Mussel Bar & Grille

I came here with my boyfriend for my birthday. He got a sloppy joe, I got the mussels (in white wine sauce), and we got the shrimp cocktail to share. The mussels were good and the shrimp was, as well, but nothing too spectacular. If you want to try really great mussels, try La Garage. We got crème brûlée for dessert, which was pretty standard. The service was phenomenal, however — our server was great!

I wasn’t expecting much because I thought I had already had the best possible crab cakes but this place was great. My only issue with the crab cakes was they needed a little more sauce. They were very good. Others at our table had the muscles and lobster Mac and cheese, a very large portion, but all dishes were good. They had a limited, but ok wine selection. So on any given day this would have been a 3 – 4 stars… But we ordered dessert. Don’t leave this place without trying the butter cake! Seriously more of a religious experience than dessert. Best dessert I’ve ever had. I may have gained 5 pounds and my heart may be clogged from the butter but I will die a happy girl!

Hands down the best mussels I ever had. Mediterranean mussels came with cioppino, cheese and onions. Fantastic. The choices of beer was wonderful too.

I was skeptical — I’m devoted to Bertha’s Mussels. The place was empty for Saturday lunch. I ordered wine mussels — they were ok. Mussels themselves were tender but the sauce was bland. We also had the sloppy joe and cheese steak. Of the lot, sloppy joe was best. I will return to Bertha’s for my mussel fix.

This super large bar and grill that specializes in mussels as the name states. It serves up an impressive list of beers and decent food. I only tried the mussels as ordered the curry and the mushroom ones. Both were good though give edge to mushroom as good amount of bacon. Curry was likely from curry powder. The large size dish was big enough for two if ordered an app.
Place is large and on the colder night I visited did not look even ¼ full. Do not come here if looking for crowded place.
Service was decent and place has plenty of tvs so good spot if good game on tv.

Finally ^_​^
I’ve been dying to try this place since I saw it on Living Social. Plus I was waiting for a 20 percent coupon as well and it finally came last Thursday! My best friend and I went last Friday night around 9pm. I made reservations for 8:30pm however I had to push the reservation back until 9:15pm. The hostess was extremely understanding.
It was packed! I was amazed how busy it was. The bar was full, the tables was full, I mean wow, this place must be amazing. We waited for about 5 – 10 minutes to be seated. We sat in the bar area by the window which was pretty nice especially with the Light CIty show going on. Our server name was Iam and he was awesome.
He started us off with two glasses of Chardonnay which comes with the Living Social deal! We had a choice of four types of mussels. I picked the Kenneth Mushroom Square Mussels and my best friend picked the Mediterranean Mussels. The food probably took about 20 – 25 minutes which we didn’t mind because we had a lot to catch up on.
They brought out two HUGE iron skillets that was piping hot. I mean wow, I was amazed how big the portions are. They also include frites (fries) with your order of mussels and three dipping sauces. The fries was okay, maybe too overcooked for my taste. Iam was very kind enough to bring us some warm bread, which went amazing with the mussels sauce. The mussels was fabulous, the combination of mushrooms, onions, and garlic marinated to it’s full potential was AMAZING!!! I have to say for 14 dollars a piece I was extremely impressed. I would highly suggest this place if you love mussels. Unfortunately my boyfriend had a bad experience with mussels so he tend to stay away from them :(
But I love them. Iam mention they have a brunch; we will definitely try they’re brunch sooner than later. Oh and they have bottomless mimosas :)

While the food was above average we have plenty of issues that made our experience here subpar.
We were sat 30 minutes after our scheduled reservation, waitress was the worst (she didn’t pour the wine, didn’t have a pen, forgot our drink order, didn’t bring a spoon for soup, and was generally dis functional and sloppy), bread was severely burned and brought to us halfway through our meal, and our split check was just unexplainably miscalculated. I would have asked for a manager but was afraid it would have prolonged our meal even longer than it was and thrown our waitress off even more.

