Favorite Baltimore Restaurants, Round Two

A few years back, when asked about our favorite restaurants, I would usually respond "Grace Garden." GG was/is a Chinese restaurant in Odenton, MD--kind of a slog from where we live near Towson, but so worth the drive. We went a few times a year over a number of years, and we wrote about it more than once (here, here, here, here, and here). Though the restaurant still exists, it's under new management with a new chef. We tried it once early on and it just didn't move us in the same way. The new owners bought several of the original chef's recipes, but what we tried was missing the wok hay (breath of the wok) of the originals. (IYKYK!) Now we have multiple new favorites, all much closer to home. Coincidentally, all three of the restaurants named below are alongside the Jones Falls, an 18-mile-long stream that runs from Baltimore County to the Inner Harbor. Not sure why we haven't done a progressive dinner yet, hitting all three at one night, though I must admit we have eaten at two of them on the same evening.

patatas, empanadas, calamari, et., al., @ La Cuchara

La Cuchara (3600 Clipper Mill Rd, Baltimore, MD 21211)

This cavernously sized yet somehow intimate restaurant serves dishes inspired by the Basque cuisine of parts of France and Spain. The menu is divided into sections featuring several categories of small plates, plus entrees, and one is able to mix and match as desired. The several entrees we've tried over the years have been uniformly delicious, but we prefer to order several tapas-style dishes and enjoy them with one or more glasses of wine, preferably at the expansive bar. While I miss the days pre-COVID when happy hour meant half price pinxtos and tapas and $5 pours of wine, the food is just as good at twice the price. 

If one is merely feeling peckish and just wants a few snacks to nibble with cocktails, there is a selection of Spanish hams and cheeses that are perfect with the restaurant's lovely housemade breads. Also nibbly things like gildas--small skewers with a single boquerone (white anchovy), olive, and pequillo pepper--and wee croquetas made with cured ham or rehydrated salted cod. Tapas selections are fairly hearty and can include tender tangles of grilled squid with calabrian peppers, a couple of salad selections and perhaps a soup, and patatas bravas--crisp cubes of potato dressed in both spicy mojo and garlicky aioli and accented with scallions. I check the menu regularly in case there are limited-time items like sweetbreads, crispy oysters, soft shell crabs, or razor clams, in which case we scrap our regular dinner plan and head to La Cuchara. 

The photo above was taken in the Fall of 2020. The restaurant was only serving hot food during happy hour a few days a week, and only at ten concrete tables set up in the parking lot. We made a point to get there a few minutes before 5pm to snag a table and eat as much as humanly possible. We did this for about 8 weeks in the late summer and fall, until it was too chilly (and too dark) to eat outdoors comfortably. During this time, the restaurant also offered chef-prepared food to heat up at home and grocery staples like toilet paper and bags of flour. I greatly admired La Cuchara's efforts to stay open and serve their customers and did my part to support them. We are so happy to have them back open full time again. 

pasta, whole fish, lamb chops @ Cosima

Cosima (Mill No. 1, 3000 Falls Rd, Baltimore, MD 21211)

I think we fell in love with Cosima on our very first visit back in December 2015. We try to eat there at least once a year, particularly in the more temperate months when we can snag a table on the back patio. In fact, we've celebrated Mr Minx's birthday at Cosima every year for at least the last five, including 2020. 

While we're fond of the location--Mill No. 1, an historic mill building tucked between Falls Road and the Jones Falls itself--the food of course is the restaurant's most important feature. The homemade pastas are a big draw for Mr Minx, and as I mentioned in the last post, I'm fond of their pizzas. In fact, if the scallop and bacon pie is on the menu, it's definitely on our table, along with the crispy brussels sprouts, fritto misto, and whatever octopus preparation is being offered. We normally get one pasta and one secondi to share between the three of us, if there's any room left after our orgy of apps. And keep the wine flowing--but let me have a negroni bianco, too. 

the chef, the shucker, the farmer @ True Chesapeake

True Chesapeake Oyster Company (3300 Clipper Mill Rd Suite 400, Baltimore, MD 21211) 

True Chesapeake opened its doors in the fall of 2019 and got in a handful of months before the pandemic hit and threw the restaurant industry into a tailspin. They closed for a bit, reopened for outdoor dining and take-out, then closed again for the winter. We waited with our fingers crossed and breath bated for a re-opening announcement, which happened in April 2021 and came with a vaccination requirement. Not only was the food at True Chesapeake still delicious, but also the management was smart. The restaurant was our new annual New Year's Eve dining tradition and we wanted to continue slurping oysters to close out the years for the foreseeable future. 

