Christopher Daniel

My family really used to like Christopher Daniel. Our last experience there probably will start to change that.
Most importantly, I received a small overcooked crab cake with my meal. Nothing like it ever should have come out of the oven, let alone the kitchen. The lighting is somewhat dark, so I guess I didn’t notice how dark brown it was. I took a few bites, decided to try a few more, and finally called over the GM. He agreed that nothing like that should have been served (well, I guess the GM will always agree to appease you), but then made some excused, including when I spoke with him again on the way out, about maybe the oven being too hot or something. And, the crab cake was small. Very disappointing.
I got the pear salad, which was fine, as far as it goes, but on the smaller side, and the ingredients aren’t even expensive, so no reason to be so skimpy.
My long island iced tea was good. My mom really liked her steak. But then, they charged $ 5 to a tiny portion of haricots verts — again, why so skimpy? The potatoes with my crab cake were pretty tasty.
The GM said he was new, but I get the sense that this place has been going downhill a bit for years. And it shows. Disappointing, because we used to love it there.

Wow — you know how to do Restaurant Week! By offering a 4 course meal, you far exceeded the other restaurants. Our request for a quiet table on the porch was honored and we were seated promptly. Christina, our server, was on top of her game — she was friendly and attentive. The calamari was crisp and fried to perfection. The seared rare tuna was superb. The lamb chops and the grilled NY strip were scrumptious. I enjoyed the peanut butter ice cream cookie while the others devoured their flourless chocolate cake. We enjoyed the entire evening. The porch was quiet and delightful. Thank you for participating in Restaurant Week.

I give this place 5 stars for many reasons. The food was excellent. We dined here last night (a very busy packed Saturday night) for restaurant week. There were 6 of us all together. We were offered the restaurant week menu which was a 4 course meal along with the specials they had. We all went with the restaurant week menu. Excellent food. Smaller portions but filled us up. By the second course we were all pretty much full. Maybe we had to much bread that was placed on the table when we first arrived. We ordered a round of cocktails, which were made to perfection. Not too little alcohol and not too much. By the time we got the 4^th course which was desert, alot of us ended up taking half of it home. Our NY strips were cooked perfectly. I’m also giving them 5 stars because of the staff. Our waitress, Christine (I believe), was very busy with 4 other tables but never once forgot about us. She has waited on us before at other restaurants and is always a delight to be with. We enjoy following her around where ever she works. She would come by and check to make sure food was ok and in between courses would make sure we didn’t need anything else. She would inform us that the next course would be out shortly. Each course was brought out by 2 or 3 different young men. Another gentlemen made sure our water glasses were always filled. All the staffed worked very well together. They were helping each other out by cleaning tables that were not theirs. I look forward to going back to this place again very soon. If you are ever trying to think of place to have dinner, try out this place. It’s very wonderful. They make you feel at home the moment you walk in the door. 5 stars on food and staff.

