Phillips Seafood Buffet at Harborplace: Generally Good Food, and Lots of It
Written: Sep 07 '03 (Updated Sep 07 '03)
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Pros: a step above most buffets, lots of non-seafood, relaxing, generally good service, some good food
Cons: pricey, didn't like all the seafood, slow to refill buffet towards end of evening
The Bottom Line: If you're looking for a large meal in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Phillips Seafood Festival Buffet is a pretty good choice.
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| quasar's Full Review: Phillips Seafood Festival Buffet |
One of the advantages of eating at a buffet is it gives you the chance to painlessly experiment a bit, try new dishes without the fear that you'll be left without anything appetizing to eat. On the first night of my recent trip to Baltimore I found myself feeling somewhat adventurous (as well as hungry and thirsty) so I decided to try the Phillips Seafood Festival Buffet for dinner.
Located on the first floor of the Light Street building of Harborplace, the restaurant is right in the heart of Baltimore's Inner Harbor. It's conveniently close to most of the tourist attractions and hotels in the area. It's also rather busy. Fairly late on a Thursday night there was still a 20 minute wait for seating. When I passed by the buffet on weekend nights the line was extremely long. Be prepared to wait for some time to eat here.
Once you're inside, the restaurant is surprisingly nice. Wooden tables, fancy lighting, and nicely dressed staff provide a slightly nicer experience than your typical buffet, although the effect is ruined slightly by the paper coverings on the tables and the rolls of towel paper plopped on every table. They also put the tables just a little bit too close together so it could be difficult to navigate to and from the buffet and the restaurant did get a bit loud at times. Even with these issues it was a nice relaxing atmosphere, a step above the typical chain restaurant or local dive.
Although all of the food is presented on a rather long buffet, servers take care of your drinks. Sodas and iced tea come with free refills in 32oz mugs. Although I was without drink a few times, they generally did a decent job providing refills in a timely fashion. The servers were also pretty good about removing used plates.
The buffet itself had a wide variety of food. Although certainly concentrating on seafood, there were also steak and chicken dishes, quite a lot of sides, and some rather nice appetizers, salads, and soups. There was also a separate dessert table on the opposite side of the restaurant.
The salad bar was on the small side but had nice fresh ingredients. The cole slaw was particularly good and there was also a mix of fresh pineapple, canteloupe, and honeydew that provided an excellent end to the meal. I'm not generally a fan of New England Clam Chowder but theirs was quite tasty. They also had delicious slightly crusty warm rolls.
I did a fair amount of experimentation, some of which worked and some of which did not. I tried collard greens for the first time and found I liked the slightly bitter cross between spinach and broccoli. On the other hand I didn't particularly care for the crab cakes I tried nor did I like the way they prepared their fresh shrimp.
They did a fairly good job of keeping the buffet filled with hot food early in the evening but as the evening wore on they slacked off a bit. The roast beef - thinly sliced in gravy - was cold when I got around to trying it (but still good) and they stopped providing steamed mussels shortly after I arrived. They were also a bit slow replacing finished cheesecakes on the dessert table, and by the end of the night they'd stopped providing it altogether.
Some of the other highlights of the buffet include a very tasty and well spiced shrimp fried rice, a nice well done teriyaki sirloin steak provided in 4oz strips, and positively yummy red bliss potatoes. I must admit that I generally found the non-seafood items more to my liking than the seafood. Aside from not liking the crab cakes or shrimp, I found the fried clam strips overly chewy and some of the other seafood options a bit too experimental for my liking.
The desserts were good but the soft serve ice cream machine was out of order. There were about 8 or so different types of cakes available. Everything but the cheesecake came in previously plated slices. The cheesecake was placed out whole with some empty plates. It got messy at times and the empty plates seemed to disappear so sometimes there wasn't anything to plop your slice on. I didn't care for the German chocolate cake - it just tasted a little bit off. It had some weird spice I wasn't expecting, possibly anise. The cheesecake, on the other hand, was scrumptious. It was dense with a nice graham cracker crust. They had plain cheesecake as well as cheesecake topped with whipped cream and strawberries.
I had spent the day traveling then playing tourist out in the heat and I hadn't eaten since a small breakfast. By the time I arrived at the Phillips Seafood Festival Buffet all I wanted was a slow leisurely relaxing large meal. I spent about two hours there and never felt rushed even though they closed right around when I left. The food was generally good although certainly there were plenty of items I didn't care for and the iced tea was plentiful. The meal was perhaps a bit expensive for what it was at $22.95 for the food and $2.50 for the beverage but restaurants are generally on the expensive side in Baltimore. I'd certainly eat there again and have no qualms recommending it to anyone else.
Recommended:
Yes
Kid Friendliness: Yes
Vegetarian Friendly: No
Best Suited For: Friends
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