Downtown Silver Spring

Nice area to relax with the family. My kids loved the fountain! The variety of restaurants is good and the parking is cheap. It’s super walkable and stroller friendly.

Jus left the fountain my daughter loved it. so did i… nice crowd… most of all it was free… if your into people watching you will be busy… will continue going throughout the summer. .i love silver spring. .and chic Fila was on point too

Parking is always easy in Silver Spring! There are several Montgomery County garages that are quite cheap ($ 1/​hour, I believe) and make the downtown a desirable meeting place. There is ice skating in the winter, which is always nice. It’s a very walkable area, with a good variety of stores and restaurants. It’s also usually crowded, so I’ve never felt unsafe.

I enjoy this area. Within just a few blocks you have AFI, The Magestic 20, shopping and lots of restaurants. On weekends you may find a food market or a band playing. During the winter months you can ice skate at the rink across from the movie theater. Where else can you hear music, find Jesus, shoes on sale, smell vendor chess nuts and get Ben & Jerry’s? I enjoy strolling along the blocks around the theaters and window shopping. Hand holding optional, but recommended.

I love hanging out at SSD. It has variety of restaurant choices, movie theater, and some stores (H&M, DSW, NY&Company etc…) I love to come to the farmers market on Saturdays. Although the city plaza is small and have like 10 stores open, I like to stop by Marshall and Nine West Outlet store there. Now the ice rank is open too. Overall, good meeting up with people or date spot.

This shopping area continues to be a disappointment lacking any charm or style. There are several fast food chains, a movie theatre typical of the suburbs, and some chain stores like Ulta Cosmetics, H & M, and DSW shoes. I have been occasionally pleasantly surprised by merchandise at DSW and City Sports, but otherwise this area lacks interesting stores to browse. I would love to see Silver Spring become more quaint by adding nicer quality stores instead of chains. The area needs a nice florist, nicer boutiques, maybe a small toy and game store, and possibly a kitchen store like Sur La Table or Williams Sonoma. The area needs an upgrade.

Such a beautiful mall with so much to offer. Not one of those sort of malls you’ve been in a million times.
Very friendly staff/​security. Good Business hours as well.
From 9 – 10 M-​Saturday

Nice area to walk around, shop and eat. The atmosphere is welcoming. This is a great day to take advantage of all this area has to offer. I feel comfortable and safe here.

Seriously Sprung. Seems like it is a combination of first and third worlds, check cashing store across from high rise offices. Congestion and tough parking. Waiting for crossing lights makes it less than friendly for pedestrians once you have managed to park.

Love this spot. I come here only a few times a year but always to see my girlfriend sing at the Blues and Jazz Festival. Lots of shops and restaurants, a movie theatre as well. Public transportation is close by and it’s very walker friendly.

On a beautiful day this is a perfect atmosphere to really bask in the moment. Shopping/​dining options as well as movie theater. If that’s not your thing, you could cozy up to a bench and people watch, enjoy a book or watch the kids all while soaking in some good vitamin D.
get happy by learning to stop and smell the roses.

Kids love the fountain in the summer, and there is usually something going on year round. A bit mall-​ish but the locals are great, very diverse and interesting folks. Farmers market on Saturdays is great, and plenty of places to grab a bite.
Great quality free musical events.
Step away from the developed downtown area, though, and you get local flavor among the non-​chain, independent restaurants, bars, coffee shops, including Ethiopian restaurants with coffee ceremonies and live music performers.
There is more to downtown Silver Spring than first meets the eye. Park in the garage and go for a walk South on Fenton or Georgia.

The stores are just meh. I like the theater and dining options. The mall here is just awful. Also, the crowds at night can get sketchy sometimes. Anytime I see large police presence I have to wonder just how good the area is. Still, I come here a lot because of the location and convenience.

Great restaurants and shopping. There’s a Chipotle, Noodles & Co, Red Lobster, Chick Fil A, Austin Grille, Nandos, and a couple other popular restaurants. Pretty good shopping around, too. I frequent the area to visit the H&M, DSW, Ulta, and the movie theater, and each shop has a great selection.
Definitely a good spot for an evening out and the people watching is top-​notch. Friday and Saturday nights can become a bit rowdy as local teens frequent the area to hang out, but other than that, it’s a really cool area. During the summer, they have local bands playing near the fountain and usually a large crowd of people stand around to watch and dance.
One thing that I don’t like are the super aggressive street solicitors. I’m all for charity and women’s rights, but sometimes, i’d like to just go from one destination to the other without someone asking me if I’d like to sign up to donate $ 1 a day. There are seriously 10+ of them on the strip at any given time and you can’t take more than 5 steps before they approach you, attempt to strike up a conversation, and start walking with you. There’s no avoiding it. I’ve tried everything –earphones, looking in the other direction, walking with a stern face — it won’t work!
Oh, and parking. Good luck. There are garages, but who wants to pay for a garage when you’re just trying to run into Chipotle, get your burrito bowl, and leave? I’m not too fond of paying for parking when I’m gone for no longer than 7 minutes, sometimes 8.
Other than those things, great area!

I guess if you compared to what use to be here and the improvements, I can understand the excitement and high reviews. But at the end of the day, you will notice that there are not a whole lot of shops here and most people come here for the abundance of restaurants. A lot of them are chain restaurants, but still good. Parking can be tough. A garage is available but you gotta pay for it.

Lovely place to walk around, great shops, and a very good ‘chillout’ area!

It a cool place to hang out with you mate on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

I really don’t understand all the sky-​high ratings… this place is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Sure, there are free festivals and it is very metro accessible, but DTSS is one of those places that is great for the first three times you go and then it easily becomes old.
When this place first «premiered», I was about 16−17ish and I just LOVED going here with my friends, walking up and down the strip, thinking I was cute. The Majestic was THE theater to go to, there were restaurants galore, and everything was so brand-​new and shiny you just kind of forgot how bad city place mall sucked. Fast forward about five years later and DTSS is nothing more than a overcrowded metro stop chock-​full of hoodlum teenagers, children running wild, and cheesy couples.
The area is well kept, but the stores and restaurants are nothing out of the ordinary you couldn’t find anywhere else in the DC area. The movie theater is huge, yes, but it’s also packed to the brim with obnoxious teenagers who have a hard time using manners.
Meh, if you’re a tourist, I guess I would recommend DTSS as a place to grab a bite to eat in an aesthetically pleasing neighborhood – but don’t go comparing this area to the Grove in LA or SoBE in Miami, because it isn’t meant to measure up in that way. Because to be honest, downtown silver spring is nothing but a glammed-​up strip mall that just happens to be in the right zip code.

This is a GREAT place to come and hang out. Plenty of stores, 2 movie theaters (one of them shows independent films), restaurants every which way… etc. One of my fav. places to go. ALSO — all of the parking garages are free on the weekend as well.

Silver Spring, you’ve come a long way Baby! I love DTSS! As a Silver Spring resident for the past 17 years, there was a time when I headed west (Bethesda) for dining and nightlife.
Now I am a true devotee to all that Silver Spring has to offer. Shopping (Ann Taylor Loft), Dining (Pacci’s), Happy Hour (Jackie’s) and movies (Majestic 20 and AFI) are all in one place! Not to mention a new place to satisfy my sweet tooth in a fat-​free way, FroZenYo!
DTSS is so easy to get to and there is plenty of parking that is so much cheaper than Bethesda and DC. (Street parking if FREE after six pm on the weekdays, and always free on the weekends!)