The Diamondback Tavern

Well they sold me expired Bud Light beer bottles and when confronted they said they didn’t have any more but later we saw them selling them to other customers.

Good, inexpensive drinks. Sat at the bar and got to play Mario Kart 64! They also had a ton of other games. Had a great time! Look for vouchers on Local Flavor. I’ve eaten here before, also, and they have typical bar food… it’s not bad!

Horrible. Don’t come here. The bouncers were disrespectful and made a mistake by trying to accuse our group of friends of being underage AFTER they already checked our IDs (mind you we are well over 21 some even in their 25s) and let us upstairs. Didn’t even apologize for the inconvenience, probably because they felt really dumb. We were frequent customers but after that rude experience we will not be returning. The atmosphere is dirty and they seemed very discriminate.

Diamondback is a great place for drinks and appetizers and it feels like a neighborhood bar. They have a pretty limited menu, so it’s not for someone too picky about their food. The limited menu and the laid back staff gives the place 3 stars, but I’ll go back, it’s a good place to watch a game.

The food here was nasty. I had a Mexican quesadilla and it was greasy and barely had any chicken on it. The drinks were good. But the food was bleh.

This place totally sucks! Worst service ever and the food is meh at best. We had to seat ourselves, ask for a menu, then go to the bar and order our food and drinks. Honestly the bartender seemed not interested in serving us. If we didn’t have a gift certificate, then we would have left. And the food was so bland don’t waste your time going here. If I could give no stars I would. Outside of the happy hour specials you will regret going here. You have been warned!!!

Went in for Sunday brunch this past weekend, $ 3 Bloody Marys were seriously amazing, maybe the best Bloody Mary I have ever had. Brunch food was really good and reasonably priced. It was hard to narrow down which option to get since many of them sounded amazing. Would definitely come back again for brunch, and have had lunch/​dinner there before and really enjoyed that food too.

Service was near excellent. The Sunday bartender was GOOD! We are a family of four and eclectic eaters. My daughter ordered the Mac and cheese children’s size-​something wasn’t right there but she ate it. It had a funny yet edible after taste. My son and I got burgers. Not bad but they came out medium and I ordered medium rare. My wife ordered the blackened chicken. We were surprised, it was VERY good. The crushing factor, though was the bathrooms. Filthy stench in the men’s room-​keep in mind this was after Sunday football and Saturday was Halloween. The women were upset with the bathrooms also. The LADIES room lacked paper towels.
Giving the restaurant the benefit of the doubt on the rest rooms, and adding to the very good value of the bartender who managed to keep 8 active booths and the bar patrons happy, I will semi reluctantly give them a 3. But I strongly suggest you stop in and tweak my review. Then again they would have gotten an easy 4 if someone would have steamed the bathrooms cleaned earlier this morning.

This may not be directly on the main drag of the historic district in Ellicott City, but its happy hour prices cannot be beat. I have been there with coworkers on several occasions and we have been attended to very well. The food selection is typical of a bar, but the buffalo wings and crab quesadillas were pretty darn good. Definitely has good night life too with an upstairs for live bands.

This seems like a bar for people in their early 20s. As someone in their 30s, I wouldn’t go back.

This was the third stop on an Ellicott City pub crawl and it served our purposes just fine. Most of our group was able to sit and eat, which was a bonus. We made them busy and it meant that service suffered, but I did really enjoy my pulled pork quesadilla.

The Diamondback Tavern is a mainstay of the Ellicott City dining scene, located just off Main Street near one of the large parking lots. The building is interesting, as all the old ones in this historic area are. It twists and turns with dining areas on several levels. There is a main dining room and bar on the lower level, with another bar and event room upstairs. They commit to locally sourced food and we have enjoyed many dinners there with family and friends. We recently went to watch a football game, and sat in the bar upstairs, actually at a hightop on the dance floor but they had the large wall screen going for the game. We ordered our personal favorite, the Inferno Burger, a super spicy affair that gets most of its heat from the hot sauce they slather onto the tender homemade patty. We also enjoyed a plate of fried wings with Old Bay, which were perfectly cooked even though the kitchen was clearly slammed (one drum and eleven winglets, oh well.) The wing selection is a little confusing in the menu, in that Old Bay is not listed as an option under the Fried section, but they had no problem accommodating our request. They have a varied drink menu, and are clearly set up for whatever type of evening you are looking for. You could easily enjoy cocktails in the downstairs bar, have dinner in the downstairs dining room, and then move upstairs to finish the evening with some music.