I went there for my New Year’s dinner with my family. I knew things might be a little hectic but expected a good effort by the staff. The waitress at our table was the worst I have encountered at an «upscale» restaurant. After we sat down, she requested the «Drinks?». I looked at the wine list and requested a recommendation for a sweet white wine for the members of my party. She said the Moscato, but their was no Moscato listed on the menu. She left and came back with a bottle and 3 glasses despite their being five members to my party. Then she could not decide where the 3 glasses should go, spilled the wine in the glasses and left the bottle sitting in the middle of the table. We asked for 2 more glasses but she returned with only one as I had ordered a different drink and I suppose she decided I didn’t need a glass. The hors d’oeurves were acceptable. The calamari was chewy and the two sauces were so thin they could not actually coat the rings that were laid out nicely on the plate but made you realize you were paying 50 cents per ring. While one guest was still eating the lamb chops, the staff pulled his plate and silverware leaving him with the bone. After appetizers, a large party came into the room shouting across a large table, running to get silverware, moving tables around and disrupting the ambience of the room making conversation impossible. The waitress that took care of the new guests described specials that our waitress was too scattered to offer us. When dinner arrived they didn’t know who ordered what and our waitress was nowhere to be seen. The rib steak was about ¼″ thick making the possibility it was 12 ounces preposterous. The smattering of potatoes and green beans under the fried lobster tail made for an interesting plating. The breading was rock hard so I broke it with my knife as the regular knife just wouldn’t cut it and dipped it in the honey mustard sauce, then dipped the lobster in the drawn butter. My wife requested the asparagus side, told it was grilled and requested olive oil, salt and pepper and received 3 bland asparagus stalks that appeared steamed with no seasoning. The salmon was described as «dry». We figured a dessert and coffee may finish off an already dismal meal. The waitress came by and I think she was offering us the check but my wife asked for dessert menus. She returned with the five menus and dropped them next to her for her to distribute to the table. That was the end to the «wonderful» evening! However the coat check /​hostess could not find our coats but kept bringing out coats and asking whether this was it? I gave one star because zero stars is not an option!

This has become our favorite restaurant in the area. We have been dining here for the last two years on a regular basis, usually about once a month. The food is always delicious and the service has been great. The tuna tartare, the seafood «uncobb» salad, and the diver scallops are some of my favorite dishes. They also have a nice selection of raw oysters. Also, the shrimp cocktail is always fresh and made up of generously sized shrimp. There is also a bar section (a separate area) that serves food as well, and is more casual. I give it 5 stars because the food is always fresh, well prepared, and the service is attentive.

I attended a holiday party here yesterday and it’s a nice little spot. There is ample parking ans they have a decent sized rear room to hold a private gathering. We only had 22 people in our group. I felt they could have done a better job in setting the room up. We had a lot of space to walk around but the seating area was very cramped. The food was a pre-​fixed menu. I opted for the chicken and vegetable soup, crab cake, and red velvet cheese cake. The service was ok. We had two severs that kept drinks refilled and cleared the table pretty regularly. My soup was on the salty side but it did have nice chunks of fresh chicken in it. My crab cake on the other hand was a little bland and needed more seasoning. A few other co workers ordered the steak and I must admit I was jealous. The high light of the meal was the red velvet cake. It was delicious with a nice and moist cake topped with creamy icing. Over all I don’t mind it for our annula holiday party and will not be upset if we return next year.

Overpriced for a buffet with mediocre food. Thank goodness for the made-​to-​order omelet which was the best part of the meal. Other selections were either greasy, salty or tasteless. I won’t be back.

Service is poor except for Mary who I just learned is no longer there. Be forewarned that the service is beyond slow and gets worse each time we have been. Most of the servers there now seem young and inexperienced. I would not recommend this restaurant.

This is not my first visit to Christopher Daniel, but it will be my last. There was a mouse in the dining room, ran right under our feet, continued running around the room. We chose to move to the bar and eat, (sitting at high top table), used our Groupon, and got the hell out of there. Our waitress, who has served us beautifully in the past, told us that they do have an ongoing mouse problem there that they are attempting to take care of. They should close the restaurant, clear up their rodent problem, and then re-​open when the problem is cleared up. I’m not even going to comment on the food because it doesn’t matter. I will add, though, that if I owned a restaurant and a customer saw a rodent running around right under their feet, I would comp their meal… or an appetizer… or complimentary booze. Didn’t happen.

There was a time, years ago, when this restaurant was thought of as one of the County’s best, and it appeared on «Best of» lists for the entire metro area. It certainly has fallen far from that perch. My last three visits left a lot to be desired. The service and food are sub-​par, and the dining rooms are in serious need of a facelift. What’s happened to this place?