There are a number of things we love about this place. Oysters are the heart and soul of True Chesapeake. The namesake restaurant gets its tender bivalves from its own farm in St. Mary's County. Blue catfish and snakehead are also featured regularly. If you've read our book Maryland's Chesapeake, you know these are invasive species that are doing a number on the Bay. Chef Zack Mills--long a favorite of ours since his days at Wit & Wisdom, and a contributor to more than one of our books--is doing his part to eradicate these harmful creatures by serving up their tasty flesh in various ways. And while seafood makes up the majority of dishes on Chef Mills' menu, he throws non-seafood-eaters a bone or two with selections like steak, roast chicken, and one heck of a good burger. 

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Flashback Friday - I'm Just Wild About Harry's!

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on November 3, 2006. It might have appeared again later, too. I like it, so here it is once more.

The chef at Harry's back then is one of the owners of Cajun Kate's in PA and DE, and the Kate I speak of is my late best friend, Kate Becker. She was surprised that I didn't like oysters and had never tried a soft shell crab before this particular occasion. Now, of course, I like both very much. Tastes can definitely change over the years.

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Last week, I was hanging out in Delaware with my dear friend Kate when she suggested that she treat me to a birthday lunch since we probably wouldn't have opportunity to get together before that hallowed day (November 17). She suggested Harry's Seafood Grill and sent me to check out the sample menu on their Web site. Now, as a graphic designer, I am well aware of the importance that needs to be placed on such things as image and marketing, and was pleased to see that Harry's site was good-looking and well-designed. That means good things, in my mind, so I jumped at the chance to dine there.

The restaurant was as tastefully decorated as the site was well-designed, with interesting sea-themed artworks (including the wire starfish sculpture that took up most of the ceiling of the main dining room) and a large window overlooking the river. There are also tables outside under a broad awning for dining in more clement weather.

Kate was acquainted with one of the chefs at Harry's, and we had an opportunity to meet with her and chat a bit before ordering our food. She made some suggestions as to the best items on the rather large lunchtime menu (that included an impressive selection of raw items like sashimi and several varieties of ceviche). I had to agree with her that yes, the Cajun Short Ribs with Fried Shrimp and Grits in a Tasso Cream Sauce was not to be missed. Kate went for the Soft Crab Sandwich with Remoulade and Yukon Gold Potato Chips because she was in the mood for crab, and because I had never eaten a soft crab before - mainly because of the legs that dangle from the sandwich. I have no issues with hard crabs, but put one between two slices of bread and suddenly it becomes a fried spider. The chef had also recommended the Oktoberfest Moules Frites, so we ordered that as a shared appetizer.

The next thing we know, an order of New Orleans Barbeque Shrimp and Toasted Focaccia with Fresh Smoked Tomato Salad was coming to our table, compliments of the chef. Four large, plump shrimp bathed in a tangy sauce were nestled together next to a generous pile of greens topped with smoky tomatoes. Now, don't think N'awlins style barbeque sauce has anything to do with what one normally thinks of as 'cue (any region's style)...it's basically lots of butter, Worcestershire sauce, lemon, garlic, and spices, along with a dose of hot sauce. It was fan-tastic, much tastier than my preparation of one of Emeril's recipes some years ago (that was too heavy on the Worcestershire).

As soon as we were done with the shrimps, our lovely and perky waitress brought Kate's pre-appetizer of 3 different PEI oysters. I'll have to take her word for it that they were tasty, as I don't like raw oysters. :) Then came the mussels. A platter was placed before us containing a lidded serving vessel with 10 or 12 huge, beer-steamed specimens, a fancy wire swirly thing holding a cone of thinly cut frites, and a ramekin of black pepper mayo. Although the mussels were the usual black-shelled variety, some of the critters were so large I needed to cut them in half before popping them in my mouth. They were soft and succulent and even-textured, and didn't have the somewhat sickening "gack, is that a mussel spleen, or maybe a mussel colon I'm biting into now?" lumpy quality that I find in some larger mussels, particularly the green-lipped variety. The enormous serving of frites was crisp and delicious, and the mayo was a nice dip for both starch and shellfish.

