shopping oasis !!. don't get me wrong, i love the holiday season. with my wife being jewish and me your garden variety christian, there is plenty to do and enjoy this time of year. but i have grown tired of shopping over the years and with the advent of the internet, shopping from my recliner is easier and less stressful each year. but...saturday we started early, fruit stand, grocery, mall, wholesale market etc, etc, etc...but it was time for lunch, and i was not ready to sit in a crowded, and noisy food court and eat...less than 2 minutes away form owings mills mall is the artful gourmet, when you enter you can either go to the counter and order and buss your food yourself, or you can go to thebarand the bartender will take care of you... we headed for the bar, there were only 2 other tables with guests, so it was quiet. the bartender brought over menu's, took our drink order and we started to dissect the menu. we skipped the daily specials, and got the butternut soup, the house chopped salad w/ house dressing, artichoke dip, and a shrimp salad sandwich. we always order together and share the wholes meal. the soup was good, but way to herby for me, couldn't taste the squash...the art dip was wonderful, served with crispy bagette... the salad also was great.. as was the shrimp salad big tender shrimp, lightly dressed and just the right amount of celery crunch. i'm going to forgive the soup, cause the wife liked it , and we are a team...the service was efficiant, and friendly, the food was great, and best of all the bill was under $40 including drinks... if your at owings mills mall and want a great "quiet lunch...check out the artful gourmet...we are going back for dinner next week. i'll let you know how it went.
well we went back last night monday ...usually a slow night for any restaurant, especially after a holiday weekend. i was surprised to see the dining room bustling with servers and patrons. we headed to thebararea since it was almost empty except for a couple at the bar. as before the service was excellant and quick... our drinks came, followed by our apps, then the soup, and mayber 10 to 15 minutes later our dinners arrived. ok now the food, we had the art dip again, i could eat this stuff by the spoonful, and the fried calamari again crispy , lightly breaded, with a nice thick maranara for dipping...now to the soup... crm of asparagus was one of the soups offered and sounded good, but we both were disappointed, the texture of the soup was wonderful and silky, the temperature was just right, but the flavor was just not there...it had some pieces of asparagus in it and that helped with the flavor but not enough. nuf said...i had the rib steak covered with a wine and mushroon sauce, sitting on a mound of mashed potatoes, with several asparagus spears along side, and it was great, cooked to perfection ( very rare) and the sauce was super, the mash just right, and the spears warm and crunchy just the way i like them. my wife had a main dish salad topped with grilled salmon, and she loved that also. all in all we were very happy this trip as well... we will be back...