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Piratz Tavern in Silver Spring, MD
http://www.piratztavern.com/home.html

It was really just a "Hey, let’s meet up" thing. No real plans other than seeing friends, and I had heard of the place, and thought it was a good time to try it out. It was also a rainy Thursday evening.

The atmosphere is all Pirate-ee and they were playing nothing but Sea Shanties. So far a Win/Win in my book.

We had a table in the back section, next to the bar. It was a bit cramped, but for the amount of people, it was OK.

Now...the food and service side.

What I had was a steak sandwich with fries($7). One of the people there had Cod-Fritters($5) that I tasted. The people across from me had a Stew($14) and a "Steak in a Stone"($24)...Filet served on a sizzling hot stone.

There are some things that I would have done better when it came to the food. All the sandwiches came on the same style 6-8 inch sub/hoagie roll. For my meal, WAY too much bread, and the meat was too thin to really cook to order. Even if you ordered it anything other than blue, the carry-over heat would cook it well done anyway. Toss some cooked onions and peppers and melt some Provolone on top, and it would have been a GREAT Cheese steak, but that’s not what I ordered. Once I pulled the top of the roll off, it tasted good. The seasoning was nice, and well balanced.

The fries were potato wedges, and were cooked well. Not soggy. They used Kosher salt to season the fries. I could also tell that the oil they used was clean because you didn’t taste anything else that was also cooked in it.

The Cod Fritters were basically fried balls of mashed potatoes and mashed cod. Cod has a very mild flavour, as does mashed potatoes. They could have added a touch more salt to it if they made them there. If they bought them pre-made....they might want to think about a new distributor. It came with a side of a romulade or thousand island dressing, which would have just over-powered all the flavours in the fritters.

The stew...called Salmagundi...was a HUGE portion. They do offer a 1/2 portion. From how the people that ordered it described it, they said it was a bit too fatty. Looking at the portion and the price ($14 for a full plate), they are not using the choicest cuts of meat, and they also probably used the fat from the initial searing of the meats as the base for the roux that was used as a thickener. This would defiantly give the dish a much more fatty and richer taste. Unfortunately, I did not taste it, so I can t give you a better breakdown of it, but the people seemed to like it, and did eat all the meat and veggies in the stew. There was a lot of liquid left behind. They also did not serve a side of bread.

The "Steak on a Stone" was probably the best presentation I saw. The steak was cooked correctly to order, and the sides that she had were done well. Only concern was the 400 degree piece of granite on the table.....but I also have that issue with the Fajita pans that most Family style restaurants use as well.

The service was decent but could have been better, but that was not the servers fault. He was the bar-tender, and he was also the only server that we saw. Aside from my group of people, there was also a comparable sized party in the front. At its busiest, they probably had about 40 people between the bar and all the tables. He was running himself ragged until the owner(?) came in and started to lend a hand on serving the food. I think that if they had one server along with the bar-tender, it would have been better.

The drinks were tasty and mixed well. I had a Rum and Coke made with top Shelf Appeltons Estate 12 year old Rum. There was also some Signature drinks like a 3 rum Grog and a 2 rum punch that I didn’t try because I was driving, but the people that ordered them really liked.

I was really surprised at the cost of the meal. For 2 people who had sandwiches, Cocktail drinks, and dessert, we got out of there for $30 before tip. I was expecting closer to $45

Overall, I would give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. If you are going there expecting fine dining or "5 Star" service....keep walking. But if you are looking for a neat place to meet up with friends and have some decent food with a neat atmosphere, I would recommend it. If I lived closer, I would probably eat there on a more regular basis.

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