I could have stopped right there with the eating, as I was already quite full, but we still had entrees coming. Whew! Mine was a dinner-sized portion - three meaty short ribs, three large shrimp that had been dipped in a savory batter and deep fried, and a good half-cup sized timbale of grits, all atop a lake of creamy sauce studded with bits of tasso ham. The meat was so tender, it fell off the bone at the mere threat of being struck with a knife, and the shrimp had that lovely iodine flavor that I like so much (I know some people probably don't like it, but to me, that's what makes a shrimp taste like a shrimp). But it was too much; I ate the shrimp and the grits and took the ribs home for a future lunchtime treat.

Kate's soft crab sandwich was also quite yummy. She shared a portion of the body so I wouldn't have to deal with the legs, and the crisp carapace was accented beautifully by the savory remoulade sauce. I didn't try her chips, but they were definitely of the home-made variety.

To add insult to injury, or rather, to avoid additional risk of stomach explosion, we opted to share a dessert. There were several interesting options on the menu, but I've always wanted to try a Sticky Toffee Pudding. Harry's was a hefty cylinder, served warm, with a large curved tuile acting as a dish for a scoop of house-made vanilla gelato, the plate further garnished with splotches of tart raspberry coulis and squiggles of homemade caramel on a pool of creme anglaise. Yowsa. It was delicious, and far too much to finish.

Two hours later, we waddled out of Harry's, very full and happy. This was one of the most consistantly delicious meals I've had in a long time (apart from the two dinners at Pazo this past summer), and I would be delighted to go back at any time. I highly recommend it.

Harry's Seafood Grill
101 S. Market St
Wilmington, DE 19801
P: 302-777-1500
F: 302-777-2406




* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



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True Chesapeake Oyster Co

Full disclosure: I have been acquainted with one of the investors in True Chesapeake Oyster Company since the late 1980s. Also, Chef Zack Mills has long been a favorite person in Baltimore's rather small culinary world. He was very helpful with providing recipes for our third book, Maryland's Chesapeake, and is just an all-around good guy.

Sometime in the second half of 2018, I became aware that True Chesapeake Oyster Company, based in St Mary's County, was planning to open a restaurant in Baltimore, that Zack Mills, who had most recently been executive chef at Wit & Wisdom in the Four Seasons, was involved in the project, and the restaurant would be housed in the as-yet-to-be-redeveloped Whitehall Mill complex on Clipper Mill Road. The Local Oyster, a popular raw bar in Mt Vernon Marketplace, had also signed onto the project. I'm not sure there could be a better trifecta of concept-chef-location, especially not in Baltimore. The resurgence of the region's oyster population, due to the recent boom in oyster farming, has made everyone's favorite bivalve more popular than ever. Maryland native Mills was known for his ways with local seafood. And opening a restaurant along the banks of the Jones Falls has been a recent success story for several restaurateurs (see: Birroteca, La Cuchara, Gypsy's Truckstaurant, and Cosima).

The wait for True Chesapeake the Restaurant (as opposed to the Oyster Farm) seemed interminable, but it finally opened its doors in October of 2019. Mr Minx and I hit them up fairly early, not always a fair thing to do to a new restaurant, but we were eager to experience the food. We weren't the only ones; on our first visit, there seemed to be a pretty good crowd, which included local seafood expert John Shields and his husband John Gilligan, owners of Gertrude's at the BMA.

roasted half-shell oysters, Zack's crab soup

The high-ceilinged restaurant is rustically beautiful, decorated with large globe lamps wrapped in fishing nets, photographs by Maryland photographer Jay Fleming (who provided some of the photos in Maryland's Chesapeake), and lots of exposed brick and beams. There is a large bar that exists both in the front bar area of the restaurant and in the dining room, accommodating both casual and fine dining. Despite the clear separation between bar and dining room, the overall vibe of the restaurant is not formal. However, the food is serious.

the fish stick: fried blue catfish, mayo, capers, cornichons

Ingredients are sourced as locally as possible. Most of the oysters come from True Chesapeake's farm on St Jerome Creek in Southern Maryland, but the restaurant also offers those from other Chesapeake-region growers. Blue catfish and snakehead can also be found on the menu. Though they are damaging the ecosystem and consuming native fauna like rockfish, these invasive species are delicious. Eating them seems like the best way to eradicate them, after all, it worked for local shad and terrapin, which are still struggling to make a comeback in the Chesapeake area.

