Had a delicious plate (well a plate and a half) of delicious food from Kumari's lunch buffet on Friday. Surprisingly yummy. The tandoori chicken was moist. The Indian doughnut was served hot and mixed sweetness and Indian spices in a was that demanded a second helping. it was so good I am almost afraid to go back.

We went to Applebee's and were the only interesting people there. People in bars like that don't interact with each other. Suburanoids broke the bar. The suburbs are terrifying. TERRIFYING!!!!!

I'm also fairly certain I saw a serial killer in the parking lot at Walmart. I stayed in the parking lot; I couldn't go in. Still never been in a Walmart. As Mr. Loaf once said, I'll do anything for love but I won't do that.

I made reservations for Saturday night more than two weeks ago at Tapas Adela, using Open Table. We arrived for our reservation and a couple in front of us, who had no reservations, were told they could either sit at the communal table in the bar or could wait for a table to open up. They chose to wait. Feeling smug because we had reservations, I approached the hostess. She gathered menus for us and seated us ... at the communal table. For our Valentine's Day dinner. I probably wouldn't have minded so much, since the bar wasn't very crowded when we sat down at 11, but we were sat directly next to a large column that is painted red ... which was depressingly peeling, leaving big white splotches all over the wall. Needless to say, as the bar got more crowded, we had to shout to hear each other, and then a gaggle of girls sat virtually on top of my husband (who was sitting across the marble-topped table from me) and piled their coats against him as we finished our meal. They and their dates proceeded to shout so loudly that we couldn't hear one another for the last, dismal 10 minutes. We would have had a more romantic dinner at home. When I make reservations for dinner -- particularly a Valentine's Day dinner, and particularly more than two weeks ahead of time -- I do not expect to be seated at the bar. No one makes reservations for the bar. That's why it's there -- for walk-ins. It's disingenuous for Tapas Adela to take reservations and then cram people into the bar. This was our first Valentine's Day as a married couple, and Tapas Adela had special significance to us, but it is the last time we'll dine there, and the last time we'll go out for Valentine's Day. We're not Valentiney people, anyway, but I thought we'd enjoy a nice dinner for our first VDay as a married couple. Wrong. BTW, I chose not to say anything to the Tapas Adela staff because A) I didn't want our dinner to become more uncomfortable by starting an argument with the staff and B) if these people thought seating us at the bar was an acceptable option for reservations made weeks in advance, they're way beyond the point of reason.

vivid, especially the coat-piling. I HATE that

In the non-terrifying part of the 'burbs, we had a nice Sunday brunch at the Elkridge Furance Inn. It was a two-course Valentine's menu that included a glass of champagne. Mrs Z had a plate of shrimp and grits, while I had the seafood crepes. Both very nicely done. Huge portions - over half of it came home with us.

Thanks for the report, AK, as frustrating as it was. I may be pushing 80 but I hate the thought of a couple of young newlyweds being treated shabbily. I was looking forward to a visit to Tapas Adela -- but I'm gonna' scrub that plan.

thanks to everyone for their suggestions on rehoboth. we decided to take the easy route and just eat at Lupo Di Mare since it was connected to our hotel and it was kind of chilly out (but rest assured your recommendations will certainly be kept for future visits).

as for Lupo itself we had a great meal with one minor quibble. the decor is nice and minimal/modern and the tables were spaced out far enough to not feel packed in(the host even put the other 2-top next to us into a 4-top to give us more room on the sides...small detail, but was noticed and appreciated)

we started off with the shaved brussels sprouts mixed with pecorino and truffle oil and it was a revelation: so simple, yet amazing. The freshness of the raw sprouts, shaved into thin strands and mixed with the saltiness of the pecorino and the icing on the cake truffle oil had me instantly calculating when i would have time to try to emulate the recipe. i could have eaten a salad bowl of this stuff.

next we tried out the lamb meatballs, which were light and moist, with a nice addition of pine nuts and a good "veal gravy", which also pulled double duty in acting as a perfect bread sopping sauce.

for the meal itself i decided to go with one of the daily specials: braised oxtail with pappardelle. The oxtail was mixed in with the rich sauce and worked great with the pappardelle. Really satisfying hearty italian dish for a chilly february night.

