Oleum — Restaurant in Baltimore

Wow, where to start: I had heard multiple good things about this place for a little bit and decided to make the drive out today and try it out. It was a little hard to find seeming that I don't go to Baltimore a lot and didn't quite know the area so had to ask around. It's in front of the harbor which is beautiful and would be lovely to enjoy a meal outside.

First off, the customer service and hospitality were excellent. Exceeded my expectations. This is what a lot of restaurants I feel lack and being in the hospitality industry myself and being a customer and gaining an experience was very rewarding and impressive. From the moment I walked in, the atmosphere was very nice, I felt welcomed, and the young gentleman was very helpful and helped me find a table and take my order. He was very nice, very knowledgeable, and also very helpful. He also asked about allergies, which I was surprised as a lot of restaurants don't to my knowledge anymore and in my opinion, even ups the customer service rating for caring about the consumer. Later during my meal, Chef Adibe(sorry if I misspelled it) checked in and asked how everything was. I could tell she was very happy and passionate about making the dishes. The other thing is that it's an open kitchen, so you can see her and the staff make your food. I also got the wonderful pleasure of meeting this incredible young lady named Myoshi( yet again, apologize if I misspelled the name), but she was so sweet, funny and delivered an exceptional experience.

For the food, oh boy, so I got the Gabriel pizza, the blackened fettuccine Alfredo, the tiramisu, and the chocolate chip cookie. It was Phenomenal. The minute I took my first bite of the pasta, I said to myself, I wish I had gotten the full version and not the half. You could tell that the dishes were made fresh and with fresh ingredients and with love and passion. The pizza was absolutely incredible. One of the best pizzas I've ever had, definitely in my top list. The tiramisu was amazing, it was the best I've ever had, although a little rich, there's 2 other places that has vegan tiramisu as well, and they don't even compare to this. I couldn't tell the mascaropone was tofu based. Lastly, the cookie, it was so warm and gooey, it's made to order and made from scratch making it even better.

Overall, very impressed with this place. I will definitely be back. Might even be back Sunday to try some brunch. Definitely recommend this place.

So went back again today to get brunch and dinner later. For brunch, I got biscuits and gravy, tiramisu pancakes, and pumpkin spice cinnamon roll. All were incredible. The cinnamon roll was a lot bigger than I anticipated but oh my god, it was so soft and bursting with flavor. The tiramisu pancakes were incredible and very fluffy. The biscuits and gravy had to be the best, hands down I've ever had, from the buttery, flaky biscuits to the delicious sausage gravy with fresh peppercorns, so good. I came back a few hours later for dinner and got the fried eggplant which was phenomenal and the miso mushroom pasta with beyond steak- Everything was incredible, I can't express how happy I am to have found this place. There are several vegan restaurants I have been to in Baltimore over the years, but Oleum is probably my favorite and one of the best I've been to, and have options a lot of vegan places don't have, on top having fresh, organic ingredients and nailing the recipes perfectly. Also, worth noting, I really like how they use recyclable and paper products instead of plastic for the...

TL;DR: great food and service with decent prices. Well worth a visit.

ETA: the new location is 🔥. The lighting sets a very chill vibe, the staff is still super attentive, and the owner even let my husband surprise me by playing a song he made for me for our anniversary.

This place is 100% plant-based. I am not a vegan, but I do enjoy the opportunity to have great vegan food. I went with my husband on a random Saturday after we left an event downtown. The place was fairly busy, but not overly crowded. It was also very open-air, and not closed in. It's in one of the buildings at the Inner Harbor where there are several small restaurants and shops, and while they have a setup to act as a border between the dining area and the general hallway, there can still be a good amount of foot traffic coming through. Although the area had a nice, somewhat romantic vibe to the atmosphere, the layout didn't provide the same intimate effect as an actual enclosed restaurant. To me, that's only important if you specifically want that type of experience. We just wanted some good food (and that's exactly what we got).

Food selections: Roasted pumpkin soup & kale caesar salad Both were flavorful and delicious

Batata Harra perfectly cooked, crisp outside and soft inside, and just a little kick to with with the spice, not overly spicy.

Meat Lovers pizza I usually despise vegan pizza. I never get vegan pizza on a whim, and I trust only a few people to suggest vegan pizza. Thankfully, my husband is more adventurous, and shared some with me... this one was worth it.

Carrot cake husband loved it. I also tasted some, and it was decent. Not quite as moist as I would have liked, but better than most I've had before.

Biscoff cookie butter latte Get the large. If you get the small, you'll just disappoint yourself. It's sooooo good.

We also got a giant cookie to take home for two children to share since it was so large (it was made-to-order so it took about 15 minutes wait, just FYI). They loved it. (I tasted a piece too, and thought it was great).

Lastly, our server was friendly and attentive even though it got busy... the hostess offered to take our dessert order for us when we asked her for a dessert menu, so I loved to see that kind of teamwork. I recommended the place to some others, and they also enjoyed their experience with the variety of menu...

And then there was one. The waiter was great and gave an honest opinion on everything. We stopped in and unbeknown to us, the host who later we learned was the owner and chef, sold us on how great the food was and how great the reviews are on Google and Yelp. We walked around and came back. After ordering two starters, we asked about the house made cheese on the cheese pizza and that is when we learned the entire menu is vegan. We were intrigued that the chicken, steak, bacon, etc was all vegan. We felt ambushed by the fact that it was not labeled anywhere on the menu or restaurant insignia. Nor did any of the stuff volunteered the information to us, they were not planning on informing us, if we had not inquired about the "house made cheese." The owner came by and explained how she got started and how she cooks all the different flavors and textures. Unsure, we decided to not knock it without trying it. The fried green tomatoes were good. The nuts and olives, although the nuts were served warm and threw off the texture of the nuts a little, we ate them all. Nonetheless, the creative ingredients threw us off and we did not care for the cheese on our cheese pizza. The waiter asked how things were tasting and we told him that we were not a fan of the pizza. We only ate a slice each and could not finish it. He said he would inform the chef (owner). He came back and said that the chef did remove it from our bill. But the one star comes from the chef owner response to opposition. Not everyone will love your food and that is just part of owning a restaurant. It is the way you respond to the criticism. As the owner face the feedback, continue the personal service you started the experience with and come by the table and thank us for trying the food and extend the offer of removing it personally. We felt a different experience once we said some of the food was not good to us. Hopefully you learn from this review a lesson for future negative feedback. And I get the owner wants to get people in the door before they judge a vegan restaurant solely on the vegan label and leaving it off bring people in the door, but you have to tell people before they sit down to order. This review is on the service being cut off and not following through. So what, your pizza sucked. It is OK, finish strong. Your vegetarian food was good. And the...