mushroom toast, crispy horseradish, tarragon, creme fraiche

Non-seafood dishes like the mushroom toast (above) and a regular vegetable-based entree, such as the one with roasted squash and turnips offered earlier this year, will please vegetarians. There are meat dishes too, including a classic burger topped with Hagerstown's Palmyra cheddar, for those folks who go to a seafood restaurant but don't like seafood. (Yes, I know they exist. I just don't understand them.)

crab cake, golden beet puree, creamed leeks, fennel salad

semolina fried oysters, braised swiss chard, caper hollandaise

spaghetti with clams

One of my favorite dishes at True Chesapeake is the house-made spaghetti with middleneck clams and bacon. The portion is app-sized, and fine to share if ordered with a few other apps. Honestly though, they should offer an entree-sized portion. It's one of the best pasta dishes in town.

panfried snakehead, cauliflower, beluga lentils, romesco

It was hard to find fault with anything on our two visits to True Chesapeake. Everything we tried was excellent, from the raw oysters to the duck fat-roasted monkfish. I will quibble, however, that the yogurt panna cotta dessert didn't contain enough gelatin to be an actual panna cotta, and the ice cream sundae dessert may have been a bit on the enormous side. (They were both delicious, though.)

panna cotta

I would be remiss not to mention the bar program, which is in the hands of Chelsea Gregoire. We were fans of her inventive beverages during her time at the Hotel Revival; True Chesapeake also benefits from her creativity. The restaurant got a boost when Gregoire was named Esquire Magazine's Beverage Director of the Year, which is rather a Big Thing and so well deserved. Congrats to Chelsea!

True Chesapeake Oyster Company
Historic Whitehall Mill
3300 Clipper Mill Road
410.913.6374
https://truechesapeake.com/pages/restaurant

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Flashback Friday - Oyster Bay Grille

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on January 31, 2014.

I'm only posting this because it was the restaurant at which last week's Flashback Friday rant took place. See, I'm not mean-spirited--just honest.

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I've been sorta curious about Oyster Bay Grille since it received a measly 1-star from Sun critic Richard Gorelick. Urbanspoon users give the place a 40% positive rating, with only five votes. This prompts me to ask two questions: 1) is it really that bad? 2) does nobody know the restaurant exists?

When they posted a tasty-sounding menu for Restaurant Week, I thought it was high time we found out for ourselves. Our dining experience was as uneven as expected.

The place is handsome, with dark paneled walls and soothing blue-gray tones. The space is oddly-shaped, however, and the bar area runs the length of the restaurant. Diners looking for a quiet experience will be disappointed when Happy Hour rolls around with its crowd of Loud Talkers and People Who Have to Yell to Be Heard Over Them. (Honestly. Nobody really cares to hear about your crappy job and your idiot boss. Stop drinking so much and shut up.)

We had already determined we would order items from the Restaurant Week menu, but took a gander at the regular menu as well. Ordering oysters at a place called Oyster Bay Grille seemed like a fine idea. We decide on two each of the blue points, Delaware Bay, and Honeysuckle varieties listed on a chalk board in front of the oyster shucking station. Our server immediately ran off to place the oyster order and then lingered behind the far end of the bar until the oysters were ready, rather than return to take the rest of our order. We expected service to be spotty for the rest of the evening, and while we had other issues, our waiter ended up being fine.

On to the food, which was better than expected from a 1-star restaurant. The man in charge of the kitchen has some skill, which was apparent in the lovely hash of sweet potatoes, andouille, asparagus, and corn that accompanied my fish. However, billed as "crispy-skinned," the rockfish was anything but. It was also unseasoned, but nicely cooked otherwise.

Mr Minx's lamb duo featured two fat and well-seasoned lamb chops and a chunk of fatty lamb belly on a dollop of lentils lightly flavored with cumin. The chops were perfectly-cooked and had a nice smoky grill flavor. I thought it was a very nice dish.

Starters of tomato-based crab soup and fried oysters were fine, if unremarkable. The remoulade that came with the oysters did not taste of the promised goat cheese, but the breading on them was nice and light. The soup needed a bit more spice, but it was pleasant enough.

