The Food Market — Restaurant in Baltimore

TLDR: The Food Market always hits. Brunch, dinner, or even their chef’s slay the menu table, I leave happy every time. Labor Day’s 50% off appreciation brunch was just another reason why this spot is one of my Baltimore go tos.

Review is for "Slay the Menu" Chef's Table Dining Experience

TLDR: One of the best group dining experiences in Baltimore. Unlimited cocktails/wine paired with the best of the best from TFM's menu. Loved the secluded room w/ private bartender which really set the bar for the evening. Must reservations months in advance.

Vibe: 5/5. After checking in at the hostess stand, you are escorted down a flight of stairs and through several kitchen corridors underneath the main dining room until you reach what looks to be like a repurposed kitchen prep station. Surrounded by stainless steel kitchen supplies and bulk bags of dry goods, it really gives off the Chef's Table vibe, in a good way! We opted for a group of 10, which gave us the ability to have a private bartender and bar cart in the room (groups of 11 or more cannot have that option due to room size constraints). The cart is perfectly located at the head of the room with all drinks being made right on scene. Another nice perk was having our own private bathroom located at the entrance of the private dining room. This allowed us to use the facilities without having to navigate all the way upstairs.

Service: 5/5. Truly amazing service from start to finish. Our private bartender Brandi was instrumental in our wonderful dinner. Once our entire table arrived a little after 6pm, our Brandi notified the kitchen staff that we were ready to start the barrage of food courses. As soon guests arrived, she was taking cocktail orders and made us feel welcomed. As the night progressed , she did a great job at keeping up with drink orders and communicating with the kitchen staff on course pacing. Never once did we feel rushed or left waiting for food/drink. At the end of the meal, she was able to have all the leftover boxed up ahead of time so we had everything ready to go. Nothing short of a "like clockwork" experience.

Food/drink: 5/5. Talk about over indulgence, but in the best way possible! After making the dinner reservations months in advance, you are given the choice of unlimited drinks w/ private bartender or a la carte. If going the unlimited route (recommend) , it costs about $150 per person for a group of 10 and $100 if a la carte for a group up to 12. You are given the choice of 10 cocktails (5 classic and 5 from the seasonal drink menu) , 3 bottles of red, 3 bottles of white, 1 bubbly and 3 draft beers. Throughout the night you are allowed to rotate freely between this set menu. We came for a birthday dinner, so we easily drank 8-10 drinks person. Food was chef's choice and came out in 5 multidish courses. The dinner lasted 4 hours in length which over that time we had around 10-12 dishes, all served in large format family style. I assure you, you will not leave hungry. Several dishes were substantial main courses including fried lobster tail, lamb chop lollipops, seared steak, fried chicken and crab cakes. This was essentially the best of the best from The Food Market's menu and it definitely did not disappoint. If you have a special occasion dinner looking for elevated dining, highly recommend the Slay The...

5/21/2025 -

The last time I ate here was in 2017, and I loved it. We would come several times a month.

The service received from the hostess station throughout the entire restaurant was excellent.

Our waitress was attentive and didn't forget a thing whenever an item was needed. She absolutely didn't mind handling my requests.

The bathrooms were clean. The tables and booths were also clean. Unfortunately, some restaurants that have wooden tabletops are sticky.

Unfortunately, the food wasn't so great and very pricey for the quantity and quality.

Cream of Crab Soup was shockingly delicious. It was luke warm. I'm thankful that I ordered it because everything went down hill quickly after the soup. I added extra crab meat for $10, which made my bowl of soup $24. I think that they make their soup with very little crab meat to force patrons to pay $10 for the crab meat that it's missing.

1/2 N 1/2 aka Arnold Palmers are a whopping $6 per glass. If you don't know what these are......a glass with 1/2 iced tea and 1/2 lemonade. They were unsweetened and tasteless. Wow!

Gucci Lemonade (blackberry lemonade) was almost as bad as the Arnold Palmers.

Steak Frites (NY Strip) was small for the price. It was tastless and rubbery. $43

Steak Frites (Wagyu) was tough and tasteless. I think that I was lied to because I've NEVER had Wagyu taste like this or be this difficult chew. $45

The steak entrées were served on top of dessert menus. Why in the heck would management allow this to occur. Just place them on the table. This was weird on every level. Stop it!

Fresh Cut Fries, of course, were good but needed to be salted.

Chimichurri Potatoe Salad was tastless with humongous chunks of potatoes.

We spent almost $200 for two Cream of Crab Soups and two orders of fresh cut fries because they were the only items that were actually worth eating. It was shocking to come to an expensive restaurant and not be offered fresh pepper and sea salt shakers. I think that this restaurant charges patrons enough money to be able to afford to offer us better salt and pepper options.

I packed up 95% of my meal in hopes of fixing it at home.

We were not pleased with this experience at all.

Great restaurant if you have Diabeties or dietary restrictions because nothing is seasoned and/or if you want to waste money on overpriced mediocre meals.

7/4/25 -

Someone from out of town begged to go to The Food Market, so here I am again.

Nicks Double Burger was ok. Had a nice amount of sauce. The sauce made it so the burger didn't need mustard and ketchup. The beef had no flavor.

Cut Fries aren't FRESH at all. They must be bagged fries. $5 ummmm, not worth it, especially for the portion given.

Deep Fried French Toast was terribly greasy.....YUK! Who came up with...

Went here for my wife’s birthday. We read reviews and were really excited to try this place. I spoke to the manager and hostess privately and asked them to please serve my wife the flourless chocolate cake after our meal, and if they had any candles, could sing, or anything at all to make it special, then that would be incredible (I explained that due to some family health problems, her birthday has been awful and I really wanted this dinner to be special). I offered to pay for that. The manager told me that they would bring out the cake, but the rest is “not their style.” Fine.

My wife ordered the wagyu steak and emphasized with the words rare, blue rare (a culinary term meaning very, very rare), and “still mooing” rare to describe how she’d like her steak cooked. We received a medium well steak. She was going to eat it, but we very politely told the server that we know it’s not his fault, but the steak was overcooked significantly (we’re talking about a 30 degree difference in internal temps - I’m a cook). The server responded with “Heard” and took the plate. A new steak came out for which we were very grateful, but it was cooked at least medium - a 20 degree difference in internal temp from what she ordered. She happily ate it.

We’ve both been in service for years and understand how hard of a job it is, especially now. Our server was very outgoing and charismatic with every table around us but ours. I don’t know if he was offended about our order, or if he had an issue with us being queer, but his attitude was very different with us. It’s overpriced, overhyped, and we will not be returning. It’s offensive to cook a wagyu steak medium well and smother it in sticky-sweet steak sauce. That’s an incredible cut of beef, and I honestly feel bad for the cow.

Photo is of the second steak - still...