar, according to Dyer's latest reporting.
Despite the public distancing from Rockville's Bob's Shanghai 66, MoCoShow's reporting found that the Bethesda restaurant will actually be owned and operated by the original owner of that Rockville restaurant — an owner who, per Dyer, has not publicly told his side of the story. The two businesses remain legally and operationally separate, even as the ownership link persists behind the name change.
From Pizza Chain to Chinese Restaurant
The restaurant occupies the former home of Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza on the ground floor of the Windsor Bethesda building, a space that sat empty after the pizza chain closed its Bethesda location in September 2024 following nearly five years there, per MoCoShow's reporting. Construction crews began work on the space last fall, with Dyer reporting at the time that “the windows of the space were papered over” and boxes had been loaded in over several weeks. By November, interior work was still underway but remained hidden, as the windows stayed papered even as progress continued inside.
Renderings posted to the restaurant's social media account and reported by Bethesda Magazine showed a dining room featuring red furniture, large circular tables and a bar. The restaurant is expected to serve soup dumplings, though a full menu has not been detailed publicly.
A Familiar Concept Returns to the Area
This isn't the first time the Bob's name has tried to expand beyond Rockville. A decade ago, per Dyer's reporting, owner Ivan Liang opened a variation on the Shanghai 66 concept in the Dining Terrace food court at Westfield Montgomery Mall; that outpost closed two years later. One report placed the Bethesda address at 7770 Norfolk Avenue, though multiple other sources, including MoCoShow, identify the location as 7776 Norfolk Avenue.
With the signage now lit and construction apparently nearing completion, downtown Bethesda diners may not have much longer to wait to find out what's actually on the menu — and what the restaurant will ultimately be called when the doors finally open.
