Birroteca Baltimore

Convenient location if you’re visiting Union Brewing or if looking to get a bite around Hampden. Awesome that it has a giant parking lot as well. I think the ambiance and service is a 4.5÷5, but the food is just ok. We had meatballs, a kale salad, and a pizza and all were just OK. The service is fine and the beer, wines, cocktail list is solid. I’ve been here a handful of times and just have feel like their food is a bit disappointing.

This is in my neighborhood and I have been about a dozen times. Often in a party of 4, and the last couple of times with my partner.
Birroteca has AMAZING cocktails and a great wine list, good choices if you just want one glass of wine. The atmosphere is really good, stone walls, different mix of spaces, and a glass of pencils to go with the paper topped white tablecloths. It’s quite easy to park in the large lot.
It had been a couple months since we had walked down for dinner, as the last time I was there my kale salad was filled with sand. It happens sometimes, the server was great, she brought a different salad to replace it.
Last night we had a table at 6:30, I had a Jack Rose and my date a fancy Sidecar.
We went off the rails a bit when the waiter made a rude comment about how closely I held my menu. He apologized immediately, gave me a minute, came back with another authentic apologie, recused himself and replaced with a new server. Unfortunate accident, but a professional recovery.
We stayed for an excellent Puttanesca pizza, with a GF crust ($ 3.00 upcharge). The very outside of the crust often comes nearly black. We also enjoyed the fennel scented salmon family plate. Cooked perfectly, also quite an amount of black char on the crispy skin.

We loved the intensely craft beer friendly MD Beer-​loving vibe but it was certainly more heightened than usual with the HomebrewCon in town. We were squeezing this place between stops & had just had a big meal so we only made room for a meat/​cheese board and a couple beers. Our server Christine was beyond adorable. She was so enthusiastic about the beer, the whole place felt so much more happy and exciting because of her upbeat brand of earnest hospitality. Cannot wait to return one day for a full meal and many more amazing craft beers.

One of the few places in the area that will serve parties larger than 8 on Fridays and Saturdays. Service was exceptional. Wait was a bit long, but waiter made up for it by having (awesome) appetizers waiting for us when the table was ready. Food was also delicious, especially the puttanesca and duck duck goose pizzas, and it came out in perfectly timed waves for us to share.
Overall, great experience!

EPIC. I’m not much of s pizza/​pasta guy but wanted a casual place for dinner, and two of my local friends highly recommended it. I had no idea it was going to be this fabulous. Pizza and pasta my _​_​_​! Mussels were good, the gravy was dunkable with the house made bread from pizza dough… Those price sensitive, they charge for bread and you will want a couple orders. The wild boar pappardelle was off the charts. Both the Caesar and beet salads were excellent. Brussels were wonderful. My guests loved the risotto and gnocchi, which j didn’t taste as j was way passed stuffed when they and the two pizzas came. Duck pizza and the fennel sausage pie. Ok, we over ordered for 4… Lol. But seriously, the food was excellent. Must try.

This place is just ok as far as food. The service was wonderful. It was a little loud inside. I had the eggplant fries which I liked. I also had the mushroom pizza. I love mushrooms and pizza but this pizza was cooked to long. The bottom was burned. Every bite all I could tastes was the burned bottom. I also didn’t taste any sauce. The manager was very nice and discounted the bill and gave a free dessert. I can’t say I would come here again.

