Dining Guide to the restaurants on West Street in Annapolis

17/11/11 0 COMMENTS

Any dining guide to top cuisine in Annapolis MD would have to include the good restaurants along West Street. One would expect to find seafood restaurants among the restaurants in Annapolis since so much of Annapolis revolves around its location on Chesapeake Bay, where crabs and other types of seafood are plentiful. But, a traditional seafood restaurant or fish restaurant is far from the only choice available in Annapolis. The city is modern and diverse and the restaurant menus reflect that.

Located in the Loews Hotel, the Breeze has only 58 seats. Its simple, modern elegance warrants business casual attire. The menu features local products from the nearby waters and farms. The top cuisine prepared by its award winning chef includes crab and lobster pot pie at $27 and grilled pork loin with caramelized apples and brandy sauce at $22. Small plate options are also available at dinner. At lunch, prices are slightly lower and sandwiches are available. Dessert choices include hazelnut mousse and passion fruit crème brulee. Breeze is not a typical hotel restaurant. Although open daily for breakfast, it is closed for lunch on the weekends and for dinner on Sundays and Mondays.
There are many options close by on West Street, however. Open seven days a week from 4:30 PM to 1:30 AM, Level is a romantic casual lounge, complete with exposed brick and candlelight, serving small plates ranging from cheese selections to salads, soups, pizzas and light entrees. Sharing and combining is encouraged so a wide variety of tastes can be experienced in a single visit. Prices run from $4 per wedge of cheese to $12 for hummus with chipotle-agave nectar. Homemade seasonal desserts present a few surprises. Warm chocolate chip cookies are served with chocolate milk. Black ale is served with vanilla ice cream as a beer float. Sorbet can be paired with a New Zealand ice wine. There is a wide variety of wines, liquors, liqueurs, specialty cocktails and even house made spirits on hand.
The Rams Head Tavern offers not only food and beer and ale selections but also live entertainment. Its seafood choices include traditional Maryland crab cakes. Angus beef is served as is a grilled steak with apple chutney and sweet potato fries. Sandwiches and salads are also available at this comfortable casual tavern where prices run from $6.95 for a bowl of cream of crab soup made from Maryland crabs to $29.95 for a Delmonico rib eye steak with shrimp and crab meat béarnaise.
Another of the good restaurants along West Street is Tsunami. This trendy, dark, casual restaurant is as loud and lively as the tidal wave its name evokes. Open for lunch on weekdays and for dinner nightly, its sushi bar remains open until 1 a.m. Tsunami offers food with a Pan Asian fusion twist, including a wide selection of sushi choices as well as meat and seafood options. Prices for main dinner entrees are from $18 to $33 while the unique sides are extra. Sushi servings run from $4 to $10. Kobe beef sliders are $14 and strip steak with Hoisin sauce and fries is $18 at lunch.

So, while a seafood restaurant or a fish restaurant might be expected of restaurants in Annapolis, and seafood restaurants do abound, we hope this dining guide of restaurant menus can make everyone happy in Annapolis MD.

Main Street Annapolis Offers Plenty Of Variety With Its Seafood

17/11/11 0 COMMENTS

Stocked with fresh catches from Chesapeake Bay, Main Street restaurants in Annapolis offer locals and visitors some of the finest seafood found anywhere. Operating from these aged and tall storefronts, chefs dish up top cuisine at outstanding seafood restaurants while patrons enjoy unique decor and tantalizing smells.

Wherever you go, the restaurants in Annapolis present variety to satisfy every palate.

For an upscale experience with the sweet sounds of live jazz in the background, check out Aqua Terra at 164 Main Street. As a seafood restaurant with Italian and Asian flair, Aqua Terra serves up everything from sushi to pizza. The Tempura Crunch Roll is a sweet bite with pineapple and shrimp, while Tyler’s Fire Roll steps it up as spicy sriracha is paired with salmon, cream cheese and flying fish caviar. Reservations are recommended, and you’ll fit in with business casual or a notch higher. Sushi averages about $10 a roll, while entrees run about $25.


