The Dogwood Restaurant

Location: Hampden

Price: pricey

How to get there: car, taxi

Service: very helpful! Gave good menu suggestions!

When walking down W. 36th in Hampden, you may have walked by the Dogwood Restaurant many times without noticing. Despite its inconspicuous facade, the Dogwood is a restaurant worth noting.

Irish Brown Bread with Mango Butter

Regardless of its good reviews, we were hesitant to try the Dogwood due to its slightly expensive menu. However, this week’s Restaurant Week menu (three courses for $30.13) provided us with the opportunity to sample many options from the Dogwood’s menu for a reasonable price.

Baltimore Crab Soup

Shrimp and Grits

The Dogwood’s walls, covered in whimsical, painted murals and ceilings, decked with strings of lights and paper stars, make for a cozy, casual dining atmosphere.  The menu consists of an eclectic mix of cuisine, including many Mediterranean and southern American-inspired dishes. For starters, we ordered shrimp and grits served with a tomato Creole sauce and a spicy tomato-based Baltimore crab soup.

                         

                              Slow Braised Liberty Delight Farm's Beef Brisket

For our main courses, we had Moroccan spiced lamb borek and slow braised Liberty Delight Farm’s beef brisket. The lamb, in phyllo dough with spinach and feta cheese, was served over salad with tzatziki sauce. The braised beef was covered in an ancho-chipotle barbeque sauce with sautéed kale and green chile cornbread.

Moroccan Spiced Lamb Borek

For our third course we split two desserts. A piece of salted caramel cheesecake and a chocolate pot de crème (it was like a very thick, fudgy pudding) provided us with a wonderful ending to our delicious meals.

Chocolate Pot de Creme

While the Dogwood’s menu is full of creative and unique dishes, the restaurant prides itself on showcasing the natural flavors of the food. By using seasonal ingredients from local farms, the Dogwood’s ever-changing menu features fresh food with incredible flavor.

Salted Caramel Cheesecake

Besides the Dogwood’s mission to serve great food, the restaurant has a social mission as well. The restaurant is home to the Dogwood Apprenticeship Program. This program aims to hire and train adults who have experienced addiction, incarceration, or homelessness. Therefore, the Dogwood works to better the lives of the people in the apprenticeship by helping them establish skills needed to obtain jobs in the food industry. 

DiPasquales

DiPasquales Market Place

Location: Canton - Highlandtown

DiPasquales storefront

Price: $

How to get there: car, taxi (will be a bit pricey)

Service: self serve, order at counter and sit

 website: http://dipasquales.com

            This might be the best Italian food we’ve had thus far in Baltimore.  If you are in the mood for anything Italian from sandwiches to lasagna to brick-oven pizza, DiPasquales is absolutely the answer. 

            One thing to keep in mind when planning a trip to this quaint Italian market/eatery is the hours of operation.  Open from 9 am to 6pm Mondays through Saturdays, lunch would be the best meal option to plan for.  Sometimes they are open on Sunday for limited hours so be sure to check their website before you go. 

DiPasquales side mural

            You might think you have the wrong address the first time you look for DiPasquales, since it is mostly surrounded by row houses in the neighborhood of Highlandtown just outside of Canton.  If you can drive there, which we recommend, the parking can be spotty, so look for a spot on the road on surrounding streets.  There won’t be a huge sign to look for, but it is really worth the adventure of finding. 

The Rustico Sandwich

            Once inside, you’ll find yourself in one of the most authentic Italian markets in Baltimore.  They stock everything Italian including olive oil, homemade pasta and sauce, wine, specialty candy, and much more (remember to pick something up for dinner during the week!).  Grab a menu and you’ll see why Guy from "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" stopped here.  The whole order of things can be a bit confusing the first time you go.  Order first at the counter, then pay at the front, and then sit and servers bring your food right to you.  It can be very crowded so expect to wait a couple of minutes for a table to clear out – but it’s worth the wait! 

We’ve had the meatball sub, which is large enough to share and unlike any I have had before, the “Real Italian” sandwich, the Rustico, and their signature rice ball.  We are planning to try the lasagna that is supposedly to die for and the dish they served to Guy Fieri.  If you are still hungry make sure to get some dessert to bring home.  The bread pudding made from Italian panettone bread topped with vanilla cream proved to be a good choice.  We recently tried their hand-stuffed pistachio canolis – wow.  Every single thing we have ordered has been better than the last, so DiPasquales rates very high on our go-to guilty pleasure spots.

Pistachio Canoli

The "Real Italian" Sandwich