Sonoma’s Bar & Grille

Unfortunately they have discontinued the ½ price burger for Tuesday lunch. It was a favorite for us. Not sure why, there is seldom a crowd for lunch. The big handmade burger has also become a dense machine formed dry burger.
I am happy to update my previous review. They have added the Tues. half price burger back onto the lunch menu.

For the past 3 months my friends and I have been coming to Sonomas on Wednesdays for Jamaican Me Crazy Night. The food is exceptional. Its not only good, but creative. You really have to try the Jerk Chicken, Curry Chicken and Shrimp, and my personal favorite the Ziggy Marley Pasta.
We are now working our way around the menu to try other entrees. So far we have yet to be dissapointed.
You know the food and service are great when we travel from Owings Mills, Towson, and the Hamilton area to dine here. Big ups to the Chef!

Had a ball here! There was a live band playing all night. Friendly staff and the food was really good and moderately priced.

Came here for lunch with my homegirl this week. Clearly not a good time to visit because we were literally the only customers there. My friend ordered the shrimp Alfredo and I got the lunch Caesar salad with cream of crab soup. My soup was ok but I was a bit disappointed at the amount of claw and back fin that was used in place of lump crab meat. Venezuelan at that. Then my salad was warm. Like it had been sweating in the kitchen before they brought it out. Lettuce was slightly wilted and warm. Overall just not what I expected. Then my friends plate of the shrimp Alfredo clearly smelled like the shrimp were in the fridge a little too long. They were definitely not fresh. And they used the same crab meat. She sent the dish back because the shrimp were inedible and the chef comes out to ask her what the problem was. I thought his demeanor was arrogant and unprofessional. He made her feel like she couldn’t tell him why she was really sending back the dish. I didn’t like it at all. He brought her a new dish and then sat and watched her take her first few bites. Waiting to see what she said about the pork chops she ordered. Again unprofessional. Overall, this place is sloppy and unprofessional.

Great atmosphere, the food was exceptional, and the live band was wonderful!!! This is definitely a place that I could visit frequently!!!

Me and the hubby found a great spot for hanging out. Thanks for Also a place that me and the girls could hang out!
Our waitress Amanda was great! She gave great food recommendations that were spot on. My husband, the rib connoisseur, absolutely loved the ribs. Ribs that were not his… WOW! I had a burger with avocado, YUM!
The location is off the beaten path and can be a tad bit of a challenge to find if you are not from the area. We passed it a couple of times but were very, very pleased once we had reached our destination.
Can’t wait for our next visit! Who knows, maybe I will see you there!
Enjoy!

Went to Sonomas on a Friday night to check it out. It’s hard to see building off Cradlerock but if visiting, turn into the entrance by the McDonald’s and drive straight then make slight right and park near the Avis/​Budget office. You can then just walk right on over to Sonomas. Nothing fancy about this place… bar, high tables, stage, dj booth. Nobody greeted us when we walked in so we just grabbed a seat. Later, Tyler (who was great by the way) came and took our orders. I had a tequila sunrise and it was only $ 5! Yeah! Much cheaper than the big name restaurants in Columbia. Oh and the crab dip with French bread… yummy! I had a salad with blackened tilapia and was surprised they gave me whole piece of fish (not half like Red Lobster). Generous portion size and quite tasty as well. The band that was playing… Top of None or something was the name sounded great although I’m not a huge rock music fan. The lead singer had a good voice and the drummer was GORGEOUS! Nice, local neighborhood spot just 5 minutes from my house so I’ll definitely be back. Join me. :-)

The food is great and service was friendly and fast. The owen brown burger wit husband chips was fresh and tasty. Also they had a great fundraiser to benefit BARCS.

Food has gotten really good. Great place to watch football, see bands, and watch comedy.

Don’t let the name fool you. Sonomas Bar and Grill is a full service restaurant that happens to be a bar too. The new chef has created a menu that is creative and incredibly delicious! Weekly specials enhance the selection with fresh ingredients. There is nothing on columbia that compares!

Mac and cheese w/​crab is the bomb. You’ll like it. Nice place out of the way to get drinks and quick bite.

And in conclusion…
The food and service is always good. Personally, I don’t like bands playing in a bar but I can’t take a star off for my choice of dinner spot.

Go on Wednesday night! Great Seafood Specials, attentive staff and good beer selection!

This is a bar and grill. But they have completely redid the menu. They take burgers to the next level. Turkey burgers with grilled granny smith apples, caramelized onion, provolone cheese and mango mayo. Now that’s a combo. They have an app with various specials. The app alerts you.
Jumbo lump crabcakes and steak is on the menu. They don’t have this at your normal bar and, grill
Maybe they have changed management or owners since other helpers reviewed. but I’ve been twice and the food is delish. Can’t wait to go back and try brunch with the buttermilk fried chicken and sweet potato waffles and mimosas.

Great place! Great food, specials and entertainment! Always can look to have a good time at this place. Whether it’s to bring the family in for dinner or to hang with friends on the weekend! They even do wine and canvas night!

