Red Horse Restaurant — Restaurant in Frederick

My wife and I decided to have her birthday dinner here at The Red Horse, because we’ve never been to it yet and she wanted some quality steak for dinner. Now, about that…there wasn’t much to quality all around. Except that the wait staff did look dressed professionally and were quite pleasant during our stay.

We started with an appetizer of stuffed mushrooms with crab meat, there were chunks of crab shell within the stuffed portion of the mushroom on multiple bites. This was a disappointment because they actually tasted really good. My wife enjoys her steaks at a Medium Rare, a warm red center and perfect steak texture. It should be soft and juicy on the inside and firm on the outside. Well, her steak wasn’t this at all. It was a mixture between “medium well and well done”. There were a couple spots where there was some “Medium” parts, but mostly is was “medium well, well done”. No juices were coming out of the steak when she pressed down on it. When the waitress asked how our food was, my wife expressed the issues with the steak. Surprisingly, the waitress came back with, “no, it a medium rare, there’s pink there” and had a snappy attitude about the steak. She was quite adamant that the steak was correct as my wife had ordered versus how the steak actually was. For about $50 steak, this was an absolute fail. When people go out to a nice restaurant and pay good hard earned money, you expect high-quality food and service. Now the waitress did offer to take it back after arguing with us. We were simply shocked about her approach. I personally had the Po’boy fried oyster sandwich with fish and chips. Coming from Louisiana I had higher expectations of a Po’boy but this was a stretch and a nice attempt. It wasn’t a fail, but it wasn’t something I’d ever try again of the menu. The fish were ok at best. Top part was crunchy but the under side of the fish was soggy in the oil. Could be that the oil temp was wrong while cooking the fish resulting with unevenly cooked food and the mushy aspects. Or the cook drained the fish incorrectly by placing them onto paper towels or the such causes the fried food to become mushy/soggy. All in all, if you want to pay over $120 for food that is mediocre this is the place to go to. I’d suggest if you were looking for that kind of spending, find a better place that will serve quality food for Thai kind of price tag and you’ll enjoy yourself far more. We gave this place a shot, and now we are educated and will find other places. Good luck y’all! 2 stars because it was clean inside and the atmosphere was...

Having lived in Frederick for 7 years and seeing the Red Horse on RT40 since I was a child, this place was somewhere I wanted to go and try for a while. So imagine our excitement to be finally going! It quickly faded upon entering the restaurant, as the smell of the old wood, carpets, or whatever it was, combined with the dated furnishings definitely put our expectations on notice - we had not looked at pictures online. Still, good food is where you find it, so we proceeded to sit and order. Our dinner conversation quickly transition to how disappointed we were in the food once it arrived.

Great hospitality, table service, and the quick delivery of the food to our table was great, and we made sure the tip reflected our appreciation of the waitress. I want to be clear, this review IS NOT a reflection on our waitress, she was great!

We ordered the Shrimp Cocktail and a 1/2 dozen Oysters on the half shell to get started. The shrimp size was impressive, but the flavor was lacking. I couldn't enjoy the oysters either because I kept having to pause to remove small pieces of shell from my mouth.

My wife ordered the salmon and said if she wasn't so hungry from not eating lunch she would not have eaten the little bit that she did. My wife NEVER adds salt to anything, but she did for this meal! When that didn't help she added Tabasco and that still didn't improve the taste! Her rice, like mine, was overcooked and mushy. Her asparagus, like mine, was well prepared and had the right amount of snap/pop with each bite, but it did not have any flavor. I ordered the stuffed flounder (crab imperial) and was disappointed upon taking the first bite. I figured, "Maybe the crab imperial will have some flavor?" Nope, same result. This meal was definitely the worst $88.51 I have ever spent on food. Lackluster and less than mediocre don't even come to the adjectives I would use to describe this meal.

When we left the Red Horse my wife and I were trying to think of where to go and eat after we stopped at SAM's Club, but we drove in silence down RT15, I-270, and onto Buckeystown Pike. We were disappointed, let down, and in shock over the meal.

I am not going to waste time posting pictures because I've spent enough time on this review as it is. I'm just hoping it saves someone else the headache of having to go through...

UPDATE (4 stars no more): Unfortunately, things have taken a downturn since the change of ownership. As someone who only eats a doughnut, granola bar, or similar for breakfast and not eating lunch, it's extremely easy to keep track of what I eat. Unlike my girlfriend, I also have an iron constitution. Therefore, when I got sick immediately afterward, I knew it had to be from my birthday dinner here. I felt it was important to contact them, in case they heard from any other diners who had fallen ill. I explained what I'd eaten and anything I'd shared with my girlfriend, who was not sick. To be clear, because of my decades in customer service and disdain for how litigious our society has become, I made zero mention of wanting any compensation. Nevertheless, I didn't even get the courtesy of a response. At the very least, even if they didn't believe their food was the cause, they could have responded with something along the line of "we're sorry you're sick, but it wasn't us." A lack of concern for their customers is especially troubling for a restaurant. There's certainly no lack of competition in and around Frederick.

With its striking red horse statues in front, this is something of a landmark in Frederick. Inside, the wood beams and fireplaces give it a cozy, lodge-like atmosphere. This pairs well with the friendly, welcoming staff.

In an age where too many restaurants are competing to see who can be the most trendy, I was happily surprised by the well thought out menu. Although steaks are the specialty, there was a good selection of alternatives. In the mood for something lighter, we took advantage of this by ordering seafood.

Specifically, we ordered the Crab Imperial Stuffed Rainbow Trout and Apricot Glazed Sea Scallops. Unlike some other places, there were actual lumps of crab and only enough stuffing to hold it lightly together. The scallops were tender and the apricot glaze took them to a new level!

Not counting the bottle of wine (there's a very good selection so we couldn't resist), two drinks, a shared appetizer, and entrees came to just over $80. It's not exactly cheap, but it's well worth it. We look forward to returning to watch them cook our steaks through the unique...