Brick Wood Fired Bistro

Based only on the bar area, we had a great time at Brick. It was a few weeks ago, but we came in on a Saturday night and were surprised by an awesome live band. They were great. Our bartender was attentive and the drinks were plentiful.
We did have an apple dessert that wasn’t that great. While tasty after a few drinks, it was only sautéed apples with raw oats on top. After a while, the oats kind of turned into oatmeal which was good, but I can’t really say much about the food. We will give it another shot.

The family and I have gone here multiple times now after moving from out of state. The kids food needs to be geared towards kids. The thick seasoned steak fries don’t play for most kids. Simple cheeseburgers, hand cut and breaded chicken strips, and crinkle cut fries would be good. You can do that without trying to make it too flavorful or fancy. Kids like simple. I’ve enjoyed my meals, not spectacular, but not bad. I enjoyed my pizza and my burger. The french dip with focaccia is a little odd choice. A crustier french type bread would play better.

Stopped here Sunday after church with the family and had very good meals. The beet salad was tasty and different with panko crusted fried goat cheese instead of the typical crumbles. Presentation was nice. The Tuscan chicken sandwich was very good with a thick piece of scratch made mozzarella cheese on herbed ciabatta roll. The kids decided on a single cheese and pepperoni pizza that was more than enough for two to share. Crust was thin, crispy, and light with slightly browned/​charred edges; what one would expect from a brick oven. If you have picky kid eaters that don’t eat a plain pizza this may not be the place for you– there are no plain burgers or chicken nuggets on the menu.
Oh, and the homemade kettle chips with the Greek dipping sauce are awesome!

Food is Awesome!!! Went in here kind of doubtful because the reviews weren’t that great. But I was pleasantly surprised! That have lots of craft beer on tap which I like and some food is farm to table which I also love! Owner and sever were knowledgeable and attentive. Drinks were awesome. I get the feeling from the reviews that people and Calvert have never seen anything like this before so that don’t know how to take it, but get hip because it’s awesome!

Ok, so. I’ve been here twice, a few weeks apart. The first time was a few weeks after they opened. I’m going to run down the food, the atmosphere and the staff.
I’ll get this out of the way up front — I do think it’s too expensive. Coming from St. Mary’s, I can drive a little longer and be in DC or Annapolis or… And for the quality here, it’s just too expensive. They can improve easily however so I hope they take some of the criticisms to heart. I know I’m not the only one making them.
Food — the food is decent. The first pizza I had was a pepperoni. The second trip I had a Margherita. Their crust is a little thicker than typical Neapolitan pizza. I think they could use more sauce. Also, I think they’re still getting the oven right as the temperatures have varied significantly the two times (could tell by the oven spring and the char around the edge of the second pizza). Meats and cheese were good. Salad was a good salad — I do wish it had been described however so I could’ve wished the olives away. Truffle fries were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside with a subtle seasoning and a very intense ketchup based sauce on the side. I’ve only had the brownie sundae — the brownie was a little overcooked but the ice cream was excellent and frankly the two together pair nicely. It was bigger than a single person could comfortably eat after a meal.
And, they have Coke Zero!
Atmosphere — bar area is huge and has a ton of seating both at and around the bar. There are plenty of TVs for sports or whatever. Seemed like a good selection of alcoholic beverages — however they do not offer half pints. It is also pretty dark. The other seating area is typical restaurant. Large booths, good lighting.
Staff — the staff I have encountered were all friendly. First server was more attentive than the second, but variation is to be expected. Both times were weekend lunches and neither time was terribly busy.
All in all, if they could fix the pricing I think it would be a solid 3.5 or even four stars. That’s my biggest gripe to be honest. Minor improvements to the food would also go a long way, but the pricing is higher than any competing restaurant in the immediate and even far flung areas.

The place looked gorgeous. It was one of the best looking restaurants I have seen in awhile. The people were friendly and the food looked excellent. The only thing wrong was the food. It had no taste!!! Nada, zero, zilch… The mozzarella nope, chicken wings, french fries… all looked nice but zero taste. The French dip, even the au ju sauce was tasteless. It was actually pretty remarkable that the food could be cooked properly, look great, but have absolutely no taste. Please, please Brick, hire a chef to come in and demonstrate the use of spices and fats!! use lots more butter!!!, you don’t even have to change the menu, every dish looked great, just please add flavor! Please let me know if you do hire a flavor consultant and I will def return and update the review! Lots of potential here…

Very mediocre pizza and steak, rather strange schedule of charges for the overpriced wine.

