Zach Greenlee's Fireside Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Maryland

My experience at Zach Greenlee's Fireside on the evening of 12/14 was a horrible experience.

It began with arriving at the restaurant promptly for my party's reserved dinner time of 6pm. When we arrived, we were told that our table was given to a group of 20 that said we were the party that reserved the 6pm time. This caused us to have to wait a few minutes while they setup a separate table for us which was not terrible, but it was just the tip of the iceberg.

We were seated on the bar side and had to help move our own tables because the host was the only one attempting to move tables while others were no where to be seen. Our party was 9 people with two people ordering from the buffet and the other 7 ordering simple food from the kitchen. This included a chicken wrap, a cheeseburger, chicken wings, a salmon oscar, lasagna, a pasta dish, and a plate of shrimp. We placed our order and waited about an hour for our food to even begin to come to our table.

We requested to speak to the manager onsite because it had been so long. We were never informed that there were two large parties also in the restaurant and that the kitchen was extremely overloaded with no help. The manager was no help and only stated that our food was minutes away (less than 5 at this point) and they would bring it out as it came up.

The food that came to the table was cold or not appetizing. For example, the lasagna was ice cold and the other pasta dish had no flavor and was sitting for a while. The individuals that ordered that barely touched their food and considered it par for the course of the evening.

We were rushed through the dining experience at this point since as soon as our plates were ready to be removed from the table, they took them. We realized that it was close to closing time and they were trying to rush to close.

When we received our checks, we were all slapped with a 20% gratuity charge when we really received no real customer service at all from the entire evening. There were no concessions or efforts made on the part of the staff that evening and it seemed they were more interested in making the gratuity than the customer experience to maintain customers coming back to the establishment.

This was my second and last visit to the restaurant. I really do not care whether someone contacts me from the restaurant as a followup since I consider the $100 I spent on a burger, fries, a chicken wrap, and two sodas to be enough emotional and financial damage to never eat at this or its sister...

We didn't like this place enough to ever go back. There are enough other restaurant options nearby that we will never return.

Upon arriving, we were seated, and they had nice tables with linen tablecloths and napkins, nice settings. There were no booths, and only a couple of window seats, so it felt like we were on top of the other guests. There was also no music, so it felt like we were watching and being watched by other guests the whole time. On a side note, we did make a few new friends, but for a date night, that wasn't really what we were looking for.

I found the list of rules on the first page of the menu funny. It included things like- all entrees include the soup and salad bar except __. Gratuities are added for __. and a number of other things.

Our waitress ensured us that the chef was professionally trained.. I wasn't sure how to take that. I would assume that most chefs have some training! After that, she said that the soup was home-made, as well as a number of other items on the menu. I wasn't sure how to take that- are they making it at home and then bringing it to the restaurant?- or is the chef actually making the food?. That is what I would expect.

The menu items were quite pricey- and we were surprised at the cost- where other restaurants would have been 30% less expensive. In their defense, most entrees included the soup and salad bar. I ordered the salad bar, and my wife a grilled chicken sandwich. I went to the salad bar while my wife waited. After I finished my salad.... and then my soup... my wife's food hadn't come. Granted- it didn't take long to finish them, since the plates they give you for the salad bar are more like dessert plates than dinner plates and they are soup cups. Still being hungry, I returned to the salad bar for second helpings. It was a typical salad bar- nothing to write home about. I finished the salad... and then my soup.. at which point my wife's grilled chicken sandwich still hadn't come. They apologized saying that the chef was very busy because of a large party. Finally my wife's food came, and it was decent. She didn't complain about the quality, but all in all, we had the feeling that it was very unprofessionally run and we didn't feel we got the value for our money.

Needless to say, we won't...

We got married on 4/20/2024 and we booked our reception for Fireside. We had a few bumps along the way. In the end things worked out great. The appetizers were delicious, not too mention the main course which was a buffet. The food was plentiful, tasty and hot. Thanks to Zach Greenlee, on our wedding day he made himself available for any questions, compliments, and complaints he made us feel special. We found out a few things that we hadn’t been aware of and we were not pleased about. We got apologies for the bumps that lead up to our special day. And they were heartfelt not just words. Zach accommodated all of our needs. And the needs of our guests. After the reception about 15 of our guests including myself and the groom made our way to the Fireside Restaurant. We were offered a drink on Zach and I as every bride knows I didn’t get time to eat hardly anything. I ask Zach about buying some crab legs and before I knew it a very overflowing plate of crab legs were placed in front of me. ( Which I did share with the table.) The only suggestion I can give you is if you are planning a Wedding reception, Buissness meetings, Birthday parties or just a group of friends go talk to Zach at Fireside. I would definitely recommend talking to him personally then you know everything will be handled correctly. I would also like to give a shout out to the staff that set up, waited on and tore down our event they were amazing. I would like to thank Brenda Harp for all the help she gave also. ( just remember to demand to touch base with Zach throughout your planning he should be aware of everything at all times. My biggest mistake) So Fireside is definitely the place to reserve for your special events you won’t be sorry. Thanks again for everything...