The online menu suggested that a chocolate mousse flavored with Thai basil would be a dessert choice, which was intriguing. Instead, there was a chocolate cake that was like a cross between a brownie and a pound cake, flavored with cinnamon and cayenne, and served with a bit of caramel. The serving was ridiculously small (hopefully a non-Restaurant Week portion would be bigger), but it was pretty good.

The dessert that was more intriguing, the "candied bacon caramel cheesecake," turned out to be a combination of elements that didn't necessarily work together. The menu listed a pistachio brioche crust, Charlottetown Farms chevre, and goat milk caramel. The crust was indeed nutty and reminded me of baklava, but the cheesecake itself was lemon-flavored, which made the bacon seem like an intrusion. There was no hint of goat (the lemon was too strong), and the sauce on the plate seemed more like dulce de leche than a goat caramel. Take away the lemon, or keep the lemon and remove everything else, and it would have been fine.

So...while the food was good, between the noise level and the oyster incident, the visit was disappointing. Take from that what you will. The place seemed pretty busy, so our staying away isn't going to hurt business any.

Oyster Bay Grille
1 East Joppa Road
Towson, MD 21286
(443) 275-7026

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Flashback Friday - Shuck You Too

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on January 24, 2014.

Rereading this post made me angry all over again, especially the comments. The first one called my post "a mean-spirited review." What the ever-loving FUCK? I'm mean because I dared complain when my husband was injured because of the utter incompetence of a restaurant employee (or owner) and pretty much the entire staff (apart from the chef)? I didn't name the restaurant in the original post, nor did I actually review the food. I simply related a situation and my feelings about it. After all, it's my blog, so I can post what I want.

By the way, the restaurant was Oyster Bay Grille, and I am glad they closed.

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Sometimes I have to wonder why people go into the restaurant business.

It was Restaurant Week, and I chose a place we had never been to before because I thought their menu sounded good. The restaurant had a nice selection of raw oysters, so we decided to supplement our prix fixe dinner with a sampling of three varieties.

We could see the oyster shucking station from where we were seated. To my eyes, it didn't seem as though the shuckers had any idea what they were doing. They were wrestling with the bivalves, and each one seemed to take a while to open. I hoped that we wouldn't get a mangled mess.

When the oysters arrived at our table, accompanied by cocktail sauce, mignonette, and a grilled lemon wedge skewered by a single oyster fork, they looked quite nice. They were very fresh, but two of the three I ate had bits of dirt or shell inside and Mr. Minx ate one with grit in it as well. Moreover, the oysters hadn't been disconnected from their shells. Mr Minx found this out the hard way when he cut his lip on one of the shells during a vain attempt to slurp the creature out (the one at the top of the photo, which has quite a gnarly-looking edge on it.)

Blood ensued. Why does the tiniest cut seem to produce so much blood?

When a busser came by to remove our empty plate, I pointed out my husband's blood that was swirling around in the oyster shell. Our server had come back by that time and when he saw the carnage, the two of them scampered off together.

In a few moments, the man who had shucked the oysters came by, ostensibly to apologize. Now, let me give some pointers on apologies for restaurants. Restaurant Apologies 101, if you will. The very first thing to do is to say, "I'm very sorry." The next thing to do is to offer recompense. "Let me take the oysters off the check," or some such. And that's it. Then go away and let the diners finish their meal. Sticking around to make excuses like, "they were hard to open," and "this is why we put oyster forks out" are not acceptable. (Especially when there was only one oyster fork present, and it was jammed into the rind of a lemon. Were we to wrestle it out and then share it?) You work at a damn oyster bar--learn how to shuck a fucking oyster. Bleeding customers are not happy customers, and Mr Minx spent the rest of the meal in a foul humor. Especially when another man, presumably an owner or manager who had been randomly wandering, came around to say he saw something going on at our table. He did not offer an apology or anything else; it seemed that he was there simply out of curiosity. When each of these men returned to our table yet again, individually, to ask "you ok?" later on during the meal, it must have been the thought of liability niggling them. It just plain annoyed us.

Granted, the first man did say he was sorry, and he offered a free drink. Because alcohol on a cut would feel really swell. There were other things he could have done to make the restaurant seem more hospitable: send a warm damp napkin or paper towel to the table to help clean up the blood; offer a bit of Neosporin from the restaurant first aid kit. (Surely there was such a thing on hand?) I suppose we could have requested these things, but really, I don't think we should have had to. A restaurant's primary reason for existence, other than to feed people, is to make people happy. At the very least, not piss them off.

