Catonsville Gourmet — Restaurant in Catonsville

I waited over 3 weeks to post this review in hopes that the owners would reach out after sending several emails and social media messages. But here we go…

I have been a patron at Catonsville gourmet several times and have always enjoyed the experience, until Saturday 10/16. Our waitress (Cynthia) was awesome, and most of my party enjoyed the food. However Cynthia was present at our table when I decided to share my food, Talbot Street toast. Upon lifting my fork, there was a long blonde hair in my food. No one in my party of 4 has blonde hair, the waitress who brought the food to the table was brunette, and Cynthia’s hair was pulled back into two braids, so we assumed the hair came from someone in the kitchen. Cynthia apologized and made the manager, Fernanda aware. Fernanda came over and apologized and stated “the item would be removed from the bill”. A fresh order of Talbot street toast was brought to my table, but honestly I’d lost my appetite and just picked over the food.

When the bill arrived, I noticed that I was charged for the talbot street toast eventhough Fernanda stated it would be removed. When we called Fernanda over to the table to inquire about the charge, I was told that because I “ordered another Talbot street toast, I would have to pay for it”. I explained that I in fact did not order another talbot street toast, my first order was replaced because I simply was not going to eat an item with someone’s hair in it. She talked over me stating the same thing, that because I ordered another item, I was charged. I have NEVER heard of a practice like this. When you bring out an unsanitary item, it is instantly replaced without the customer having to “order” it again. This is exactly what Cynthia did. I never asked for another order. She personally saw the hair and heard someone in my party say “send it back that’s disgusting”, to which she quickly grabbed the item and took it back to the kitchen. Common practice for any restaurant.

Fernanda decided to disagree with me and repeat her same explanation despite that fact that my party visits your establishment several times a year, and despite the fact the our party of 4 had a $297 bill, not including gratuity. In my opinion, the simplest and most customer friendly solution was to remove the item from the bill, which is what she originally stated. Why would a customer be charged for replacing unsanitary food. And the statement “we made two talbot’s toast so you will be charged for atleast one” just did not sit right with me.

The hair in the food left a sour taste but would’ve easily been overlooked because of past experiences and because the food is delicious. But the way the situation was handled the situation after the fact, is what truly turned me off of a restaurant that I’ve always enjoyed. As previously stated, I reached out to both the owner and the head chef several times via the restaurant's website inquiry tab and direct message via LinkedIn, with not one response to this day

FYI Cynthia was very apologetic about the entire experience and was a...

Maybe we came on a bad day based on the reviews and recommendation of a family member we were visiting. The restaurant itself is nice, quiet and cozy but the food is a different story. We spent $130 on Asian BBQ "gourmet chicken wings, they were overcooked, dried out and tasteless , unless you got a bite with lots of the asian bbq sauce. We also had the Towne Dock Calamari. That was also tasteless, overcooked and rubbery. We had the fried oysters and they were really good, nice size and with a squeeze of lemon they tasted pretty good. We also had the Bonsai Hawaiin Roll sushi. I tried 2 pieces and it was horrible! It was tasteless! It tasted like plain white rice with pineapple. You couldn't taste anything. The rice wasn't flavored with anything, no saki, rice wine vinegar, NOTHING! Just plain white rice. Sad and disappointing. My wife got the Tempura Shrimp Roll and she said it was just like the roll I had, tasteless! She said the spicy mayo helped and gave it a little flavor but it was like eating plain white rice with spicy mayo. She also had theCrab Cakes. She said they were okay but also lacked flavor, not tasteless like the rest of the food but the flavor was very light. She also noticed that it looked to have been overworked because the crab meat was really small pieces, not like the lump crab meat that you would normally get in carb cakes. Everything except my wife's crab cakes and sushi went in the trash because it was not edible. When we come to Baltimore we like to try new places but this place is definitely...

Rating this restaurant not only on food but also on the way management handled our Living Social coupon. Food was 3 stars. The coupon was one where we paid $20 and were supposed to get $40 toward the dinner. There was a LOT of fine print with this deal, much more than other restaurants we used a Living Social at. We could only use it from Sunday through Thursday which was fine. Then, it could only be used for dinner, not lunch. Fine. Where we failed to read the finest of fine print was the detail that it must be used for a dinner which included at least two entrees (not even a single crab cake qualifies as an entree even though that's what it's called on the menu). When our meal was finished, one member of the party had an entree while three others had "lite faire" which was not inexpensive by any means (one of them was $17.99). After being told we couldn't use the Living Social, the manager came over and offered to comp us our drinks (which was one iced tea worth about $2). He then asked if we had ordered dessert which we hadn't. He said he'd comp us a piece of cake to go, so we took it since it was obviously the only thing we were going to get out of this place and this manager. We asked if we could apply the original $20 toward the meal (the amount that we paid) and the manager also said he couldn't do this. All of this is to say that if you have a Living Social to this restaurant please read all fine print and beware of catches. We won't be going back to Catonsville Gourmet due to this...