Reliable choices for two, whether you want a big night out or a small, candlelit bar.
Fine dining · Harbor East · $$$$
Tasting menus, wine list. Chef Cindy Wolf’s Harbor East restaurant, a regular James Beard Award finalist, cooking French-leaning food with Lowcountry roots through a set number of courses.
Steakhouse · Mount Vernon · $$$$
Prime rib, steaks, crab cakes, leopard-print carpet. A dressy steakhouse open since 1965, with black walls, leopard carpet, live piano and a crab cake that many locals rate as highly as the beef.
French bistro · Roland Park · $$$
Classic French bistro cooking. A French bistro in the Roland Park shopping center, from the same team as Charleston.
Seafood restaurant · Fells Point · $$$
Oysters, lobster rolls, seafood. A Fells Point seafood house on the waterfront street, popular enough that booking ahead is wise, especially at weekends.
Bar and restaurant · Fells Point · $$$
Short, changing menu in a tiny bar. A small, dim Fells Point corner bar with a short menu that changes regularly.
Italian · Hampden · $$$
Italian food and pizza in a historic mill. An Italian restaurant in the restored Mill No.
Mexican mezcalería · Remington · $$
Tacos, mezcal. A Remington taquería and mezcal bar that helped put the neighborhood on the food map.
New American · Brewers Hill · $$$
Dinner and brunch in a former brewery building. A restaurant in a converted brewery building in Brewers Hill, with a high-ceilinged dining room and a seasonal patio.
Rooftop restaurant and bar · Harbor East · $$$$
City and harbor views, cocktails, 1920s-style glamour. A rooftop restaurant and bar on the top floor of the Four Seasons, decorated in old-Hollywood style, with some of the best views in the city.
French bistro and wine bar · Station North · $$$
Natural wine, cassoulet, chicken liver pâté. A small Station North wine bar turned French bistro, with a short, changing menu and a natural wine list.
Tavern · Fells Point · $$$
Crab palacinke, clam pizza, pierogies. A cozy Upper Fells Point tavern with Polish and Midwestern touches, from crab-filled palacinke (thin crêpes) to clam pizza.
Fine dining · Mount Vernon · $$$$
Mid-Atlantic cooking with global notes, harissa lamb loin. The restaurant inside The Ivy, a small luxury hotel in a Mount Vernon mansion.
Afghan restaurant · Mount Vernon · $$
Kaddo borani (sweet pumpkin with yogurt), lamb dishes. A Mount Vernon institution serving Afghan cooking since the late 1980s.
Italian restaurant · Harbor East · $$$
House-made pasta, salumi, duck. The Foreman Wolf group’s Italian restaurant in Harbor East, with house-made pastas, a salumeria and a deep Italian wine list.
Book ahead, especially Thursday to Saturday.
Every place here was checked as operating in October 2026. Hours change, so check before you go. Ratings come only from readers.
Eaten at Date night restaurants in Baltimore recently? Share what to order. The first good one goes right here.
Baltimore restaurants winning awards in 2026Baltimore-area restaurants named in Baltimore Magazine’s Best Restaurants 2026 and Best of Baltimor…
Baltimore readers' choice restaurants, 2026The restaurants Baltimore Magazine readers voted best in each category in 2026, from crab cakes and…
Harbor East restaurantsRestaurants in Baltimore’s Harbor East, from tasting menus and steakhouses to a rooftop bar and oys…
Fells Point restaurantsRestaurants and historic bars in Fells Point, Baltimore, from oyster houses to Thai, tavern food an…
New Baltimore restaurants worth tryingBaltimore restaurants that opened or reopened in 2025 and 2026, from coastal French at Harbor Point…
Italian restaurants in BaltimoreThe best-known Italian restaurants in Baltimore beyond the classics: house-made pasta, Roman and co…