my girlfriend decided on the frutti di mare which featured a cornucopia of seafood (clams/fish/shrimp/mussels/calamari) mixed in with a bed of linguini. I had a couple bites and you could really taste the seafood flavor in the accompanying sauce, not to mention it was a huge serving, which allowed me to verify the quality of the sauce the following afternoon when snacking on the leftovers.

everything was really good and it was a great night, my only minor quibble (admittedly a semi-pretentious quibble) is they served our water in a clear plastic cup that you might find at pizza hut, despite everything else in the place being of pretty high quality. every time it caught the corner of my eye i couldn't help but be jarred from our little italian getaway into wondering where the endless salad bowl was.

but like i said, minor quibble, and certainly easy to excuse. i would definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for a nice treat while at the beach.

PS - I also recommend the cask conditioned 75 minute IPA fermented with maple syrup across the street from Lupo Di Mare at The Dogfish Head Brew Pub.

What post were the Rehoboth suggestions under? Would love to have that info. Thanks.

And Another Thing--you can search under "Search Dining@Large" (look on the right hand side of the screen under "Recent Posts" to find several posts on Rehoboth.

We decided to avoid the crowds and all of the event dinners, and hit one of our favorite places in Baltimore - The Explorer’s Lounge in the Intercontinental. They have a terrific happy hour with several glasses of wine for $5 and all of their international small plates for $8 (these really aren’t that small, and one of them is plenty of food for me, two for my husband…who is 6’5” and has the appetite to match). Valet is complimentary if you spend $30 in the lounge.

We really enjoy this place. The hotel is beautiful, service and food are fabulous, the view is lovely, and they have one of the best scotch/bourbon/whiskey selections in the region. We decided to make a night of it enjoying the view, and to just order a bit at a time. We both started with bourbon (Blanton’s for me, Basil Hayden for him). The prices for whiskey’s are a bit high, but the pours were generous. We were served a tray of pecans, cashews and sesame sticks to nibble on while we lingered over our drinks.

We decided to order two of the international plates. We ordered the Africa – lamb sausage, toasted pita bread, bibb lettuce, red onions and tzatziki. The sausage was wonderfully seasoned, and the tzatziki was very well balanced. Both of us did sort of wonder if this would have been more appropriately labeled the Greece, but perhaps that word didn’t seem like the best label for anything on a menu. We also ordered the Asia – Sichuan chicken skewers with red peppers, celery, onion and cashews. These were a fantastic combination of sweet and spicy, served alongside a nutty basmati. We followed this with glasses of pinot noir, and my husband decided to try their cream of crab soup. He loved it, and declared it his second favorite, behind Chart House in Annapolis. It had a nice hint of sherry, generous pieces of crab, and did not have that overly thick, pasty consistency you find in most restaurants. We ended our evening with more wine, and split the croissant and cranberry bread pudding, which we both enjoyed.

All told, we were there about two and a half hours. No one seemed to feel a need to rush us along, and the service was friendly and prompt. This was a much better experience than we would have had surrounded by the crowds at a restaurant, and was certainly more romantic in this ambiance. As usual, we left saying we needed to visit more often… the best compliment I can think of.

@karen -

i've never had a bad time at the explorers lounge. it is a bit of an indulgence considering the prices, but the service is always great and it's a nice treat that usually intimate and relaxing. your review makes me think the same thing you did: "need to get back there"

didn't know about the small plates, will have to try them out.

We celebrated Valentine's Day by going to Joss in Mt. Vernon. The Annapolis Joss is particularly outstanding (I went to college in Annapolis and was a frequent visitor), and we'd been to Baltimore Joss once before and enjoyed it.

We were still impressed this visit, as well, although the lack of a crowd on Valentine's Day was as bit disheartening. I hope the place is doing well! Sometimes it's so hard to tell.

Our waitress was sweet and attentive, even recommending an enjoyable (although expensive) cocktail - the raspberry sake-tini. We started with some picks from their a la carte Tempura menu, although I was missing the Okra Tempura they have at the Annapolis Joss. We then had a variety of rolls and some Nigiri. All the flavors were fresh and vibrant.

All in all, good times! Definitely improved from last year, when we went to Restaurant Sabor, which we usually enjoy. Their Valentine's menu last year was incredibly overpriced for what it was, the restaurant was eerily empty, and, despite that, we were seated directly next to a couple of obnoxious yuppies who talked incessantly about their and their friends' cars, vacation houses, and the husband's numerous business dealings. We haven't been back since.

