Hearing good rumors about a restaurant doesn?t mean you?ll have a good visit.
Such was my experience with the Ellicott Mills Brewing Company.
After hearing a couple of good things about the restaurant/bar from friends and colleagues, I decided to give it a try.
After a brief struggle over where we were going to sit ? the upstairs dining room didn?t have the lobster special, but the downstairs had noisy bar patrons ? we decided on the upstairs and were seated immediately.
The crusty bread that came before our appetizer was soft and warm, served with softened butter. Our beer sample rack gave us just a taste of the home-brewed beers the Company has to offer. By far, the best was the Dunkel, a dark German beer with a caramel malt aroma. In the words of my date, it “tastes just like a candy bar.”
But our coconut shrimp seemed as if the cook just decided to throw some shrimp on a plate without any type of garnish and dump some teriyaki sauce in a plastic cup. Although the presentation wasn?t impressive, the shrimp were sweet, crunchy and fresh. However, the sweet-and-sour sauce was overly sweet when compared with the shredded coconut.
The soup of the day was a beer-and-cheese soup, which was by far the best food we ate all night. The steaming-hot soup was salty and cheesy. It was filled with shredded crab meat and mixed vegetables. We devoured the entire bowl, using some of the bread to sop up the leftover juice.
Our house salads came with juicy cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes and red cabbage, but they were so small we ate them in about four bites.
Iordered the blackened Black Angus, which was a 10-ounce cut of New York strip steak. It was pan-seared with Cajun spices and topped with a pepper cream sauce. The medium-rare steak ? which I had ordered medium-well ? was overly spiced, making for an extremely salty piece of meat. The combination of the hot Cajun spices and the slightly bitter pepper sauce was unpleasant. I ended up scraping most of the sauce off of the meat.
We left without the inspiration to try dessert.
IF YOU GO
Ellicott Mills Brewing Company
8303 Main St., Ellicott City
410-313-8141; ellicottmillsbrewing.com
» What You?ll Eat: American fare
» What You?ll Drink: Handcrafted, home-brewed beer
» What You?ll Pay: $50 for two
» Who You?ll See: Locals and young drinkers
