Jim "WhirledView" R.'s Profile

This is one of the best Indian restaurants in my little corner of the MD suburbs. Service is excellent. The same person seated and served us. Don't know if he was the owner, but it would make sense as he was obviously proud of his restaurant.

I had the Tandoori Mixed Grill and it came out sizzling and looked impressive. Great flavor and the portions were large (I had plenty to take home for lunch the next day). I tried some of my wife's Chicken Tikki Masala and that was excellent as well.

The place has a decent atmosphere and was toasty warm inside on a very cold evening, but the white walls, sparse decor, and strip mall location definitely remind you you're in Columbia, MD and not India. It's a nice place though and I'd definitely recommend.

I think whether or not you like this place depends on why you go.  If I wanted a superb dining experience and was in the mood for Tex-Mex (not sure those two conditions would ever occur simultaneously), then Frisco Grille probably wouldn't top my list (they do make a pretty darn good burrito though).  However, if I'm looking for one of the best beer selections in the area, a friendly group of regulars, decent casual dining, and some mellow live music, this is the place I like to go.

Frisco Grille seems to have found a niche with local homebrewers too, if you're into that.  I've met a couple of pretty knowledgeable fellow homebrewers there and Maryland Homebrew is conveniently just down the street in case you drink something that really inspires you.

Keep an eye out for their new location later this fall at 6695 Dobbin Road (just up the street). Apparently they're increasing to 40 taps!

I was looking forward to trying this place because it's in a cool old building in the charming Main St. historic district of Ellicott City.  I'm also a big beer aficionado and home-brewer, so I'm always anxious to try new brew pubs.  

My wife and I got one of the beer samplers and, although there were a couple of decent ones in the five beers I tried, I didn't think any of them were great.  The Doppelbock (seasonal) was probably the best one and I thought that was just ok.

I didn't necessarily have high expectations for the food, but I was pretty grossed out when I started eating my Croissant Club and noticed what was supposed to be avocado was actually a soggy dark brown mush soaking into the croissant.  Upon informing the server of the problem, I was told (with just a little attitude) there was nothing wrong with it and that's how it's served there.  Now I personally prefer a little less guff with my gross $45 lunch, but he was kind enough to take it back and replace it with a dry burger on a stale bun.  Maybe some places do serve their avocado a few days (or weeks) past the point where I'd normally throw it out, but sometimes it's better to just let the customer think he's right.

I'm sure there are some decent menu items here and the beer thing is pretty subjective.  I wouldn't recommend going out of your way for this place though.

Finding a good, honest mechanic is always tough, but these guys appear to be just that.  They quoted me a price over the phone of $350 for work that the dealer wanted to charge me $800 to do.  When all was said and done they were within $30 of that estimate.  They were courteous and got the work done in a day.

They even reset the maintenance indicator in the dash of my Civic from red to green after doing an oil change.  The Honda dealer never did that, which I always found very annoying.