Came to Mussel Bar on a Sunday around 2 or so and there were very few people inside; it closes at 3 and reopens at 4 — that could have been why.
On their web site it says that on Sundays you can get a ½ pot of mussels for $ 10(regularly $ 15), but when the bartender was asked, she had no recollection, but this gentleman who works at Mussel said that they don’t have that special anymore. I really wish it would be taken off the web site, because it is misleading. With that being said, we still enjoyed the mussels with the white wine sauce and it was very tasty with a side of bread. I definitely would get them again and try the full pot for $ 20. I didn’t have any drinks, but they have an extensive beer list.
I will definitely come back again to see how service varies when it’s busy.

Came here for a late Saturday brunch. I was a big fan of the Bethesda location and this is next to RA Sushi so we thought why not. Our party of 6 started with deviled eggs, calamari, tater tots. Eggs were great the pickled onions were nice addition. The calamari was nicely grilled with a great tomato aioli. If your a fan of fried calamari like everyone else give this a try. The tots were huge bursting with parmesan cheese flavor. Entrees we had white wine garlic mussels, crab cake benedict and tilapia tacos. The mussels were great rich in the wine garlic flavor. I think I only saw about 2 empty shells. The broth was so tasty I wanted to sip all of it. The lump crab meat and tilapia were fresh in flavor. Did not taste frozen at all and cooked to perfection. The benedict was great with a perfectly poached egg, fried potatoes and the creamy tomato herb hollandaise sauce was a nice addition. I’ll be back to try all the other mussel pots. Parking is easy to find and if your in the area for a nice cold beer and some fresh seafood try Mussel bar.

Well let me start off by saying we had excellent service and recommendations from our server Dawn. She was very friendly and Personable which l prefer when you have to interact with customers on a daily basis. A smile and postive recommendations goes a long way.
Everything she recommended was very good! I am a fan of deviled Eggs. Which was on the happy hour menu. These guys have a happy hour every day including Sunday. How cool is that! It’s from
4pm till 7pm. I am not a big fan of lamb except for maybe some lamb chops but she recommended the Lamb Meatballs and if you only have a party of two. It is shareable. It was so good! The meatballs with the sauce was so succulent. I mean the kind of way you feel when you wish you had more. It came with two average sixed meatballs and everything blended in so well together. The deviled eggs was so freaking good!
Oh btw we came here on a living Social Mussel Dinner which included two separate Pan full of our choice of Mussels. We both chose the Bacon since thats our favorite. It was a pure delight. It was a full pot and l couldn’t even finish all mine so l had to take half to go.
It included two separate orders of fries with mixing sauce. She brought us some bread for dipping and it also included two glasses of House wine or Crybaby beer. We chose to switch it up from our typical wine drinking to the beer. It was great! Blended in well with the Mussels. I do recommend making reservations which is what we did. They do close from 3 to 4pm l noticed. Our reservations was at 4pm with just the right amount of customers. Not crowded at all.
If you are a lover of Mussels l highly recommend this place. They have street metered parking available and to my understanding several garages close by with discounted rates. I definitely look forward to returning in the future :)

We had the best Saturday night here. My best friend got engaged and thought they were coming here for a celebratory drink but instead was surprised by 40 of their friends! Mussel bar was the perfect place for this. The lounge area has huge curtains for privacy (or a surprise) and enough room for all of us to hang out. The waitress was extremely attentive and quick with the drinks. I ordered the Mac and cheese and sweet potato fries both of which were really good. Champagne and appetizers were prearranged and the staff made sure everything ran smoothly for the surprise. Great spot!

