Ocean City, MD: Shenanigan's

I’m a big fan of pubs, especially authentic ones, where the bar tender has an Irish accent, the menu is predictable, and the beer list is miles long. I wasn’t expecting to find a truly great pub outside of New York, Philadelphia, or Boston but I found one in Ocean City, Maryland of all places. And the fact that this ocean front pub has the best crab cakes I’ve had in Ocean City is just the icing on the cake.

Shenanigan's has the ambiance of just about every other pub I’ve been in. They seat patrons on wooden pews, the décor’s color palette is green, and orange, with shamrocks on their front sign. It’s also a tad classier than most of the family-friendly restaurants in Ocean City, decorated with Norman Rockwell era pictures.

As always, I ordered the crab cakes and fries, (I promise very soon I’ll review a non-crab cake place) although I’ve tried their salad too. Both were fresh, crisp, and wonderfully affordable. The crab cake came flakey, and had barely any filler, served fresh on a toasted kaiser roll with waffle fries or salad.

Their crab cakes tastes similar to mine which makes me wonder if they use parmesan cheese with their bread crumbs. Their salad is a mescaline mix which I enjoyed with house balsamic vinaigrette. The total was about eleven dollars, (not including tip).

I’m not a big beer drinker but I was impressed by their beer menu. They had a generous list of international and domestic beers. I am not unpatriotic, but I prefer the taste of international beer over domestic every time.

Shenanigan's was wonderful for its convenient location, low price, friendly service and most importantly it’s high quality food. 

$| Shenanigan's |309 North Atlantic Avenue, Ocean City, MD |(410)289-7181

Ocean City, MD: Brass Balls

I have ad-hoc’d my way through a good amount of restaurants on the boardwalk of Ocean City, Maryland and my experience has taught me that it is very unlikely to find bad food in Ocean City, MD. It is important to keep in mind that most of the food here is more or less the same genre; American-boardwalk type food. Think, funnel cakes, cotton candy, hot dogs, and crab cakes.

Ocean City is well known for its boardwalk. The Travel Channel noted it as a top ten boardwalk in America. Upon entering Ocean City, a sign boosts its title as 2001’s best family vacation spot. I have learned the hard way that this sign forewarns visitors that most of Ocean City is kid-friendly. The adult scenes are few and far between.

Recently, a co-worker recommended Brass Balls, one of the older restaurants on Ocean City’s boardwalk. Brass Balls is one of three restaurants in the same building. All three restaurants host the same atmosphere; a fun, young ambiance, with a clever, raunchy menu. If you plan on taking a child here beware, the menu has inserted the word “ball” in every applicable situation where it could be turned into a joke about oral sex. I was tempted to try the “Brass Ball BJ,” a shooter with no real description, but I decided to stick to the crab cake sandwich.

The crab cakes came with an order of waffle fries, and since they wouldn’t let me substitute fries for a salad I ordered a salad on the side, which came down to $10.00. Truthfully, it wasn’t the best crab cake I ever had.

I have higher standards when I’m eating Maryland crab cakes in Maryland.

But it was the best crab cake I ever had for ten dollars. There was a good amount of filling in the crab cake but not too much. The salad could have used a little more imagination, but for $10.00 I’m just glad they had a spring mix, I don’t eat iceberg lettuce, even in Ocean City, Maryland.

Brass balls, along with most restaurants in Ocean City serve malt vinegar with their fries, an English tradition that inexplicably made its way to Ocean City.

The really outstanding thing about Brass Balls isn’t solely its food but its adult territory. This is only the third adult-friendly place I’ve found on the boardwalk, I’m determined to find more.

$ | 1105 Atlantic Avenue Ocean City, MD 21842 | (410) 289-0069 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (410) 289-0069      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Baltimore, MD: Kali’s Mezze

Everyone in New York knows to get great, authentic Mediterranean food head over to Queens. I was not expecting to find equally authentic Mediterranean food in Fell’s Point.

I ordered the Shrimp Raki, described as Mediterranean style Shrimp, which really means it’s not over seasoned. Shrimp Raki is a dish consisting of tomato sauce, rice, and jumbo shrimp. The flavor comes mostly from the shrimp.

Mezze serves only tapas style dishes, however their “tapas” portions are quite large, so I appreciated getting full on one dish at only $7.95. They also offer unlimited refills of freshly baked pita bread sliced in triangles and sprinkled with a paprika flavor.

Mezze continued to impress me with their extra generous serving of baklava. I would recommend sharing the baklava as they stack the baklava high, and garnish it with fresh whipped cream.

My sister ordered the grape leaves, served warm. They were delicious, and a great steal at $6.95. If you’ve never had grape leaves before, don’t get thrown off by the obscure name. Grape leaves are a dark, long leaf, served wet, and stuffed with Mediterranean seasoned rice.

There’s always a reason why a Food Find is a Food Find. Something has to give, and it’s usually the ambiance. However, Mezze does not get cheap on anything. The food was fresh, the ambiance, was typical fell’s point, chic furniture, candle lit tables, and conversational noise. Even the location, was conveniently nestled in fell’s point. Mezze is a wonderful Food Find.

$ | Kali's Mezze | 1606 Thames St, BALTIMORE, MD 21231 | (410) 563-7600 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (410) 563-7600      end_of_the_skype_highlighting