I did notice that the one who had shucked our oysters never went back behind the oyster bar. He wasn't dressed like an employee, so he was probably another owner "helping." He sure helped us decide never to go back, that's for sure.

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La Cuchara

It took us a while to get to La Cuchara. I can't explain exactly why, it just did. And now that we've gone, we want to go back again and again (and we have, several times).

La Cuchara features cuisine inspired by the Basque people living in northern France and southern Spain. Not French food, and not Spanish food (although maybe a bit closer to the latter), Basque food is its own thing. And why don't we have more of it in our area? Beats me. In any case, it's just the kind of stuff I like to eat - lots of small plates, lots of wine, terrific bread.

The menu changes constantly, so what you see here is pretty much guaranteed not to be available when you go. Sorry about that. The photos are mostly to show that the food is as gorgeous as it is delicious, like the Charred Octopus, Sweet Corn, Refrito de Chorizo shown above. The octopus had a nice charred flavor, tender, with a pleasant chew, and corn kernels added a nice pop of texture. There were also some of the succulents known as sea beans (or salicornia, or sea asparagus) on the plate to add a saline crunch. And see how gorgeous?

The poached oysters on a raft of pumpernickel toast (I adore their pumpernickel bread) in a sea of bright red tomato sofrito were perfect. The shellfish just barely cooked and still quite tender. We've also had two very different spins on the now ubiquitous kale salad, one massaged with a pistachio vinaigrette and served with sweet corn and cucumber, the other with bacon and bleu cheese.

We like to sit at the bar, even when it's not Happy Hour. Happy Hour is ridiculous. Pintxos, or small one or two bite dishes, which normally cost a huge $2 are half price, as are all the "primeros," or appetizer-sized plates. The spread of pintxos above cost a whopping $7 at Happy Hour and included sardines, smoked oysters with celery root puree, a jamon croquette, half an amazing veal tongue sandwich, a gilda (anchovy/olive/pepper skewer), charred cabbage Salvitxada, and marinated eggplant.

A gilda.

Here's a closeup of that lamb tongue bocadillo. It was like the most tender pastrami ever. Insane at $2 ($1 at HH!)

Another bocadillo, this one made with meltingly tender pork.

Here are some fried oysters with artichoke veloute. Mr Minx thought they were the most perfect fried oysters he's ever eaten.

We also tried some patatas bravas, a pretty typical tapas dish.

We also sampled some brunch items, like the crispy chicken torta with preserved lemon mayo. You'll never want a tiny fast food biscuit with a chicken nugget in it ever again once you taste these.

The only thing we haven't experienced at La Cuchara is an entree. I'm sure they're delicious, but they are not as budget-friendly as everything else on the menu. In any case, the older I get, the less-interested I am in entree-sized portions of anything. Suffice it to say that we've loved everything we've eaten at La Cuchara and regret not getting there sooner.

La Cuchara
3600 Clipper Mill Rd
Baltimore, MD 21211
(443) 708-3838



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Starlite Diner

The old Hess shoe store on Belvedere Avenue near York Road has been at least four restaurants over the past dozen or so years: Taste, Crush, Shoo Fly, and now Starlite Diner. Crush was my favorite of the bunch and I was very sorry to see it go; I particularly liked Demi, the small plates restaurant on the lower level. Taste was a bit all over the place--sometimes the food was good, and other times not so good. Shoo Fly was Spike Gjerde's attempt at a diner that had his local-only farm-to-table gimmick. The food was diner-ish, but prices were high and sometimes patrons want a damn lemon wheel for their cocktail. Shoo Fly didn't attract the hoi palloi, something at which Starlite Diner seems to be more successful. On the Saturday evening we were there, the place was fairly busy. Not hopping, as it was only 5pm, but more people came in as the night went on.

The decor is bright and funky, like a restaurant from the Jetsons rather than the streamlined chrome-tastic look sported by most other local diners. Starlite offers breakfast all day, such things as huevos rancheros and Oreo pancakes, plus a lunch and dinner menu full of trendy items like brussels sprouts and sliders with a couple of brief nods to diner food in the form of meatloaf and a roasted turkey sandwich.

Our party of four tried three apps, three items from the dinner menu, and one breakfast item.