My friends and I decided to eat here on a weekend evening… last minute when we realized that a few of us had the night off from work. It also happened to be restaurant week… which means that every place was even more crowded than normal. We needed a place with decent food, but without the restaurant week crowd.
We went to Mussel Bar & Grille, really just happened to be nearby and saw it well rated on Unilocal.It was a large place with plenty of people, but still had some empty tables available. We jumped in and got some great drinks made for us by the bar manager, right off the bat. We were very quickly seated, and looked at their menu.
We got a bunch of appetizers. I got their mussels, and others in the group had the burger, the steak. We all enjoyed the food. It wasn’t anything mind blowing, but it was good food, with great prompt service.
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Explanation of my rating system —
5*: Epitome of something, the best I’ve had, would LOVE to go back
4*: Great food and happy to go back regularly, but not the best of the category
3*: Food is fine. I may spontaneously decide to go there based on convenience. But no need to go back either.
2*: If you insist, I guess I’ll come along. I’ll find something to eat. But I wouldn’t have picked it.
1*: No plans to come back. I’ll try to talk companions out of going.

I want to like this place better than Townhouse. I kinda do, the bartenders know more about beer and sports than the Townhouse guys did, which makes sense given the 30 or so taps and TVs. But, it’s still your overpriced, average chain restaurant.
It was happy hour on a Thursday, which if you are interested in sports and you are a girl, this is can be a great place to be. They have a lot of TVs, so you can usually find the game you want, and they have a half price wine list for the entire night — here’s to you, Thursday Night Football, especially since I don’t have cable. I went with glass of bubbles before opting for medium bodied, rich Malbec.
Given that this place is called Mussel bar, one would think that their mussels would be delish, but they weren’t on the happy hour specials menu and none of the preps were calling my name. I did however pick the oyster of the day from the chef. You can see them shuck the oysters right there at the bar, but the bartender didn’t know what kind of oyster I was getting and went to ask, but then couldn’t remember. Nevertheless, they oysters were good. The happy hour ones come with a lime apple mignonette, cocktail sauce, lemon and some greens. I don’t love cocktail sauce, so that stayed in the little cup.
The fries and the meatballs aren’t really worth it even at the happy hour price. The fries were not crispy and I do not love the way the serve them with the sauce trio plate touching the food. Meh. The meatballs were dry, they were no where near as good as those at Ouzo Bay.
I am glad to have another «sports bar» in the area, because I couldn’t handle another season at GB. I just wish someone would step up their game and be a great sports bar, instead of relying on the fact they are the best in the area.

I dig this place. I also think it’s a great addition to Baltimore. For some reason I don’t think a lot of
People know about it, but it’s delicious.
Recently I had a living social deal for $ 35 for a Friday night for 2 full pots of mussels (not the veal), 2 fries (that come with homemade ketchup and two other sauces), and 2 glasses of house red or white or a pale ale.
The mussels were delicious and full of flavor. Normally a full pot of mussels costs $ 20 and a half pot for $ 15. My only thing is, if this is called mussel bar, shouldn’t they offer more than 5 flavors of mussels?
The restaurant is large and a big open space with the bar in the middle. If you’re trying to watch sports, you can see their many TVs from anywhere in the bar.
On Fridays there is live music.
A few random thoughts:
–The dipping sauces for the ketchup had a film on them like they had been sitting out for a while.
–Personally, I’d like Heinz ketchup better.
–big beer list!

Came here on a Halloween night with some friends. This was the only place we didn’t have to wait or get reservations.
We came during happy hour and they had a plethora of drink specials. For food we order from the happy hour menu starting with the oysters, fries, and the baked feta cheese. Oysters were decent, but nothing I could rave about. The fries were drizzled with truffle oil and parmesan cheese; needless to say I love truffle oil and put it on anything and I’m golden! The feta cheese came on a bed of marmalade and topped with pine nuts and honey. I would say this is a must order unless you’re lactose intolerant; it was creamy sweet and the pine nuts gave it a roasty nutty bite. To end our ordering we also got some crab cakes and dessert; again nothing too special.
In the end, this place reminds me of the Yard House which is more prominent on the West Coast. The list of beers are endless and service was pretty good. — Enjoy!