Another in the series of good restaurants in downtown Annapolis is O’Brien’s Oyster Bar at 113 Main Street. The building dates back to the American Revolution and patrons are surrounded with images of local history and the Naval Academy. But this seafood restaurant will quickly bring your attention back to the table with its top cuisine. Start with the luscious Cream of Crab Soup and move to the Colossal Crab Cake on a bed of pilaf and fried green tomatoes. The restaurant menus for brunch and dinner include other inventive fare, from Crab Benedict in the morning to Rockfish O’Brien’s, a dinner plate of striped bass topped with crab and asparagus. Entrees start at $20, but sandwiches and bar food are comparable to chain restaurants.


For a straightforward fish restaurant in Annapolis MD, you’ll get your fill at Buddy’s Crabs and Ribs at 100 Main Street. The buffet lines are open daily, or order off the restaurant menus for salads, seafood and sandwiches. Prices depend on your tastes — you can pay about $15 for the Big Buddy Crab Cake sandwich or $45 for a plate of King, Alaskan and blue crabs. Kids under 10 eat for free. Buddy’s is extremely casual and inviting.

While different preparations of crabs are the Main Street specialty in Annapolis MD, this local dining guide offers more than just seafood restaurants.


Piccola Roma, 200 Main St., steps out with heavy doses of cream, herbs and fresh ingredients to plate classic Italian dishes. The Veal Saltimbocca lives up to its name by exciting your taste buds with a tangy sauce including prosciutto and sage. And just in case you prefer to call it a fish restaurant, Piccola offers a variety of stuffed ravioli, risotto and pasta dishes with scallops, shrimp and crab. Expect to pay $15-25 for a main dish and come as you are, as the white linen dining room has a feeling of home.


And perhaps no trip to see the good restaurants of Annapolis would be complete without a stop at Chick and Ruth’s Delly at 165 Main Street. It’s Americana at its finest. Come in the morning to say the Pledge of Allegiance with a crowd, or stop in the afternoon and freeze your brain with a 6-pound shake. You’ll find burgers and crab cakes here, and it’s reported you can even get something green like a salad or wrap amid this meaty decadence.

For anyone in the Main Street area, wandering the historic Annapolis cityscape and finding themselves on the peckish side, there are many great dining options available. Fish is a natural favorite for the area and rightfully so, but there are plenty of dining choices available in the Main Street Area.

West Street Wears a Pretty New Face

22/02/10 0 COMMENTS

West Street has a pretty new face—several of them, in fact. Once a major eyesore of ramshackle buildings and down-on-their-luckers, West Street has undergone a major nip and tuck. And it looks mahvalous.

A short stroll from the Naval Academy, and the Main Street and Maryland Avenue shopping districts, West Street has morphed into a hip and happening ‘hood.

Until the makeover began a decade ago, the turf belonged largely to prostitutes, drug dealers, and lost tourists searching for City Dock. To drive down the street was to risk eviscerating your buggy’s belly or disappearing in a pothole bigger than Peoria.

Best I can recall, when I arrived from the D.C. ‘burbs in the mid-80’s, the Rams Head tavern, then a teeny basement brew-and-burger joint, and a mom-and-pop pizza parlor were the only draws. read more…

Annapolis Dining

22/02/10 0 COMMENTS

Annapolis has a large variety of restaurants to satisfy any taste. Annapolis is a great place for enjoying the freshest seafood while dining by the waterside. We are famous for blue crabs from the Chesapeake Bay, whether served steamed, soft shell, or in savory crab cakes. Downtown Annapolis offers historic inns and restaurants where you can eat in the same spot as generations of Annapolitans. Cuisines from around the world have found their home in Annapolis, from French, Italian, and Irish to Indian, Thai, Mexican, Chinese, and Japanese. Several steak houses and other fine dining establishments complement the full range of dining choices available in Annapolis.

For a guide to Annapolis Restaurants, Bars and Cafes, visit the Annapolis.com Dining Guide.