Taste Gastropub

So so food. So so service.
I probably won’t go back.
Lively atmosphere. Plenty of parking. The interior could use a facelift. For a gastropub I was expecting a little bit deeper draft beer menu.

Haven’t been here yet but I walked in and looked at the menu. Are they crazy? You’re going to charge fine dining prices with a décor like that? Granted, I’m sure the chef is very talented and the menu sounds amazing but it’s all in the experience. Get some professional interior decorating done and then maybe I’ll pay what you’re asking. I’d rather get it to go and sit in my house and eat it. At least my chairs have pillows and some comfort. Oh, they do have outside seating with couches so you can over look the stunning parking lot.

Food n beer were outstanding for a strip mall place in the burbs the waiter was nice to boot n i got an entertainment book discount. I highly reco the hanger steak

This place was a little difficult to find but it’s tucked away next to rite aid. I sat by the bar and ordered off the happy hour menu 4 – 7.
I ordered the buttermilk chicken, raw oysters, meatball sliders, hummus, cucumber yogurt sauce, calamari, and roasted eggplant. The food was good for the value but missed the marks on taste. The skin on the chicken had a lot of flavor but the chicken was fairly bland… Could use more marinatinh. The raw oysters had quite a bit of left over pieces of shell… Very uncomfortable. The calamari was served in a sweet… Sweet… Sweet sauce. I used the Unilocal check in for free dessert… Raspberry tart with ice cream (looked unappetizing but tasted quite delicious… Still a little on the sweeter side).
I would recommend to come here for a quick snack and a beer but I would move on to another place for dinner. I’d be happy to come back under new food quality management… But for now I’ll leave it at that.

Totally weird location. Kind of dumpy strip mall. Don’t be deceived. Great food. Great beer. Pretty good service. Would come back if I didn’t live an hour away!

Went with two of my girlfriends for brunch on Sunday.
The calamari was very bland, as was the crab benedict (according to my friends who ordered it). The shrimp and grits was thick and grainy with very little to recommend it. The shrimp were fresh and tasty, but there weren’t many of them and the rest of the dish was underwhelming. I was hungry and didn’t even finish my food, because it just wasn’t appetizing.
Had to ask for butter to go with the bread that was offered. That was probably the best part of the meal.
I won’t be back.

My rating is mainly based on service. Food is a good 3 or 4 but crappy service will make even a 5 star joint get poor reviews.
This was our second outing here, came for brunch about a year ago and received the same slow service. Came for a girls night out for dinner & drinks on a Friday with reservations this time. Décor is dark hipster modern. Entry area needs some work, most definitely not welcoming. You walk into a black box.
The place was about half full so we were sat immediately. Our drink order was taken within minutes but waited at least a good 10 before waters were served and another 5 to 10 before first round of drinks. Starting off bad again and it continued throughout the night. No app plates with apps, and sides for apps delivered an easy 5 min after. Ordered second round of drinks and pile of dirty plates just left in front of us. Then dinner served with no place to put them. So on and so on blah blah bunch of the same slow service. Anywho Greek salad with shrimp was good my girlfriends like the monkfish & salmon.
Probably won’t come back two tries and it’s the end of the road. Def more options in Olney that are better for the price.

Hmmm it was so much better when it opened years ago. Now, I’m confused what’s going on. Dirty, strange menu and over priced wine. $ 65 for a $ 15 bottle of wine. Really, that is just greedy. Never going back.

We entered and were not greeted. A jazz band was playing and the music was basically monotonous flute. Our server forgot several things that we asked for. All that and immeasurably upon arriving home, a ¼ mile away, I could no longer hold food or water down for the remainder of the day.
This isn’t a review that I write lightly, not an one of «those people» that enjoys nitpicking. On the contrary, I’ve spent many years of my life working as a server, bartender and restaurant manager. I have also been patronizing Taste since it first unopened under another owner and even after the change in management.
More recently it seems that its gone downhill. Not only has the chef parted ways, whom I have worked with several times professionally and have a deep respect for his work, but I’m now hearing rumors throughout our community that people have spotted roaches on the walls and even on their tables! I wish that I had known these things prior to my bringing out of town guests. No one was press with their food. My Crab Benedict clearly wasn’t good as per my body’s reaction, but the cheeseburger that was ordered was talked and dry and the fish from the fish & chips wasn’t fried in oil that was hot enough, therefore causing the batter to absorb all of the oil.
I couldn’t be more dissatisfied and disappointed. I will ABSOLUTELY not be going back. It really used to be a gem in Olney.