We visited Mussel Bar for a group event, and they handled the large crowd quite well. My order wasn’t correct, but it was still pretty good service!
Instead of mussels, I ordered steamed clams with one of the options for mussel broths after I heard someone at another table doing it. I ordered the spicy Thai green curry, though they brought me clams with the classic white wine version. It was really good, though I was a little disappointed to not get to try the spicy version. Also, for the cost, it’s probably much better to just go with the mussels — I paid more than the people who got mussels, and they got MUCH more food.
Overall, though, the clams were very well cleaned and there was no grit in my broth at all. Definitely somewhere we’d go back and try again.

This place was a last minute decision for me since I decided to make reservations the day before my family came to visit me. Once you enter the restaurant, you’ll soon realize that a reservation is not necessary at all. I am curious why this place isn’t more packed. It’s beautiful inside with lots of space.
Initially, we came here for restaurant week; however, the lunch menu was not impressive. We ended up ordering regular items. Here are the following items we ordered:
— Deviled Crab App
— Calamari
— Tuna Tartare
— Lobster Mac & Cheese
— Mussels (White Wine & Garlic)
— Oysters
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed my meal. When you first enter the restaurant, you get this feeling as if you’ll regret coming here (since the place is near empty), but the food was pretty good.
Some key highlights are the mac & cheese, mussels, & oysters were on point. My dad has always been critical of seafood at restaurants and this was the first time I’ve heard him say the oysters were very fresh. At the same time, I’ve never really been a mussel eater but I must say, the ones I had this weekend may have turned me into an addict. I will definitely be coming back for more!
Back to the mac & cheese… how many times have we all complained about how there’s not a lot of meat in _​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​? WELL, for once in my life, there was actually A LOT of lobster meat in this dish. It was like a dream; so cheesy with huge chunks of lobster. This dish is definitely worth a try… and I usually don’t like lobster!
I don’t recommend the deviled crab or calamari appetizer. The crap dip had no flavor and I pretty much didn’t want to waste my stomach space for this. And the calamari was TOO salty.
All in all, this place is worth a try (:

Monday nights at Mussel Bar are a steal of a deal! For $ 5, you get a burger with fries (or substitute an arugula salad for $ 1). My burger patty was hefty, juicy, and spiced well, but unfortunately very undercooked for a medium burger. My burger bun was above average but not as noteworthy (flavorful or texture-​wise) as buns from more established burger joints. Overall, the burger hit the spot, but it paled in comparison to the burgers from Alewife and Abbey Burger Bistro — what I consider the best in the area. For $ 5, it was more than worth it, though.
The fries were excellent. They were sprinkled with a touch of garlic and herbs and accompanied by 3 delicious dipping sauces — a fancy ketchup, garlic aioli, and chipotle aioli. They actually resemble the legendary garlic fries served at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
Complementing the food is an extensive draft beer list featuring a large variety of local Maryland beers (including smaller breweries like Stillwater and Evolution) as well as craft breweries from other states. The beer selection alone is a tremendous asset to Mussel Bar. For happy hour, all drafts are $ 2 off which means that you can get a quality beer for just $ 3!
My friend and I came on a Monday, and service was lackluster. However, it seemed like our waitress’s first time waitressing, so we cut her some slack since she was personable. The ambiance is spacious and inviting with hardwood floors and chic black accents, fitting in nicely with the rest of the Harbor East neighborhood. If you haven’t been to Mussel Bar before, it’s worth a visit, especially on Mondays.

