Posh digs and pricey seafood
Impressive fare, indifferent service at the Atlas Group’s newest jewel, Loch Bar
If you want to dress to impress, this is the place to do it. It’s swank, posh — and expensive.
But it’s also fun and beautiful. Loch Bar is the newest jewel of the Atlas Restaurant Group, which operates the glitzy Ouzo Bay in Harbor East and Boca Raton, Fla., and Azumi in Harbor East.
It’s connected to the Four Seasons Baltimore with a glorious view of the harbor. The space, a former coffee shop, offers a speakeasy ambience with attractive accouterments like marble tables, white subway tiles, brass accents and handmade, tufted burgundy leather banquettes.
It’s small, with half the room designated as a bar and the other as the dining area. A raw bar is set up near the entrance.
Total inside seating is about 80, with another 75 seats on the outdoor patio.
“It’s a boutique type of place,” said Alex Smith, who runs the restaurant with his brother, Eric Smith, and George Aligeorgas. “How do you make it unique?”
The business partners decided on a mostly seafood menu that includes cold and hot appetizers, sandwiches, seafood towers and a caviar section. There are only seven entrees.
The food, prepared under the direction of executive chef Matthew Oetting, was impressive. But we expected better service for the prices.
Our waitress had an air of indifference. We sat with empty glasses, and when our main dishes came before we were finished with our appetizers, she asked us if we could move them to make room for the new arrivals.
A restaurant of this caliber should have better timing in the kitchen. We ordered our appetizers and then even waited a short while before we ordered our entrees.
Loch Bar promotes its elixirs, especially the impressive whiskey selection with 400 bottles. They’ll stop when they reach 500, Alex Smith said.
You’ll find classic and seasonal cocktails like a Sazerac, Manhattan and a Royal Oak with mezcal, plus shooters, crushes, bottled beers and a thoughtfully curated wine list.
The shellfish towers are a splurge, and we tried the petit one, a single platter of chilled seafood on ice. The four cocktail shrimp were gigantic (under 10 per pound) and delicious.
The dish also included six oysters, six clams, three mussels and half a lobster tail with cocktail sauce, horseradish, mignonette and a mustardy mayonnaise. The only disappointment was the puny clams.
The lobster poutine was one of those captivating dishes you can’t stop eating. The mess of fries in a cast-iron skillet was piled with lots of lobster and nuggets of soppressata, covered with cheese and lobster gravy. The cheese was more melted than the traditional curds used for the Canadian snack. It was so great that we didn’t care.
Poke (pronounced POH-keh) — the Hawaiian tuna tartare dish — is one of the food trends Nation’s Restaurant News predicted for 2016, and Loch Bar is right on target with its bigeye tuna poke.
Unfortunately, there was a long wait for the appetizer, while the shellfish tower and poutine arrived in quick succession. Our waitress didn’t bother checking on us.
But we were pleased when it did show up. Big hunks of ruby fish were mixed with avocado cubes, pretty breakfast radishes and scallions for a great appetizer. Soyginger dressing was served in a small glass pitcher.
It was at this point that the main dishes arrived, and we quickly had to rearrange the table to accommodate them.
The two Maryland crab cakes weighed in at 5 ounces each and were an honor to the state. But were they worth $48? They came with only a salad of mixed baby greens. For that price, we expected more.
We really enjoyed the 18-hour crispy duck bun. The soft roll, gently lathered with hoisin mayo, was filled with a plump plug of juicy meat topped with shreds of cucumber, scallion, pickled carrots and cilantro for an Asian flair.
The New England lobster roll was also spot-on with a split-top bun stuffed with tender lobster bathed in butter.
The St. Louis-style ribs will make the carnivores in the crowd happy. The full rack was basted to a tender state with a piquant Not Your Father’s Root Beer barbecue sauce. It came with a mound of shoestring french fries and two parkerhouse rolls, glistening with butter and a sprinkle of salt. Everyone at our table wanted to taste these.
Our waitress perked up when it was time for us to order dessert and effusively recommended the skillet chocolate chip cookie. Even the gregarious runner who delivered plates to the tables urged us to try the cookie.
We did, and we’d like to thank the staff for the recommendation. The warm, fresh-from-the-oven cookie presented in a skillet would have won us over by itself. But add vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce and dainty honey florentine wafers, and you’re swooning.
Pastry chef Ahki Agnoustou turns out creative wonders for all the local Atlas holdings. His made-from-scratch Smith Island cake is a masterpiece.
Eight incredibly thin layers of vanilla cake are bound by creamy chocolate mousse and ganache. It may be the best version made off the Chesapeake Bay island.
Loch Bar is a great addition to Harbor East. It’s as hip and cool as the neighborhood. And there’s live music seven days a week.
Just don’t leave home without your wallet.