Hops Restaurant: Tasty Food & Beer in Owings Mills, Maryland

Hops Restaurant is located in Owings Mills, Maryland across the street from the Owings Mills Mall. I've had the opportunity to visit Hops Restaurant on a number of occasions and have had only great experiences.

A HAPPY HOUR EXPERIENCE AT HOPS RESTAURANT IN OWINGS MILLS, MARYLAND
My first experience at Hops Restaurant was a happy hour get together with my co-workers. When we walked in, the bar area was to the right and the dining area on the left. We walked up the short number of steps and settled into our own personal table, complete with stools. It was a very comfortable setting and was happy to notice that the patrons were fairly low-key unlike the noisy bars or other microbreweries I have visited (or maybe we came down too early). We ordered some of their brews and proceeded to try the appetizers. The Walker's Wood Shrimp was chosen and when it arrived, it smelled so good and tasted even better. The five jumbo shrimp was topped with a spicy sauce and included toasted garlic bread. The sauce was so tasty that you could dip the bread in, making sure of course not to "double-dip". I also enjoyed the fact that the sauce included fresh peppercorns. It was delicious and after eating four servings (among 5 people) and drinking, we called it a night.

A DINING EXPERIENCE
I found myself back at Hops Restaurant when I took one of my co-workers out for a birthday dinner. Originally, we were going to sit at the bar and felt that it would be good to have dinner instead and moved to a booth. As we thought over what we wanted, we were given a plate with the most delicious, warm and moist rolls. These were not your typical dinner rolls in which you would have to butter, but more of a light sweet roll with a little bit of glaze (it seemed to be honey) over them.

To start, we had the Walker's Wood Shrimp as our appetizer as per my recommendation and the fact that she had not tried it before. It has been my experience that the taste of the food can vary with each visit depending on who is cooking that night or with other circumstances, but it was clearly not the case here as it was just as great as my last experience.

For the main course, we ordered the Boneless Pork Chops and the Brewmaster Steak. The entrees came with a salad and a side item. The Caesar salad I ordered was very fresh and tasty complete with croutons. When the chops came, it was charbroiled and topped with a cabernet mushroom sauce. I shared a bit of my dish with her and tried some of her steak, which was cooked medium well and juicy. She tried my mushroom sauce and found it so appetizing that she asked for some extra sauce from the waiter and he was pleased to oblige. I was unable to finish the entire meal but was very satisfied.

The service staff at Hops Restaurant was very friendly and did not have any trouble getting our glasses filled with water or soda every so often. As each entree is prepared fresh, there is a little bit of a wait, but it is not fast food in any sense and the taste well worth it.

OVERALL
If you have a chance to visit Hops Restaurant in Owings Mills, Maryland and want to go their for happy hour or just to try some real good food, I would highly recommend it.