Near the Hotel
The Radisson Plaza is located on Baltimore Street next to Charles Street. The closest restaurants are in the Hotel or in the Wyndham hotel (e.g. Shula’s Steakhouse) next door. Afghan Kabob Café , 37 S. Charles St. 410-727-5571 is a block south of the hotel at the corner of Charles & Lombard Street. Uncle Lee’s at 44 South Street (corner of South Street and Lombard) (410) 727-6666 is a reasonably decent Chinese restaurant only three blocks from the hotel.
Inner Harbor
If the weather is good, you should walk south to Pratt Street and then east to the Inner Harbor where a variety of sandwiches are available from stalls at the Light Street Pavilion, a large enclosed building on the water. Philips Seafood Restaurant ,101 Light Street at the Pavilion offers lunch and dinner with the city’s signature crab dishes. Capitol City Brewing Company for beer aficionados is in the Pavilion. (So is Hooters, but you can’t have everything.) The Pratt Street Pavilion next door has more shops than restaurants, despite California Pizza Kitchen and M& S Grill .
Pisces in the Hyatt Regency Hotel at 300 Light Street is a great place for a view of the harbor and fine seafood.
If you decide to turn west on Pratt Street away from the Harbor and towards Camden Yards, you may be looking for The Wharf Rat, a brew pub and restaurant opposite the Convention Center. If burgers and brew hold no appeal, keep heading west on Pratt to the crowd at California Tortilla www.caltort.com at 300 Pratt St. on the corner of Pratt and Howard Streets.
West Side
For the sights and sounds of a downtown market, go west from the hotel five blocks to Eutaw Street, then two blocks north to the Lexington Market where the array of stalls with foods from around the globe will provide something for every taste. (It is also one stop away on the metro outside the hotel). If you want to sit down, Memsahib , an Indian restaurant with a nice lunchtime buffet at $6.95, is in the market building, but its entrance is from the outside. Somewhat closer to the hotel, Maggie Moore’s Irish Pub and Restaurant www.maggiemoores.com at Eutaw and Fayette Streets is a fun place, especially with the music of an Irish band on Friday nights.
Charles Street Corridor– Mount Vernon
North of the Hotel along Charles Street as you head toward the Washington Monument near the Walters Art Museum, the restaurants come out in force. Mick O’Shea’s at 328 N.Charles St. is a terrific Irish Pub. Check the web site to see who’s playing. We often visit Sotto Sopra for Italian cuisine at 405 N. Charles Street, 410-625-0534, four long blocks north of the hotel. Just off Charles, at 10 E. Franklin St., Tio Pepe’s holds sway with Spanish cuisine that has made it a Baltimore tradition. Ixia at 518 N. Charles (410) 727-1800 is a truly outstanding restaurant with an international cuisine, if you really want to treat yourself.
Just past the monument, Hamid Karzai’s brother runs Helmand , an Afghan restaurant that is the best in Baltimore, 806 N. Charles Street (410) 752-0311 (he owns Afghan Kabob as well). For Indian food, try Akbar at 823 N. Charles or the Mughal Garden Restaurant at 920 N. Charles. The Brass Elephant , 923 N. Charles Street (410)547-8480 is a more upscale restaurant with an interesting continental cuisine.
The Brewer’s Art (craft brewed Belgian style ales), 1106 North Charles is a little farther up Charles Street and even nearer the University of Baltimore School of Law and the train station. In addition to brew, it has good Alsatian food “and garlic French fries to die for.”
Market Place and the Power Plant
Restaurant Row at Market Place is beyond the Aquarium (two metro stops from the hotel – though I haven’t used the metro yet myself). It is the home of the Babalu Grill, 32 Market Place, for cuban cuisine. It is also where you can find Blue Sea Grill, 614 Water St. (410) 837-7300 which is next to one of the area’s Ruth’s Chris Steak House , 600 Water St..
