Miss Shirley's Cafe, Inner Harbor — Restaurant in Baltimore

After years of hearing great things about Miss Shirley's, and seeing it on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, not to mention countless lists of the best brunch places, I was so excited to be in Baltimore to finally try it.

I cannot tell you how disappointed I was.

The host told us there would be a 35 to 45 minute wait, but it actually only took about 25 minutes before we got the text that we could be seated. Of course, they weren't ready to seat us yet, so that took another 10 minutes before we got a table.

Our server was very nice, but a little absent minded. We asked for water and coffee while we looked at the menu. She came back a few minutes later to ask if we wanted something to drink. We repeated the coffee and water order. She came back again a few minutes later, empty-handed and asked again if we wanted something to drink. Really...

Well, we finally got coffee and water, but the coffee was lukewarm and bitter. Milk and sugar couldn't fix the bitterness. Who knew that the bad coffee was going to be a precursor to the bad meal that followed.

I ordered the stack of buttermilk pancakes with a side of shredded potatoes. My mother ordered the 4 mini Belgian waffles, with a side of applewood bacon and shredded potatoes. When the food came, the presentation was fine, but it wasn't hot at all. Not even a little bit warm. The huge ball of whipped butter on the pancakes had no hope of melting even a little bit since the pancakes were ice cold. My mother said her waffles were hard, cold, and tasted like frozen Eggo waffles. They were barely warm at all. The maple syrup wasn't warm, so it wasn't like that could help the situation.

My pancakes were so dry, that I constantly had to sip some water to get some moisture. That is NOT an exaggeration. That cold syrup was no match for those dry, dense pancakes. They just soaked up the syrup, never to be seen or tasted again. The bacon was just chewy, with no real flavor to it at all. The potatoes weren't hot, either and the onions were just a step away from being raw. They were barely cooked and looked like they had been thrown in with the potatoes as an afterthought. There was no seasoning, so it was just potatoes and almost raw onions.

My mother ordered the cinnamon apple donuts to go, hoping they would be decent, but when she got the box, it looked like one of those plastic food models that you see as a display in some restaurants. Well, it tasted like a plastic model, too. We had to heat them up to get even a little hint of the maple glaze flavor, but who knows where the apple and cinnamon were. You couldn't taste it or smell it.

I didn't think it was possible to mess up straightforward breakfast foods like pancakes, waffles, and hash browns, but sadly, Miss Shirley's proved me wrong. We ended up paying over $80 for one of the worst meals I have EVER had.

I so wanted to love this place and so wanted to be able to sing its praises, but I cannot. Maybe they were having a bad day, and we got the worst of it. I hope the low quality we experienced isn't what people have been raving about, because if it was, heads (and taste buds) need to be examined.

Whatever the case, these prices are unacceptable for what you get. You can get a better meal in the freezer section of your local grocery store. Restaurant quality, this was not. I definitely won't be back. It was...

Our Lyft driver suggested Miss Shirley’s. I thought oh he must just be saying that because we just rode by there. We took a chance and decided to go in for Sunday breakfast. The place was crowded. They do not take reservations, but we only had to wait for 35 minutes for a party of 2.

Our wait person was Troy. THOROUGH, FRIENDLY, and ATTENTIVE. We were never without coffee and Troy was an professional throughout our meal.

STRAWBERRY LEMONADE BAKED MINI DONUTS Yes we had the dessert first! We ordered them and then saw a photo of them sitting at the table. We thought we made a terrible mistake in looking at the photo. The donuts arrived and we both took apprehensive bites. Well, weren’t we silly because they were delicious! The glaze on them had just enough sweet/tart. You knew you were having strawberry lemonade flavor. The donut itself was soft and light and had pieces of strawberry inside. I would most certainly order them again.

Meal: I had an omelet with spinach, asparagus, and swiss cheese. It was served with a side of hash browns and a an everything biscuit. My spouse had an omelet with mushrooms, jalapenos and swiss. The omelets were perfect. They were completely filled. No sparse sections. Every bite had great portions of vegetable and cheese. The jalapeno pieces were large and plentiful which made my husband quite happy. Hash browns – nicely done with a good flavor. They had old bay on the table and I added some to mine. Biscuit – I was looking at it trying to understand how it even made sense. It does. That was one of the best I ever had. Soft and tender with just a touch of cream cheese running through it and the everything spice on top made it perfect. I have been looking on line for a recipe for these biscuits because I really need more. REALLY.

I need to go back to Baltimore for this place. Whatever I order will require a biscuit on the side because it was...

The food was nothing like the reviews say it is in my opinion. I may not be a good judge though because I tend to eat at 4 and 5 star restaurants and this one clearly isn’t that; however, I expected the hot food (including biscuits) to be hot. The flavors would have been great had the food been at the right temperature. I often wonder how safe it is to serve food at the wrong temperature so this scares me enough to not to want to return. Miss. Shirley has passed away. Maybe if she knew the current owner or manager was serving up her recipes like this she wouldn’t like it because the taste would be great if the food would come out hot. I’ve been here a couple of other times thinking I must’ve come on a bad day or the cold food was a fluke but nope, the biscuits were as cold and hard as the first two times and the grits, eggs, and shrimp were lukewarm to cool in temperature. What a shame! The service was really good, though. I can’t remember her name but she was a little older than most of the servers and had blonde hair - very sweet. She did her best but the food just wasn’t the right temp so it did not taste good to me. It was early so her name escapes me but that was the best part of my experience. She didn’t cook the food and had help bringing it out so I don’t think it was that the food sat there long more than it was food that had been pre-prepared. She tried hard to make everything right but …….the food. The pancakes tasted like they may have been the only thing that was freshly cooked because the eggs were not even warm but cold. And those biscuits - great potential to taste excellent- but they were so cold and hard that they tasted horrible! I had to dig out the soft middle to eat just so I wouldn’t be hungry....