Meh.
The hype is definitely in over drive on this joint. I’ve gone twice. Once to drink and I went back because of the reviews and I wanted to try the food. The food: womp womp.
I ordered the calamari starter. It was bland. That’s the best I can say. The sweet sauce that goes with it is pretty good and made the calamari which was cooked well, just flavorless, a lil better.
Hangar steak frites entrée. First I looooove steak frites. But this presentation threw me. I’ve never been served steak frites where the steak isn’t sLiced and usually over said frites. This was like ordering a lil steak and fries. I ordered it medium rare. Yeahhhh it was rare on the inside, burnt on the outside. Nothing turns me off like the taste of activated charcoal via beef. The fries were adequate and the salad was too, even though the dressing was sugary sweet and sparse.
Dessert was FREE with my Unilocal check in & thank God cuz it SUCKED. I had the pineapple «cake» that the waitress said was good. I assume that’s true in the land of crazy but in Olney, it was grooooooosssssss. It was a shaped like a slice of pie, with a tough top and bottom, with overcooked pineapples and cherries inside a really tough and rubbery bread pudding-​ish center. …oh… with ice cream on top. All sitting on a pool of a translucent off-​putting vanilla like substance. Smh dude it was a FAIL!
The ambience was alright, pretty dark wood and candle light. But the waiter, the tall guy, needs to work on spacial relations surrounding him because he kept bending over to talk to the next table effectively continuously sticking his ass in my face every 7 to 12 minutes. And not just like facing me, but literally cOuld’ve burned his ass on my table candle. It was thoroughly annoying.
I had a couple drinks, the adult cream soda which I didn’t really like. It kinda achieved it’s goal but it has licorice flavoring that is overpowering and I don’t think licorice is in cream soda. The pear Collins is sweet, but not too sweet, tangy tasting and the cucumber is complimentary. Funny how cukes make everything taste fresher.
Anyhoo, this place is ok. I think a good happy hour spot and maybe some wings but for dinner, this pub is NOT about that life. :ol

Why I gave some stars: Lots of craft beers, good ambiance, nice gastropub feel, attentive and friendly staff, and a convenient place to get to with easy parking.
Why I docked some stars: food is very subpar. Went on a whim and tried the pumpkin gnocchi and my friend got it too. When it was presented it was pretty but the smallest portion of gnocchi I’ve ever recieved. I’m used to receiving a large amount and having plenty to take home after, but there were literally ten pieces. The presentation was pretty with a pumpkin sauce drizzled across and crumbled sage. But it was hard and overly chewy and very overcooked. Also, gnocchi should be shaped in little balls and these were rectangle pieces, it seemed like they took a couple strips of pasta and just chopped it up.
I was there on the 30^th of Oct with a group of 5 people and didn’t want to make a scene when the waiter asked how everything was, so I beared through it, but ça été terrible. If your food isn’t made/​cooked well then you lose a lot of stars from me since that’s the whole point of paying to eat out, to enjoy something yummy or at the very least, good. They were bold to take on gnocchi and pumpkin at that, but the chef should never put out a dish they wouldn’t eat themselves. I was also surprised to see that someone posted a picture of their gnocchi 20 days ago (about 2 weeks before I went) and it looks amazing, nothing like what I recieved. There were barely any chunks of pumpkin in mine :(

Taste has delicious food. The atmosphere is great and the staff is friendly. I wish the prices were a little lower. I love the community involvement!

Nice little pub atmosphere, really great fish & chips! I wasn’t drinking when my wife and I visited, but the new selection seemed fun. Dark bar lighting, but not a sleezy feel at all. Good service, the kitchen was accommodating to questions and a dessert substitution. We will certainly go back.

«Best Place to Host a Dinner Party…»
I just hosted a dinner party last week at «Taste Gastropub» in Olney, Maryland for 70 of my best friends and clients. The event was a smashing success! The staff at «Taste» were incredible to work with, they accommodated my every request, ALL of my 70 guests loved the restaurant and all of them raved about the excellent food and service. Everyone told me later that they are going to bring their families and friends back and others said they are going to bring their office staffs and clients because of the superb ambiance, food and service they enjoyed at the dinner party. I fully intend to host as many events as I can at «Taste» in the future. I can’t say enough about what an outstanding restaurant «Taste’ is. I highly recommend it to anyone. «Taste» and the staff made me look great in front of my friends and clients — and you can’t ask for anything better than that!
March 19, 2014
Doug Crowley

Came on a rainy Tuesday night with high hopes for my first experience here. Upon walking in we are greeted by a live singer right by the door. Always love live music so its a great start so far. After a few moments of nobody coming to seat us, I decide to take it upon myself to grab a table, no biggie right?
Our server Andrew came promptly and started on a courteous note.
Started with the Ahi Tuna Tartare, a fantastic opening dish. Fresh tuna served with radishes, a ginger oil/​evoo dressing, carrot and watercress. The tartare is accompanied with a focaccia bread. The tartare was great, but needed a bit of citrus for acidity to bring the dish together. The bread was great as well, but needed to be baked a few minutes longer. All criticisms aside though, this dish is a very strong opening.
Moving on to the main dishes.
Our party tried the Scottish Salmon, Short Rib & the Suckling Pig.
The suckling pig was a very poor choice. The parpadelle pasta served with it was flavorless, it needed to be pulled together with a sauce. I thought that was what the Madeira would provide, but it seemed non-​existent in the dish.
The short rib was a bit better. Properly cooked risotto is rich and creamy but still with some resistance or bite. This risotto unfortunately was quite dry and lukewarm, almost as if it had been left sitting under the lamp. The short rib sauce lacked body and was too watery. While the short rib was tender and fell off the fork, the dry risotto and lackluster sauce made this dish unfavorable.
The Scottish Salmon was by far the best entrée. The sauce had a great balance of sweet and savory, the salmon was cooked perfectly, and the accompaniments rounded out the dish well. But unfortunately, it just didn’t have anything that made it special.
Unfortunately, all of our main dishes were very meh. And I REALLY wanted to love this place.
Our server Andrew was GREAT though, as was the Ahi Tuna Tartare. Unfortunately, the entrée’s above have convinced me that this menu may not be worth the second trip, particularly at this price point. Who knows though, maybe seafood is the only way to go here?