I needed a bite to eat and went I on a Sunday, yep the bar was packed. I started with the oysters brick and was pleasantly surprised! I wanted a little something light, I could not make my mind up between the chili and the soup. My server brought me a little sample of both and I opted for the chili. Yum! It is not cheap for Calvert County compared to Ihop, Bob Evans and a bunch of other little places in the community but for those of us that like a little something up scale this place is a great choice.

Give it a shot! Had a late night Thursday dinner here. Was pretty empty so seated right away and didn’t wait to long for food. Water is served room temp from a carafe, would’ve preferred cold. Got the chili and cornbread as appetizer… Best part of the meal! Decently spiced and bread was really good. Pizza was big enough for 2 to share and the chicken dinner was large portion as well. Debated on wine since they have a decent list, but just couldn’t talk myself into paying $ 30 for a $ 10 bottle of apothic… I would come again tho I wish there was more of a variety on menu.

The food entirely too expensive for the quality they present — it’s completely bland and their seasoning (or lack thereof) is terrible. The service is so-​so, and we didn’t have to wait for a table when we went, but even the atmosphere of the place is kind of all over the place and doesn’t make a cohesive statement about their style. The menu is confusing — they need pictures and a better setup of what you can and can’t do, and they ought to have a separate listing of their sides instead of offering specific things with specific dishes. Nobody orders that way, anywhere, ever.
I ordered their steak option medium rare. It didn’t even taste like steak — it tasted like some kind of general meat with no real flavor to it. I will give them that they cooked it perfectly, but don’t charge $ 20 for steak tenderloin — at least offer a steak that has good flavor to it. The sauce they had on top was okay, because I like spicy things, but it felt like it was only there to mask how bland and tasteless their steak was. The fries weren’t good… tasted soggy. Their macaroni and cheese was un-​salted. I could tell they didn’t season the water for the noodles before cooking them. I had a taste of their pizza and the thin dough looked very appetizing, but flavor was not there — It was definitely lacking a salt element.
Perhaps it was a cooking staff issue that day and I hit them on a bad day or something, but I don’t plan to try again.

My Wife and I tried it for the first time. Things that I liked:
1) the building and overall layout.
2) The fries and house made ketchup.
Things I didn’t like:
1) Server knew nothing about the menu… Couldn’t even give an intelligent response to our questions.
2) Everything tasted burnt. From the brown marinara that came with my meatballs to the completely burnt and bitter tasting dough on my wife’s pizza.
3) The pricing for the quality of food and service… It doesn’t take a genius to realize that pizza dough and marinara are cheap so why over charge someone for a burnt subpar product. Yes I know cheese is very expensive but Wow!
We probably won’t come back for a while.

We ended up at this restaurant because we failed epically at finding a seafood place open on a Tuesday. We had 5 people in our party and were seated right away, but not without first some attitude from the hostess lol.
Our server was great, very attentive and knowledgeable about the menu. We got a couple apps for the table which I wouldn’t recommend if you have more than 2 people in your party or you order lots of apps. We ordered the meatballs (comes with 2 meatballs) and truffle fries (big fries, I think we got 1 each).
The truffle fries were not successful and need to be changed — they need to be smaller so you can actually taste the truffle oil and not just all potato. The meatballs were delicious and had a little kick, they were my favorite.
I ordered the margharita pizza which was interesting. I’ll start off by saying I liked the crust, and the cheese and sauce appeared to be homemade and/​or fresh. However, instead of sliced or diced tomato on top as I’m used to seeing, they used the sauce as the tomato element. I don’t personally agree with the decision but if you must go that route, then you HAVE to use more basil. I think there were 4 pieces of basil on my whole pizza so after a couple slices it was literally just a cheese pizza. It could’ve also had more cheese but that might just be the dairy addict in me lol. My MIL got the BBQ chicken pizza and loved it so I would probably recommend getting that one.
NOTE: If you get the margharita pizza, request that they put more basil on there — the waitress said that she would’ve welcomed that request.
Dessert was not good. I got the «coffee and donuts» which she described as a beignet type dessert so I was greatly looking forward to it. The coffee was crap but I didn’t care, I wanted the beignet. Sorry to say that what I was served was not a donut or a beignet, but a fritter, and a dense one at that. I didn’t finish it.
I like their «local» mentality and their service, but the food needs some work since the menu seems to be hit or miss.

