Oscar's Alehouse — Restaurant in Maryland

In this ongoing time of Covid-anxiety and ridiculously over-inflated prices, the choice to go out and do just about anything is a more measured and consequential thing than it has possibly ever been. If you have children or extended family members along for the ride, then even more so. Enter OSCAR'S ALEHOUSE. I have found that great places to go (restaurants especially!) are rarely empty, and you can safely gauge your expectations on the volume of traffic coming and going. On the Saturday night my family and I walked blindly into Oscar's without a reservation at perhaps the peak of the dinner hour the restaurant was pretty full with parties waiting, but from the minute we walked in we were engaged by the staff like we were regulars! The hostesses, the wait staff, and the fellow patrons were all good-natured and welcoming. I have been in too many restaurants where the hostesses are less than helpful and have an attitude that suggests they are doing you a favor even talking to you. This is not the way OSCAR'S does business. Sincere greetings from everyone, and by the time we were seated (which didn't take long) we had met the hostesses, our waiter, and the head of this very smoothly running operation, the Manager, Ibn! We didn't know what to expect when we decided to go here for dinner and literally moment by moment we were hit with positive reinforcement; all the patrons were clearly enjoying their meals and everyone we saw on their way out was happy in that "wow, that was good" way that only a good experience can leave you! So everything feels good and the next thing we notice is that everything SMELLS GOOD! Nothing activates the appetite like savory scents and OSCAR'S kitchen provides that in abundance. For appetizers we shared the pretzel as well as the Cuban egg rolls ("Cuban" as in a Cuban sandwich). FANTASTIC!!! I could have made an entree of multiple orders of those egg rolls alone! For an entrée we had 2 orders of their fall-off-the-bone tender babyback ribs (DELICIOUS!), a towering turkey avocado club sandwich and a burger, all accompanied by their French fries made fresh in-house from scratch as well as onion rings because we love onion rings. The menu was broad, EVERYTHING was a good option! Half the table had cheesecake for dessert and the other half enjoyed bread pudding with a side of ice-cream, all of which was fresh, indulgently delicious and consumed swiftly! This is an excellent restaurant for family and friends with a menu full of reasonably priced, appreciably-portioned, delicious American cuisine options (comfort food galore!) so whenever you're in Eldersburg and hungry go to OSCAR'S ALEHOUSE, I promise you will be happy you did and--like us--looking forward eagerly to our...

We gave it 3 tries before posting this review, just in case the first times were a fluke. 1. Wait is long and the front desk staff is unable to provide any descent estimates. We were told 35 minutes which turned into 55. Similar issue but lessen with prior visits. 2. This is a ale house, i expect the on tap selection to always be available. I like blondes/lagers/pale ales.. just my luck, they were out of not 1, not 2 but all 3 on tap options. Really??? 3. The service has systemically been sub par. And it's not for the lack of staff; the staff bringing the food out the kitchen is great, but our waiter didn't seem motivated or enthused about being there. He offered to sample another beer which i actually enjoyed, agreed to get a pint, but then never got it. Throughout the entire night, he didn't check on us once except when flagged for water refills. We had not encountered issues with our server the previous times. 4. Generally the food quality is of bar food. As a family we've managed to sample quite a few items on that menu. All greasy and generally not tasty as all. The fish & chips might as well be wrapped in plaster and baked in a half warm oven. The fish itself tasted average but the combination was awful. Although the beef from the Korean beef special was cooked ok, it was unnecessarily drenched with a overly sweet and to be honest not so good Korean BBQ sauce (if i can even call it that) - not worth $18, not even half! The andouille sausage app wrapped in a Pillsbury crust was ok but, $10.5 for 8 slices??? The avocado egg rolls which we attempted several times always came out greasy and barely warm. The jambalaya is quite interesting - smothered in some weird drizzle - signature sauce from the chef... Hmm, totally ruined the dish. Rice was way overcooked too. Finally, burgers which one would think would be nailed... Nope! Not really unless you enjoy hockey pucks. The salads were ok but not worth raving about. Ultimately, we gave this location 3 attempts and have written it...

2nd visit. Drove from Baltimore as this was so memorable with fried grouper Sandwich that rocked me and my wife loved the Turkey avocado club. Today, coffee was hot and good, bowl of cream of crab - seasoned perfectly with old bay in every slurp and the lump crab meat was larger and the plethora of crab was more than one gets in a bowl elsewhere. It could have been hotter, but D-lish! My Maryland burger was perfectly cooked medium with nice crust on the outside. Burger with ‘mater and lettuce was topped with crab imperial on a melt-in-your mouth bun of goodness. I chose a side salad with ranch instead of the fries this visit to keep carbs lower, but snuck a few from my bride’s plate when she was done. The deserts look great , but on a Covid - tighter budget, that will have to be a later visit splurge. My sense of smell and taste are not yet back from our family cage fight with the Chinese Flu in December, so I can’t attest to the smells at all, but even my limited sense of taste was overwhelmingly pleased with our eaterie choice on a frigid day after days of snow and ice storms.

The ambience is so comfortable, cozy and whimsical. The service both times was impeccable. A nine star place that will keep us driving a good way each time we return in the future. On of our top 5 places to have a nice meal together. Not much to look at outside, but don’t judge this book by its cover! I made reservations via google based on the eta on our GPS and google calls them and alerts you via email of confirmation of reservation. Check out Home Goods nearby and the antique store across the road and north a wee bit. The Ale House has plenty of drinks to suit one’s fancy, but we don’t drink beer and didn’t feel like drinking red wine today.

So glad this place survived the plandemic, as others nearby have not been so fortunate.

When North, check out Connect Hearing for hearing issues. They know how to program devices to stretch budgets for optimal hearing at very...