Donna’s

Donna’s has great food and great service. I feel you get a high end dining experience without the high end price. All 3 visits have been great. We will certainly be back again.

Went to dinner Saturday night. Good was excellent, service was excellent, can’t say enough good things about our delicious dinner. We had a party of 5. Every meal was enjoyed. Got the beet and cheese salad it was tasty and visually appealing. We had2 pizzas both equally delicious, 2 crab cakes, rich and flavorful, and the bouleuabase. It was so tasty and full of seafood. One of my favorite places to go. If I had to describe Donnas in one word it would be YUMMY.

Bone dry & over cooked turkey burger + horrible Caesar salad = regretful dining experience. The presentation was good but the food was bad. Good coffee and ice cream nonetheless. We won’t likely return.

This is the place that soothes my heart and nourishes my soul. Always left with more desire to come back because of the intriguing menu and impeccable execution of food.

I like the ambiance. The food is pretty good.
I think my favorites on the menu aee the trout and the donna’s salad. I always think it is a bit pricey bit always have a good time. Staff is nice but sometimes slow. Great place for outdoor dining — One of my goto places.

I really need to commit Donna’s to my mental list of go-​to places. It never disappoints in any ghastly way, which is major criterion for a go-​to place. I’m pretty sure I only stopped by the Charles Village location last year (since closed), but was really glad to recently get back to the Falls Road location.
The food is upscale, very flavorful, and those perfectly charred halved and quartered side potatoes are still a nice touch after all these years, though on this visit, they weren’t all equally heated through so I packed them up to fix them at home.
What stood out about this most recent visit was the wait staff in spite of a very busy weekday lunch crew. Teresa B (per the receipt — she looks a little like Donna herself!) was lovely and worth me stopping here for a review. She was very attentive without being intrusive, she was genuinely friendly, and she never rushed us as we lingered, again despite how busy they were. That is an art, and it doesn’t go unnoticed.
Looking forward to returning again in 1Q 2016!

Donnas is a place like no other. I have been coming here since I was a little girl. I remember I ordered noodles when I was little and they served them to me in a mug. It made me so happy I came back again and again asking for noodles in a mug. Donnas also has the most amazing, rich chocolate cake which I can’t seem to find on the menu but I know they had it last time I was there. Ask for it! It is worth any amount of money, I promise.
Additionally, the atmosphere and the service are just wonderful. Sitting outside or inside you will have a great experience!

I usually only come to cross keys for brunch, or if I have a work from home day.
Donnas makes consistently great lattes unlike neighbor village square café (also in the square), who used to have the best lattes when the redhead with the Jewish name I never got right worked there, but I digress… I love coffee.
Donnas is good, Dinner is seasonal, fresh and tasty. For the quality, well priced.
Outside patio area with heaters is as charming as can be.

Don’t order the ravioli. its greasy and you only get 4 raviolis with no veggies or sides for the same price as all the other more substantial meals… lame will not return! Gave 2 stars because the bartender /​coffee guy was nice.

I’d give it a higher review, but the two times I’ve gone left a bad taste in my mouth. I literally tasted garlic for two days in a row after each time. The chef needs to not add so much. Other than that, I like it.

Today was my first time at Donna’s and I was not disappointed. My husband, daughter and myself had breakfast and we enjoyed everything. The black bean and sweet potato omelette was delicious. The cocktails were good too. I shall return.

The beautiful trees and quiet setting make you forget that you are in Baltimore, or any city for that matter. It is a great place to have dinner with friends and relax, but
it is also fine if you take a book and eat alone. The food is delicious. It is reasonably priced. And, I never had anything but a wonderful experience.
My top recommendation is the lamb burger. Yummmm.

I really like this Donna’s location. I appreciate the diverse, high quality food and the emphasis on fresh produce. When the kitchen is on it’s A-​game, their sweet potato fries with sriracha mayo are the best I’ve ever had. The salads are very tasty. I keep coming back for the sicilian tuna salad. The burger is very good. The coffee is solid. The desserts are just so-​so.
I’ve always had attentive and warm waitstaff.
I love this place in the summertime when you can sip your iced tea out on the large deck.
Overall, a very dependable place for a good meal.

What a pleasant surprise! We went here on a recommendation, and it was worth the (very) short drive from downtown. Our server, Terri, was pleasant and knowledgeable about the menu items we quizzed her on, and she brought a second round of the roasted garlic & oil with delicious fresh bread.
The polenta appetizer with mushroom ragu and arugula set the bar so high, I don’t know if I should bother making this on my own ever again.
On a cold winter day, nothing hits the spot like butternut squash soup and hot sandwiches. Roasted red pepper and portabella was great, and my friend’s grilled cheese with granny smith apples and bacon looked perfect.
Although the good portion sizes had us comfortably full, we absolutely weren’t going to turn down chocolate mousse cake. Excellent choice.