Don’t let the back alley drive and gravel parking lot deter you from dining here– this place has amazing food and drinks! I was first introduced to Birroteca a few years back by a friend and immediately questioned if I was at the right place upon arriving. If it weren’t for the huge sign on the side of the building, I would have probably turned around. As soon as you step foot inside, you know this place is gonna be good! Charming stone walls, unique ceiling designs, wine glasses on every table– very nice ambiance!
I’ve been here a few times and highly recommend making reservations! I’ve seen many people turned away at the hostess stand due to no reservation. Speaking of hostess stand, it’s a hutch like you would find in your grandma’s kitchen and it’s placed in a weird/​awkward location. I saw a few people walk in and the hostess was off seating people. The guests kind of stood there like they weren’t sure what to do or where to go.
The food and drinks are what keep me coming back. I think they have the best charcuterie and cheese selection around. You can choose either 3, 5, or 7 selections. They are beautifully presented with pickled vegetables, bread, mustards and jellies. We waited over 20 minutes this past visit for our charcuterie to be brought to the table– I thought that was bit excessive (especially since I was HANGRY), but it was delicious once it finally arrived. The Pretty in Pink cocktail was not overly strong and a nice balance of sweet fruit and spice. I am also a fan of their pizza. You’ll probably see at least one pizza on every table in the joint– they are SO good and big enough to share. This visit we tried the Pistachio Pesto pizza– the pistachios gave great texture to the cheesy pizza. The Hand Made Pappardelle with Wild Boar Bolognese is out of this world amazing. I find it quite comparable to a pasta dish that I had at Joel Robuchon’s Michelin star restaurant in Paris– it is THAT good!
Overall, I really love the food here. The service was a little lacking this visit (long wait for charcuterie, long waits between courses). Our server was very nice but she was a bit inattentive. Also, they have different people running the food and they failed to explain what our 3 selection charcuterie contained. We ate everything on the board, but it would have been nice to know the names of the meats, cheeses, and accompaniments. No worries, I will be back!

I recently moved to Baltimore and asked a colleague where I should go for a nice meal out by myself! (What a loser!)
This place will not disappoint! Really great liquor menu and the food is high quality! It is definitely a smaller menu than most places but I’m sure anything you get will be amazing! Great place for a new food adventure!

Birroteca is a great place to grab a drink, eat some delicious vegetables, and pizza. The pizza here is pretty decent. The toppings can be unique (duck, duck egg, fig jam) but overall, it’s pretty straight forward.
Frankly, Birroteca gets a 4 star for the vegetables. I am crazy about the cauliflower dish and the crispy brussel sprouts. I don’t know what sauce they use for their cauliflowers but I could eat it ALL THE TIME. The brussel spourts are always crispy and flavorful, and never too oily.
Price point for pizza is a bit high. I easily dropped over 50 dollars on a take out meal. Birroteca also has a great drink list if you like to drink with your pizza and food.

We got the crispy Brussels sprouts, pork belly, duck mousse with crackers for appetizers. My favorite was the Brussels sprouts and least favorite as the duck mousse. It tasted like the nastiest gibletty part of some meat that no one likes– turned into a creamy mousse. The duck duck goose pizza was ok, nothing I would crave. For dessert, we had a Nutella cheesecake, and the olive oil & sea salt ice cream. What’s up with the hipsters putting salt into every dessert? The Nutella cheesecake was great. The ice cream was pretty good but once we put the dark chocolate on there, it became a salty mess. Service was pretty good. Overall, an ok hipster place.

Great place to have a nice but casual meal. My boyfriend and I came in for our date night and had a wonderful time! We sat at the bar and started with the pork belly, mussels, and an arugula salad. The pork belly and mussels were delicious but I could’ve passed on the arugula salad, especially for the price. The dressing on it was way too astringent and bitter. For our main entrée we had the Duck Duck Goose pizza. It was pretty good although I could’ve done without the duck egg. I felt like it wasn’t cooked through enough. I am all for a runny egg but the membrane was still slimy.
Now for the service. Both of our bartenders were very nice but one of them got off before we were done. The one who stayed behind was phenomenal. I should’ve asked her name but she had blonde hair, bangs, and a nose ring. She was so sweet and friendly, but not overly talkative and annoying. I am a bartender and I hate to admit it, but I judge really hard when it comes to proper customer service. She was attentive, friendly, and personable. Made for a really nice night out!
If you’re looking for yummy food and legit service you should definitely give this place a try :)

This is such a great restaurant with an excellent menu. The appetizers and sides are great, especially the Brussels sprouts and bruschetta. The pizza was also really tasty. The only dish I didn’t like was the shrimp risotto. There was something off about the taste, but our waitress was great and took it off our bill without any problem.

