Restaurants in Bel Air

A flame erupts, nearly as tall as the chef standing just inches away. In just a moment, however, the blaze retreats, vanishing as suddenly as the splash of wine that conjured it. Such a sight is commonplace in the kitchen of Vittorio Scotto and Diego Colamonaco, who grew up steeped in the passion for food and healthy living that characterizes their homeland, Italy. After moving to the United States, the duo opened Scotto's Café to celebrate the flavors of their upbringing and give diners a more personable alternative to chain restaurants. Each day, rich aromas float from the kitchen into the dining space, tantalizing diners as the chefs finish dishes with drizzles of freshly prepared sauces. The culinary team also portions meals in bulk to cater events ranging from birthday parties to millinery-school graduations.

Supper Thyme's goal is to de-stress the breakfast, lunch, and dinner hours by inviting visitors to craft hearty and nutritious meals beforehand. After perusing the monthly rotating menu, customers can select an assortment of calorie-conscious, family-friendly, or organically inspired dishes and schedule an appointment to come in and assemble the ingredients. Staff members then gather all of the necessary ingredients and utensils, ensuring that each meal can be assembled in as few as 10 minutes. In between portioning out servings, visitors can enjoy a snack while listening to music or chatting with fellow attendees in the shop’s casual, low-stress kitchen environment. The meals can remain safely frozen in homes' freezers, with easy-to-follow cooking instructions allowing customers to quickly thaw and cook entrees whenever they might need to feed families, guests, or a lost restaurant reviewer.

Welcome to MaGerk's Pub and Grill. We are located in the historic downtown area of Bel Air. Come on in and enjoy one of our Philly Cheese Steaks or a Jumbo lump crab cake! We've recently expanded and our new side has plenty of seating, Shuffleboard, and several plasma tv's for all the games!

When talking about his commitment to his store, Andrew Maggitti recalls the only day he didn’t open his shop himself¬—the day his son was born. But the new dad was back at it that very evening, overseeing the shop's daily bread kneading and sauce bottling to keep the goods flowing for his loyal customers. An award-winning executive chef and caterer, Andrew has cooked in restaurants across the country, but he seized the opportunity to showcase his passion for Old-World Italian cuisine when an old farmhouse in the area went up for sale.

Inspired by his Italian grandmother’s recipes, Andrew now rolls out meatballs and simmers from-scratch tomato sauce, helping the kitchens of locals to look and smell just like the ones he grew up in. Like the iconic delis of Baltimore’s Little Italy, he wraps capocollo subs in thick butcher’s paper and offers a small dining nook where customers can share his hot deli fare and whisper nutrition facts to one another. But it is the human bonds that come with being a part of his customer's lives, Andrew says, that ultimately connect his deli to its Old-World traditions. “Whether it’s me or my wife,” Andrew says, “you’ll always see a recognizable, smiling face when you walk in.”

A blue and gold-leaf sign emblazoned with ornate fraktur script welcomes guests into Josef's Country Inn, hinting at the restaurant’s old-fashioned European charm. Like a formalwear bathrobe, the dishes here are simultaneously homey and elegant: try the wiener schnitzel, crab-covered chicken Baltimore, or pork medallions, all of which have rich flavors and elegant presentation. There’s something for every meal of the day: for brunch, shrimp salad and eggs benedict; for lunch, a bacon-topped burger, and for dinner, Chilean seabass.

There’s a warm, cozy ambience to the interiors here: chairs and drapes are decked out in floral print, chandeliers glow overhead, and the walls are covered in framed portraits and parchment-colored paper.

From a kitchen inside the Clarion Hotel, executive chef Jeff Kirby concocts a diverse spread of southwestern-influenced dishes from sandwiches and Tex-Mex favorites to tender, perfectly cooked steaks. Kirby and company keep the Maryland crab soup and other crowd-pleasing dishes on the menu, but conceive new menu additions and daily specials to keep diners on their toes and to prevent cooking utensils from dulling due to complacency.