Oscar's Alehouse

Oscar's Ale House
1438 Liberty Road
Eldersburg, MD 21784
(410) 795-7001
oscars@oscarsalehouse.net

My wife and I just celebrated our 23 date-iversary.  Meaning - we started dating 23 years ago.  We always celebrate this seemingly odd day, but it is special in our life.  I asked my wife if she wanted to go on a date, maybe go to dinner.  She agreed. I threw out some suggestions - Baldwin Station, Johannson's, The Grille At Harryman House.  She chose Oscar's Alehouse.

Oscar's opened probably a year ago.  I heard the opening was an absolute disaster.  Not sure if what I heard is true, but I heard that the kitchen staff walked out on opening night. Oscar's is the successor to Cobblestone, Meiklejohn's, and The Chop House.  Did I miss any?

I made reservations for 2 at 6pm.  This place is always crowded on Fridays.  You can how crowded they are by the number of cars that are illegally parked in the fire lane.  If Carroll County and Maryland State Police were smart, they'd swing by every Friday evening and handout about 2 dozen parking tickets every hour.  Imagine the revenue that would add up over time.

My wife and I were fortunate enough to get a seat right by the front window.  The seat and the table are awkwardly spaced.  Not sure if there is 3 feet from the back of the chair to the table so that fat people can sit there, or if it is just the way they had to divide the space evenly.  I had to sit at the edge of my seat to reach the table.  Really weird.

Our waitress was prompt and courteous, as was the staff that delivered our meals.  I wasn't sure if my wife wanted a drink or not, so we ordered a round of waters first.  We're not like most couples who both drink and get lit at dinner, then drive home drunk.

My wife finally decided she didn't want a drink, so with my dinner order I ordered a Victory Golden Monkey, which is a Belgian-style ale from Pennsylvania.  It was really good.  If anything, Oscar's Alehouse has a nice selection of beers.  They have varieties of beer from Dogfish Head, Brooklyn Brewery, Rogue, Heavy Seas, and Harpoon.  And if you don't like beer, they also have Budweiser and Miller Light.

We ordered appetizers, if you classify soups as appetizers.  I got a bowl of French Onion soup.  Instead of having melted cheese over top, there was a slice of cheese on top of a slice of bread.  The cheese was nearly melted, but it seemed like a lame attempt to make French Onion soup.  My wife ordered the Maryland Cream of Crab soup.  It was orange.  She said it tasted like cheese, by the menu said it was prepared with Sherry, so I suspect the Sherry is the cause of the orange color.  She was not impressed with the soup.

For dinner I ordered the Oscar's Creole Pasta.  Instead of pasta, I got it with wild rice.  It was served with blackened chicken, which is fancy food talk for burnt chicken, shrimp, and Andouille sausage, peppers, onions, and a spicy cream sauce.  When they say spicy, they're not kidding.  I LOVE spicy food.  I drop hot sauce on everything.  I could not eat this dish.  It was so freakin' spicy that I drained my glass of water and my entire beer putting out the flames from a quarter of the dish.  The taste?  Not sure.  The main flavor of the dish was fire.

My wife ordered the Wood Grilled Shrimp and Bacon club.  Her only response was that it was, "eh...".  When we finished, she confidently stated, "We're not coming back here again."

I could give this restaurant a second chance, but it may be a while.  They have half priced burgers on Mondays and was told that the burgers are actually pretty good.  I may go there with some friends and drink some beer. But I doubt I'll be taking my wife back there again.  She was too disappointed to want to go back.

Overall, Oscar's looks very nice.  It has a nice ambiance.  The staff are dressed neatly, though not professionally, and they were polite, friendly, quick, and responsive. Oscar's seems like a great place to hang out.  That is, unless you want to order dinner and actually like food that tastes good.  I'll admit that I spoke to someone that says that the Friday food always seems to be worse than food served on any other day.  Perhaps the kitchen staff is in such a rush on Fridays because of the crowd that they prepare food with the intention of getting it done fast rather than getting it done well.

It's hard for me to recommend this place.  Have you been there before?  If so, what do you think?