The pizza here is everything! I think it’s the best pizza I’ve had in my life. The crust was amazing. Very relaxed and intimate atmosphere. I would recommend booking reservations especially on a Friday night because it gets very packed in there. There is bar sitting but, that gets full quickly. If you like a chill, relaxed vibe. This is the place for you!

To sum it up, I feel that the food lives up to the excitement of Birroteca’s menu. Birroteca has been on my «to do» list for quite some time and I’m glad that I was finally able to make it out there.
Atmosphere: classy and casual. There is elegant seating in a dining room as well as a bar with a cooler vibe that has high top tables.
Service: Friendly, informative, accommodating. As it should be, right?! One time I went and we had three people show up and our waiter, handled the last minute additions beautifully. He was super nice about the unplanned guests and he didn’t make us feel like we were overstaying our welcome. The one hang up that I have about the service is that sometimes it’s a tad bit slow. I won’t completely throw them under the bus because each time I’ve been to Birroteca, it’s always been during peak hours.
Food: I LIVE for a quirky menu and they completely delivered on it. Per basic foodie rules, I had to try what seemed to be the most pictured item on the menu — the duck duck goose pizza. YUM!!! Call me basic… I don’t care! Try it! I’ve had custom charcuterie plates and various other menu items… all wins! I went for my birthday and they treated me to a complimentary dessert so I chose the profiteroles with olive oil ice cream and a chocolate sauce drizzle. Perfect finish to a beautiful evening!
If you have Birroteca bookmarked, please get your butt over there for a visit. I’ve added them to my list of favorite places in Baltimore. :)

Really intimate and sweet spot! Make a reservation. We dropped by around 6 PM and the tables were already booked until 9:30 PM on Saturday night. So we sat at the bar which wasn’t too bad!
Duck duck goose pizza was surprisingly pretty sweet. But we loved it. The goose egg in the middle was ¹⁰⁄₁₀ GREAT addition to the pizza.

I celebrated my best friend’s birthday here the other night and we all left stuffed and happy. Since we were a larger group we sat in a high top table near the bar.
To start off a couple of us ordered the winterberry Moscow mule. Our waitress told us that they make their ginger beers in-​house so I was really intrigued. The mule came in a cute glass in a bucket of ice. It was tasty, but on the sweeter side so I probably could only drink one or two. I split an appetizer of the calamari with my friend and it was really good. Normally I don’t really like unbreaded calamari but this one was very flavorful and cooked just right. I also split the Duck Duck Goose pizza with a friend. This might be one of my top 5 favorite pizzas! It had duck Confit, fig-​onion jam, balsamic, fontina & asiago and a duck egg in the center. And it was the perfect size to split with someone. And after dinner our waitress brought over a complimentary birthday dessert for my friend.
Service was on point throughout dinner. Also, if you use the City Dining Cards app there’s a discount!

I can’t believe I’ve never reviewed Birroteca before. It’s one of our favorite and go-​to places in Baltimore. The staff is always polite and eager to please. The beer & wine lists are big enough that you have a wide variety to choose from but arent overwhelmed. The food never disappoints. Like, ever. We always start with a charcuterie; do yourselves a favor and just let the charcutier choose the meats & cheese for you. They prepare the most beautiful boards, complete with in-​house made pickles, mustards, marmalades, etc. Duck Duck Goose is our favorite pizza, and Pappardelle for entrée but order anything, you’ll be happy. Limoncello cheesecake is light and tastes just like limoncello, so good. If cheesecake isn’t your thing, just have the house made limoncello over ice.
The atmosphere in the dining room is quiet, dimly lit by candles. The bar is a little louder but not rowdy and eating at the bar is still a very nice dining experience. Birroteca is child friendly but I’ve never noticed a child running around, terrorizing the staff and other diners, and I’ve never been disturbed by a screaming child. I have seen children seated at the bar before, which I think should not be allowed, but they were very well behaved. The dress is causal, not sloppy. All in all, totally worth a date-​night, dinner with friends, or celebratory dinner & drinks spot.

