Waterstone Bar & Grille

Be good to yourself… show up with McDonalds
At first I thought this was a joke… April fool’s maybe. No serious business owner could operate this way. Three times on the bounce this place has floored my guests and I with their rude, overbearing, awful service. This is not a restaurant… a bar or a night club posing as a food joint.
First time around the food was raw. The manager apologizes and offers us a gift card to come back. 6 months later we show up for a reservation and there is no one there from the restaurant. The customers seated around were making room and welcoming us in… well done indeed. We left and come back a month later with the family and there is profanity laced music blaring away in the «quiet room» and the barkeeper/​waiter/​server/​bus boy and possibly the cook comes around after a while for our drinks order. Hold on he can’t do two thing at once so just drinks this time. Then comes a appetizers with no incidents. We should have cut our losses at this stage and left. But first date after the baby is born, you want to take advantage. He comes back for entrée orders with nothing to write with or on and gets flustered. Comes back, gets the order and then sends someone off shopping for groceries. After about an hour (the baby wakes up for feeding before food arrives that’s how we know) we ask him about our orders and to please turn down the profanity in the backroom.
The food arrives in patches because he forgot to give the entire order. The check comes in and it turns out the gift card the restaurant had given last time round bounced and he can’t sort it out. The experiences get better everytime! We like to give everyone a second or a third chance because everyone’s entitled to an off night. Stuff happens… but this is ridiculous!
Do yourself a favor, stay away from the headache and possibly under cooked food and order McDonalds. You are guaranteed better food in a more timely fashion.
For the owner or the lack thereof, you should be ashamed to call this a restaurant. Your parents did a poor job bringing you up for lying to paying customers!

First things first. The new ownership is AMAZING! Shawn/​Sean (not sure how he spells it) has turned this place around the old owner never mad beer. Her lines were dirty. The food was always either inconsistent or just plain not good and they WERE NEVER OPEN WHEN THEY SAID THEYD BE! It was so frustrating because I live a few doors down but now I can say I love it here!
They even accommodated a birthday party that had book for the fights then when the riots started and there was a curfew in effect he did a lock in for them! Such a great idea!
I cant wait for the coffee shop and deli to open on the other side.
Shut up and take my money

Overall, this place was confusing. We went because of a buy one, get one free coupon in the Sun. The environment gives an upscale vibe: comfortable seating, nice décor, quiet music, olive oil with herbs on the table. Then, I reached for my napkin to put it on my lap — and it was paper. The bread basket was plastic. So, I felt caught in an uncomfortable spot between upscale and casual restaurant.
The food was mediocre, but a good value for the price. We had salmon and tuna entrees for about $ 16 each. It wasn’t the highest quality fish, but I didn’t expect that for the price. They tasted like slightly higher end chain restaurant preparations. (And of course with the coupon, it was a steal.) The best part of the meal was the fried brussel sprout appetizer, our second choice after the artichoke, which they were out of.
The service was also mediocre: slow and unattentive, but, friendly when we had their attention. It took about 15 minutes before anyone visited our table after we were seated. There were only four other tables occupied in the dining room, and the waitress walked by our table a couple times without acknowledging us — also confusing!

feta cheese. feta cheese eh-​vuh-​ry-​where.
Which is not a bad thing. Sometimes.
Personally, I am always a fan of crispy brussel sprouts and artichokes so those two were where my eyes zoomed on the menu. They were alright… artichokes a lil too wet and large (shoulda cut them or something?) and brussel sprouts a lil underdone and both in general disappointing but still, having two of my favourite veggies have their own plates on a menu is a plus.
We also got sweet potato fries (sooo yum, they drizzled them with honey or some sort of nectar of the gods. not crispy though, or firm) the dipping trio (giant block of feta was a teeny bit unnecessary, and nothing exciting on the plate) the lamb sliders (thumbs up on the lamb and taste thumbs down on the pita triangle bun) the calamari (nothing special unfortunately) the tuna tartar (also not special, most disappointing for me cause I love this dish done right) baked feta (yurm with all the richness) mediterranian flatbread (nothing special, couldve put it together with market ingredients at home. easily.) and a whole selection of drinks.
The place was really nice, but the service just a lil slow, and the food is passable just not as good as some other places in baltimore. still, we got reservations and the place was perfect for our party of six as well as the party of two on the other side of the room, so theyre accommodating.

