Towson Tavern — Restaurant in Maryland

I am astounded at the number of 5 star reviews of this restaurant, because our experience was one of the worst I can remember . I always try to give restaurants the benefit of the doubt, since every place has a bad day occasionally with respect to either food or service, but there’s no excuse for both. Our party of two adults and two children came for dinner from out of state. The restaurant booths were full, so we sat at one of four empty tables near the door. The other three tables filled up shortly after we sat down. It took a while for anyone to come over and he then took our drink orders. We asked for water all around and a Diet Coke. We then waited. And waited. And waited. When I asked someone, he assured us someone would be right over with the drinks. After a while, I noticed that someone had placed a tray with four glasses of water on the bar across from our table, but nobody arrived to bring it to us until some 10 minutes later. When the waiter finally took our orders, he left and then returned to inform us that they were out of one appetizer and one entree we had ordered. It was only 6:30. So we selected other items. Meanwhile, we noticed that the people at the other tables who sat after us, had been served long before us. My French onion soup was mediocre in taste, and contained no toasted bread . My daughter’s mussels appetizer didn’t arrive until after we finished our main courses, so we sent it back. My granddaughter’s meal was brought by a different server after another long wait, lukewarm and with a different pasta than what she had ordered. When she mentioned it, the server looked puzzled and insisted that that was the pasta it came with. We told her we were specifically told the type of pasta by the first server and sent it back. We were told they had to make it from scratch so it would be a little while. When it finally came, it had hardly any sauce and what there was , was brownish and my granddaughter said, tasteless. My daughter’s and my main courses, also pasta dishes with a variety of shellfish, arrived while we were still eating our starters, without an excuse or apology. The food was almost cold, many of the mussels were unopened, peppers and tomatoes were soggy and tasteless, the broth was almost nonexistent, and the fettuccine it came with, was mixed with linguine. I really would have made an issue with management but there was nobody to be found and we had children with us. I will...

Food was subpar. Ordered the ribeye, it was overly fatty and had no flavor. I ordered medium well and it was red in a lot of places. $48 down the drain. The waiter asked if I wanted a box to take home the left overs and I said no, even though most of the food was practically untouched. You could see that he was surprised with the shocked expression in his eyes (bugged out) yet he didn’t offer to take it off the bill or at least offer to remake or replace it. I guess since his tip was automatically built in, it didn’t matter. Funny thing is, had he taken it off, I would have tipped him the $40+ rather than the auto $12+ he received. That would have been good customer service. I was offered a refill of my drink at the end of the meal, I guess in his defense he probably thought I was still eating since my plate was still full. The mashed potatoes was saturated with the sauce to the point it was the same brown color. I sub Caesar salad for the asparagus and couldn’t even eat that. I’ve never had a dry Caesar salad, mean while my husband’s salad was overly drenched. My husband had a burger, which was just ok as well, but def better than my steak per him. Overall cost was $80+ which included the $12+ auto tip. Unfortunately it was our first and will be our last time here. We wanted to switch it up, go somewhere other than LongHorn or Ruth’s Chris, unfortunately this wasn’t that place. At least with the former I could take home my leftovers because it actually tasted good. I was so disappointed I didn’t even think to take a...

Mother's Day bait and switch! The restaurant took our reservation for Mother's Day showing menu service. My wife and kids are particular eaters so this was perfect as everyone could get what they wanted. Upon arrival they told us it was a buffet only and "You are free to leave no worries if that does not work". It was Mother's Day and clearly there were no other spots with open tables. We looked.

It did not work dining for sure. My wife was limited to some fruit and half a bagel. My kids the same. They billed us $42 pp for a lackluster buffet that I would never have booked except for the fact that it was MD and well, nothing else had openings.

We watched table after table leave which we just didn't have an option. I ended up paying $200 for three plates of fruit, some pastries and half a bagel. I was able to make mine work but it was again, not a spectacular showing even under buffet standards.

Businesses should be more mindful of the impact messing with families on a day like Mother's Day would have. I would have taken free drinks, offer to make something off the menu knowing we were eating basically nothing, I mean anything would have been more appreciated than what happened. The GM (I believe) was standing over us as we sat by the podium while we talked about this the whole time. He never even blinked.

Overall, we have options and this won't be...