Second chances, as my husband said. I said never again since we dined there in 2005 and the bread was stale when we arrived. We gave them a second chance on Christmas Eve. Unless you enjoy alcohol, this is not the restaurant for you. I ordered the fried lobster with string beans, of which the 5 string beans were tasty and the fried lobster was fine. The horrific alleged mashed potatoes tasted like they came out of a box and were inedible. My son’s steak, their alleged specialty item, was raw, and my husband’s steak was as tough as shoe leather. This restaurant is very expensive and should be avoided.

Terrible terrible terrible! Waited during a weeknight for 19 minutes for a waiter to come to our table in an empty restaurant just to say he’ll be with us in a few minutes! What a J-​O-​K-​E! NEVER going back there again. Not ever.

Im not sure what to write about this place… growing up right near it I had always heard great things about the restaurant but its lackluster job today makes me think otherwise. I came here today for lunch with my parents mainly for their menu for Baltimore county restaurant week. They serve a three course meal for the price of $ 25. Looking over the menu you really arnt saving money, perhaps you are getting the desert for free… I opted out of the pre fixe since there wasnt even a desert that I wanted in the end. In the end I got the calamari app, which was really just a portion for one person… (yes I know I can eat large portions of things, but really for $ 10 this was a really really small app size) then ordered the prime rib french dip sandwich for the main. Bread was burnt on the sides and the meat to onion ration was quite off. I think in total there was maybe five or six shavings of prime rib on the whole sandwich. Lots of onions… and just lots of bread. This just wasnt the type of french dip Im used to. The fries were good, crisp and served hot, though Im not sure I would call them shoestring style.
My mother had the crabcake and ceasar salad… the salad came out without dressing so we had to wait to flag down a waiter and ask for a side of dressing… my father had the salmon and soup du jour. No complaints on his end.
All in all for its reputation and pricey dinner opts. Its just quite lackluster. I dont think I will be back here.

I’ve had a few great meals here. The feng shui seems off somehow, but the food was good.

Mediocre to gross. Cream of asparagus soup so salty could have been canned. Same for lobster bisque. Ceasar salad same as everywhere else — boring. Focaccia bread on table kind of stale with flavorless cheap olive oil as dip. My steak was OK, nothing special– my sons was undercooked. My wife’s fried lobster was actually good– one bright spot in sea of gross to indifferent. Steamed asparagus crisp and straightforward. My grilled potatoes were dry, tasteless, and only choked down with my wife’s drawn butter. Wife and sons whipped potatoes boring, green beans fresh but plain. Overall– not coming back. Boring boring boring– and service was slow, prices expensive– 168.00 bucks. Jeez– better off at an Applebee’s. (Crowd was very very elderly– funeral home may have been just around the corner for a reason)

Christopher Daniel offers an impressive upscale menu with excellent descriptions that makes it difficult to choose. Our group decided to share a sandwich & each pick a salad. We also went through at least 2 baskets of their bread, it was delicious — perfect combination of a crispy crust & soft inside that when dipped in the olive oil served with it made it difficult to not fill up on bread alone before our meals arrived! Their Bloody Mary’s were great — nice & spicy (you could see & taste the fresh horseradish) with perfect amount of tomato juice!
The sandwich — cornmeal crusted fried green tomato BLT — was the star of our lunch! The fried green tomato was perfectly fried, the bacon was super crispy and the avocado & melted mozzarella cheese added a great creaminess to the sandwich! It was a bit messy to eat, but well worth it! The french fries were perfectly crispy & nicely seasoned.
Our salads included a chicken, tuna & shrimp salads combo — each were tasty. The dill tuna salad packed the most flavor. The shrimp salad had larger sized shrimp than you typically find in most shrimp salads & they were great. Both the shrimp & chicken salads could have used more seasoning (as well as the coleslaw served on the side), but adding some salt & pepper helped. The poached pear salad was the best out of our choices — the raspberry hazelnut dressing was awesome!
Unfortunately the seafood «uncobb» salad (shrimp, crab & lobster w/​greens & tomatoes) was our least favorite (and most expensive!) — while the presentation was impressive, the salad was very bland & really lacked flavor. I noticed that salad is no longer on the lunch menu online
The service was decent, but with a near empty dining room (we went for lunch on a Saturday) it was still quite slow for some reason. When we asked our server about any specials he told us what specials they’d offered the day before, which was odd… He ended up coming back to our table & let us know that we could get those specials if we were interested though. The dining room ambiance is quite formal, but they offer a more casual atmosphere in the bar.
Overall we had a really good lunch & most of the food I’d order again. There were many other dishes on the menu I would’ve loved to try as well. Looking forward to returning soon!

