Restaurants Near Renaissance Harborplace Hotel

[speyerer]

We will be in Baltimore March 18th through the 21st any suggestions for restaurants near Renaissance Harborplace Hotel?
We are looking for a place for seasood, including steamed crabs, and an Italian restaurant.

[speyerer]

We chose Dalesio's of Little Italy it had nice quiet atmosphere and excellent service. Nice wine list but somewhat limited menu, however I wanted Standard Italian Restaurant Milanese Sauce over pasta and my wife wanted crab cakes. Both were excellent. Some could consider the Milanese heavy but it was perfect for me. Surprisingly the crab cakes were excellent almost pure lump crabmeat. The accompanying Escarole was sautéed to perfection in just a hint of olive oil.
Another stop was Vaccaro's Italian Pastry Shop in Little Italy for a quick lunch.
I ordered Vaccaro's “Muffuletta”. Which is a heated Panini made with provolone cheese, ham, Mortadella, Genoa salami and a chunky style olive tapenade. It was very good and filling. With multi layers of meats and cheese it was large enough to feed more than one person. We finished the lunch with a special St. Joseph’s day pastry.
Before we ended our trip, we stopped at Attman’s Delicatessen on Lombard and had a Corned Beef with mustard on rye.
All in all a great Baltimore experience.

[speyerer]

We also stopped in the Lexington Market for cold, plump raw oysters. Wonderful!

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Lexington Market
400 W Lexington St, Baltimore, MD 21201

Dalesio's Restaurant of Little Italy
829 Eastern Ave, Baltimore, MD 21202

[lawhound]

Oddly enough the best Italian food (with the exception of Vaccaro's for pastry and coffee, also Cafe Piedigrotta for pastries and simple, but delicious manicotti, lasagna, etc.) is not in Little Italy. Cinghiale, mentioned below, is terrific, so is Sotto Sopra (less than a mile from LI) and Pazza Luna, perhaps two miles distant.

[speyerer]

A friend reccomended an Italian Restaurant located within a block of the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel but coludn't remember the name... maybe LaScala. Any help?

[Sop]

La Scala or La Tavola are two of the better, moderately priced LI choices.

[Doh]

You might consider taking the water taxi over to Fell's Point and checking out some of the places over there (like Peter's Inn or Kali's Court).

[bordeauxfan]

You'll be staying in the heart of the Inner Harbor, which is mostly chain central (from downscale through upscale). You should definitely search this board though, since this topic comes up often.

Seafood -- the Black Olive
Italian -- many restaurants nearby in Little Italy (search this board for various discussions on pros and cons), as well as the upscale waterfront Cinghiale
Steamed crabs -- you'll still be out of season for local crabs.

[speyerer]

Thanks Bo; we like to avoid chains e.g. Phillips, (although we do enjoy Legal Seafood). A place we will not miss is a place we enjoye on our last visit: Vaccaro's Italian Pastry Shop!

[AlexDer]

Legal Seafood is no longer in Baltimore.