I want to really like this place, but as is I will never step foot in there again.
Living down the street, I always thought about stopping in whenever I drove by for errands. When a deal popped up on Amazon, figured it was a great reason to push myself to go. If you see this place pop up on a deal site do one of two things: DO NOT BUY IT, if you ignore the first piece of advice then read the fine print of the deal. The Amazon deal was only good for dine-​in (in the dining room), dinner, excludes happy hour items, and requires at least one food item purchase. Because of these restriction the girlfriend and I ended up coming through twice in order to successfully use the deal. Below are issues from our two experiences.
Food & Drink
–Decent. Falafal is good, however some other items have tiny proportions for the price (lamb chops tapas).
–Sangria is decent/​good at happy price point, but at full price ($ 9~) it is a subpar.
Space and Décor
–Everything is new, clean, and looks very nice. Waterstone would be a 4 – 5 if judged solely on visuals.
Service
–Staff is friendly and helpful, when you see them…
–Massively understaffed. First time we went on a weekday happy hour, it took almost ten minutes for the girlfriend and I to be sat in an empty restaurant. The person who sat us? Not even an employee but a friend of the owner who happened to have wandered through.
–Dirty dishes would sit on empty tables for 10 – 20 minutes in a half filled restaurant.
–On our second outing here, table next to us got up and left because it was 15 minutes between being sat and a server showing up. Another table requested their check before the entrees appeared because they knew how long delays might be.
–Server dropped off items at our table while carrying kitchen supplies.
–Charged for items that never showed up (artichoke hearts tapas). We were able to get the check fixed, but this shouldn’t be happening at all.
One could say some of these complaints might be nit-​picking, but the check on our second outing was $ 60 for two people. For $ 60 in Baltimore this was an abysmal experience. This place really needs more staff on hand most nights. A food runner/​buser, barback, or even a host might be able to fix these service issues. The front staff seemed overloaded with visible responsibilities as is.
I’m sad because this place is just down the street and has pretty good happy hour deals, but I am never coming back again.

This place has friendly service and good drink specials, but the food leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve had their lunch before (salads and some wraps) and nothing really impressed. The last time I was there for happy hour the wings and calamari tasted about a day old, which is a bummer, because I really liked the place. I should have sent it back, but I just kind of ate it begrudgingly.
Prior to that experience, I found this to be a good place to come with groups since it was pretty spacious. Also, it’s off the beaten path a little bit, so there is always parking unlike in other parts of Mt. Vernon.

Best kept secret. You will be more than surprised at this beautiful place in the middle city.

The place looks nice and we had good service, but the main reason that we go out to dinner is for the food…
We got off to a good start with one of the tapas dishes — a mix of falafel, hummus and such. The falafel was pretty tasty. We were let down by our entrees, however. I ordered the chicken gyro and there just wasn’t a good taste to it. I wasn’t sure if the chicken was off, but my husband tried it and said that it was probably the spices. I guess I was overwhelmed by the tarragon. My husband had the lamb chop with calamari. The lamb chop was ok with the sauce, but the calamari was not fresh. When you fry frozen calamari it just gets chewy.
We probably won’t be going back.

I came here during restaurant week and was surprisingly disappointed.
I’ll start off with the good things: the staff was really welcoming and friendly. The atmosphere is nice and upscale without being over the top. The drinks were also good and they offer 15 bottle wines on Saturday.
The cons: the food was mediocre at best. I ordered the ahi tuna but the server said they did not have it. She should’ve said it when we sat down. I ordered the vegetarian pasta and it was practically flavorless. My friend got the steak special which also was nothing special. The serving timing was also very slow and the restaurant wasn’t even crowded.
In summary, the atmosphere is nice and it’s a cute place, but the food is very bland and small portions for what you pay for.
Maybe give it a try but I wouldn’t rush back anytime soon.

After an unsuccessful attempt of eating here last Saturday (because the kitchen closes at 9pm) I ate here this past Friday evening a little after 7:00, therefore no happy hour prices. IMO anything (especially a bar) that closes before 9 on a Friday or Saturday night is destined for failure. Let me start by saying that the extent of wonderful evening stopped at the décor. As we walked in for some odd reason I expected to be seated by a hostess (silly me). Instead, the bartender just yelled at us «sit wherever you like guys.» Well given that it was fairly empty and obviously no hostess or waitress in sight I was afraid that we would be forgotten about or lost in the emptiness so we opted to stay in full sight of the only person working which was the bartender (with a dirty wrist bandage on) and sit at a table near the window.
Well now here comes the waitress. I’m not sure if she had worked all day or just rolled out of the bed with her uniform on and rushed to work. Never introduced herself so I don’t know her name. But lucky for us she was kind enough to take our drink order (sarcasm). 2 Sangrias, scotch and water. Water was ummmm water and Sangria was, what tasted like water added to either diet or flat ginger ale +some kind of unrecognizable fruit. Therefore I just returned the sangria and opted for water only. Given the scotch connoisseur that my bf is he said he would’ve preferred to have it in a whisky/​nosing glass, not a shot glass. Something about the smell of scotch. Moving on to the food. Hummus and pita bread for apps was just ok. Entrée for me was salmon and cucumber slices and salmon with mashed potatoes and veggies for the bf. Well the salmon was tender and juicy but very very bland/​flavorless. Mashed potatoes was the best thing on the plate but just above average. And the bf said the veggies were either just ok or he was to hungry to notice what anything tasted like and he just wanted to eat. And while eating, suddenly 2 delivery drivers hauls in 2 handtrucks full of cases of liquor through the front door and pass dining patrons. Is using a back door not an option at this place? If not, can the deliveries be made before the opening and peole are eating? IDK, Ive never owned a bar, lounge or restaurant; maybe that’s how it’s done. Now on to the check, thank God I had a living social coupon because I would’ve hated to pay full price for this experience. this is now my second time seeing our waitress since she took our drink order, but anyway, I’m ready to pay and get out of here as I have a movie to catch at 915. But of course after the waiter dropped off the bill she did a wonderful «no show» act. 20 minutes later the bf finally gets up and walks the bill and credit card over to bar to pay but was told by the bartender that he couldn’t take the payment because he was busy. Ok another 10 minutes later the bf walks back over to the bar and just asked another waiter to accept our payment because now we were really pressed for time. Well thank you Waterstone for wanting to accept my payment, I’m not a fan of the «dine and dash» experiment.

