Casa Mia's Restaurant — Restaurant in Maryland

Let me start out by saying that I have worked in restaurants for years. I’ve worked at the nicest restaurants in Harbor East and have worked a lot of private parties. I DO NOT suggest going to Casa Mia’s for a large private event. I will also say that the staff at Casa Mia’s is AWESOME. Both times I went to Casa Mia’s the servers were outstanding. I had my rehearsal dinner at Casa Mia’s on Thursday, 9/5/2024. The waiter Michael busted his butt for us, but it was very clear that the private dining manager and all of the management were very unorganized. Poor Michael did not have the support that he needed, but even still he did the very best that he could!

I originally attended Casa Mia’s on January 30th with my husband and mother in law. We were checking the restaurant out to potentially have our rehearsal dinner there. The owner Chris sat down with us and went over the menu options. Elisa was our server and we requested her as our server for the rehearsal dinner. She was AWESOME. Chris told us to contact Lisa to coordinate and book our rehearsal in September. So I stayed in contact with Lisa. I reached out to Lisa in July to change the number attending and ask some questions. She told me to get in contact with LIA moving forward. So I did. I gave Lia a final count of 35 people. When we arrived for the rehearsal dinner there were not enough chairs for my guest’s - even after 4 people backed out last minute We were running 5 minutes behind so I texted Lia when we were on our way to give her an ETA. No response. You’d think the person I was supposed to be coordinating with would be there or at least let me know if she wasn’t going to be, or give me a point of contact. We sat down and there was no server to be found anywhere. I thought someone would be waiting for us. I texted both Lia and Lisa to see if they were there. Lia had her brother Mark come up to me. Lisa came up to me and I told her what was going on. She responded with “is there anything I can do at this point?” I said no. She should have been stepping in to offer me solutions and ways to make the rest of the evening better. It’s not my job to fix the issues and come up with solutions. Make your customers happy.

Then we waited a while for our appetizers. Probably 20 minutes. Again, I text the person coordinating with an ETA on our arrival - the apps should be there waiting for us. The apps were served buffet style at a table at the front of the room. The mozzarella caprese was sitting out for a while before the other appetizer, calamari, was there. The calamari ran out in two seconds then we had to wait another 20 minutes for more calamari. I felt bad for my guests and it was embarrassing.

We only had one server and the management team knew it was a cash bar. We all were constantly out of water and drinks. There were two tables of 15 and 16. There 100% should have been two servers on our party. I felt so bad for Michael because he was busting his butt and doing his best, but he clearly wasn’t prepared with the help he needed from management. The whole dinner took forever (again, because there were only one server and should’ve been two). The crab cakes, which were amazing in January, were wet and had way too much mayo inside of them. I’ve never had such a crab cake with so much mayo.

After we left the restaurant, my husband said that he thought there was an extra $100 tacked onto his check after his card was ran. I texted Lia about this, and still haven’t gotten a response. I was extremely embarrassed to have brought my wedding guests to Casa Mia’s and disappointed with my experience.

If I could post screenshots...

TLDR: Solid lunch choice in the Hereford zone. Come for the reasonably priced drinks and crab cakes.

Vibe: 4/5. Growing up in the area, I have watched Casa Mia's evolve from the predominately bar focused Pioneer Pub, to the more restaurant vibe Casa Mia's. The restaurant underwent a significant renovation when they rebranded, so the interior and exterior are fairly new. The restaurant has several dining areas including a bar, dining room and shaded back patio. Upon entry, the large U shaped bar area is the first thing you see, complete with a handful of TVs playing sports and KENO. To the right and towards the back of the restaurant you have 2 dining room areas that have both 4 top and 6 top tables. The back patio is accessed from another door at the rear of the restaurant, and is complete with a canopy, fans and heaters for the colder months. The day we dined in for lunch, we opted to first sit outside, but immediately changed our minds when we were bombarded with flies. The staff was more than happy to reseat us at a 6 top in the dining area adjacent to the bar. The restaurant seemed clean and all amenities maintained, nothing to complain about!

Service: 5/5. The staff at Casa Mia's were great from start to finish. We had made reservations for our party of 6 for lunch, however they were not needed. We were seated immediately, with drink orders taken not too long after that. The bar was out of a few things to make specific specialty cocktails, but the waitress was more than helpful in making alternative recommendations. Both food and drinks came out punctually as well as all together for everyone at the table. Overall, a well executed, friendly service!

Food and Drink: 4/5. My party dined for lunch during Baltimore Restaurant Week so they were running a 3 course Prix Fixe special, which included their infamous crab cakes. Casa Mia's openly flaunts their crab cake superiority complex, so being a born and bred Marylander, I had to put them to the test. I opted for the cream of crab soup for my starter, the crab cake w/ fries and cole slaw for my main and the lemon berry mascarpone cake for dessert. The cream of crab was a bit of a let down. The cream based soup was on the watery side, with only a few solid bites of crab to be found. Seasoning was also lacking, even after a few heavy shakes of Old Bay. Other diners at my table decided to go with the peppered ahi tuna appetizer, which seemed to fair much better. Next up, the main event, the "World Famous" Casa Mia's crab cake. The 6 oz cake did just fine passing the Maryland crab cake test. Decent sized backfin lumps with barely any filler, seasoned nicely and broiled to a golden brown. Is it the end all be all of crab cakes in Maryland? Probably, not Cough, Faidley's, Cough, but it was certainly enjoyable. Finally for dessert, the lemon mascapone was the sleeper pick, as it was a fantastic piece of cake that was the perfect ending to our meal. Delicate layers of cake complimented the airy marscapone cheese which carried a subtle taste of lemon and berry. Everyone at my table thoroughly enjoyed their lunches, and at $33 +/- per person, it was money well spent. Casa Mia's bar program was also a win. Their specialty cocktails were well balanced and reasonably priced. If you ever find yourself feeling peckish in the Hereford Zone, I highly suggest swinging by Casa Mia's for a...

Had a reservation for 715 pm on Saturday, got there at 645pm, sat at the bar, ordered a drink.No attempt to seat us, talked with hostess, a guy we assumed was managing, said they were still waiting for a table to open. No one ever came back to keep us informed unless we went to ask what was happening..had another drink, in the meantime it's now 745pm. Noticing that the table of 6 behind us that were there when we got there still didn't have their food yet. 2 women at the bar had ordered take out and were complaining because they had been there an hour waiting, another guy gave up and left. Servers admitted we probably had a better chance of eating to order at the bar. Was unfortunate because we actually wanted to sit down for dinner, we had decided that this choice for dinner was definitely a mistake and to just leave, at that point the hostess came over and said the table was ready, it was 8pm. We asked if it was going to be another hour before we actually got food, after all the non reassuring feedback from staff we decided not to take the chance. We were very hungry at that point and didn't want to wait being it seemed very slow service. Nate the bartender was very apologetic even though none was his fault. If you need to hire more staff then that's what you need to do. But very poor service to tell people they will be able to sit down or get carryout and then wait another hour. Not sure if we would give it a chance again unless we had time to waste or just wanted drinks. Spent $50 on drinks and ended up...