Waterman’s Tavern

Watermans has the best brunch in town. On Sunday’s they have bottomless mimosas and bloody Mary’s if you get breakfast. During the week they have really good drink specials. It can get packed pretty easily on the weekends and busy nights, but I still love coming here. All of the bartenders are really friendly and personable. They remember everyone who comes in, which is nice.

This place looks like a dive– attached to a liquor store, skimpy sailor girl on their sign– but the food is surprisingly good! It’s very close to my house, so I’ve been here quite a few times, at many different times of day. I’ve had the crab dip, the mussels, a burger, several of the soups, and more; and I even went once on their lobster special night (Wednesdays, I think). I’ve honestly never had anything bad. The portions and prices are reasonable. It’s a nice local place to go for dinner, late night food or just drinks; and the brunch is good, too. As far as drinks go, they have a good craft beer list, and the crushes are amazing and made with fresh squeezed juice. The service here is a little hit-​or-​miss, although it’s generally good. They also have a lot of 2-​for-​1 specials on craft beer and rail drinks. You get a token that you can in theory cash in for a free one later. This is great (and they seem to be doing this promotion pretty much every time I’m there!), but I often forget to bring my tokens back and now I have quite a large stash of them at home! They don’t make it super clear when you are supposed to use them (when you order? when the drink comes? when you pay?), and the awkwardness of this sometimes prevents me from using them even when I remember to bring them.
The reasons for 4 stars instead of 5: 1) the food is good, not mind-​blowing; and 2) there is something a little off about the set-​up of this place. There’s NO separation between the dining area and the bar area, which in theory is fine, but the acoustics are just terrible. This means that if it’s crowded with bar traffic, it is so unbelievably loud everywhere in the place! This is majorly annoying depending on when you go. For example, if you go for dinner on a Friday evening at like 8, If you are sitting at a booth eating, there are lots of people there at the bar area, and you absolutely cannot hear conversation at your table. If you are there at a time when the bar isn’t full of drunk people, or you come just for drinks and you are one of those drunk people, not such a problem. But I do NOT recommend coming here at a busy bar time just to chat with friends and have dinner.

First of all, I really like their combination system of pub and deli. I wanted carry out and it was super easy to order items from both sides-​they just sent the order over via computer.
I got the Smokehouse Panini from the deli. There was some confusion about the ingredients. The very eager and friendly new employee (her first day) pulled out the chicken lunch meat from the bin. (the chalkboard and the menu describe it as house smoked chicken) But then the owner (?) came over and had her switch it to the chicken salad. When I asked about it they said that they smoke their own chicken on the premises. While I was not expecting to have chicken salad on the sandwich, I was nicely surprised at how it bumped up the flavor profile with the celery, onion and mayo included. I watched another employee make the honey mustard sauce right there and it added just the right amount of zing. It was a delicious sandwich.
I also ordered a number of sides from the restaurant area. The garden salad was plentiful and fresh, the cole slaw (also made there) was quite good and unique with just a hint of spice, but the roasted vegetables while obviously fresh was a bit disappointing as it was pretty much just green beans.
Out of all of this great food, the topper was most definitely the Roasted Tomato Corn Crab Chowder. This now ranks as one of my top 3 soups of all time – right up there with the all night cooking French Onion soup from Petite Louis in Baltimore and the gorgeous cantaloupe soup from Les Folies. SUPER KUDOS – I do love me a great soup!!!
I would describe this place as a neighborhood dive with chef quality food. Everyone there was welcoming and I felt immediately comfortable chatting and asking about their various dishes. The food came out amazingly fast and the soup and sandwich were still hot when I arrived home some 20 minutes later.
If I lived closer, I would eat there every week. That being said, it is worth a special trip down to Edgewater regularly especially since I’m not sure I can live now without that soup more than a few days…

Just had the steak and cheese sub. Good tender flavorful meat. Fries weren’t that great, but hey I came for the sub! Will be back

Drove here from Bowie on a whim with the wife. GOOD CHOICE!
Food was great, drink specials were good also. Would come here much more frequently if it was closer.

Small space, BIG flavor! Our family had the oyster plate, Mediterranean flatbread, Ahi flatbread, side salad, cheesesteak and ff. Everything was GREAT! will definitely come again.

excellent food — try the stuffed mushrooms… excellent service by bartender Bellamy. I think she works on SNL on Saturday night too.

Fantastic food. It’s a bar though has really great food. Great place for lunch!

Based upon the great reviews, we gave this a try for lunch on Saturday. It wasn’t the fact that there was only one combined bartender/​waiter that was the issue because he did a good job… it was the fact that I spent $ 28 for lunch for one person in Edgewater, Md. Really? This is DC prices!
For full disclosure, I had the Reuben sandwich and 2 Blue-​Moon beers and I gave $ 4 tip.
My friend had a craft beer from Dover that was $ 7.35 for about 8 oz and the crab vegetable soup which despite the frozen vegetables was very good in her opinion. Her fried green tomatoes were awful and she sent them back and got the Reuben. Her second beer was comped — but her bill with tip was also $ 28.
The food was very good all around but I won’t go back without taking advantage of one of their specials. A Saturday lunch in Edgewater shouldn’t cost more that $ 15 including tip — right?