Devils on Horseback is a fine retro appetizer. Ordinarily they're a play on Angels on Horseback, or oysters wrapped in bacon, substituting a dried fruit--like dates--for the oysters. At Starlite, they're a bit confused: deviled eggs topped with a fried oyster and a dollop of pimento aioli. They were...ok. The egg filling was a bit stiff for my taste, and the oysters overcooked. Potentially very good, however, and maybe they are on other nights.

This is the lobster mac and cheese. The lobster mac at Crush was probably the best version of that luxurious now-classic that I've ever tasted. Starlite's lobster mac was....meh. I liked the use of cavatappi, but prefer a saucier mac, and I really don't like my mac blanketed in stiff melted cheese. The screaming yellow cheese on the bright yellow plate was not appealing. A garnish of finely chopped parsley or green onion would go a long way to make the dish more attractive.

The fried brussels sprouts with bacon bits and a shower of finely grated Parmesan cheese was more successful. I can't rave over them, but I can't complain at all, either.

The breakfast item we tried was suitable for dinner - chicken and waffles. Three pieces of boneless fried chicken, both white and dark meat, were served over a fluffy Belgian-style waffle and came with a side of chipotle aioli. I felt the chicken was a bit bland, but it was nicely crispy. My biggest complaint (and you knew there'd be something) was the syrup. While Mrs Butterworth's/Log Cabin was fine in my youth (because I didn't know that their fenugreek flavoring really doesn't taste like maple at all) I wanted the real deal. I suppose I am spoiled.

Mr Minx ordered the shrimp and sausage jambalaya, which came with a chunk of cornbread and a shit-ton of butter (presumably for the cornbread). I detected cumin, which made the dish seem more like Mexican rice than jambalaya. But I suppose we're not in New Orleans. <sigh>

I had the short rib tacos. They were chock-full of tender shredded meat, tomatillo salsa, and queso fresco. They tasted pretty good, but were messy to eat. Perhaps doubling the corn tortillas so they don't fall apart would help. (It would.) The tacos came with a side salad, which I loved--a simple mix of baby greens with a bit of feta and a light toss in the slightly sweet house vinaigrette.

More of that salad and a side of crispy fries came with the pimento cheeseburger. I thought this was the best dish of the night. The 8oz Angus patty was nicely pink on the inside, with a terrific charbroiled flavor. It was topped with a house-made pimento cheese of cheddar flavored with bacon, onion, and chipotle peppers.

We had ordered a lot of food, so we declined dessert from the display of cheesecakes and whatnot from the case near the front door.

The prices are right at Starlite Diner, at least for the food. The most expensive items on the menu both involve steak; a 12oz strip with frites is $24, and a 10oz strip with eggs, home fries, and a salad is $20. There's also a lobster club for $18. The rest of the menu averages $10-$12, depending on whether it's a breakfast or dinner item. The $3 Natty Boh draft seemed a steal, especially when compared to the cocktails. We tried the Vega ($11) and the Bellatrix ($9). While both were made with quality spirits, the alcohol was quite diluted by other ingredients and neither drink packed any sort of punch.

Service is....ok. It's not bad, but it's not good, either. The person who led us to our seats gave us regular menus, but not the drink menu. Our waiter filled water glasses then left. After a somewhat long wait, he returned to take our drink order, but as we had not received those most important menus, we spent more time waiting while he returned with them, and then again for him to come back to take our order. Later, our entrees arrived while we were still eating our appetizers. This was a problem noted in Suzanne Loudermilk's Sun review in early November and was still an issue in early December.

While I think Starlite will be more successful than its predecessors in that particular location, it didn't quite satisfy any of our dining needs. It should, however, be popular with young families (there's a kids' menu, and the decor is fun) and folks in search of a good burger (who aren't into Clark Burger for whatever reason).



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Tark's Grill

If you've never been to Tark's Grill before, let me warn you that it's not the easiest place to find. It's actually inside Greenspring Station, the little Cross Keys-like shopping area at Falls and Joppa Roads, not on the outside near Poulet. The signage is small, so keep your eyes peeled, especially at night!

We visited Tark's early on a Thursday evening, and it was already packed full of noisy people. I'm guessing many of them were regulars from before City Cafe owners Gino Cardinale and Bruce Bodie took over the restaurant. New ownership brought Tark's a new chef and new menus, all of which will be familiar to patrons of their Mount Vernon establishment. Chef James Jennings is doing double duty at both restaurants and is so far offering pretty much the same food at both, with a few exceptions. The menu will also seem familiar to patrons of The Food Market, as that restaurant's chef/owner Chad Gauss has run City Cafe's kitchen in the not so distant past and his influence is evident.

