Discover the Best New Restaurants in Baltimore

Since the original Blackwall Hitch opened in Annapolis in 2014, the seafood specialist has grown to four locations. The newest, which opened in the bustling Inner Harbor in late 2018, is one of the best new restaurants in Baltimore. It offers the signature cuisine of executive chef David Montanz, which emphasizes his own Latin American heritage, his experiences traveling through Italy and the natural flavors of the finest local seafood. Exemplary dishes include “The Shobb,” a take on a cobb salad with scallops, shrimp and lump crab, and crispy soft shell crabs with mango cocktail and avocado pico de gallo. There are also fish of the day, available in custom preparations, and a daily selection of oysters.

Seafood is the focus of Xenia Greek Kouzina, an elegant, modern Mediterranean restaurant in Columbia. Diners might select a whole fresh fish from the market display, perhaps black sea bass, Chesapeake rockfish, Atlantic salmon or kampachi. Also consider house-made pastas such as papdella me kima with slow-braised ground lamb, or a squid ink pasta with littleneck clams, mussels and shrimp in a tomato sauce. Alternatives to seafood include grilled lamb chops, a half roasted chicken and ribeye steak in a Greek red wine sauce. The menu also includes a lengthy array of authentic Greek appetizers, among them grilled octopus, spanakopita and slow-cooked gigande beans with aged feta.

Michael’s Café in White Marsh-Middle River, which opened in 2019, is the second venue for the award-winning family-owned restaurant established in Baltimore in 1984. The new restaurant offers a scaled-back version of the original’s lengthy menu, making sure to include the signature crab cakes. Also featuring on the lunch, dinner and weekend brunch menus are oysters and other raw bar items, prime steaks, salads, flat breads, burgers and sandwiches. Expect creative, globally-influenced versions of American classics such as a fried green tomato appetizer with jumbo lump crab and succotash, moules frites with a beer broth and malt vinegar fries, and the pitbull sandwich combining pit beef with smoked cheese kielbasa.

Columbia’s new and intriguing dining establishment 18th & 21st bills itself “a modern supper club.” It takes its name from the constitutional amendments that enacted and repealed prohibition, and evokes that era with its Art Deco-inspired décor. Live music and dancing every evening add to the prohibition-inspired vibe, as does a cocktail menu featuring such nostalgic classics as the bee’s knees and New York sour. Updated old-school fare characterizes the cuisine as well. Examples include herb-crusted beef carpaccio with crispy capers, a grilled pork porterhouse with Johnny cakes and peach chutney, and on the dessert menu ice cream sandwiches and a classic crème brulee.

State Fare, a newcomer to Catsonville in 2019, is a casual gastropub specializing in comfort food with nods to Maryland’s homegrown cuisine. The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week, with weekday happy hour from 2 to 5 p.m. There’s also a late-night menu available from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m., making State Fare a choice destination for dining at all hours. The lengthy menu includes all-day breakfast items such as bananas Foster French toast, chicken and waffles with jalapeno-raspberry jelly, and avocado roasted corn toast with a fried egg. Other standout items include Maryland she crab soup, a build-your-own burger and a signature spicy chicken sandwich.

One of the best new restaurants in Baltimore is inside a surprising venue – the only Guinness brewery in the United States. The expansive facility is open for guided tours, drinks and snacks in the Taproom, and as of 2018, sit-down dining at 1817. The restaurant is named for the first year Guinness was shipped from Ireland to the U.S. It offers Irish and Maryland-inspired cuisine including a Guinness beef stew with mashed potatoes, and bangers and mash with onion gravy and fried Brussels sprouts. The mussels and fries entrée brings together the flavors of Ireland and Maryland with Guinness Blonde and Old Bay butter as seasonings. Other options include a cheese and charctuerie board, a crab bisque and several flat breads.

