Re: Fine Dining Club Ideas
 

I happen to live in Mt. Vernon right off Charles St., so I live near and have been to most of the "best" Baltimore restaurants. In brief:

Brass Elephant: Overpriced, overrated.

Tio Pepe: Expensive but worth every penny.

Prime Rib: Pretty good, very cool ambience.

Brewer's Art: Probably my favorite restaurant in Bmore. Eclectic dinner menu, good bar food and great beer.

The Helmand: I also highly recommend this. Very good and relatively inexpensive.

Of the several Indian restaurants in my area my favorite is Akbar, with Mughal Garden a close second.

I have been to most of the harbor-area restaurants too, like Eurasian Harbor, McCormick and Schmick, Ruths Chris, etc...none were bad, but none particularly excited me either.

As far as Little Italy goes, Chiapparelli's is my favorite, followed by Sabatino's.

Re: Fine Dining Club Ideas
 

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Brass Elephant: Overpriced, overrated.


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Brass Elephant has been hit or miss for me. I do like the atmosphere, though, and the prox fixe menu is not overpriced.

Helmand and Brewer's Art are great choices.

Petit Louis is a favorite.

Re: Fine Dining Club Ideas
 

A friend started this one, you might shoot her an e-mail.

www.funyoungfoodieclub.com

Re: Fine Dining Club Ideas
 

I'm surprised that Charelston and Hampton's are not mentioned. Seems impossible to have a brief list of "best" Baltimore restaurants without the only AAA 4 diamond winners somewhere.

Not that ratings are everything, but I would have thought they would have at least gotten your attention.

Re: Fine Dining Club Ideas
 

I haven't been to either. I do plan to go to Charlestons in the near future, though.

Re: Fine Dining Club Ideas
 

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a rather expensive (thinking 20-30 a plate) place.

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Re: Fine Dining Club Ideas
 

Charelston was excellent when I went. They recently made some changes in their menu and in the layout, I think removing tables. If you go in the near future let me know.

I also need to check out Black Olive and the newly opened Brasserie Tatin.

While we're at it, on the topic of Indian, how do the places you mentioned compare to Saffron?

Re: Fine Dining Club Ideas
 

That sounds like a f'in great idea.

Re: Fine Dining Club Ideas
 

Ooh, forgot about Black Olive. I really enjoyed it.

As for Saffron, comparing it to the Indian places I mentioned is kind of apples/oranges because I think Saffron is more of a pan-Asian type place. I think I had pork tenderloin when I went, which was good but not particularly outstanding. Prices are pretty reasonable though.

Re: Fine Dining Club Ideas
 

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I happen to live in Mt. Vernon right off Charles St., so I live near and have been to most of the "best" Baltimore restaurants. In brief:

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i'd add Shogun to this list, though i am not sure how close it is to mt.vernon. it's on N Charles St/Saratoga. not quite fine dining, but very-very-very much worth putting it into rotation.

edit : it's a japanese/sushi place.