My husband and I bought the Groupon and went here on a Friday night. We made an early reservation as we were seeing a movie after (6:30) but we weren’t finished our meal until 8:30, so keep time in mind.
I had requested a booth per other’s reviews on Unilocal,but we got seated directly in front of the front door, so I would have probably preferred a table in a corner as opposed to in directly in front of the door.
The positives: we had a great server. She was running around between at least 5 other tables but was very attentive. The table behind us of two elderly women complained no less than 3 times about their food, the manager had to come over, and our server had to give them a lot of extra attention, so given all that we felt that she did a great job juggling all her tables. Also, the bread is to-​die for! It is not too salty as previous reviewers said, in my opinion.
Why only a 2 star review? Pre-​Groupon, our dinner for 2 with no alcohol was over $ 90. I didn’t feel like it was that caliber of food.
My salmon was super dry. I only ate ¹⁄₃ of it, but didn’t say anything because of the table behind us complaining and because we had ordered so much food. She asked if it was okay and I just said I didn’t really care for salmon that dry (the bottom of the piece of fish was literally hard), so she gave us a free dessert without us even asking. That was nice!
The pear salad was really yummy, but I didn’t care for the asparagus or the crab macaroni and cheese, and as mentioned my salmon was not good.
In all, I enjoyed my salad and the bread. The service was good. Next time I want to spend over $ 75 on dinner out though, I’ll go elsewhere.

We started off on a bad note when the bread was INSANELY salty. Yuck. Luckily, the ahi tuna tartar starter was good and my meal was very good. I enjoyed the pork chop with cheddar grits… there was a cherry chutney on top that was very tasty. Unfortunately, my husband did not enjoy one of the duck preparations that came with his meal. It was also too salty.
Not sure if we will be back, but it was worth a try with a Groupon.

Wine selection is on point. Ignores the big name crappy wine (though the big names that make good wine are here!) but bring in the delicious small scale wine. (Give you the wine spectator scores on the menu)
This is outside of the food. I have a friend who orders medium steak (I’m a rare medium rare), the first restaurant that I’ve seen who does steak right. Medium came out juicy, no juice pouring out.
Brooke was incredibly approachable and knowledgable and the food (four courses) and wine were amazing!!!
We had the steak, scallops, duck, lamb, calamari, tuna, pear salad, caprese with heirlooms, gluten free chocolate cake and peanut butter cookies with ice cream!!! Everything was amazing!!!

Though tucked into a strip mall, this is a gem. I have been here several times for dinner and this was my first time for lunch. It was a great lunch experience. The service was professional and well timed. The salad I ordered was a nice balance of crisp greens and crispy buffalo chicken. The confetti of corn, black beans, cheese, etc. balanced the salad nicely and gave it great color. Presentation was quite impressive with a tall mast of a crispy wonton. My friend enjoyed the chopped salad which was fresh and tasty.
This restaurant consistently performs with each dish expertly prepared. They do everything well from seafood to steak. I love the tuna tartare appetizer — a martini glass full of spicy tuna on a bed of seaweed and served with crispy flat bread. Portion sizes are ample, too. The service is always professional and well executed.
For me, a restaurant has to be clean and fresh looking (tight bench seats and clean upholstery). Christopher Daniel meets that criteria, too. Lighting is soft and about the brightness of candle light. Perfect for a special night out, birthday celebration or date night.