Restaurant Review

I decided to try another new restaurant that I haven't dined at before. Today, I tried Gunning's Seafood Restaurant in Hanover, Maryland. The restaurant is located just off MD-100 (going toward Ellicott City) at exit 8. When you come to the stop light, you take a left on Coca-Cola Drive and another left on Dorsey Road (Parkway Drive). The restaurant will be on your right in a small strip mall.

Parking wise, the restaurant doesn't offer loads of parking. When I arrived for lunch, I found out that I'd arrived at one of its busier times. I ended up parking in one of its side parking spaces. I got to practice my parallel parking skills which frankly stink.

After I managed to park my car, I walked into Gunnings. I found out they have two areas to eat a bar area with some tables and a dining room. I ate in the bar area though not at the bar. It was obvious that the bar area is where sports fans liked to hang out. There were at least 4 tv sets with at least one broadcasting some sports channel I'd never seen before.

I waited for someone to seat me but after 3 or 4 minutes, I picked a table myself. The table had a couple menus so I scanned them to decide what I wanted. I ended up settling on the cream of crab soup and shrimp salad platter. To drink, I settled on Sprite as they didn't have Root Beer. I then looked around for a waitress and finally had to ask one of the people working there for one.

After about 5 or 10 minutes, my soup arrived. I think someone let the soup cook too long because the soup had the texture of pudding. I would scoop up a spoonful of it and it would jiggle just like pudding. Taste wise, the soup was excellent but, it just didn't seem like soup.

After I finished my soup/pudding, my shrimp salad platter arrived. I tried the house dressing and thought it decent. The shrimp salad was loaded with big chunks of shrimp. I was surprised by this as I'm use to shrimp salads that have smaller pieces. Still, overall I thought the salad was good.

I didn't try any of Gunnings desserts as they didn't have anything that really impressed. Price wise, my lunch ended up costing just under $21 before tip. I thought it was a decent price for what I had. Service wise, once my waitress showed up, the service was excellent and I had no qualms tipping her the standard 15%.

Overall, I thought Gunnings wasn't anything fancy and definitely isn't fine dining. I also wasn't impressed with its choice of seafood dishes. For a seafood restaurant, I would've thought their seafood menu would've been bigger. I would've also liked to have seen their prices for cooked crabs. They stated on the menu they offered them but they never gave a price. Still, they are a decent restaurant with good service. On a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest, I'd rate them a 3. If you want a nice decent restaurant to eat at, they're worth considering BUT, I wouldn't go out of my way to eat there. Bon appetit!