Holy Moly Batman, this place is great!
After a disappointing stop at the food truck gathering, my companions and I had a round of empty bellies that needed a good filling!
We decided on this spot, and I am so happy that we did!
Located on Lancaster, easy to spot on the corner, there is valet available for less than 10 bucks, street parking is available, as well as a garage some ways up.
I love the openness of this restaurant, I didn’t feel crowded, and there seems to be plenty of room to move around. It looks like it would be good for a group as well. The menu is a nice size, there is pretty much a great mixture of things for every type of eater. The had a dope raw bar, of course a great selection of mussels and everything in between.
To begin, of course we had to have some dranks and some apps. I had the dope bourbon that they age in house! Chile, I swear it is so smooth, and had this lovely hint of cherry. For appetizers we got the tater tots and the mac and cheese. The portion size for both were nice, considering the barely there price. The tots were amazeballs, I loved that they were a nice size, weren’t cooked to hard, and the potatoes in the interior were cooked to perfection. There were hints of malt vinegar in the coating, and the parm cheese was a nice touch. It came with a side of spicy ketchup that gave it a nice kick! The mac and cheese, was delicious, there wasn’t too much cheese nor did it lack and seasoning. For the win!
After trying these two items, I was excited to try my meal. I ordered the brisket burger with a bbq jam, smoked mozz, on a brioche bun. I also tried the grilled chicken breast. The burger, was a delight, I loved the flavors of the smoked mozz and bbq jam together. I can’t stand over cooked beef, and this was just as tender as the day is long. The grilled chicken was seasoned nicely, the rosemary and tarragon flavors were prominent, just divine.
But wait, this isn’t were this flavor journey ends. Dessert was a must! I had the Berger cookie bread pudding, which came with a side of butter pecan ice cream. I also tried the butterscotch crème brulee. That bread pudding tasted as if someone took their shoe off and stuck their entiiiiiiiirrreee foot in that plate. I took one bite, and felt as though I could do the Schmurda dance. Don’t judge me folks, but I love food. I’m not a fan of butter pecan, but some how these things had a yummy marriage, plus the fact that at every bite of that pudding was a delightful pecan at the bottom.
The crème brulee, was aiiiiiight to me, but then again, me and butterscotch aren’t fans of each other. I’ll pass on that one.
Oh and the service is outstanding, we somehow ended up with two servers, I believe Orlando and Logan, they were both so attentive and just plain friendly. All in all, this place is a winner winner chicken dinner. The portions are great, the prices are right, the dranks are tasty and the staff are amazing. What’s not to love?
Mussels, you have please me and my belly. I will be a loyal customer in the future! Cheers folks!

Decided to hit up the new place that is located in what was Townhouse Kitchen and Bar. The Mussel Bar has a good vibe going for it. It has the exact same set up that Townhouse did with some minor modifications to the interior.
The beer menu and drink menu is fantastic. They had some really good beer on tap and in bottles with a lot of Belgium brews. That included 2 Belgium brews that are brewed for the Restaurant specifically. I tried both of them, neither were bad but neither knocked my socks off either.
Our server was fantastic. I believe his name was Oscar, so shout out to Oscar for being a great server. We started out with some homemade tater tots, deviled eggs and with some guidance from Oscar, the small Med. Mussels with frites of course. The frites also came with 3 dipping sauces. We were skeptical of the mussels because they had goat cheese on them but our opinions were immediately swayed when we tried them. The sauce contained tons of sausage and the cheese actually worked well with the dish. They were a huge order too, perfect size for two people. The deviled eggs were really good and I especially enjoyed banana peppers that were on the eggs. Really made for a nice bite. The tots were delcious as well, especially for being homemade.
We ordered our main courses and we really didn’t need to but what the heck. Got the lobster mac and cheese and the steak frites (WE LOVE CARBS!). The steak was well prepared and seasoned properly. The lobster mac and cheese contained my only issue of the night. It came in a huge dutch oven and when you take the lid off, the bottom of the pot contains your eats. The lobster was really tough and overcooked, most likely from sitting in the huge pot! I couldn’t finish the dish and ended up taking the majority of it home. Oh well.
Overall it was great experience and judging from their happy our listings, I will definitely be back sooner rather than later. This is a great addition to the Harbor East neighborhood. TRY THE MUSSELS!