The Hampton's

Baltimore, MD (Inner Harbor)

Price:$$$$$

Decor: As fancy as Baltimore gets

Summary:Every last exquisite detail, from lobster bisque to truffles, came elegant, genteel, and smacking of the years of service and of experimental cookery that could only produce such truly gourmet effects...Best Restaurant in Baltimore

(5 crabs out of 5)

Appetizer: Frogs Legs/Quail

Soup: Fried Oyster Sweet Corn/Lobster Bisque

Main Course:Lobster Tails/Beef Tenderloin

Dessert:Baked Alaska/Pineapple Chocolate Cake

Karen- WOW.
That would be the word that sums up an evening of dining at the Hamptons.
And dining it certainly was, to say simply "eating" would go nowhere near
describing a dinner that when far beyond the usual "order-scarf-pay" cycle.
Every last exquisite detail, from lobster bisque to truffles, came elegant,
genteel, and smacking of the years of service and of experimental cookery
that could only produce such truly gourmet effects.

Paul-Ah don't you love it when English majors start with a well formed thesis statement. But anyway she is right WOW!...even though we are going to make a valiant effort to describe the eating experience here now words can't do it justice. Bottom line you have to see it for yourself.

Karen- Indeed, just make sure to take out a second mortgage before you go. This is a restaurant that, when the designers sit around pondering down to
what level their attention will go, they surely respond with YES to every
last sensory input. Likewise I am sure when they say, can we really charge
that much? The answer is exactly the same.
The restaurant is set in the Harbor Court Hotel, the Inner Harbor edifice
which boasts in all bridal magazines of its majestic swirling staircase.
True to its ads, as we walked in I noted a bride perched for her pictures.

Paul-The outside of the hotel is nothing to write home about but the inside is pretty snazzy. You see why anyone famous coming to Baltimore usually drops off here.

Karen-At first, we almost couldn't find the dining room. It is nestled up in the back corner of the upstairs, tucked in the subdued area as if to suggest to diners the concentration they will need for the intensity of the food.
Once inside, you are transported back to a time of fine dining when your
chair is pulled out for you, all the diners eat slow to relish every morsel
and course, and no, not having a tie is not OK. Large, soft upholstered
chairs ring the relatively few number of tables, achieving exactly the
opposite effect that fast food restaurants with plastic seats go for: here,
you can linger all you like.

Paul-The place was decorated very very ritzy...I am normally against foo foo shee shee but this was too neat to be thinking about that. On small thing though, it was all mostly pink. A tad weird. Oh and the view. You are about 1 story up looking east onto the Inner Harbor..Fantastic!

Karen-After we got seated, we met our new best friends: the ever-pleasant, ever-helpful, cool and calm yet amicable and gregarious wait staff. They had all the grace of a synchronized swimming team and all the charm of an English butler. One thing I loved was that when one waiter in particular, a gentle, smiley, low-voiced chap, poured water holding the opposite end, he said, "Certainly." Paul and I miss him and his cohorts so much!

Paul-These guys were really great. Clearly they saw that we were not their average refined rich customer, but regardless they gave us as good service as anyone else in the restaurant. And along with that they joked with us and helped us though any difficulties we had.

Karen-We started out with wine, which involved the amusing process of
testing out a first sip and then telling that oh-so-proper yet terribly-nice
waiter that that was indeed going to be OK (as if we'd say otherwise!)
The all-important selection of each course to come came next, as we pored
through the menu and asked more questions of the happy-to-oblige waiter than
I believe I did of college recruiters.

Paul- It was a little weird to me to taste it first but I suppose when you are paying so much for the wine it's a nice thought. I'm no wine expert but these wines seemed to suit the both of us pretty good and complemented the meal quite well.

Karen-After we'd ordered, we sat back and smelled the fragrant odors emanating
from the gargantuan real flower display in the center of the rosy room. We
did not need to wait long, however, for the clockwork waitering to begin. We were happy to find that bread was quick to come, as the little bread plates promised. Of course, this was no basket of poppin' fresh. This was two slices apiece, one of rich hearty Italian and one of flavorful Foccacia. Each took the definition of bread to new heights, as the Italian was dense, moist and airy, and the foccacia was ever so moist, ever so herbal, and managed with great grace to walk the fine foccacia line between intense flavor and bulky toppings.

Paul- I am a big bread fan. I especially love Italian bread. The foccacia was in house and the regular Italian was from Little Italy.

Karen-Thank goodness they gave us only two slices a piece, since we surely could have eaten a loaf each and missed out on what was to come. In swooped two plates with two curious little piles on top. As the waitress explained, these were our hors d'oeuvres: swirled salmon mousse with capers and little sprig sitting on a cucumber slice.
While that description may not peak the palette of some, it was in fact a
delicate splash of interweaving flavors, the creamy subtle salty of the
salmon mousse finding a grand bite conclusion with the stiffer water burst
of the cucumber.

Paul-Extra course=good. Then again I shouldn't really look at it as extra seeing how much this all cost. This was a great idea though, I though it would have gone great on a bagel. It had the texture of your regular chocolate type mouse but it was with very flavorful salmon. Yes it sounds odd but it worked. The smokiness was really preserved.

Karen-Both soups arrived with spectacular splendor, with the larger components sitting in the bowl and the liquid parts poured on top from silver tureens. An intriguing development occurred if only briefly with the soup--in an unprecedented event, Paul actually coveted my choice after seeing how chock-full of Maryland flavor it was: corn soup with pan fried oysters. However, after receiving his own, we both agreed his was superior. Mine was good of course--the fried oysters rivaled those at the Oyster Festival, and the slightly grainy yellow corny soup was tasty, if a little the same bite-to-bite.

