The Rowhouse Grille Review

The Rowhouse Grille Overall Review

This restaurant/bar is located in historic Federal Hill. This is a great place to meet with friends or even to go by oneself.  Chef Tess serves American style food with a definitive flair.  The cuisine is very upscale and super delicious.  It should not surprise any of you who frequent Federal Hill that the parking is atrocious!  We circled for a long time trying to find parking. The atmosphere is lively as there is an area of the restaurant that has a bar attached.  However, they also have a more quite dining area where you can sit and enjoy dinner.  We highly recommend that you give Rowhouse Grille a try.   Overall we give RowHouse Grille ♪♪♪ and a half note.

1400 South Light Street

Baltimore, MD 21230

443-438-7289

Tomato Caprese 

Chef Tess grilled tomatoes for this dish.  The green tomato's tartness was a perfect compliment to the balsamic dressing.  The addition of basil to this dish was divine.  We loved the sweetness and the crunch of the fried onions.  So yummy!

French Onion Soup

This was the first time we have had a sweet french onion soup.  It was not a problem, just surprising.  Chef Tess was light on the cheese.  However that did not take away from the full rich wine infused flavor. 

Curry Cream Mussels with Frites

The fries were seasoned to perfection.  They were perfectly crunchy but not at all greasy.  The gin soaked blue cheese was crazy good and the perfect compliment to this dish.  The mild curry had lots of flavor and spinach was a wonderful addition to this dish. 

Sweet Chili Salmon

The sweet potato mash was so buttery and rich.  The brussel sprouts were seasoned to perfection using butter and sea salt.  The salmon was fresh, savory and cooked to perfection.  The chili sauce was perfect and did not overpower the salmon.  The chili sauce served to enhance the flavor of the fish. 

Steak Frites

Chef Tess used a HUGE cut of New York Strip steak and managed to make it super juicy and tender.  How on earth she did it is a mystery to us.  She chared and seasoned this steak to perfection.  The herbed and truffled fries were so good you wanted to smack your own self in the face.  The mustard brandy cream sauce was a sinful delight.

Dessert Sampler Trio

First is the Hazelnut Gelato.  This gelato was smooth creamy and delicious.  There was a strong hazelnut flavor and the consistency was divine.  Second was the Chocolate Terrine; this is something akin to a flour-less chocolate cake.  This is our least favorite of the trio. It was too heavy and dry.  Lastly we had the Whiskey bread pudding.  This was delicious.  It was rich and buttery and delightful!
 

Melissa's Review
 

Ok guys, I’m going to be completely honest.   I had no desire what so ever to review this restaurant.  Angela was the one who found it and kept saying we needed to give it a try.  I looked at the menu and thought…”this is nothing special”.  Yeah…about that…I was totally and completely wrong.  No, I was horribly wrong!  The Rowhouse Grille is one of the best restaurants in Baltimore!  The food was un-stinking believable!  Angela and I always apologize to the waiter or waitress in advance because we tend to order an insane amount of food when we review a restaurant.  We have to experience a good sampling of the menu so that we can give a fair review.  Rarely do we order a ton of food and love EVERYTHING that comes out of the kitchen.  Well…We LOVED EVERYTHING that came out of The Rowhouse Grille Kitchen!  At one point I called our new but incredibly knowledgeable, kind, proficient and friendly waitress over and asked her who in the world was responsible for these delicious vittles?  She proudly responded, “Chef Tess.”  I love my fiancé, but I now have a secret love for Chef Tess’s food (well I guess it’s not a secret any more…Lol).  This woman can cook!  Her creativity, flavor combinations, skill in seasoning and ability to cook everything to perfection is magnificent.  I hereby dub her, the Magnificent Chef Tess!  This meal was unbelievable.  From start to finish I shook my head in amazement.  Angela and I caused such a ruckus as we raved and ranted about this incredible meal that the table next to us kept staring and ended up ordering some of the same things we ordered.  It was hilarious!  My only negative critique is that the atmosphere was nowhere near as wonderful as the food.  The food is 4-5 star while the décor and atmosphere is 2 star.  I thought the restaurant was too dark and casual for the caliber of the cuisine.  Despite that glitch, the Rowhouse Grille is a must visit.  You are doing yourself a disservice if you do not dine.  Overall I give The Rowhouse Grille ♪♪♪ and a half note. 

Angela's Review

The Rowhouse Grille is a great place to eat. I was definitely not expecting to like it as much as I did. I loved it. The food here is phenomenal, which surprised the heck out of me. I was ready for decent. I was not ready for fabulous, sublime, out of this world, “What is the chef’s name again?!” One thing I have learned eating out week after week in order to gather material for this blog is that you can never tell which places you will ADORE and which places you will ABHOR.  This definitely falls into the category ADORE. When you eat out simply for enjoyment, you choose establishments that you are pretty sure you will enjoy. When you eat out for informational purposes as well, you are also looking for new, fresh, untried and you prepare to take the good with the bad. It is all the luck of the draw; you just have to roll the dice.  Some places come recommended and these are usually good and others, like this one, you simply stumble across. We came across this one searching for restaurants to try on restaurant.com. It was a deal and I was drawn in by the different preparations of mussels and frites, a dish I became fond of my junior year studying abroad in Leuven, Belgium. Also a dish many a restaurant has tried and failed miserably at. The fact that there were different preparations gave me hope. Well, let me tell you, I did not hope in vain. The preparation we choose; Curry cream: Madras curry, cream and spinach, was wonderfully done and I have no doubt that the rest of them do not disappoint. The frites (fries ;) were probably some of the best I have ever had. They were hot, tender, crunchy and not at all greasy and served in a metal cone lined with paper. There is also a selection of dips available, of which we chose the gin spiked blue cheese (I mean was there ever any doubt?) All I have to say about THAT is THIS… OMG. Does it GET any better? It was good, it was great… no, it was next level. The mere thought of it, even now, makes me shiver in bliss. I want it, I need it and I mean now. Oh, sorry. I’m back.  ;)  The Steak Frites, served with herb, truffle fries and garlic spinach with Mustard Brandy Cream Sauce was also out of this world.<sigh>. The gentleman at the table next to us could really tell we were having a great time. I even overheard THEM comment to one another that though this was a bar, they served food that could be found in a five star restaurant (so true… SO true), so they were feeling us on that one, a fact that the frequent breaks in their conversation due to our antics attested to J The waitress (who was GREAT too by the way) told us that it is always a pleasure to serve people who clearly really enjoy life, what a complement indeed.

I also REALLY liked the atmosphere. Being an actual bar, the décor was really very sexy, with heavy, dark wood tables and chairs and dark bluish-green seat cushions; a color which I have always found very masculine, soothing… provocativeeven. When I conceptualize this spot, I think of it as what I’d hoped Heavy Seas Alehouse would be and what B&O American Brasserie aspired to be. Come to that, if The Rowhouse Grille was attached to the Hotel Monaco, it would be a next level establishment, at least in MY humble opinion. It probably will not surprise you that I give The Rowhouse Grille ♪♪♪♪.