Jamison’s — Restaurant in Hampstead

First let me say, I REALLY want to love this restaurant. It’s close to home and has great menu selections. It has a lot going for it. I think they could be great if they changed one main, and so important, thing…they over salt!! And I mean WAY over salt! And I love salt!!

We ordered a ton of food to try the menu:

Beet salad Crispy Thai shrimp Chicken wings with garlic teriyaki sauce Long grain rice Marsala Braised Short Rib Seafood Chowder (to go)

Beet salad was tasty. We ate it all.

The shrimp was large and looked pretty, but was overcooked and a little dry. They also used canned pineapple pieces on top which I thought was a little tacky for the price. Fresh pineapple would have tasted better and been a classier choice to use.

We really liked the chicken wings and long grain rice.

But the beef (though tender and beautiful to look at) was only tolerable if I cut it into tiny bits and eaten with the lovely sweet potato risotto and rabe, because it was so over salted. I tested the Marsala sauce alone, it wasn’t that, it was the meat. I did love the natural, Nasturtium garnish, so pretty and tasty. I also loved the quantity of the risotto and rabe. I’m eating it right now for lunch the next day. The meat portion was small, but since it was so salty I didn’t care. Overall for $38 it had its plus and minuses. I wouldn’t order it again unless they go easier on the salt.

The Seafood Chowder, unfortunately, is inedible due the excessive amount of salt used. We brought it home, tasted in and spit it out 😢 I don’t want to waste the money nor the food, so I’m going to try and doctor it by adding cream and other things to soften the harsh saltiness, but it might be too far gone to save. It is a weird brownish color, but I could even overlook that if it tasted good, but no. 😢

Because it was our first time there and because our waitress was so very nice, we didn’t want to make a fuss while we were there. Hopefully the chef or owner/manager will read this someday and try tasting the food with a clean palette to see what I’m talking about.

The restaurant was interesting looking and we liked it. It was however very noisy. There’s nothing to stop the noise bouncing. The hubs and I couldn’t always hear each other. So if hearing is a problem, Jamison’s will accentuate that.

If we had driven a long way to get here, I’d never go back, but since we live near, we’ll try it again some time and hope for the best. Fingers...

The list of things done wrong for the wedding rehearsal dinner is so long, I'll start with a bulleted summary:

Lost the reservation for the room. Lost the reservation for the room AGAIN. Food was obviously cooked days in advance and heated up for the event. Double charged (charged a deposit then charged the full amount on the final bill) Never refunded the overcharge.

We started out by booking the room. I called a few weeks later because I thought it was odd that I was never asked for a deposit. They said the room was not booked by anyone that night! I quickly re-booked the room and paid them a deposit. The bride then called a few days later to give them our chosen menu items. She found that room was NOT booked for that night again. She re-re-booked the room. I was seriously expecting to show up the night of the event and be told we didn't have the room!

The room was fine (it was a typical converted basement room), the single person service was adequate, but the food was the worst I've experienced. The shrimp would give a super-ball a run for its money. It was either forgotten in the oven or cooked twice. The Chicken Alfredo (notice I didn’t say Chicken Broccoli Alfredo since there must have been a broccoli shortage that week) was “leftover quality” at best. You know how the sauce gets all sucked up into the pasta when you re-heat Alfredo the next day? Exactly!

I quickly paid the bill on the way out the door, happy to leave. I had forgotten that I had left a deposit. I called the next day to ask for a refund. I was only able to reach voicemail that asked me to leave a message but then didn't allow me to leave a massage ("click"). The same was true three days later. The following week, I finally reached the manager. He said he would look into it and get back to me. Of course, that never happened. A week later, I was unable to break the fake voice mail firewall. I tried several times since and have been unable to reach the venue.

So…. If you choose this venue for your function, I wish you all the luck in the world. You...

Everything was a miss from the start. My friend ordered the duck which was listed on the menu, I ordered the salmon that was listed on the menu. Once we ordered, the bartender told us that the menu changed and the duck she ordered was no longer available (why weren't we told the menu had changed?) and they had a duck special which she agreed to. I wasn't told of any changes to my salmon. When our food came out, the runner tried to figure out who the order was for, stopping at 3 different groups of people. We realized that it was ours, but her duck was delivered as Sheppard's pie, and my salmon was not as written on the menu. The bartender blamed the kitchen staff, and the computer, which we noticed to be a common theme, she didn't take ownership for any of her mistakes. While the runner took the Sheppard's pie away, he left my dish. The bartender came over and once again blamed someone for her error. My gripe here is: why did you leave my dish, knowing it was going to be 20+ minutes before her dish was made correctly? Why didn't you put it under a warmer? My plate sat there, waiting for hers to arrive so we could eat. While waiting, I did ask the bartender why there was rice, and not fingerling potatoes, as listed on the menu. She blamed it on the menu being changed, again, not taking ownership for being unaware, and offered me a side of potatoes. About 25 minutes later she said my potatoes should be out any minute. 12 hours later and I'm STILL waiting for those potatoes. Once her meal arrived we ate together. My salmon was cold, the veggies were cold. It was very underwhelming overall. This is my advice, if your menu changes, make sure your staff is aware of those changes and provide a menu with the updates, not an out of date menu. Also, take ownership for your errors, blaming the kitchen makes them look bad for no reason. Also, there were always at minimum 5 workers standing around outside of the kitchen doing nothing the entire time we were there, why not provide some training to those employees if you're that over staffed? This was a one and...