My company orders carry out lunch here. I took a look at the menu and set my expectations accordingly — standard bar food fare. I ordered a bowl of chilli and a bowl of crab soup.
The chilli was what I expected — average. Meat, beans, and some cheese on top. It was perfectly fine.
When I took the top off of the crab soup it had a «different» smell. I couldn’t put my finger on it. It didn’t smell «bad» but it was definitely pungent. I was a little nervous to try it but I thought, «I’ll have one spoonful. How bad can it be?» I dipped my spoon in, scooped out some crab meat, vegetable, and broth, and put it in my mouth. It was so horrible my initial reaction was to immediately spit it out but the thought of plastering my office and desk with this scared me even more. I quickly grabbed my trash can and spit it out.
The crab soup was possibly the most vile thing I’ve ever eaten in my entire life and that’s saying something. It tasted like someone had poured an entire salt shaker in the soup to cover the rotten taste. I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth and my stomach was starting to get a feeling like I was going to gag. It was HORRIBLE.
If I get food that I don’t like I would typically just throw it in the trash and continue with my day. This was so bad I felt compelled to call the manager to let him know in case there was something bad in this soup so others wouldn’t have the same fate. What especially concerned me is that I called 4 times between 7pm and 11pm and got voice mail. There’s not a host or someone at the bar who picks up the phone? I called the following day at lunch and one of the employees picked up. I asked for a manager and he said there wasn’t a manager there. I asked when a manager would be there and he said he wasn’t sure. he said that because it was Friday he wasn’t sure if there would be a manager for the weekend. He asked me if I wanted a manager’s personal cell number but I declined.
Maybe this was an isolated incident. Maybe the food is normally good. Maybe they normally answer their phone and I called at a bad time. Maybe managers are normally on shift during lunch hours but the day I called they were out. I’m more inclined to think they have bad food and bad (absent) management. I know for sure that I won’t be trying them again to find out.

It’s OK to be a Grown Up in Columbia!
According to Unilocal,Columbia has 167+ family restaurants, but only really 2 grown up sports bar like establishments. Sonoma’s and Nottinghams.
This is a niche market! And one, when cultivated creatively, can be very lucrative!
Shots make more money than sippee cups and chicken fingers. This is a grown up gathering place with poker nights, live music, sports events, shot girls, cornhole, karaōke, and yes, there are smokers on the patio. This is not California.
So yes, parents with little kids should choose another venue for a Friday night because here… it’s happy hour! There are a GAJILLION of true family friendly places in Columbia! Young professionals, workers of all types, servers, singles, work friends, and all fun grownups let’s hang out here, ok?
Let Applebees and Chucky Cheese keep their little kid screaming market, Sonoma’s should be a cool grown up hang out spot! Simply because, we spend more on booze & grub than kids do! And we have credit cards!
Now…having said that, I wish they would bring back the Happy Hour food menu. Right now, there’s nothing. C’m on Jerry — just a few items under $ 7 would make a lot of people happy.

As many have long suspected, Columbia was designed to be a vortex of gently-​curving paths that lure passersby into disorientation, and it has succeeded admirably well. Example: we drove three times around the town center before accidentally stumbling on Sonoma’s — and even then, we had to walk past the sign and around a corner before we could actually SEE the place. So, good luck with that.
Once you arrive inside, you’ll be greeted with an ambitiously-​renovated interior; it could easily hold several hundred partiers, but when we were there on a recent Saturday night there were barely forty, half of whom were in our group celebrating a birthday. There was a whole dance floor setup, but just one lonely DJ spinning in the corner, which was a little sad. (He was skilled, but had an irritating habit of playing only ½ to ²⁄₃ of each song before transitioning into a new one — just as you were getting into one beat, it would fade out.)
The setup is a bit awkward: there are cocktail tables right next to the bar, and people were getting drinks and moving to the tables to sit, but then I got the feeling we were supposed to be ordering from (and tipping) the waitress if we sat at the tables. She was extremely attentive, offering to refill my water numerous times until I wondered if I should offer to transfer the tab from the bar. Maybe she was just having a slow night.
I ordered a buffalo chicken wrap and was pleased: fresh lettuce, spicy chicken and a nice balance of sauce. The fries alongside were nice and crispy and my friends ate most of them. The cocktails we ordered were fine, but very basic, so it was hard to tell if the bartenders were any good. (For instance, when I asked what they would recommend with Firefly, a sweet tea-​flavored vodka, they advised water. It wasn’t bad, but it tasted like. .. watered-​down Firefly.)
All in all, it was average, but I’m rounding down to 2 stars because there just wasn’t anything that stood out about the experience.

Sonoma’s is an alright place. It’s a «Bar and Grill» type joint. but personally I think it’s more like an Applebees with a large bar.
They always have some sort of special and the food here is actually pretty good. They also have some sort of crappy live band there on the weekends. The prices are relative to more of a sit down restaurant instead of a bar. But like above, it is more of a restaurant. Beers here are expensive unless during happy hour.
Tuesday night is half off the Angus burger (which makes it $ 5). Includes lettuce, tomato, and onions… anything else is .50 to .99 cents.
Go on
and get a coupon for this place.

This is a very small bar/​grill kind of place that offers bands and even some light comedic entertainment. I have been here a few times, most recently on Cinco de Mayo (thats May 5^th for all the non-​spanglish speaking folks). We went there to see our frineds perform with their band New Old School and our friend DJ’ed there as well, Dj iRockJays! It was a nice night with drink specials and food for the Mexican inclined. The crowd was not too huge and we were able to get a table in front of the band set-​up. There is no dance floor and you are literally in front of the band, but it is not that loud honestly.
The staff is friendly, but they are understaffed on a full night, but they try their best to get your orders post-​haste. My chicken tacos were a bit cold, but they were ok, and my Corona was cold and fresh so it wasnt too bad.
The few times I have come here it has been a mixed crowd of young and old. It is a nice atmosphere, but like I said a bit small. It does have an outside patio area but it has never been warm enough for me to sit out there so yeah.
I would probably only come here if my friends were performing with their band, but it would be well worth it. Come here for quaint surroundings, cold beers, and good times!