The Valley Inn — Restaurant in Maryland

Recently dined at this establishment with a few friends. We missed happy hour so two of us decided to split an app and and entre. We ordered the buffalo fried cauliflower as an app.because we’re vegetarians. BIG MISTAKE! While the dipping sauce masked the the high salt taste on the palate, you couldnt ignore that this app was fried in old oil by the dark outer shell of the badly browned batter from the old oil. Every bite was like licking a salt block you feed the deer. We watched our fingers slowly inflating like breakfast sausage from the immediate fluid retention as a result of the salty batter. This was a huge disappointment to spend $12.00 on an app that we would give a 0 ⭐️, because there was nothing Star like about this app, AT ALL. The pesto pasta entre was served over wide flat noodles which we found to be an overstatement for a commoners dish like this. Hardly worth the $$$$. A few veggies with pasta noodles so wide you could land a plane on it. Great disguise to make you feel like your getting more bang for your buck..The veggies were minimal so this dish gets a 2 ⭐️ rating. Your better off to get a $9.99 noodle dish at Noodles & company. We expected more from the Valley Inn. The cheese steak sub was a hit for one member of our party who felt like the fries combo made it worth the price. Furthermore, the menus prices for most of the options from appetizers to entree were outrageous. No surprise given the demographic. This restaurant doesn’t qualify for high end customers who are willing to pay for a great meal., The Valley Inn also had a smell when we walked in that was pungent and offensive. We agreed that it was unusual at best and reminded us of a well worn arm chair that had an inherent odor that was part of the soul of this establishment. I remembered that on 2 occasions, when I had been there in the past with a few friends, I had ordered the Lobster Roll. It was around $15 and I searched for this and was flabbergasted to see the price was now $39, for a hot dog roll with a few lumps of lobster. 💆‍♀️🙆🏻‍♂️ So to conclude on this review, I would say the best part of our evening was meeting and chatting with Justin as we left the building.A genuinely authentic human being that we had the pleasure of sharing a few like minded topics with. Not food! The food is old school with no refreshing options for a plant based lifestyle and the prices are painfully high for the quality we experienced. A McDonalds of mid tier restaurants Now to sum up my final comments. The wine list begins at $52 a bottle. Cough! Huge MARKUP.. By the glass there is a limited selection for a $12 swallow. As a wine snob I would rather choke down a glass of CUPCAKE then swallow a drop of wine at the Valley Inn. This restaurant group (aka) you figure it out, has a theme for all,their products. High ticket checks that don’t match the consumer exceptions. We have agreed that The Valley Inn is off our bucket list. We look forward to offering more experiential narratives in the months to come about the Atlas group. We give this restaurant 1 ⭐️ for our experience

TASTEFULLY YOURS, Baltimore Food Critic

We deliver experiences...

Writing this review upsets me because this was one of our favorite spots to go, enough so that I spent months planning my husband’s 40th birthday there for a large group of 17 people. I had an excellent experience planning the event with the Sara, one of the managers, and Patty but the day of the event and after our communications with the restaurant specifically one of the other general managers, Jeza Hopkins, was extremely poor customer service and she was borderline rude to my sister in law who helped me plan the event.

Since it was my husbands 40th and also NYE we rented a limo and arrived timely at the restaurant. They told us our table wasn’t ready and guided us to the bar area where all 17 of us waited for 45 minutes and spent a significant amount of money at the bar. I repeatedly checked in with the hostess every 10 mins because it was frustrating and difficult having such a large group scattered at a bar and knew our time limit on our limo would be an issue. I personally spoke to Jeza multiple times and expressed my concerns and explained the limo situation. She gave me her business card for if we had any issues but didn’t help after the fact. Many of the 17 of us frequent this restaurant and know a lot of the regulars there and they were all confused about why we were all waiting around awkwardly and they bought us drinks. Once we finally got seated at 45 minutes later our server and the food was fine but everything was incredibly rushed and we couldn’t enjoy.

Due to the 45 minute delay, the limo company charged us an additional $250 late fee. When my sister in law called and explained the situation to Jeza (since I had her business card) and asked if the restaurant could help us with this fee she was extremely rude and condescending. She said delays are to be expected and we didn’t get seated because we were at the bar and one regulars bought us drinks. Many of us refused those drinks or took them to table and that situation didn’t contribute to our 45 minute wait. There was no sense of customer service or care for the fact that the only reason we were at scattered at the bar spending 100s of dollars in the first place was because we weren’t seated and she didn’t care.

At this point it’s not about the $250 because we each spent much more than that at their establishment but it’s the fact that they lacked the customer service to help rectify the situation and now have 17 regulars left with a sour taste in their mouth from a bad experience and lack of...

Last night my husband, teenage son and I had dinner at the Valley Inn in Lutherville, MD. We’ve been there before and actually like the ambience a tad bit more than the food but it was a lovely evening and we wanted to eat outdoors.

We ordered drinks, one cocktail and three sandwiches. When the food arrived, my husband was told that his sandwich had not been prepared properly and they would bring it right up. We waited. And we waited. And we waited. At the point where my son and I were nearly done with our dinners, my husband called out to our waiter and told him to forget the sandwich and to bring us the check. The waiter seemed to be surprised that the sandwich had never come, but he went back to the kitchen and sent out the manager.

The manager came to the table and said: “I hear you had a problem with a sandwich?” “No, that’s not true. I never got my sandwich”. The manager said, “well let’s get it right out” to which my husband said, “No, it’s too late. My family has finished eating and we just want to go home now.” He apologized and sent our check to the table.

There it was: 2 cocktails, 2 cokes, and 2 sandwiches for $56.00. Wow, that was a lot given the crappy service. We thought there might have been something said or done to at least help us to feel better about the evening. Dessert ? Another drink? Nothing. So we paid and walked out the door.

Then the manager came out a different door and my husband decided to confront him about his lack of caring. What does the manger do? He started yelling at us, claiming “I didn’t charge you for the sandwich!” which was good since we never GOT the sandwich. When my husband asked him why didn’t he offer us something – anything - in the interest of good customer service, he continued to yell at us claiming we never gave him a chance.

This restaurant always does a good business and I have seen and studied how this kind of success can create a level of arrogance that will eventually undo it. It may not happen today or tomorrow, but it will happen. I can already see it happening at their other restaurant at Oregon Ridge.

The first time I ate there, I was accidentally given gluten food that was described as gluten free in the menu. That was bad but once again, nothing more than “I’m sorry” but no compensation whatsoever for the error. Like I said, the indoor and outdoor ambience are really warm and that is the only reason we went back. But...