Hen House Restaurant

I now live in Chicago and attempt to dine at Hen House at least once during every visit back to Frostburg. I swear the chicken has crack in it (just kidding, not really no really). A chicken dinner yields a huge delicious chicken breast, a dinner salad, roll, and the incredible homemade chicken soup. I used to go with my parents when they were able. Now I mostly just call in for takeout. I’ve eaten at the location on Bowery Street, the newer location on Longstretch, and its newest incarnation in the same location. The taste never changes, though, and that’s what keeps me (and will keep me) coming back for more every time.

REALLY UNDERWHELMING :
Went here for dinner on a Saturday evening. Didn’t need reservations for two — which was convenient but, still wasn’t a great experience. I had eaten here years ago before a dance and it was good, but it seems like things have fallen through for them.
ATMOSPHERE: This is a wide open space– which seemed cool, but was really loud and almost seemed like we were in a Golden Corral without the buffet table. Really seemed outdated in some respects but I can’t really put my finger on it.
FOOD: We ordered crab dip and entrees. Crab dip was 85% cream cheese 10% cheese and 5% crab. Was very thick and almost tasted like a paste. Maybe it was a down night for them — but I was very disappointed.
I ordered Chicken Chesapeake– chicken with crab dip (imagine that) and had to go through the same ordeal again. Yet– it came with soup and salad and bread (nice touch and appreciated) but the broccoli was cold and the chicken was dry.
I promise I’m not a habitual bitcher — but man! wasn’t happy.
SERVICE: The waitress was very friendly and attentive, and the hostess on the phone was helpful with directions and was patient with questions.
I’d try it again, but was just meh.

After reading the negative comments I feel like I need to say… chill. This place is called the HEN house so I wouldn’t expect a gourmet menu of steak and seafood (although they do have it on the menu) and if unironed napkins is a big deal to you, then im not sure what your petty ass expects from a restaurant. Also if a place is busy, common sense would say that the kicken is busy and your food may take a bit longer. Anyhoo, with that said our experience was good. This place was clean, the staff was friendly, and coming from DC I may be a little bias by saying this place is not over priced. Food was good and portions were on point. Not sure what people were complaining about with small portions, you fat bloated Americans.

I read many of the negative reviews on here and thus I wasn’t sure what to expect. The experience was great! The meal was excellent and the pot of soup that they start you out with was fantastic. The salad was good and plentiful too.
The servers were excellent. Despite our party being large and a wedding taking place in the back our food was on time, warm and the servers were super friendly. Overall an excellent experience!
The cheeseburger is excellent! So big I had trouble fitting it into my already large mouth! Well worth the trouble though!

I was a little apprehensive about this place because of a few bad Unilocal reviews but I am happy to say that my dining experience was excellent! Service was prompt and friendly, the ambiance was very open but still inviting, the restaurant was clean and the food was awesome!
We came in on a Sunday evening around six. The place was fairly empty with maybe a dozen or so tables seated. Our waitress was great. I couldn’t decide on what to get between the burger and the Hen House chicken so I told her to surprise me. She brought out a perfectly cooked house ground sirloin burger that was one of the best I’ve ever had. Then to top things off, she brought out a piece of the Hen House fried chicken. It was just about as delicious as the best fried chicken I’ve ever had anywhere.
Anyone who hasn’t tried this spot should put it on their short list. Get either the Hen House fried chicken or my favorite, the 10 oz house ground sirloin burger. I’d even say to try it again if you had a bad experience the first time. I was pleasantly surprised with this place.

We love the Hen House! We had our wedding there and couldn’t have asked for a better venue, food, service, etc. The owners go out of their way to make everything special and we were able to rent out the entire restaurant which made it a night to remember! When they have buffets for special occasions the food couldn’t be any better. Great place, great location!

Had the half rack ribs: very tender, sauce was good as well. The special today was a 20oz Porterhouse steak, several of the people I dined with ordered the steak… 5 stars !!!

Very clean, cute restaurant with some of the best fried chicken I ever had. Everything was super high-​quality, with fresh tasting ingredients. Delicious home-​baked bread and huge portions too.

I’ve have been eating here for many years. This place use to be great before it burnt down, and they had to build a new building. Now a days I would never recommend any of my friends eat there. The menu selection gets smaller and smaller year after year. When you go there they are always out of things on the menu. The portion sizes get smaller and smaller every year. And their prices are very high and keep going higher. The service is poor and never gets any better. Because the building is so big, the noise is terrible. They need to hang up some banners from the ceiling to break up some of the noise. The food is decent.
I use to love this place because of their large menu selection and large portions. And I never use to mind paying more. But I’ve decided that I can no longer continue to support this place as it always disappoints me :(sorry.

Very upsetting! I have never had an experience like I had this evening. One extremely rude waitress. I would never recommend anyone going to this restaurant. High prices and small portions with rude staff! Very disappointing.

Horrible service and small over priced portions. Their food is good and always has been but $ 28 for two very small crabcake is crazy. I’ve paid $ 18 for a one crabcake meal at Timbuktu in Arundel Mills and their one cake is bigger, and better, than three of The Hen House’s. Or waitress argued with my wife over our bill. A different one took our order and told her they could get her a kid size chicken Alfredo. When it can it was much smaller than what my daughter ordered. They charged us for two full meals. Three second waitress insisted my wife’s was full size because she’s saw it. Very rude and unprofessional. We won’t be going back for sure.