This is a handsome place, inside and out. And on this Saturday night the food was pretty on the plates, well prepared and tasty: calamari, grilled lamb chops, puréed cauliflower, grilled pita with herbed olive oil, red and white sangria, all good. Service was friendly and attentive. We will return.

I ate at Waterstone’s with a group of 12 people. It was a particularly hot day out that day and it appeared that there was little to no AC on in the restaurant, all members of the party complained (to no avail) and several party members were actually sweating while sitting down at the meal.
As for the meal, the service left a little to be desired, this being unacceptable when there were literally no other patrons in the restaurant to distract them. Several people in the group either received the wrong order or received nothing at all. This led to half of the group being done eating before the other half were actually served.
The food itself was just OK, nothing special about it. Portions were on the smaller size. The Sangria was too fruity and far from authentic, there are much better examples at other nearby establishments, namely Tio Pepe.

So so good! We wandered upon this place and decided to brave the three star review. SO MUCH BETTER THAN THREE STARS! The atmosphere was sublime, the menu, diverse, the food, wonderful. I will definitely come back again!

When me and my friend arrived here for our first time on a Friday night, I was a little hesitant at first because the area of town it is in, but was pleasantly suprised by the number of women that were there. It was full of women!
We proceeded to strike up a conversation with a woman there who was friendly, and then her female friend came over and was rather rude to us. Then, they started to kiss in front of us! It wasn’t any of that Katie Perry style kissing either, more like Ellen Degeneres. Apparently, we were trying to pick up her girlfriend. I looked around and realized every other person in the bar was a woman, many with very short hair, and this was among a decently big crowd too. It was quite an epiphany.
Thus, it appears that this is a lesbian bar, although to be fair it is a wine bar in Mount Vernon so maybe it was just the crowd that happened to come there that night. Regardless, I don’t plan to return.

Great little place right across from UMMC. Very close to the light rail too for all you car– less folks. I visited on a Tuesday evening so the place was pretty empty, I imagine it is a lot busier during weekends. Mediterrean vibes from the food to the music. Really great deals and the food was absolutely delicious. I plan to make another visit!

Came here for happy hour before a show at meyerhoff. I didn’t care for one of the plates but that was my fault, I didn’t realize it had honey on it. My friends got the hummus plate and the chicken cesar wrap and lemon drops. They both said the food was fantastic.

No reason to drink the eponymous «Water» here.
This place has one of the best happy hours in Mt Vernon — $ 5 martinis and $ 3 drafts. There is a HUGE affordably priced tapas menu with varied results (+ dolamedes, falafel, wings, — dips). The bar area is friendly and inviting and the $ 10 bottles of wine are surprisingly good.

I enjoyed coming to this quite place restaurant with my wife and daughter before we went to Center Stage to watch a play. I love their food and drinks and relaxing atmosphere.
I plan on coming to this restaurant more often. If you are in the area I would definite
recommend you visit this restaurant. This is a good location for a first romantic date. For all those single people out their you must try this location.

Waterstone Bar & Grille is one of two go-​to restaurants that I hit every time I am in Baltimore.
I was fortunate to have discovered this hideaway about 2 years ago after it opened thanks to my exploring with a
coupon and since then, I have never been disappointed.
The real winner here is the food. I saw an earlier 1 star review by Katie S. which was in an uproar about the fact that they don’t serve tahini with their falafel… it’s unfortunate that that person doesn’t have the palet to eat something served without sauce and judge from there. Falafel doesn’t come served consistently across the board like chicken nuggets at McDonalds with sweet and sour sauce… Even at growing chains like Roti, their falafel, which they are known for, doens’t come with sauce. That being said, the falafel at Waterstone is in the top 3 that I have had in the United States.
When you are a vegan/​vegetarian (depending on the day I cheat) you gain an appreciation for how things are prepared and taste without sauces. I eat falafel without dipping it in anything for the most part… Falafel stands up on its own and is excellent.
The dishes here are some of the best in Baltimore, to the point that almost EVERY TIME I am there, there is someone from the Baltimore «elite» hanging out, whether it be a long-​time newscaster or an elected official.
This place is awesome and quiet. Kudos to the owner and staff for a great job in converting it from a once run down bar into what it is today.

Update! So, my neighborhood watering hole is extremely allergy friendly. YEAY!
We came in and let the server know of my partner’s wheat intollerance, and she went far and beyond her call of duty to make sure we would be aware of even wheat hiding in sauces. Now that’s what I call great service.
Oh the happy hour is phenomenal $ 3 tap beer, with a great selection (Samuel Adams, Yuengling etc) and some rather tasty treats.