I went here for a birthday dinner and had a great time. The restaurant was sort of in the middle of nowhere next to some train tracks but at least parking was easy. I figured an Italian restaurant would have a large wine selection but they were surprisingly limited. They did have an extensive beer selection though.
I wasn’t too hungry so I ordered a salad without cheese to make it vegan, and it was very tasty. I also liked the paper over the tablecloth that you can draw on! Definitely recommend this place for family dinners.

Perhaps my favorite thing to eat is pizza. And the pizza from Birroteca in Hampden is no different. Fun fact: Birroteca is owned by Robin Haas, the same genius behind another favorite of mine, Nickel Taphouse.
A friend and I met for dinner at Birroteca and decided to share a few things.
We started with a Caesar Salad, the salad was very traditional and had ciabatta croutons. However I wish the dressing would have been slightly creamier.
Next, my friend and I shared an order of the Papperdelle. The pappardelle was topped with wild boar bolognese, and ricotta salata cheese. The pasta was incredibly fresh and you could tell it was homemade, the cheese also added a nice creamy texture to the dish. This was probably one of the best pasta dishes I’ve had in a while.
And lastly, we obviously had to share a pizza, it’s what Birroteca is known for after all. We went with the Locavore pizza. The pizza was topped with mushrooms, onions, pecorino, fresh mozzarella, EVOO, and arugula. I’m a huge fan of fresh vegetables on my pizza and this was no exception to the rule. The arugula added a nice freshness and cut through the pizza grease.
If you’re in Hampden and looking for great craft beer and pizza, Birroteca is sure to satisfy you!

What initially started off as a mediocre start to dinner finally made its way to a 3.5 star experience. I came here last night with 4 other friends, and we were excited to visit as we had heard good things about their food. We ordered:
— Tuna Crudo w/​Yuzu, Mustard Oil with Pickled Watermelon Radish ($ 14): 3.5 stars. The cuts of fish were not the most beautiful in terms of presentation (different sizes, unclean edges), but the flavors were quite light and refreshing. The sprinkle of salt on each of the tuna slices really accentuated the flavors of the fish, and the kick of the horseradish was fun as well.
— Salmon tartar w/​Duck fat crackers ($ 13) — did not try myself, but presentation was nice.
— Seared Cauliflower «agro dolce» ($ 8): 3 stars. You get a decent portion size for the price, which I appreciated. However, the dish did not come out warm and the cauliflower was quite soggy… which to me took away the point of the sear. I suspect that it was sitting out while the other dishes were being prepared.
— Orecchiette w/​duck liver, cipollini onions, sweet peas white wine, thyme, parmesan ($ 19): 3.5 stars. I tried a bite of this. Good flavors, a bit muddled for my taste but the flavors were creamy without being overwhelmingly so.
— Duck Duck Goose pizza w/​duck confit, fig-​onion jam, balsamic, fontina and asiago, duck egg ($ 19): 4 stars. Probably my favorite dish of the night. The highlight for me was the fig-​onion jam, which was delectably sweet without overwhelming the other flavors of the pizza. The duck egg on one of the dishes was overcooked so the yolk was hard, which was unfortunate. I also really liked the crust on the pizzas! Surprisingly flavorful and nicely crispy.
— Mushroom pizza ($ 19) — did not try, but the general consensus was that the duck duck goose was better.
Now onto the service (initially 1 star, bumped up to 3), which almost (and still kind of) singlehandedly ruined my experience here. The food took a while (and by a while, I mean over an hour) to come out, which is unacceptable no matter how busy an establishment is. To make things worse, our waitress was not apologetic at all. When we asked about our food, her response was «well everybody else is waiting too.» Great… good to know. But not my problem. We fortunately had nothing to make later in the evening so the wait was not unmanageable, but we were getting really antsy and it wasn’t until the manager came over and apologized that I felt better about waiting. He seemed very sincere, which I really appreciated and even gave us 20% off on our bill to compensate for the wait.
Overall, food was good, but not waiting for over an hour good. But I would be willing to come back if someone wanted to check it out again.
Basically: FOOD = 3.5 stars, SERVICE = 3.