We went to Clementine for V-day and had a lovely meal. The yuzu in their steak tartare was an inspired touch, as was the Thai basil smashed peas accompaniment to their stuffed trout. I love it when a restaurant really takes the effort to make everything on a plate special and doesn't merely concentrate on the protein.

Went to Maisy’s on Friday night and had a great pizza and good time. Went to Talara on Saturday night and found two spots at the end of the bar. Had a nice dinner before realizing we should have bought the tickets for the movie before dinner. The 8:30 show of the King’s Speech was sold-out. We ended up catching it at the Senator at 9:30.

We dined at home this year. We did surf and turf: 1/2 doz. Sea scallops dressed with a champagne and mushroom cream sauce, and a 4 oz piece of Wagyu steak. It was the first time I had tried the Wagyu - it was wonderful! Also had a small spinach salad and a chocolate mousse desert (from Wegmans). The beverage was Perrier champagne. Great meal - better than dining out, as dining out for Valentine's day has become non-romantic (too many families taking their children out, and way too crowded. Also, I think because of the crowds, the food and ambiance suffers.

Valentine's in Cross Keys was BBQ and old records. On the menu was pulled pork, ribs, chicken and a bottle of dessert wine served with some 45s of Erskine Hawkins playing the blues and a 33 of Hank Williams Sr. singing both kinds of music: country and western.

My girlfriend and I went to Ruth's Chris in Pikesville for Valentine's Day. We had an 8:00 reservation (which I had made in early January) and arrived around 8:10. As we walked in, we saw that the lobby was packed with diners awaiting tables. I checked in with the hostess and was told that they were in the process of seating the 8:00 groups. Clearly, tables weren't turning as quickly as the restaurant expected.

Time passed, the manager kept running back to the hostess stand shouting "I have a deuce ready!" (couldn't he walk over and say it softly?), and, as we watched with amazement, diners (some dressed to the nines) were offered a booth in the bar.. er.. lounge. (We declined the offer when the question came to us - if we had wanted to eat in a bar, we wouldn't have come to Ruth's Chris.)

We were finally seated at 9:00pm.... a full hour after the reservation time. The manager quickly came over, presented a coupon for a future Petite Filet to my girlfriend, mumbled something that we took to be an apology, and darted off.

The lobby was still full and the waitstaff was clearly under pressure to clear the tables. After our waitress came over for our drink orders (we had a question about the availability of a certain drink and she needed to check with the bartender), she took the payment for the table next to us. We didn't see her for another 10 minutes while she handled the payment of the other table - and then told us that she was heading to the bar to get the answer. (I would have expected that she could have done that while she was handling the check.)

We asked her if the kitchen were backed up and she said no... so that means that the restaurant was simply overbooked. Ruth's Chris has been in that location for many years - and a national chain even longer. Is it so hard to accurately predict the turn times and maximum capacity on Valentine's day? What should have been a romantic evening at a predictable time turned into a feet-killing late night.

@Wanted: while Valentine's Day tends to be chaotic at those types of restaurants in general, I still think you would have been better served going to The Prime Rib instead of Ruth's Chris, in my opinion. The Prime Rib is just fabulous, and the service never falters. Plus, you get that wonderful time-warp feeling that only comes from visiting a much-loved, old-baltimore establishment.

@wanted -

that sounds frustratingly horrible, although not surprising. if you want a comedic account of why not to go out on valentines day, read the chapter on it in the hilarious book Waiters Rant.

@Liz Silverman
I couldn't agree with you more - the Prime Rib is timeless, elegant, not intrusive with service, simply lovely - and GOOD.

It's the place I always recommend to people in from out of town looking for a good steak.

My date and I went to Mr. Rain's Fun House for Vday dinner.
We were seated promptly and all around service was enjoyable and attentive the entire meal. As we oft sinfully do, we dallied during peak dinner time, though it was Vday and the dining room wasn't overly full; we were never rushed.
All of the food we ate ranged from good to great, though I found my entree of artic char unplayful enough to match the other dishes or the decor. An acid note or swoosh of sweet sauce on the side would have been an appreciated accent.
The restaurant left enough of an impression that I'd go back, perhaps, but not until I've satiated my curiousity about other area places on my list.