Sip & Bite — Restaurant in Baltimore

What do you make of a restaurant that you've eaten at regularly for years, one that when you've been seated, ordered, and are awaiting your food, you run to the bathroom, and when you return to what was once your seat, another diner is seated in your place, so that when you get back, you have nowhere to sit to eat your $86 of food?  Outside of wholly inadequate in terms of service, or grossly unappreciative of regular business? Maybe short-sighted in whom they snub? In any event, I used to eat at this restaurant almost every single day. I used to sing its praises. I used to bring all of my friends. I used to line the coffers of the jukebox for the brief stint during which it was installed. I used to make it a point to support this business. I don't know how, but evidently, somehow, an elderly, portly waitress, perhaps, a few years past her prime, thought it was a good idea to seat another customer on a bar stool that clearly had before it four different full plates of food… My plates of food that I paid for... Clearly somebody wasn't thinking it forward. But this wasn't a situation where somebody inadequately calculated a rhetorical slip-up, no, this wasn't an honest mistake, this was a deliberate act of malice.  The waitress who seated the woman in my stead both knew me and my things, and was adamant about teaching me a lesson, using presumably one of their oldest and most consistent diners, to embarrass in the densely crowded restaurant. I was made an example, and needlessly so. After years of supporting this establishment and tipping even this particular waitress generously, I think it's best I take my business anywhere else. I feel most unwelcome at this establishment. No matter what way you spin it, it is impossible for me not to feel slighted and insulted, like there is no place for me at the sip & bite. if you don't want your seat taken away from you either,...

First of all I want to say this ain’t no IHOP. I’ve always passed by this place and said I would try one day. Welp, yesterday was that day and I took my mom & toddler with me. The waiter was the most welcoming person throughout the whole stay. I’m so upset I forgot the waiters name but she was very very sweet and accommodating. For my picky 3 year old I ordered the Chocolate Chip Mickey Mouse pancakes it was so cute and surprising an adult size pancake. He ate the whole thing so that was my first sign of greatness, lol.

My mom order the B-more Breakfast combo with waffles, scrambled eggs and crispy bacon. She said even without the syrup it was light, tasty and sweet. Mom isn’t fond of restaurant eggs but said these were by far seasoned perfectly & were really good and…well…I absolutely agree.

Now onto me! I ordered the Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast. You can get the fruity pebbles in the syrup or sprinkled on top which is exactly what I did (suggested by the waiter) because I didn’t want my french toast soggy. Unfortunately no sides come with it so if you want more you’ll have to order them separately. This was very good everything was cooked perfectly and the cheesecake in the middle wasn’t to rich at all. I would order this again for sure.

I also ordered the Crab Cake & Egg Combo Platter. Now I ordered this crab cake because it’s Guy Fieri’s (Drivers, Dine-In & Dives) favorite crab cake. I wasn’t head over heels for the crab cake but it was still tasty & the home fries where prepared a little different than what I expected. Now with that being said with the combination of my over easy egg and the crab cake it served its purpose. The textured went well together and the combination of flavor set it off. All in all a very good dish. I damn near ate the whole plate but was stuffed from the French toast.

So if you see this place definitely stop by you won’t be...

My wife and I were visiting Baltimore for our July 4 weekend and decided to drop in on a DDD recommended joint: Sip & Bite. I love Greek food so it wasn't much of a stretch.

¶ We ordered the spinach pie, which I've had and loved at local Greek fests. The pie was fine but not especially good. The side Greek salad came with lettuce that had brown edges which suggests non-fresh ingredients and if you see that in one dish what does that have you thinking about the others. The Greek salad tasted all right but it's hard to ignore the lettuce.

¶ So if everything tasted okay, why the bad rating?

¶ Service. There was none.

¶ You walk in and are greeted by a shout of "sit anywhere you want". Fine. We did. The waitress did all of two things: took our order and brought us the food. Beyond that, there wasn't a single other interaction. No "how's the food" or "can I get you anything"? She didn't even bring us the check. Even as I got up and stood by the register I was never acknowledged. When she arrived at the registered there wasn't even an exchange beyond taking the card from my hand and returning it to my hand.

¶ When I eat out food is one component. The other component is service. So when there is none you're already down.

¶ I also usually like a place with some kind of ambiance, but I guess I understand that you're sort of giving up on that when you choose to go to a diner. But when the personal charm of having a server show some hospitality is completely gone, what's left? The food better be utterly delicious, and since it wasn't, I have to reconsider any joint Guy Fieri...