Tonight's dinner was at Patrick's in Cockeysville, MD. I had a $20 for $40. We kept putting off using it because we think of it as "the old people place" but it does expire kinda soon, so we muscled up and went. I mean, I bought it... I better use it. Turns out it's the first day of Baltimore Restaurant Week, which usually means you can't use a deal coupon, but they kindly said that as long as we didn't order off of the Restaurant Week special menu, we'd be fine. Fine with us. We chose to eat in the "Lounge" (read "BAR") area and it was actually almost full. There are probably 10 real tables and a long bar that was full except for the last 3 seats at the end. We took the last 2. We were definately the youngest people in there, but hey... old people know a deal, right?
The menu had so many tasty things on it, I had a very, very difficult time choosing what to get. I wasn't super-hungry after our FEAST at lunch at India Palace so I went with the broiled parmesan red tomatoes appetizer and the clams casino. I never order clams casino because they're expensive. I mean, for 6 clams, it costs $10?? But when you're using a deal coupon, I feel like everything is half off, so I can do it for $5. I'm sure glad I did. The Boyfriend (hereon referenced as "bf") ordered the filet mignon sandwich.
The tomatoes came out very quickly, which was nice. I can't say the tomatoes themselves were all that great - kinda mealy like you know they came from a grocery store and not a farmer's market and they certainly weren't heirloom, but they didn't claim to be. They were HUGE slices, however, and had a deliciously addictive super-herby-cheesy breadcrumb crispy topping. They also came with a little pile of shaved aged parmesan that the bf tried to eat with a fork until I gave him a beat-down. "You can only have the parmesan if you are eating a tomato." He didn't like that a bit.... Between the 2 of us, we ate 3 of the 4 massive slices.
The rest of our food came out shortly after we were done with our appetizer, which is just how I likes it! His sandwich looked very tasty - plenty of meat and carmelized onions and cheese. It also came with a large serving of french fries (and I didn't even eat ONE!! Yay, me!!). My clams casino looked drool-worthy. And they were. They didn't have "bacon crumbles" or "bacon bits". They had a big ol' slice of smoky, crispy bacon on top of each one. The breadcrumb topping was so light that at first I wasn't even sure it was there - it was the perfect amount. The buttery, peppered sauce was to DIE FOR. I limited myself to only slurping the juice from 4 of the 6 clam shells since I felt all that butter and richness would make me sick (although I was almost ready to throw caution to the wind and do it). Turns out I could have slurped the other 2 because I didn't have any problems after all! GRRRR. (Here's a secret, though... I picked the crunchy cheesy topping off the last tomato and started dunking it in those last 2 juicy clam shells and it was even freakin' better). I ended up giving the bf the last of the topping AND put the shards of parmesan he had coveted earlier onto a fork and handed it over. That's love, people.
As for the ambiance - it was great. Yeah, lots of older folks but it was quiet and felt friendly. The bartender, who was also our server, was magnificent. She made sure we always had everything, asked how things were, cleaned things up quickly, and was working her tail off making drinks for the rest of the restaurant at the same time. Since we were at the end of the bar, I was next to where all the servers go to enter in their orders and get their drinks and they were all very friendly to each other and trying to help each other out and just felt like a nice family.
Our $40 coupon more than covered our food bill, but with our drinks, we ended up paying a little more. Good deal!
Rating:
Food: 4.5
Ambiance: 4
Service: 5+
Take home: Go. And definately get the clams casino!!! Sit at the bar if you can.
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