Went there Wednesday night, rude doorman (not in uniform) hasseled me about an ID (I’m nearly 30). He was drinking outside, which was extremely unprofessional (not to mention illegal). The young man couldn’t have been more than 23 years old. He was rude to the point that I left before walking in and went to Ellicott Mills Brewing Company instead. Had an amazing time there.

The food was ok — it wasn’t great, just ok. The atmosphere was fun and the staff was friendly. But the food was just ok.

Don’t bother… too many other establishments out there. First off decided to meet some friends at their upstairs sports bar to watch game 4 of the Orioles/​Royals. To our surprise the sports bar isn’t even open during the week (huh???). Easily found a booth downstairs to grab some beers and food. The rest of the night was very uneventful and blah. My friend had to return his salmon (dry, overcooked and very bad presentation). The rest of us had average burgers, etc. All in all a forgetful experience. And to think how great this place used to be when it was Tiber River… I seriously doubt I will ever be back unless new ownership comes in and cleans up the place.

Took a drive on a Saturday afternoon to Ellicott City and had lunch at a very nice establishment called the Diamondback Tavern. Initially I didn’t know what to expect from this place. It’s just off the main strip and there wasn’t many customers in the place.
However, after sitting down (at the bar of course) we were greeted by friendly and patient bartenders. This being our first time here we didn’t know what to try. After listening to the specials for that day, I had the brisket with sauteed spinach and roasted potatoes while my daughter had grilled bbq wings and sauteed spinach. Both meals were excellent and cooked just right.
The prices are reasonable and there are a few other items I would like to try on their menu so I guess I have to take another drive out to the Diamondback Tavern very soon.

My family has lived in this area for many years, and when this was the Tiber River Tavern, it was one of our favorite places. Since then, as Diamondback, it’s really gone downhill. It’s not so terrible that we’ll refuse to eat there, as when a friend suggested it a few weeks ago, but it’s blah enough that I can’t remember what I didn’t like about the fish tacos — just that they were nothing special. I do remember that my husband’s wings, though seasoned well, were limp and not crispy — a serious flaw, in my opinion. The beer selection was decent, but service was spotty and we had to order refills at the bar instead of waiting for our server to return.
On the plus side, they do feature good local bands with some regularity. Their cocktails are also extremely meh. Stick with beer.

I really wanted to love this place but I don’t.
The food just isn’t good. Everything I’ve had taste like it’s coming straight out of Sysco boxes.
I really feel like there is zero effort from the kitchen and it shows.
I do however enjoy going to the upstairs bar and seeing live local music. There’s a pretty good beer selection and most of the time the bar staff is pretty cool.
My advice is eat somewhere else then stop in for some beers and great music upstairs.

Not sure why this place got such terrible reviews, but I also wasn’t blown out of the water by it. A solid 3-​star establishment. The food is nothing to write home about, but if you’re looking for a draw I guess the drinks seem pretty cheap (they glasses of wine that were $ 4!).
The host and server both explained to us that they were busy and understaffed the night we went, but luckily we weren’t in a hurry. There were several large groups there and the bar area was full so we had to sit in the dining room. No problem, it was nicely decorated and we had our drink orders put in promptly. Only weird thing is that we both ordered burgers and the waiter said «medium or medium well?» Didn’t realize our choices were so limited, but ok! Burgers came out fine although mine was the «black and blue» with bleu cheese that was mostly just mayonnaise.
Had no trouble with the service like other people complained about so hopefully they’re taking reviews to heart. We used a Living Social deal and tipped based on the pre-​discounted total. Would go here again but most likely only with Groupon or LivingSocial.

I have given the Diamondback Tavern more than a few chances now. I love that they support local music, and that’s why I’ll continue to see bands here, but it is mind boggling how they can mess up even the simplest of dishes: grilled cheese, French toast, home fries. I’m repeatedly disappointed by my meals here. Whatever I get is either bathed in grease or totally dry. The side vegetables are always watery and totally overcooked.
On a recent Sunday I was enticed by the $ 2 mimosas. I started out drinking downstairs with my brunch and later moved upstairs. The bartender offered to switch my check to the upstairs bar, and I made sure to tip her before I headed up. But when I continued to order my mimosas upstairs, they told me «We don’t have the champagne up here,» but that I could go downstairs to get the drink. So, I literally walked downstairs every time I wanted a drink– wouldn’t it have made more sense to just carry a bottle of champagne upstairs once? Made no sense to me.
Nothing special to eat here… but you might get to see a great band.