Plazuelas

1834 Liberty Rd

Eldersburg, MD 21784

(410) 552-5502

Plazuelas in Eldersburg does not have a website, but they do serve some great authentic Mexican food. And I mean Mexican, not Texican like you get at Don Pablos, Qdoba, Chipoltle, or Chi-Chi's.

My wife and daughter were heading to the Mall in Columbia to look at dresses (boring!), so I took my youngest daughter and son to Plazuelas in Eldersburg. We went there when they first opened years ago, but I wasn't overly impressed then. I decided to give it a second try. I had plenty of company on Friday night. The place was packed.

The building is the former Pizza Hut on Liberty Road (Pizza Hut moved to its current location on Route 32 in the late 1990's. The interior looks new and different than what I remember the first time. We grabbed a booth and were quickly served a basket of hot tortilla chips and salsa in a mini-decanter (or whatever it's called). I thought that was a nice quirky touch. The chips were okay, maybe a little bland. They definitely needed some salt.

It took a while for the waiter to come take our order. I'd say about 15 minutes. Once we placed our order it wasn't too long before we were served. I ordered 2 beef enchiladas with a taco and rice. My son ordered a cheese burrito. My 4 year old daughter ordered the most authentic Mexican dish you can imagine - chicken tenders and French fries.

My meal was very good. Not cheesy like you think of Texican dishes. Just very flavorful. I chose not to eat it all because I am trying to lose weight, so it made an excellent lunch the next day. My son loved his cheese burrito, but was not able to finish it, so he ate the remainder the next day. I tried the chicken tenders and French fries and they were pretty good, too!

There are many choices on the menu and I think they had 9 different vegetarian options. The prices are excellent. My meal was only $7.95 and my son's was $5.95. I didn't have any drinks as I was the only adult there, but they do offer several domestic and imported beers in addition to the quintessential Margarita.

If you're looking for a decent well-priced authentic meal where you can have a drink served by a friendly staff, Plazuelas is definitely one of those places you should try.

Glory Days Grill

Glory Days Grill
1348 Liberty Road
Sykesville, MD 21784-6411
(410) 552-5160


So I finally got a chance to eat at the new Glory Days Grill in Eldersburg, Maryland. Glory Days opened in the 1348 Liberty Road lcoation that had been built and seemed abandoned for several years. Finally the building is occupied!

I have seen many reviews (in under 148 characters or less) on Facebook and have spoken to several people that have been there and I always seemed to have received the same feedback. It's....okay.

One comment was something to the effect of 'it would be a nice place to watch a game, probably not a place to go on a date'. Others said it was like Applebees ( the death-knell of restaurant reviews). Still others said it was bar food - burgers, cheap pizzas, and some sandwiches, and some meat thrown over salads. But mostly a place to drink alcohol while eating food.

Yesterday was the perfect occasion to make my presense known there. It was my birthday! We arrived a little after 5pm and the place was already packed. There was no wait at the time, but scanning the crowd we got one of the last couple tables that were available. Our hostess reminded my of Miley Cirus. I don't think that's a bad thing. She's a cute girl. My daughter agreed. My wife thought I was nuts.

I started the meal with a Glory Days Cosmo. No, I'm not gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just read the ingredients and thought it sounded yummy. It was delivered in an over-sized Martini glass and it was pink with a slice of lime. Okay. Stop. It was still good.

I ordered the Pittsburger, but I demanded that the waitress let me order it as the Ravensburger, as I refuse to order something from Pittsburgh. The Ravensburger, as I know it, is corned beef, pastrami, Swiss cheese, deli mustard, and cole slaw on a toasted flatbread. Let me tell you - this was an excellent sandwich. Since I'm trying to eat reasonably, I only ate half of it, and saved the 2nd half for lunch today. It was fantastic the 2nd time around!

My eldest daughter ordered the grilled chicken penne with Vodka cream sauce. She said it was really good. My wife ordered the chicken cheese steak, but she said it was only okay. Nothing special.

The service was prompt and friendly. The food was hot. The atmosphere was casual. I think we were in and out of there in less than an hour. The prices were reasonable - about the same as you would find at Chili's and Applebee's. But unlike Applebee's, the food was fully cooked and served hot.