For some music and brew, try Rams Head Live! at 20 Market Place. Rock and Roll lives at Howl at the Moon at 22 Market Place at Power Plant Live. And ESPN Zone for sports addicts is also at the Power Plant at 601 E. Pratt Street.
Harbor East --Down President Street by the harbor is known as Harbor East. The queen of Baltimore nouvelle cuisine is Cindy Wolf, who has several restaurants in the area. Outside downtown, Wolf runs Petit Louis Bistro at 4800 Roland Avenue in Roland Park (a nice residential area in the city but beyond walking distance). In Harbor East, she recently opened up Pazo , 1425 Aliceanna Street, 410-534-7296. This is the place to go for tapas – but be sure to have a reservation when you do. Down the harbor near Pazo, you will find her Charleston Restaurant at 1000 Lancaster Street 410-332-7373 and the five star dining that goes with it.
Also in the Inner Harbor East are a couple of fine restaurant chains - McCormick and Schmicks , 711 Eastern Avenue at Pier Six for fish and Roy’s of Baltimore , 720-B Aliceanna Street (410) 659-0099 for Asian fusion. As long as you are in the area, you can investigate James Joyce Irish Pub & Restaurant at 616 President Street as well. These locations are straying a bit from the hotel and are virtually in Little Italy on the way to Fell’s Point.
Little Italy--If you visit the Reginald Lewis Museum of African American History or the Flag House at the corner of President and Pratt, you may want to go a couple of blocks further and stroll through Little Italy. You probably can’t go wrong there. My favorite is Caesar’s Den, 223 South High Street. But Chiapaparelli’s 410-837-0309 at 237 S. High Street, da Mimmo’s 410-727-6876 at 217 S. High St., Aldos at and Sabatino’s 410-727-9414 at 901 Fawn Street have their partisans. And Boccaccio’s at 925 Eastern Avenue has captured many a heart. Many of the restaurants have a free limousine service from the hotel. And for the cannoli after dinner, try Vaccaro’s Pastries , 222 Albemarle Street 410-685-4905. If Italian food is not your style, you can visit India Rasoi instead 410-385-4900 at 411 S. High Street in Little Italy.
Fell’s Point--If you want to make a night out of it, you may want to go into a district with more restaurants and bar life. Fell’s Point is the old maritime hub with a variety of interesting places to dine in an area where you can find the Baltimore Tattoo Museum, the Bowery of Antiques and some of the locations for Homicide. Reservations are suggested for restaurants in this area. Seafood Lovers may go to the upscale Kali’s Court 1606 Thames Street 410-276-4700. Another tradition is the Waterfront Hotel at 1710 Thames Street which was the location for a number of scenes in Homicide.
Fell’s Point is the place to go for brew pubs, a whole different world from the high style of Charleston. Many of the bars have local music performers. Do check it out. The Wharf Rat has a second location there at 801 S. Ann St.. Another great brew pub is DuClaw Brewing , 901 South Bond St.
Max’s Tap House 737 S. Broadway, 410-675-6297, is not a brew pub, but it is one of the best beer bars on the East Coast with 300 different bottled beers and dozens more on tap from around the world. It is also the home for the Fell’s Point Ghost Tour . Next door is Bertha’s , 734 South Broadway, 410-327-5795. If you haven’t had Bertha’s mussels, you haven’t lived yet. Lovers of the Martha Grimes mystery novels will not want to miss The Horse You Came In On 1626 Thames St. 410-327-8111, and Claddagh Pub, an Irish bar with good food, 2918 O'Donnell St. has its partisans.
These suggestions are limited to neighborhoods within relatively easy reach of the hotel. Baltimore has lots of other areas that are interesting to visit and have great restaurants. Gertrude’s in the Baltimore Museum of Art on Art Museum drive near the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins is one of my favorites. Canton is the new “in” neighborhood in Baltimore where new restaurants by the water jostle with young professionals. Federal Hill across the harbour on the way to Fort McHenry is another popular neighborhood with good food and fascinating attractions.
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