Great service amazing crab pretzel. Great to watch football and awesome atmosphere. Parking is a little tight but manageable.

Have been going here for a couple years with my family/​wife — great beer on tap, always an excellent IPA available. Check out there turkey Reuben and their spinach salad with blackened chicken

I really like this place. It has a very welcoming and friendly atmosphere inside. The service is always super friendly. The food is very good. Wonderful thin crust pizzas and pub grub with surprising upscale twists at times. Delicious tomato soup and sandwich. Booths and high top tables and a small bar make up the dining area. Oh, and free popcorn. Love this place.

Just moved here to be with my fiancé in Edgewater! I insist on brunch here almost every weekend. Eggs Benedict are amazing! Great food and service!

Watermans has great drink specials, all the staff are very humble and somewhere you can drink early and finish early. Only complaints is the size of the place, and that they are only open until midnight. Definitely a good place to have a nice bowl of cream of crab soup too, one of my favorites.

I’ve been to Watermen’s on numerous occasions, and have had really great food and drinks each time. It is clear they take a great deal of pride in the menu, this is definitely not just a bar with regular fried pub fare. The Rocko’s Tacos were delicious! I love fish tacos, and this rockfish version did not disappoint. The pizzas are delicious, and Pulled Pork BBQ sliders were crazy good. The bread was definitely fresh baked and not some regular food-​service grade buns. When dining once with my father, he commented that his burger was one of the best he has had anywhere.
What sealed the deal for me was our last visit. We went on a Sunday for brunch and it was AMAAAAZE! I have seriously never had a more perfectly poached egg than I did that day on my Chesapeake Egg’s Benedict, and the Bloody Mary was perfection.
Apparently they bill themselves as having «upscale pub grub»… I really don’t think they are doing themselves justice. This is foodie-​worthy casual dining. Definitely worth a try! Also try the fresh-​squeezed Orange Crush.

I love this place. You might not think twice about trying it, but the food is good, and the best part is that it is CONSISTENTLY good. I’ve been going here for lunch on Fridays for a couple of years and it never disappoints. The service is welcoming — Mike is the bestest, go for lunch on Fridays and he’s there. I love that they always have a few very good craft beers on tap that rotate frequently (and Mike is super knowledgeable on the beer) and there’s a mug club for good pricing on said craft beers. Since they are affiliated with the liquor store next door which has a great beer selection they have a great bottled beer list in the restaurant too. They have internet trivia and board games, so it’s a nice place to sit around and enjoy a beer or several while hanging out with friends. If you save your lunch receipt you can get a discount in the liquor store! At happy hour it tends to get busy and loud, but they have $ 3 food specials which is pretty sweet. If you’ve been intimidated to try this place, go at lunchtime to try their delicious food in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere.

Went here again last night and was so happy to see it packed. It’s a small place so it doesn’t take too many people to fill it up but the last time we were here it was practically empty. We even had to grab seats at the bar because all the tables were taken.
Super generous pour on my Pinot Grigio and it came in a stemless glass. Loved that. I was just hankering for a pizza so I didn’t pay too much attention to the menu even though it was clearly reworked from our previous visit. Not a problem, as I plan to return… soon.
Our 16 inch pie (only size) looked pretty darn good, although the top could have used a couple more minutes near a flame to give the generous cheese layer some color. The pizza came with olives, green peppers, onion and sausage and was cut into squares (hey chef are you from Chicago??). Only real complaint was the lack of olives. Boo hoo.
In general, for Edgewater, this pie was pretty good. The sauce was kind of sweet (which seems par for the course in Maryland) but since there was not too much of it on the thin crust, it balanced out just fine. It hit the spot and satisfied the craving.
Service was super friendly, atmosphere was lively, and the food was steps above normal pub fare. Glad to see someone trying to elevate the local taste buds.

This is a great neighborhood spot. There are some TVs, some games, a beer store next door to hit on the way home. This is truly a gem of a spot.
Pros:
The food is twice as good as you would expect, pizza and daily specials are usually fantastic.
Good place if you want to get loud with some friends
Cornhole setup outdoors
Cons:
Really, really loud.
Service isn’t very good, I can’t tell if they are understaffed or the staff just isn’t great, but if you hang out for a while expect to wait for a beer every once in awhile.

Very unassuming place. Service was more than welcoming. The kind of place that if you go there a couple times the servers/​bartenders will know your name. Huge beer list, good prices, a lot of specials during the week. It’s a must go flat out. And I didn’t even say anything about the food yet.
I got the blackened fish taco’s w/​green beans and onions which were sautéed in a white wine sauce. My date got a crab cake sandwich with coleslaw and homemade (I think) potato chips. The fish was perfect. The green beans. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten green beans so fast — just a great meal. I didn’t try the crab cake, but I was told that it was all lump –no filler and was the ideal Maryland crab cake. Simply, if you’re ever in Edgewater or in a 20 to 30 mile radius, it’s worth it.

I really like this place. There different food and appetizer specials everyday and the service is always friendly. It’s probably the least expensive place to get a pint of Yuengling in the Annapolis area.
My favorite thing to do at Waterman’s is play yahtzee or scrabble at the table– especially on Sunday because Wanda works that day!
The Ruebens are outstanding, and yes, you can walk right through the saloon doors to Londontown Liquors, which also has good deals.