I have been going to Donna’s since it first opened on Charles Street and I lived right around the corner years ago. I stopped there in the morning for my morning café, then I would hang out there at her bar on the weekends. I loved seeing her powerful tiny frame there, in the kitchen. Many of my favorite dishes have been omitted from the menu in recent years, but to this day, Donna’s still delivers. I have since moved to a new state, so I visit about once month. I enjoy the consistently good menu options on each trip. The wine list excels, the service is good and the food is fresh and delicious. Last night I had the sirloin and it was cooked perfectly with great flavor. I could have lived without the polenta cubes, but they were a great touch. They didn’t taste bad, but all polenta rings as ‘boughie-​grits’ to me. I love Donna’s flair for the European dining experience.

I could eat lunch here everyday! In fact, I did eat lunch at Donna’s (different locations) twice last week. This location has a very pretty interior, though we chose to sit outside. It’s lovely outside, too, with all the mature trees of Cross Keys. They have a nice variety of salads, which are well-​executed, and their pizzas are delicious, not too doughy, and not greasy at all. I ate salad and pizza both times I was there last week, but the other entrees, particularly the grilled cheese, at other tables, looked delicious as well.

We were very sad when the Columbia location closed so it was great when we were in the area and could try this location. It was just as good!
I love that there are always TONS of things that I could order on the menu. From burgers to salads, from quesadillas to full entrees, I’ve never been disappointed. The staff is also always willing to make substitutions and changes, which is nice.
I am always happy to return! It’s nice that Donna, the owner, is often around and is always interesting in checking in on diners. If you’re looking for a casual place with some healthier options, definitely check out Donna’s!

Honestly, I was not particularly impressed with Donna’s until we got to the entrees. In a party of 6, I was impressed with all of the dishes that came out in terms of taste and quantity. Even the roast vegetables, which could be a very plain dish, were perfectly grilled and quite tasty. I could imagine eating this dish all the time. The petite fillet was not «petite» at all.
Prices are a bit on the higher end, but this is one of the fewer «upscale» places in the area, so the prices make sense.
I wish the space had a little more ambiance. Our waiter also, unfortunately, had a bit of a BO problem, but it was only evident occasionally. It was clearly not offensive enough to dock my review one more star, but you be the judge.

So I’m stuck on this one. My niece brought us to this place, and its an upscale restaurant, that serves coffee and muffins for morning workers/​commuters.
We went here for dinner, and we were able to use a Unilocal coupon, which is always nice. The menu is diverse, with upscale and gourmet options. A little expensive, but I’m only comparing it against metro Detroit. equivalents. For 8pm, on a Thursday night, the restaurant was pretty full, but by the time we had finished dinner, around 9:15pm, most of the crowd had cleared out,
They have a nice wine list, and the beer offerings are sprinkled with local micro breweries, so I was able to try a Duckpin Ale from a local Baltimore brewery — it was a nice red, a little hoppy, but good. The wife was disappointed they didn’t have a cider on the menu.
We all opted for dinner, I went with the Kobe burger, the wife tried the Lamb meatballs, and my niece had the roasted vegetables — which is one of their specialties. The serving sizes were quite large, I don’t think any of us actually finished our meals, I know I was served half a plateful of well cook french fries, which I wonder if they used some duck fat to cook them in, and between the three of us we still couldn’t eat all of them. The Kobe Burger was good, not great, but it came with a tasty tomato relish and of course the great fries.
The Lamb meatballs were good, with tons of creamy mashed potatoes. The roasted vegetables was an elective grouping of mostly root varieties. They both enjoyed their meals.

Not impressed.
The service was awkward («may I bring out some bread?» «may I clean your plate?» «May I bring out some water?» — very odd, as that’s what you should probably do automatically as a server… right?)
The food lacked.
The bread was bland and in a pencil holder (I think I have the same one on my desk at work). The oil that accompanied it tasted like cooking oil. Not dipping oil.
The caesar salad was expensive, small, and the dressing was gross. It was also oil based, which didn’t compliment with the oil for the bread.
The potato gnocchi was also oily and had a funky flavour.
The only decent thing was the roasted duck with asparagus and mushrooms in a broth-​esque dish. Lots of meat and cooked well. It really could have used some seasoning though. I think they should have glazed and seared the duck and THEN put it in the broth, just to get more taste out of it.
Alas, it was a meal for the birds (no offense to the duck).
I won’t be coming here again.