Overall, I have no complaints about Glory Days Grill. Sure, it's not a 5 star restaurant. But as a chain restaurant that aims to provide decent food and an atmosphere for big-game camaraderie, it serves us well.

It's been open for a while. If you haven't been there yet, check it out.

Grilled Cheese & Company

Grilled Cheese & Company
577 Johnsville Road Suite 1
Eldersburg, Maryland 21784
443-920-3238


I met a friend and her daughter one day for lunch at the Grilled Cheese & Company in the Johnsville Station in Eldersburg on Route 32, just south of Route 26. I always get a giggle out of the name Johnsville Station. I always think of Brownsville Station, the band that originally sang "Smokin' in the Boys' Room" before Motley Crue remade it.

The Grilled Cheese & Company restaurant is an 'order at the counter and we'll bring it to you' kind of restaurant. There are not a lot of tables, so I assume they want to get you in and get you out. As I always said when I worked at the Burger King in Bel Air, 'Get 'em in, get 'em out'.

I brought my daughter, as well, but she wasn't much interested in the menu. She wanted a drink and fries. That's fine. Potatoes are vegetables, right? I ordered the Smashed Meatball sandwich. There are several Italian-spiced meatballs that are smashed (hence the name), topped with tomato sauce and Provolone cheese. Sounds like a meatball sub, right? However, this was served on fresh grilled bread soaked in butter. Mmmmmm......butter.

I didn't have to wait too long for my food. The place was fairly busy. The entire time we were eating there was a line at the cash register and most of the seats were filled. My sandwich was hot. Way hot! Once it finally cooled off a bit, I really enjoyed it. It was appropriate spiced with pleasing amounts of cheese sprinkled about the sandwich. It was very tasty. My daughter enjoyed her fries, too. And the company of my friend's daughter.

There are other items on the menu that seem good, too. There is the Sarducci, which is Italian peppers and cheese, the Blue Ox, which has roast beef, blue cheese, and horseradish sauce, and the Crabby Melt, which has crab meat and Monterrey Jack cheese. Of course, there is also an original grilled cheese sandwich. They also offer soups and salads, for those who like those things.

While I liked the food and the decor, I did think it was a bit pricey. I paid about $8 for my sandwich. A plain grilled cheese is $5. I might go back with a friend, but I doubt that I'd take my whole family because with drinks I'd end up spending close to $50. Grilled Cheese & Company is not worth $50 to feed a family.

Cobblestone Tavern & Grille

Cobblestone Tavern & Grille
1438 Liberty Road
Eldersburg, Maryland 21784
410-795-7001
info@cobblestonetavernandgrille.com


Having been locked up in quarantine for the last couple of months because my daughter has leukemia, we finally got out of the house this weekend. Thanks to a gift card from some very dear friends we have from Church, my wife and I were able to enjoy some much needed time alone and have a wonderful meal together.

Step 1 - babysitting. Our friend, the most selfless person you'll ever meet, came and stayed with my kids for a few hours so we could get out. Fortunately, her son and my son are best friends.

Step 2 - get to Cobblestone. Cobblestone is located smack in the middle of Eldersburg off of Liberty Road behind the nearly vacant Arby's.

Step 3 - seating. There wasn't a huge crowd at Cobblestone, but it was 1:30 in the afternoon on a Sunday. Football season is over, so the beer-drinking crowd is home working on the honey-do list. There were probably 5 other tables with diners and we were told there was a party of 25 in the back room. The decor is classy - dark hardwood, stone, and fake exposed brick. I liked it!

Step 5 - the menu. The menu is fairly reasonable. Steaks, seafood, sandwiches. I was torn between the 10 oz Mignon and the Grilled Mahi Mahi. Mahi Mahi is my favorite fish. Then I realized that my wife's menu had the Valentine's weekend insert that my menu was lacking. It showed Surf and Turf for $25. A fresh lobster tail and a 6 oz. Mignon steak, with 2 sides. My wife and I both chose the Sweet Potato Soufflé and a side salad. I added a bowl of Cream of Crab soup and a pint of Cobblestone Ale.