The summer of 2019 saw the opening of Barrett’s on the Pike, a modern American restaurant in a sleek and stylish space in Bel Air Town Center. Grilled items are a specialty, with steaks, chops and grilled salmon featuring on the lunch and dinner menus. Substantial salads are another signature, among them a kale and roasted cauliflower salad with grilled salmon, dried cherries, walnuts and feta. Weekend brunch includes savory favorites from the lunch and dinner menus, plus hearty egg dishes like the short rib omelet. There’s a bottomless mimosa or bloody Mary option for brunch as well.

The Blackwall Barn and Lodge, an upscale farm-to-table restaurant in Gambrills, works with a network of nine select farms in Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey to source its ingredients. For foodies dedicated to locavore dining, the cuisine is well worth taking a trip outside Baltimore. All the menu items are made from scratch, starting with the bowl of fresh biscuits and chive butter for the table. The same seasonal menu is offered for lunch and dinner. Along with long lists of appetizers, handhelds and entrées are sections of entrée-size salads, flat breads and warm country toasts topped with burrata, crab or mushrooms. Vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options are ample.

The menus at Bacco Italian and Wine Bar represent a comprehensive array of Italian dishes, with ample options in antipasti, pasta, salad, flat bread, gnocchi and risotto categories. There are also entrees from the land and sea, among them chianti-braised short ribs, veal scallopini and pan-seared scallops. Cheese and carpacci boards are another specialty, ideal for sharing with one of 20-plus wines by the glass. Paninis on artisan ciabatta with a side of rosemary potatoes feature on the lunch menu. Bacco Italian and Wine Bar is open for lunch and dinner daily, with happy hour on weekdays. It also hosts live music on the terrace every Tuesday and Thursday from May through September.

With its refined nautical décor, walls of window and expansive, covered patio with views of the bay, Latitude 38 is a glorious place to dine on the Annapolis waterfront. Its menus – lunch, dinner, happy hour and Sunday brunch – are enticing as well, with a focus on local seafood. Consider the shareable starter of Baltimore-style steamed shrimp, the cream of crab soup with a hint of sherry, and the ultimate seafood Norfolk, a combination of crab, lobster, mussels, calamari and cod in a garlic butter sauce. Latitude 38 also offers an excellent wine list of mostly California labels.

Tagliata, an upscale Italian chophouse, has received critical acclaim since its relatively recent opening in Harbor East. Reviewers and a growing crowd of regulars highlight its comprehensive wine list with over 1,000 bottles (the longest in Baltimore), a dozen hand-made pasta dishes and top-quality dry-aged steaks. Among the pasta options are a lobster fra diavolo over spaghetti, squid ink campanelle with fresh blue crab and sea urchin cream sauce, and a rabbit tortellini with creamy Tuscan kale. Tagliata also charms diners with live music performed nightly on its 1926 Steinway piano.

On the glorious rooftop of the Four Seasons Hotel in Baltimore is The Bygone, a special occasion-worthy restaurant and cocktail bar inspired by the roaring ‘20s. For fine dining, fancy cocktails and panoramic city views, it’s undoubtedly one of the best new restaurants in Baltimore. Many menu highlights come from the open rotisserie grill, among them a roasted lamb leg, 32-hour short rib cured with coffee and black garlic, and a classic prime rib roast. Caviar and chilled seafood are highlights as well. Consider the five-course tasting menu, which includes table-side demonstrations by an executive chef.

In a lofty, rustic space inside Baltimore’s historic Sagamore Pendry Hotel is Rec Pier Chop House, an all-day eatery dedicated to Italian country cuisine. Prime steaks, seafood and fresh pastas feature on the menus created by acclaimed chef Andrew Carmellini. Prime beef from Virginia and Nebraska, dry aged for 28 days, is offered in cuts for one or two as the centerpiece of the dinner menu. Highlights among the pasta dishes include linguini fini with spicy Maryland blue crab, and lumachel with white veal Bolognese. There are sandwiches and a burger on the slightly more casual lunch menu.