Park Tavern — Restaurant in Maryland

I begin this post by saying, we are regulars at Park Tavern. Unless we are traveling or it’s a special occasion, we come here every Friday night, and sometimes come back for brunch on Sat or Sun. So you may be wondering why I’m not giving 5 stars. The answer is simple, the experience is not always perfect.

The food here is good. The menu has a decent amount of healthy options and the flavor infusions can be very unique. But from week to week, there is inconsistency with the temperature and taste of the food.

Appetizers: Tex Mex Rolls - Excellent Nachos - Delicious but often come out lukewarm or cold. They feel healthier than your average nachos and when they are hot, they are great, but more often than not, they have the feel of sitting under a heat lamp for way too long and the cool temperature make them underwhelming. Wings- Honey Sriracha are my favorite flavor and the wings are decent but nowhere near the best in town. (Head to Julep for the best wings I’ve found in Annapolis.) If Bavarian Pretzels are your thing, these are incredible!

Entrees: Mediterranean chicken bowl is one of my faves. The salmon dish and the grilled shrimp dish are delicious and fairly healthy.

My husband who skews toward the unhealthier side loves their blackened chicken pasta. He enjoys the Park Tavern burger, and will opt for the turkey burger or chicken avocado club when aiming for a slightly healthier option. More often than not, they come out good, but have also had moments of disappointment. The rockfish tacos were his biggest menu disappointment to date.

Dessert: We don’t do dessert too often, but when we do, we go for the Sopapilla. It’s delicious! We also had the brownie sundae which was delicious but too rich to have all the time. We absolutely hated anything with the bourbon caramel. It tastes bitter as though it’s burnt, but that could just be the bourbon.

Brunch: The French Toast Bites and Crispy Hash Brown Bites are worth visiting for brunch alone, and possibly the best thing on the menu! And while my husband enjoys their chorizo omelette (can’t recall the exact name but it’s like a Tex-Mex style.) I have given up on their eggs. The chef always burns the omelette and their bread/toast quality is abysmal. Their roast potatoes come out raw no matter how burnt they look. It would be fantastic if they switched to the crispy hash browns for all egg dishes. They also come with the brunch burger which hubby loves, but also very unhealthy.

One last food note: Some dishes you may expect to come out hot are served cold so you may want to clarify before your order. Not sure if they have more than one chef, but I’ve been told they don’t enjoy special requests (like well-done) and sometimes won’t even care and make it how they want. I am guessing there is more than one, which may explain the inconsistency.

Servers: Everyone is nice and they have come to remember us each week which makes us feel special. Some of them disappear for way too long before checking on you. If you say you need a couple minutes to decide, it may be more like 15-20 before they come back. If you are lucky enough to end up with Lisa, then you will have one of the best servers in Maryland. She could teach a course on being an awesome server. We love her!

All that said, Park Tavern remains one of our go-to options in Annapolis and we often bring out-of-towners there. A little more consistency would earn it five...

So, a bit on the fence about this place. Ive always wanted to dine here; seemed like a really nice place and of course because of all the reviews. Today, I was VERY DISAPPOINTED. Lets start on - maybe I looked like I did not “belonged” there…Here goes my experience. I was greeted by the host - in a sort of rude way. I wanted to sit at bar and how she greeted me rubbed me the wrong way. It was really intimidating - in my opinion, her tone was not the best. Almost made it seem like - Im the idiot customer that should already know better; you dont have to ask if you only want to go to the bar.

At the bar; was greeted ok…i think. Bartender seemed to have an issue with an irrate customer earlier; something about they have already paid…so basically, the tension/stress at that time was high. No worries - I let it go…but then I noticed: No introduction (Mind you - it was my first time here).

No explanation of menu, no - hello, my name is so and so, and blah, blah. All other customers that came in after me and sat at the bar were given - usual; hi my name is, we have brunch today., blah, blah…usual upscale bar service. Even the girl on her cellphone got better treatment as soon as she sat. Bartender engaged with her, spent some time. Ok, yes she was cute and if I was the bartender - of course I would give her more of my attention. Food was ok, typical “bar food.” However, no check back from bartenders. No “May I get you anything else or how was everything…usual FOH service. The place was not busy, at all. I could understand if bar was 3 deep, but it was not.

So then I thought about - oh these people probably have never had a different person before (besides white/black). Yes; throwing the race card. But I will try to be as positive as I can. It is still bothering me that everyone else were greeted like they were part already of the family or that they were welcomed. (I SURELY DID NOT FEEL WELCOMED, AT ALL).

A couple of jokes here and there, explanation of menu, usual FOH sequence of service. Maybe its a “local” only establishment…idk. It should not matter though, because service is service. I was not impressed even though ratings of this restaurant says otherwise. Eveything that Ive asked for was given to me…but I shouldnt have to do that - thats why we are in the hospitality industry, correct? We should always anticipate what our customers need. I am not asking anything for free nor would I want some sort of apology on this matter. I just hope the owners and/or management sees this as an opportunity to improve on FOH service or give “new” customers a reason to come back. By the way - I was the single dinner that ordered a beer and a JW black, neat. That kept on saying - please and thank you. Oh, I did not take my unplesant experience out on your bartenders money. I still gave the typical...

This was one of my favourite places for a quick takeout dinner since I moved to MD because it's on my way home, but like others have said, it's gone DOWNhill fast. The last few times I picked something up, the order was either wrong or the service was just subpar. The last time when they got the order wrong, when I called after I got home, the girl at the front wasn't super helpful but the manager did call me back and reimbursed me a small amount of what I paid. I definitely found that commendable. This last time though, I think sealed it for me. I called in the order and evidently the girl couldn't hear my name for the order. After repeating it exactly 4 times, I asked if the person picking it up could just say they were here for [insert ordered items] and get the order that way. She said yes and we went through the process of ordering. Interestingly she heard everything I said after that. She took my order, specifics and all, said OK and hung up. She didn't tell me how long the order would take, not the total, nothing. She literally said OK and hung up, much like one would do at a McDonalds or Taco Bell. The person picking up the order showed up and was told that I allegedly refused to give my name, and so she just never put the order in the system. After much back and forth, they finally and completed the order about 30+/- minutes later. One order was medium rare and one was well done. Neither was marked as such and in all other aspects, both orders were the same. I'd have accepted even a little toothpick placed on the rare one to make sure someone who couldn't eat under-cooked red meat didn't accidentally eat it. That was especially frustrating because we already had the order at home before realizing they didn't put anything on the orders to note which is which (not even for health reasons). The food is OK, and again, easy for me to order to pick up on my way home, but honestly, the wait is almost always way too long (20-40 mins at least) and not worth all this hassle and this recent decrease in the quality of...