The food is good, but the atmosphere is very loud. it’s a big open room with high ceilings so it seems like you can hear everyone’s conversation. I like the food and look of the old restaurant.

Always a great experience! Wonderful food and great service!

What a painful experience.
We arrived at 7:20. This is a family style restaurant with what looked like a great menu for steak and seafood. We had to ask if they served alcohol as we were not presented with a drink menu, nor does the «ambiance» of the place feel like they would serve drinks. They did have a list, which with we were presented, but never asked again if we needed anything.
The crab soup could have been delicious if it were available, but it was not.
Somewhat petty, but the napkins were cloth and not ironed. We needed an additional napkin and a mound of unironed cloth was placed on the table before us. All we could do is laugh it was so ridiculous!
The service was weak. We gently reminded our server to fill our drinks, and we had to ask the server if we would ever get our meals, anything…
At 8:46, an hour and a half later, we received our dinners; one short, because the kitchen staff missed a dinner on our ticket. At 8:55, we received the final dinner. The restaurant closes at 9pm.
Food was ok. I had the salmon, Cajun. The accompanying squash and zucchini was well prepared.
Our group of six was comped for the late dinner and another that was sent back because the mussels weren’t even open.
Very disappointing!

A nice large open restaurant with delicious seafood. We were there with another couple last night and enjoyed their warm fresh bread and chicken soup and fresh salad that come with each dinner. Recommend the broiled seafood platter. Good portions and very tasty. The service was good and parking is spacious. The interior has a beautiful stone chimney in the center with attractive oak table and chairs and a large wrap around covered porch. Its worth the trip!

I see the rest of my Unilocal brethren has rated Hen House at four stars but honestly I’m not buying it. Maybe it was the long car ride to the Frostburg area that left me a little extra on the cranky side or who knows what but to me Hen House came across more like a two star experience or possibly three if I want to be generous but I don’t see that happening.
Let me explain:
We get there around six last Saturday and things are definitely busy. We get to the front door and see the porch packed and expect the worst. But upon entering the building we’re surprised to see only four or five occupied tables. So in other words, inside it’s dead.
We’re seated quickly and we order equally quick so things are off to a decent start.
One note about the menu, we’re told that all specials are sold out along with a side or two plus the kids menu items all come naturally and lazily with fries. When I inquire about subbing that out for something different our server responds «Why would you want to do that?»
Eventually we opt to stick with the fries just to throw them away as there was really nothing else to choose from that was any better. (The other choices offered were fried onion rings, fried hush puppies, sweet potato (you guessed it) fries or some type of asparagus.)
Now the waiting begins.
Our soup shows up after fifteen minutes and then the entrees take another forty. I mean I understand that outside was busy but the inside certainly wasn’t and from what I could see there was not a whole lot of food coming out of the kitchen but there certainly were a good amount of staff standing around the bar doing nothing and standing inside the kitchen doors doing nothing while our server during this time never checked in on us once.
So around an hour after we ordered the food finally showed up. The kids’ meals are pedestrian at best with the grilled cheese being portion wise very small and the spaghetti nothing to write home about either.
The lovely wife opted for the Salmon which she said wasn’t bad but after the amount of time we waited she also added that as long as it was edible it looked good. I chose the fish & chips and ehhhh, not so good. The fries were almost cold and two out of the four pieces of the fish were mostly greasy breading without much in the fish department.
Overall Hen House certainly looks nice but the service was slow, the kitchen I guess was overwhelmed and the menu was too inflexible-​small for our tastes to ever want to come back at the prices that are charged.

The homemade bread was delicious. Hubby loved the friend chicken sandwich. I enjoyed the (massive) fish sandwich. Salad was ok but the blue cheese dressing was tasty. Crab soup also pretty good. Definitely hit the spot!

Visited the Hen House for the first time with friends who had eaten there many times. The service was great, the portions were huge, the food was better than average, the prices were a surprise on the high side — compared to other places to eat in the area.
I ordered a fish sandwich and the piece of fish was so big that I could have used it for a cricket bat — no kidding.

A real surprise. Sick of the highway, we took Rt. 40 home to Frederick from PA. This restaurant is seemingly out in the middle of nowhere.
There is a massive wrap around porch with a boatload of outdoor seating. We ordered the broiled seafood platter. Crab cake had absolutely no filler, just huge chunks of crab. The shrimp were cooked and seasoned to perfection. The fish (i think it was haddock) had slightly too much butter, but other than that everything was seasoned wonderfully. The quality of the fish was honestly as good as some of the fish I have eaten in upscale Baltimore restaurants. The bread they serve is seriously dangerous. It is addicting and amazing.
Definitely recommend this place to anyone driving through.

Stopped by here for lunch driving back to DC from skiing at Deep Creek. Everyone was a fan of the fried chicken dinner; the chicken was excellent and good portion sizes for the three course meal (soup, salad and entrée). As a bonus, the bbq sauce was delicious and one of our party got an extra chicken breast because the chef considered the initial serving too small.
Will definitely keep in mind for the next trip through Frostburg.