14 Best Restaurants in Maryland, USA

There's often a line of hungry diners waiting for a table at this comfort-food haven located on the city dock, where the portions are generous, and the service is first-rate. You can enjoy breakfast all day—Benedicts and omelets are top sellers, as are the chicken and waffles and the shrimp and grits. If you've saved room for dessert, try the homemade peanut butter cup or the "shortcake" made with a Belgian waffle and topped with ice cream, strawberries, and whipped cream.

Chef Kiko Wilson adeptly mixes Latin, Pan Asian, Southern, and California flavors. Tender coffee-rubbed short ribs are balanced by a crunchy daikon cole slaw with miso-ginger dressing. Lamb empanadas are finished with a chipotle aioli. Foreman/Wolf restaurants, Johnny's parent company, is known for its super-fresh ingredients, sourced locally, and excellent service. Johnny's receives high marks in both categories. Just like the food, the decor has a modern twist. Exposed interior brick walls, a Baltimore staple, get an acid-washed update. Comfy booth seating serves as an understated backdrop that allows the food to be the star.

In what was once a hardware store, this casual eatery has one interior wall of exposed brick and another of exposed plaster; both are used to hang art for sale by local artists. Daily specials are chalked on a blackboard and include a large cheese-and-pâté plate, flatbread pizzas, deli sandwiches, espresso, waffles, soups, and salads.

A cozy café with a celestial motif appropriate to its name, the Blue Moon is a favorite for breakfast, served until 3 pm daily. Start with one of the enormous house-made cinnamon rolls, but save room for excellent brunch fare such as crab Benedict and sky-high French toast coated in a Cap'n Crunch cereal batter and served with whipped cream and strawberries. On weekends it's open 24 hours, attracting revelers from Fells Point's many clubs and bars. On weekend mornings there's often a line, but it's well worth the wait.

Deli sandwiches (many named after local politicians), burgers, subs, crab cakes, and milkshakes are the fare at this very busy counter-and-booth institution. Baltimoreans Ruth and Chick Levitt purchased the building, built in 1899, in 1965. Their son Ted and his wife, Beth, continue the business today. Don't plan on placing an order at 8:30 am on a weekday or 9:30 am on a weekend—that's when the place stops to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Within the Deer Park Inn B&B, the proprietor prepares an exceptional French menu with ingredients procured from local Amish farms. Duck confit is marinated overnight and served with savory braised red cabbage. Beef tenderloins are served with a tantalizing sun-dried cherry sauce. Desserts—such as a tart of local strawberries and rhubarb with whipped cream, or local organic blueberries with crème fraiche—are simple and elegant. During the area's off-season months, the inn and restaurant may be closed Monday–Wednesday, so call ahead.

On "The Avenue," funky Hampden's main commercial street, Golden West is the go-to spot for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The place is colorful and eclectic, and so is the menu of diner fare with a Tex-Mex twist. Try the the hefty huevos montuleños—fried eggs with yellow corn cakes covered in beans, feta, salsa, and a fried banana, or the tater tots with a chili-mayo dipping sauce. Large tables make it a good spot for groups, and the bar makes it good for pre- or post-dinner drinks. Occasionally, the café hosts local folk and indie rock bands.

Behind the redbrick facade of a bank built in 1928, MacGregor's occupies two dining rooms on two levels, with glass walls on three sides looking onto the Chesapeake Bay. The interior is adorned with carved duck decoys, mounted guns, and antique prints of the town; there's also outdoor dining on a deck with a gazebo. Seafood is the specialty, and the kitchen claims to have the best crab cakes on the bay.

Since 1732, this sturdy bluish gray stone home has welcomed travelers along a road called by turns the National Trail, the National Road, the Old National Pike, and (least romantically) Route 40. Historic figures Daniel Webster and Henry Clay stopped here, and during the Civil War, John Brown's followers seized control of the building for a day. Just prior to the Battle of Antietam, it served as the headquarters for a Confederate general. The menu is as elegant as the setting: highlights include fillet Mona Lisa, a seared filet mignon with a cabernet sauvignon demi-glace, served over crispy fried leeks. The extensive dessert list includes peanut butter, fresh apple, and bourbon pecan pies; Godiva chocolate cake; and ice cream sundaes.

A favorite of Johns Hopkins students, this low-key restaurant, café, and bar is open morning until night for tasty vegetarian fare. Settle onto a couch or at one of the small tables for a portobello sandwich with caramelized onions and feta cheese, a wild rice and tempeh burger, or One World's version of that Baltimore specialty: a crabless crab cake. Fresh pressed juices, smoothies, espresso drinks, microbrews, and mixed drinks from the full bar fill out the menu.

The ceilings and walls of this funky, colorful diner are plastered with toys and other interesting objects. People come at all hours (it's open 7 am–midnight every day except Tuesday, and until 2 am on the weekend) for the overstuffed omelets, big stacks of pancakes, burgers, nachos, sandwiches and... bacon milkshakes (a must-try). Stop by at midnight on a Friday or Saturday night to nosh on sweet potato fries with hipsters and students from nearby Johns Hopkins University. The servers have a diner attitude—they don't always seem too interested in serving, and the food might take a while—but the place is always lively and entertaining.

This is the place to mingle with C'town residents as well as with Washington College students and local pols, for good conversation—indoors or alfresco—over fresh coffee (including excellent espresso) or fine wine, by the glass or bottle, to accompany hearty, healthy soups, salads, and sandwiches. Friday night is "wine night" with complimentary hors d'oeuvres, often accompanied by live music. Wi-Fi's in the air here.

This family-owned restaurant opened optimistically in 1936, the year after the demise of the railroad from Washington. Since then it has remained synonymous with superb seafood. Now part of the Chesapeake Beach Resort & Spa, its bay-side location still provides stunning views. The extensive menu includes succulent southern Maryland specialties such as rockfish stuffed with crab imperial, fried oysters, and the region's ubiquitous crab cakes.

The Latino enclave just north of Fells Point, called Upper Fells Point, is fast becoming a foodie destination with many low-cost, authentic variations on Mexican and South American cuisine. This tiny but charming hole in the wall—mostly a take-out operation, although the counter space and in-house food presentations are lovely—is the best of the bunch. The homemade corn tortillas are the perfect platform for delectable tacos with fresh fish, pork, chorizo, or tongue. This is also the city's best place for tamales.