I remember back in the days when Terrace and Wolman were my only sources for food, thanks to the blasted 19-meal plan that I signed up for. Thus it took me quite awhile to realize that outside of these fine Sodexho establishments, Baltimore had plenty of culinary delights to tickle any taste bud. Here we take a look at the surrounding areas of Baltimore and my favorites eateries in each:
Fortunately, there are quite a few great places to eat just a few steps outside of your dorms in Charles Village. On St. Paul St. you can have your choice of either great Indian cuisine or All-American food at Tamber's Nifty Fifties Diner. Great burgers, shakes and appetizers are right next to Indian dishes such as Tikka Massala and my personal favorite, Chicken Korma, a rich curry dish with large pieces of chicken. Large helpings at pretty cheap prices make this a sensible place to go.
Just down the block on 32nd and Charles is Niwana, an excellent restaurant specializing in Japanese and Korean cuisine. Here you will find a great assortment of sushi and many entrees, including bento boxes that have tempura and vegetables with either chicken or beef, fried rice combinations and an amazing udon noodle dish with clam, shrimp and tempura in a tasty broth. Prices here are reasonable for the quality of food you receive, and during lunch, prices are generally cheaper.
If you don't mind walking down a couple blocks, Hopkins Square is home to Ruby Tuesday, and an occasional visit to a national chain restaurant is always nice. Their food has improved significantly over the past year, and the menu always seems to have something new. Try the Creole Catch, a fish fillet over rice pilaf or the Church Street Chicken, a seasoned chicken breast with melted cheese and mushrooms over rice pilaf. Though the entrees are a bit expensive, you can always get your money's worth by getting one of their huge burgers. A colossal burger would be a huge disappointment if you could get one bite to fit in your mouth. Fortunately, the burgers there live up to their names while being relatively cheap.
Another good place to eat near Homewood is the friendly Blimpie right next to Tuesdays and XandO. A bit hidden from the public, you can't overlook their monstrous subs. The bread is fresh and the meat comes off a rack instead of being precut. They load on the sides and always do so with great service. The breaded chicken sub and the club sub are my choices for having a great lunch or dinner. But watch out for that guy Omar that works there; he's a troublemaker.
Just a mere 15 minutes walk away from campus is the quaint little town of Hampden, which is home to many a great place to eat. There is the Caf? Hon, where you can enjoy great homemade pies after an entr?e. Holy Frijoles is a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place that serves real Mexican food, not Taco Bell style. The taco salads are served in a gigantic tortilla bowl and are packed with beans, chicken, steak, cheese and vegetables. How cool is it to eat the bowl after eating what came inside it? Hampden is home to many other little restaurants and also to the premier Royal Farms in the area. The two-story high convenience store has mural of the sky painted across the dome-shaped roof of the building. Hot food is always cooking or can be cooked, unlike the one close to the school. A large selection of candy, chips, drinks and other goodies make this the only store worthy of the being called Royal Farms instead of the overly simplified and denigrating "RoFo."
If you are willing to cough up the cash to hitch a cab, you can find many places just a short distance away. Around the Peabody Conservatory are many little restaurants that offer great food at great prices. Minato is a busy Japanese restaurant that has some good Vietnamese Pho, in case you are craving those buckwheat noodles in broth. Midtown Yacht Club serves up some mighty wings, and Sacha's 527 offers entrees under $15 while keeping the atmosphere trendy and non-Wolman-like.
Go down further to Inner Harbor and you will have a choice between many national restaurant chains. Cheesecake Factory is a place almost everyone will want to go, just because it's Cheesecake Factory. Chicken marsala, chicken breast smothered in some gooey brown sauce and mushrooms, is one of the best dishes I've had there. But be prepared to wait. They don't accept reservations, and hour-long waits are very common during peak dinner times.
If you don't have the patience to wait, walk right across the hall to the California Pizza Kitchen, which usually never has a line. That doesn't mean their food isn't good though. How can you go wrong with small, personal-sized pizzas? Their selection is unique and most all pizzas there are very tasty.
Another bustling place down at the harbor is Phillips, where you can get a taste of that famous Maryland seafood. Personally, most of their menu has a lot of baked or fried seafood, which isn't that great. But their freshly steamed and cooked seafood, without all of the batter, is great. Try the Seafood Bake for Two. It's a heavyweight at around $60, but it is a big bucket filled with clams, mussels, shrimp, crawfish, crab and lobster. They are all steamed, buttered up and very good.
A bit past the Inner Harbor is Little Italy, the center of Baltimore's Italian cuisine. There are too many little restaurants that I have not been to, but if you are in search of Italian food and hate the Olive Garden, take a little walk down these streets to see if you find anything to your liking. Vacarro's is the place to go afterwards for rich, thick cheesecake, cream puffs and other assorted desserts too sweet for those with sensitive teeth.
The restaurants don't just end at the Harbor; going the opposite way into suburbia opens up many other great places outside of the Greatest City in America. Szechuan House on York Road is the place to go for reasonably priced Chinese food in great serving sizes. The cooks here add an extra element even to the most generic of Chinese dishes.
A little further down York and you will enter another college town with a great college restaurant: Bill Bateman's. Come on, how can you beat all you can eat wings on Mondays? This place serves up a mean rack of ribs too, but hey, any place is tolerable if it has a right atmo-sphere to it. Bateman's does.
Drop the Rofo chicken and you'll find that Baltimore has plenty of fine restaurants to offer. Whether it's chicken wings or Vietnamese Pho, this place has it all.
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