foraged. a hyper-seasonal eatery — Restaurant in Baltimore

Not a great place to go for a birthday celebration, they didn't really do anything to make it special for us. At the very least they could have given us a free dessert but they didn't even do that which is pretty standard among most other restaurants. :(

Now I'd like to add that I've been a frequent diner at Foraged for several years, including when they used to be at their old location so I've really supported them from the beginning, but I've had many mixed experiences. I usually keep coming back because I love their sourcing and unique menu items, but I'm getting rather frustrated at the lack of consistency and tonight they were just really NOT on point.

I will say the pig parts were served perfectly cooked and absolutely delicious, but the lion's mane crab cake was pretty disappointing and didn't taste like I had had it in the past. Some of the other dishes were a little lackluster as well. Again, this may have just been an off night for them, but it was especially disappointing since it was on my birthday.

Our waiter Sam was not good at listening to our requests. He packaged up my leftovers and forgot to include a few things that I asked them for like the sauces. I thought he heard my request, but he seemed distracted and clearly wasn't paying attention. When we first arrived he spent way too much time reciting his excessively loooong "scripted welcome" when we were already ready to order and didn't need to sit through what felt like an infomercial. Perhaps the waiters can ask if the newcomers would like an overview of the menu or if we're ready to order? Also he did not seem very knowledgeable about the menu and when we asked specific questions, he seemed to recite more long scripts. Whenever we would ask about recommendations he would just say pretty much everything is good. 🙄🙄🙄 Not helpful!

In the past, I've had EVA as my waitress and she is absolutely FANTASTIC! She was very knowledgeable about the menu and if there's something she didn't know she was quick to go back to the kitchen to find out an answer for us. THAT is the kind of service you expect when you are paying about $100 per person for a meal.

The rest of the staff was very annoying as well, they were quick to try to take away our plates when we weren't even done eating!! It's as if they wanted to rush us out since they were super busy. Poor service like this is a huge pet peeve of mine! Please ask if I'm done before you take my plate!

Overall this was such a disappointing experience I may not come back for a while, which is unfortunate since I used to be a frequent diner here. It's just far too expensive and the quality has gone down. :(.

I will say as a follow-up, I do appreciate Chris's response to this review. I know he's passionate about his restaurant and strives to give the absolute best to his customers, and thus it was hard for me to leave such a negative review. I hope this info can be used to provide a better experience in the future for others and perhaps I will take him up on his offer to connect with him next...

TL;DR: Service is good, food is interesting, but too salty; a dish sent back for excessive salt came back saltier the second time. The desserts hit - more focused on flavor than sweetness.

Went for the first time for my wife's cousin's birthday, table of four, 7:00 reservation on a Wednesday, no problem there. Restaurant was not full, but not empty. The service was fine - accommodating and friendly, and dealt with challenges well. The atmosphere was fine - easy to hold a conversation, comfortable enough, but unremarkable.

The drinks were OK, and a little expensive. I started with a cocktail that sounded promising, I don't recall the specifics, something with a snap pea infused gin or vodka and basil, but the flavor was just thin and a bit sour. I switched to beer after that. My wife really liked her Beatrix spritz, and those who had wine had good things to say.

The pacing of the meal was a little odd, but it mostly worked out. The server was great about bringing clean silverware between courses, so bonus points for that. It's a nice touch that even really fine restaurants miss out on these days. The food itself, though, was.... OK. And quite expensive for what it was - which was mostly oversalted. The pork socket was good. The oysters were tasty and nicely presented - on a bed of salt, of course. The mushroom "crab cake" was interesting and flavorful. I didn't try the mushroom stew, but those that did thought it excellent. The mackerel that I had was good, if a bit too salty. My wife's risotto was a punch of salt right up front rendered the rest of the dish hard to eat. We sent it back (NOT a thing we do), having all four of us tried it and agreeing that it was off. The manager could not have been more apologetic or gracious - but the second one that arrived was, if anything, worse, as agreed by all four of us. Again, the staff was gracious and apologetic. The desserts were very good - full of flavor and not just full of sugar.

The restaurant adds a 5% gratuity for the kitchen staff to every bill. This just feels like a way to dodge increasing the price of the already expensive menu items to pay staff properly. I get the mission of the restaurant, and I do have a real understanding of what it costs to provide local, seasonal, quality food, presented well - but at the end, it has to taste good and be satisfying, and this felt like poor value for money on this score. We might have just hit an off night, but at the price-point (about $125/person by the end of the night) there are too many other reliable options in town, and no stand-out regular menu option to bring me back for another try. A concept-menu restaurant with a rotating menu has to be on-point all the time, and that's a high bar to set for yourself. FOH manager gets an A+ tonight....

From start to finish, my party and I had a very weird experience, and not one we would repeat.

Our night started off by the host almost turning us away because we didn’t have a reservation. Nowhere on the website did it mention needing a reservation.

After making us feel bad for not having a reservation, we were then told we could sit outside, even though it was cold and we weren’t dressed warmly and there were plenty of empty tables inside. We weren’t sure if we were almost turned away / weren’t seated inside because we weren’t dressed as elegantly as some of the other patrons?

We ordered 7 dishes total. Service was excruciatingly slow. The appetizers took 35 minutes to come out, and we then had to wait 50 more minutes for our entrees to come out. And then 35 more minutes for our desserts. Even though the dishes were very tiny (tapas style) and could be eaten quickly, we were sitting at our table for 2 hours total just waiting on our food.

The food was okay. Overly salty, and definitely overpriced. We enjoyed the bread and tallow. The rainbow trout and pork were underwhelming— trout was underseasoned and pork was rubbery. Risotto and mushroom stew were too salty. The pumpkin cheesecake and pot de creme were both delicious.

When it came time to pay, we had a gift card. The server told us multiple times that the card was declined even though we showed the balance of $100 on the card website. We were then told “there’s nothing we can do.” We were treated as if we were attempting to dine and dash. We called customer service who easily explained that the card was declined due to the restaurant attempting to put the full charge on the gift card which exceeded the balance. We then had to wait 15 more minutes for the server to try the card again. The transaction finally worked and the server didn’t offer so much as an apology or a comped item for wasting our time.

Something else we disliked was the automatic 5% charge on every check “for tipping the kitchen.” So you’re telling me this restaurant can’t pay its cook staff and is relying on customers to pay their wages? Absolutely disturbing, in this economy, to be expected to tip our server 20% as well as 5% to kitchen staff. I highly doubt the kitchen staff sees even a portion of these charges.

After a 2.5 hour, very odd experience, we were left hungry and very disappointed. We would...