Went in on a Sunday evening and was seated right away. We ordered two appetizers — the chile and the meatballs. Both were awesome! Perfectly sized as a lunch order or dinner entrée if you aren’t too hungry. For our entrée we ordered the clambake pizza. The crust was cooked well but overall it was extremely bland. Adding salt helped but not enough to where I would order it again. I suggest maybe a pesto sauce base.
The cider sangria was amazing. Perfect blend with slices of apples and an orange wedge. The apple slices absorbed the citrus flavor and was delicious when we ate them.
Our overall experience was good and we’ll be back. Would recommend.

I hope Jason is confusing us with another family as we received no discount and I have attached our bill to prove it. No manager approached us either but I appreciate you reaching out. Hope you can get the kinks out and run a successful business.
Original post: Went here for family dinner on Sunday, bad service and terrible food. Our server had no idea about the menu and was unapologetic when I found a moldy tomato in the top of my untouched salad. At no point did he come back to the table to apologize or ask if there was anything else I would want as a substitute. In addition, I asked for ranch on the side, and the salad was doused in vinagrette. A manager neglects to come

Service was good, but they still need to shake out a few of the new business hiccups.
Pizza margharita was bland to the point of flavorless.
Mushroom pizza with caramelized onions was tasty but the crust was a little on the raw side.
Street corn was also not very interesting, and the 5 servers we asked could not identify the buttery blob or the other side seasonings when asked. I think the servers need to be shown what’s on the menu a bit more clearly.
Truffle fries had very little (if any) truffle oil
Salad, on the other hand, was drenched in dressing… we should have asked for it on the side.
Also noticed that the suggested tip on the bill was based on the pretax amount… that rips off the servers, who survive on tips.

This place gets 3 stars because it has room for improvement, not because it was a bad experience. Actually, my first encounter was negative– we went on a Tuesday. Arrived at 6:30 and were told it was a 10 minute wait. 30 minutes passed with the hostess insisting the table was almost ready. We ended up leaving. I almost didn’t return, but we wanted to give it another shot.
I returned on a Monday with 4 family members and my baby. We were seated immediately. Our waitress was incredibly friendly and got drinks started quickly. The beer selection is awesome, particularly compared to most places in the area. One minor complaint– water was filled from bottles and our waitress only carried a couple with her. None of us got full glasses and we didn’t get refills (but didn’t ask for them either).
Our appetizer was the truffle fries. They were really chunky– maybe ¹⁄₈^th of a potato each? Not my choice for fries, and not much truffle flavor, but they were yummy.
We got 3 pizzas and two others got entrees. My husband asked for his pizza well done since likes a crisper crust and it came out very brown but the bottom of the pizza was white and undercooked. The other 2 pizzas were undercooked as well. Flavor of all of them was great, texture was off. My mom’s bolognese entrée was ok, but bland. My brother’s french dip was awesome. Service was really good except for not getting water refills.
The manager (?) Came out during the meal and chatted with us. He heard about the pizza texture and comped us a couple beers, explaining that they’re still figuring out the oven. That was a really nice gesture.
I’ll most likely be back to see if they figure out their oven situation, but I’ll likely wait until it’s less busy so we don’t get the super long wait we experienced the first time. Still working out the kinks, but I’m hopeful, so I’ll probably return.

Food is high quality. Service is very good. Portions are plentiful. Price is high for Calvert County, but the quality is also high for Calvert County.
The steak salad is awesome. So is the half chicken, which BTW is big enough to split with another.
I also recommend the feed the monkey, if they have it on tap when you’re there.

Main issue:
It took over an HOUR to get our food! (sat at 7:47. Food arrived at 8:51)
Other issues:
1. Food was «ok» (Overpriced for quality. chicken was dry and salmon was undercooked)
2. Appetizer came out with meal when we ordered it long before the meal.
3. Waitress took 10 min to get to table. (We didn’t even have water. after being seated)
4. Waitress visited the table across from us 4 times before taking our order. (I had to wave her down)
5. Our drinks were sent to the wrong table.
In response to their comment, I can see that management seems to be an issue as well. The deflection tactic is not professional. No one wants excuses for bad service and food.

Great service, no problems there.
Food was not good at all and way overpriced. Definitely won’t be going back and super disappointed when we left.

Restaurant looks good, pizza is good, wait staff was pleasant. The lady at the front door needs to be more helpful. We walked in the front door with my brother (adult) who can walk, but has a tough time now and then, felt a little dizzy when we got inside the door. My mother and I tried to get him to the bench but were having obvious issues holding him up, she just stool behind the desk staring.
Overall the experience was fine. If you have a need, or expect additional services for special needs folks… try somewhere else.