Chief's - Your Neighborhood Bar, Tall Timbers, MD

It's been a while since we dined at Chief's but it's become one of my daughter's favorite places so we agreed to head over for a Sunday evening bite.

Chief's wasn't very busy (I considered that a good thing since the last time we stopped by the parking lot was jammed and the place was pretty much closed for a private party) this evening - there were several people on the deck, 4 people at the bar, and 8 people besides our foursome for dinner.  We had our choice of seats and within a minute or two a server was taking our drink order.

Chief's is not fancy - plain formica tables, metal frame chairs, a few tables have oil cloth coverings ... you get the idea.  There's a roll of paper towels on each table, S&P, Old Bay seasoning, etc.  Drinks were served promptly, no cocktail napkin - but hey, I've got an entire roll of paper towels - ha!

Our orders: 
Diner 1 (yours truly) - crab imperial stuffed flounder, french fries, cole slaw.
Diner 2 (hubby) - crab cake dinner (two cakes), french fries, cole slaw.
Diner 3 (daughter) - cheese steak (go figure!!! - but it's one of her favorites and she orders it at Chief's regularly).
Diner 4 (son-in-law) - crab cake sandwich, french fries.

The flounder and crab imperial were delicious and presented gorgeously - flounder laying flat with a slit in the skin, slightly opened to accommodate a mound of crab filling -I rate this a solid 9 on a 10 scale - can you believe it - at Your Neighborhood Bar!  The crab cakes were fried (neither diner chose the broiled option), crisp on the outside and well-seasoned and flavorful on the inside.  The cheese steak looked huge and was exactly as my daughter expected.  I think Chief's makes their own cole slaw - it's wet and brings back memories of Grandmom - I know they put sugar in the dressing!

I'm very particular about service.  Our server was a college student, attends CSM studying Environmental Science.  He was a very polite young man (I didn't get his name - I don't need to be friends with my server but I should have asked his name so that I could follow up with Chief's management about how pleasant he was).  Our server told us the specials of the day very clearly describing each.  I asked if he had tired them - and to my surprise he said that he had!  How many times has your server not had a clue about what they were offering you for dinner?!  He actually recommended the crab stuffed flounder and I later thanked him for that recommendation.  The biggest deal for me was when our server brought our silverware and napkins (so, okay, they were paper napkins) before dinner was served.  Again, how many times has your server brought your food and you've had no utensils at the table?! 

Chief's was a Sunday evening pleasure!  It's about to become one of my favorites, especially since they routinely have soft crabs in season and I remember having them at the restaurant last year.  It's so nice to have a neighborhood place to go for good food.

Check them out - http://www.wjdent.com/, Monday thru Thursday 4-9 p.m., Fri Sat Sun noon-9 p.m.  Give me a call and I'll meet you there!