Step 6 - eating! The ale quickly arrived and it was light. It was okay in taste, but not super special, but not bad either. A good average ale it was. The soup and salads soon followed. The crab soup was magnificent. Creamy. Not very spicy (though I like it a little bit spicier), but it was chocked full of crab meat. Most crab soups these days show a crab to the soup and call it crab soup. Some soups are lucky enough to have the crab take a 5 second dip in the pot.

We finished our appetizers and seemed to wait a fair amount of time for our entree'. However, when it arrived it was fantastic. I ordered my steak medium rare and it was medium rare. Usually the steak is pulled off of the grill when it's medium rare and by the time it gets to you the internal heat cooks it to a medium well. The lobster was buttery and perfectly tender. The Sweet Potato Soufflé was like a dessert - creamy and sweet.

Step 7 - dessert. My wife insisted that she was stuffed, so I ordered the Brownie Sundae. It came with 2 spoons (of course!) a nice sized chunk of hot brownie, a big heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream, and 3 big dollops of homemade whipped cream, topped with Maraschino cherries.

My wife helped me eat it, despite insisting she wasn't hungry as she spooned scoop after scoop of the homemade whipped cream into her mouth.

The total bill came to $73. That's about what we end up paying for our family of 5 on the rare occasion we go out to dinner.

The service was friendly, the atmosphere was relaxing and enjoyable, and the food was really good. I would be more than happy to go there again.

Chilis

Chilis
1312 Londontown Boulevard
Eldersburg, MD 21784
(410) 552-9970


I wouldn't normally write about Chili's. It's not fancy. It's not unique. It's just different meats covered in melted cheeses and bacon. Nothing more. But this is a my forum to write about eating at restaurants. And when you have an absolutely crappy experience, it deserves to be written about.

Some background to add emotion to the whole situation - in October my 3 year old daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. My wife had to quit working, so we had a sizable loss of income. We have wonderful friends and family and many gave us gift cards to restaurants that we could use when we didn't have time to cook a meal or just needed to get out.

I hadn't gotten anything out of the freezer for dinner tonight, so I convinced my wife that this was a good opportunity to use our Chili's cards. My wife placed an order online. Chili's has a 2 for $20 special - an appetizer and 2 entres for $20. We got the Texas Cheese Fries, she got the Southwestern Quesadillas with Bacon and Ranch and I got the Jalapeno Chicken Quesadillas (all 3 covered in cheese and bacon). We also ordered the Cheese Quesadillas for my son. She submitted the order. It came to $26.07. It said it would be ready at 6:44pm, which was 15 minutes from when we placed it.


Living 15 minutes away, I left immediately. When I got there the place was packed. There were several people ahead of me in the carry-out line. Once I got up to the counter she gave me my total and I paid - $25 on the gift card and I gave her a buck seven.

We waited for a while, but that was expected given how many people were there to eat. We finally got our food at 7:04pm. I'm not going to complain about that. It was busy. I get it.

When I got home 15 minutes later, I realized that the Jalapeno Chicken Quesadillas were not in the bag. Shame on me for not checking before I left. I called the restaurant, she seemed confused, but said to return and I could get the missing part of me meal.

When I got there she said that I never ordered the Jalapeno Chicken Quesadillas. She then showed me an itemized receipt that just showed "2 for $20 on one line and the Kids Cheese Quesadillas" on the other. "See?", she said. "You didn't order the Jalapeno Chicken Quesadillas."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This doesn't even freakin' make sense. First of all - she was blaming me for not ordering the quesadillas, but then she was inaccurately telling me that the itemized receipt showed I didn't order it. It didn't show anything except that we ordered the 2 for $20 deal! Okay, whatever. She reordered the quesadillas and I waited another 10 minutes or so for them.

I finally got home (it was now 7:48 - more than an hour and 15 minutes after I had originally placed my order). After I ate my meal, I went back to their website and tried to reorder the 2 for $20 deal without including the 2nd meal. It's impossible. You MUST select 2 items. Therefore, there is a flaw somewhere. Either Chili's got it wrong or the error was between the seat and the keyboard.

So in summary, I am less inclined to revisit Chili's in the future. Unfortunately, we still have $30 in gift cards to there. Perhaps I could give them as presents and let someone else deal with the grief that they deliver. By the way, the food was decent. No complaints on the taste.