Paul- Karen's soup's heart was in the right place. This is one thing that disappointed me a little. It was still very tasty but the broth was grainy rather than creamy with lots of MD sweet corn in it. I agree the fried oysters were very good, nice and crispy but not tampering with the essence of the oyster flavor. The lobster bisque might have been the highlight of the evening. It seemed the flavor, which was smooth and had plenty of lobster in each spoon-full, just lingered in you mouth perfectly so that with the next slurp it tasted better. You could see in this soup why it is call the culinary arts. It takes a special skill to take an often normalish soup like lobster bisque and make it an event.

Karen-Oh yes. Heavens yes. It was like liquid silk. The lobster bisque managed to take the essence of what we love about seafood, that fresh taste, and filter out all fishy sea stuff that comes along with it. It was creamy without being heavy, it was a lovely blend of flavors without being overbearing. We were wondering how the waiters would react if we asked for a nice big tub for carry-out.

Our next course was nearly as big as a normal meal at a regular restaurant, and certainly cost nearly as much. Just to make it a night of exotic delicacies, I went ahead and tried the frog's legs. Although I don't regret the adventure of them, I'm not sure what the French see in what, true to legend, tastes like chicken, but with fishy side tastes. A stringy green-herbal vegetably coleslaw accompanied, which intrigued me more. Paul's dish was a fascinating blend of two good friends I didn't know were acquainted, blueberry and quail.

Paul- I think in this part of the meal the chefs challenged us to color outside of the lines so to speak. I tried Karen's frogs legs and they were ok, just like Karen described. I am having trouble looking Kermit in the eye now. My quail was much better. I didn't think it would go well with a blueberry sauce but it was a great idea. The quail was tender and savory which balanced with the sweetness of the sauce. Very creative.

Karen-After that, I finally experienced a phenomenon which I had hitherto only heard about enviously--we got the infamous palate cleanser that comes between appetizer and main course, what they called an "intermezzo." And of course, it wasn't just any old palate cleansing sorbet. We were treated to pineapple mint sorbet, which was so fresh, so cool, so refreshing, with a sweetness that cleansed the soul as well as the palate. The texture, too, was light and icey. This is a great idea, one I would whole-heartily recommend for dinners and backyard barbecues alike!

Onto the Main Courses, the feature of the evening. I had figured, heck, why not complete the whole lavish lusciousness of the night and get the quintessential food of the rich and the divine, lobster. This was no huge crustacean which necessitated a lobster bib, however! The two lobster halves had been split in two and perched artfully on top of one another. In the bottom was filled ample, tender lobster meal covered with a dreamy tarragon cream sauce. The sauce itself I could have slurped up with a spoon, it was so sweetly tart and light. With the lobster a fantastic, subtle taste session was born. The top of the lobster halves was filled delicately with the creamy garlic mashed potatoes of the flavor-infused type that seemingly can only be found at such classy establishments. They seem to defy the word "mashed," since even as a thick starchy substance they manage to stay elegant and complicated. To the side were thick, crunchy asparagus stacks: good to chomp on as variety from the light, delicate tip-toe of the lobster meat.

Paul- I agree with Karen, her's was fantastic. As for mine...at that point in the meal the Hampton's was solidly ahead in the"who has the best restaurant in Baltimore" contest in my mind, but when they served the main meal they just dominated over the rest of the field. I had beef tenderloin with this slice of scalloped style potatoes, and spinach. One bite of the beef and I almost cried. I learned why they call it tenderloin. I think the beef literally melted right there in my mouth. I added bites combined with the potato, spinach, and wine in different combinations. My head was just spinning with all of the fantastic sensations. The beef was the essence of savory added with the subtle garlic flavor of the spinach, and layered yielding texture of the potatoes. And the sauce...oh the sauce, the key to any beef meal....was smooth and had the just the right amount of thickness and saltiness. It was so sad that I had to finish eating it. Part of me just wanted to exist in the realm of this meal I was enjoying with my girlfriend.

Karen-Yes indeed, it was a great experience to share. We made sure that we both ate the last bite of our respective meals at the same time, making it last as long as possible. When the plates were finally cleared away, we dove into the dessert menu, eager to get onto the next act. To complete the theme of Great Dishes I'd heard about but never gotten to experience, I got the Baked Alaska, an ice cream dish that comes flaming.

True to its name, the mound of cherry ice cream came covered with a marshmallowey whipped substance, which gently flamed blue. It wasn't exactly a wild fire, but our elegant waiter's efforts to keep it alighted as he waltzed to our table were amusing and well worth it. The cherry ice cream was fruity and cold, the whipped topping a nice companion. The brandy used to set it on fire made it smack a little of alcohol, but it was still good. Elegant chocolate leaves, with filled curls of raspberry and cream alternating made the presentation the highlight of this classic dish.

As a special bonus for Paul having told them it was my birthday, they brought out a surprize: a plate with intricate cursive chocolate letters spelling out "happy birthday." One tiny candle burned in a petit four of a vanilla-lemon cake slice, along side some ripe berries.

Paul-My feeling is that you really don't go to a place like this for dessert. It's really not what they are focusing on. Regardless we had to give it a try. I think Karen's was better than mine, not that I was disappointed. I had a chocolate cake type thing with pineapple. It was good and I think creatively put together but personally I would have preferred seconds of the lobster bisque.

Karen-After dessert, they brought the check--perhaps best to just skip that part, I think Paul might still be making credit card payments. But to sweeten that ever-unpleasant part of the dining experience, they brought out not hand candy mints, but differently-flavored chocolate truffles. Creamy chocolate in two different forms crowned off an evening of luscious dining splendor that we won't soon forget.

Paul- I think this is easily the best restaurant in Baltimore.

Reviewed-09/2001