This place has changed ownership and the menu. Raw oysters, craft beer, and a new menu including the tapas from the old menu. Sundays they have live jazz and a brunch with a Bloody Mary Bar.
New drinks! Try the Elderflower Martini– coming soon! Picture added.

Finally, a REAL gastropub in the area! So many other bar food-​serving restaurants claim to be a gastropub, yet have no idea what that actually means. It means great craft beer. Paired with even greater food. Taste is a real gem.
Started with a La Fin du Monde– very tasty Belgian beer. We had the calamari for an appetizer. It actually was kind of bland, but the smokey tomato sauce it was paired with helped. BUT our entrees more than made up for the mediocre start. I had the seared ahi. It was cooked and seasoned perfectly. It came with kale and a rice side, which paired very nicely. My date had the ribeye, and was nice enough to let me try it. It too was cooked perfectly and was juicy and tasty.
Awesomely, you get a free dessert for checking in on the Unilocal app. We chose the pistachio baklava. Although I prefer my baklava with more phyllo, and I was expecting more pistachios in it since it was in fact, advertised as a pistachio baklava, it was complementary and still very tasty.
Taste’s waitstaff was attentive and friendly. The tables are a bit close together, but luckily a charming grandparent-​aged couple were seated next to us, and their cute married-​but-​still-​very-​in-​love convo only added to our night.
I wish the other «gastropubs» in the area would take notes on the quality of Taste’s food and ambiance. Their claim to gastropub-​ness is making it hard to find true gems like this one!

So, was searching for a nice place to go for my birthday dinner and saw that Olney has a Gastro Pub!!! Super cool! So we ended up being a party of 15 and I was kind of worried that there wouldn’t be enough room since the place seemed kind of small. IT worked out, they split us into two tables of 8.
Food: Here is the run down of what people got:
Sausage Craft Lamb Sausage
Blue Crab Bisque — too salty
Pan-​Seared Rockfish — Catch of the day, mixed reviews
Pan-​seared Scallops — Too pricey
Pan Roasted Local Ribeye — too pricey
Seafood Pasta — 3 people got this rating: 7.5÷10
Fish N Chips — ⁸⁄₁₀
Roasted Chicken Sandwich — Didn’t like the Bread
The food was really good. I had the Pan-​seared Rockfish and I thought it was delicious! The food overall seemed to be pretty good.
Drinks: Good selection of beer, wine and specialties. I got an Orange Crush which was good. Not the best I ever had, but well balanced.
Service: Tatianna was funny and personable, pretty good for a waitress. I liked her a lot. A big group like us is always hard to deal with, so I always give the waitress a break. Plus, if you’re nice and you kept my sister’s cup filled, I give you an A+!
The décor was really nice, I liked it. I think I would come back for happy hour or to try the Charcuterie and cheese, but the main selections are a little pricey for me. This is not a place I would frequent I think.

This is a big upgrade from the previous menu here. Same layout but new theme (no longer just tapas).
We started with the calamari and lump crab dip. Neither were exceptional, but I can see myself ordering the lump crab dip again. The calamari was tasteless and the dipping sauce they use isn’t all that special either. I also got me a blue crab bisque. I enjoyed the taste of it, but if it was a little thicker, it’d be perfect.
My friend and I split the pork chops and ribeye, both medium-​rare. Both were cooked perfectly! I am truly surprised. These entrees were both very scrumptious, but if I were to choose one, I’d have to go with the pork chops. The extra stuff placed on the dish isn’t as good (grits vs. risotto), but the meat is all we care about anyway, right?! I’m trying to keep my gout going here…
Our server was good. Joyful and attentive. However, the tables are a bit close. They’ll seat you at all the 2-​tops, really close to each other, before they put people at the 4-​tops… even if the rest of the restaurant is empty. I was all up in the love conversation the ladies next to me were having, lol. Awkward… btw, love is something you show, not something you say…

This used to be Taste Mezza!!! What happened??? Taste Mezza was one of the best restaurants I have ever been to in MD. Now its just pub grub with a couple Greek tapas thrown in as an afterthought…
I am terribly saddened by this change.
Do not get me wrong the food is good but its just like most other places out there, so why would I drive all the way to Olney now?
Goodbye Taste Mezza, you are missed!!!