Seems complicated, but the food thankfully isn't. However, the menu is a bit puzzling. Similar to The Food Market's menu, there are multiple appetizer divisions like "Finger Food" and "First Bites," plus the less confusing "Principals." I'm not sure what the difference is between the first two categories, or why fried oysters and buffalo popcorn chicken are finger foods but warm brie flatbread and crispy calamari are "first bites." And why "first bites" is the second category on the menu. But maybe I'm the only one who notices these sorts of things.

There were four of us at this particular dinner. Two of us had already eaten two large restaurant meals that week and weren't necessarily in the mood for a third, but it was my birthday and neither of the other two people in our party was going to cook for me.... Rather than share apps and order entrees, as we normally do, we just ordered a mess of "finger foods" and "first bites" in two rounds. We started with the fried oysters, buffalo popcorn chicken, brussels sprouts, and Korean bbq wings.

The oysters were my favorite of the bunch. They were barely cooked on the inside and nicely crunchy on the outside. The bacon aioli was rich, and despite being under the oysters, didn't render them unreasonably soggy.

The brussels sprouts came in second. We are a family of brussels sprouts lovers and order them everywhere. We tend to enjoy deep fried ones best, because they are usually very crisp, but they're not particularly photogenic. The sprouts at Tark's were still very green, had a nice firm bite, and were well seasoned. They came with more of that nice bacon aioli.

The popcorn chicken, which was dusted with a powder made with Frank's hot sauce, wasn't particularly attractive, nor was it at all crisp, but the bits of chicken were nicely tender and the flavors were good.

The Korean bbq wings could have used a lot more heat (and sweetness, and garlic, and sesame oil, a trifecta of flavors that is fairly prominent in many Korean dishes) but they were well-cooked, with the meat coming easily off the bone.

We also had four "first bites." The warm brie flatbread with slivers of apple and a balsamic glaze was pretty good. The brie was melted but not messy, and the apple added a hint of sweetness and crunch.

The warm burrata and wild mushrooms was a miss, however. I love burrata, the oozier the better. Its rich cheesiness matches best with something bright and acidic, like tomatoes, for contrast. The mushrooms in this dish were surprisingly bland and under-seasoned, and the milky cheese simply added more blandness. Personally, I think something sharper, like manchego, would make a better foil for the mushrooms.

The Spanish shrimp--with mushrooms, garlic sauce, and smoked paprika--were tasty, if oddly-plated. Though the shrimp were large, the plate on which they were served was huge, and it took us a minute to realize the pile in the middle was comprised of chunks of bread and mushrooms. The bread was already saturated with sauce, and we had nothing with which to sop up the rest of it. (I know I'm not a professional chef, and you all probably hate when I do this, but I'm going to do it anyway. I'd 86 the mushrooms entirely, as they don't add anything to the dish, and put a smaller piece of bread under each shrimp. And use a smaller plate, and less sauce.)

It's hard to fault the calamari though. They were so very tender, with a light crisp coating. The Thai dipping sauce was a nice change from the usual marinara. An actual pleasure to eat.

Since it was my birthday, and the restaurant had been made aware of that fact, I got a free birthday dessert, which was a real treat. We were pretty full at this point so decided to do two desserts to share among the four of us. The vanilla creme brulée with fresh berries was fine and enjoyed very much by my father.

James' bread pudding with white, dark, and milk chocolate plus a caramel drizzle, whipped cream and berries, was indulgent. The pudding itself was tender and sweet and definitely large enough to share.

The original incarnation of Tark's Grill was a steakhouse--not our thing at all--so we're pretty pleased with the new version, at least concept-wise. I do think it deserves its own menu though, because I'm betting the Lutherville crowd is pretty different from the City Cafe's regular clientele (and The Food Market's). Perhaps it's not as necessary to offer 33 appetizers, 20 entrees, and 7 side dishes in the county? Or maybe it is. I'm sure Bruce and Gino will figure it out; they've been successful restaurateurs so far. I hope Tark's is a hit for them, as it's nice to have another locally owned, non-chain, restaurant in our neck of Baltimore County.

Tark's Grill
2360 W Joppa Rd #116
Lutherville-Timonium, MD 21093



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