Domestic

Meh
I’m not sure why this place just doesn’t do it for me but I’ll take a stab at it. First too me it’s a uncomfortable space. I always feel cramped even though it’s a decent sized restaurant. The food is well intentioned but they are trying too hard. Things never seem to live up too description.
For instance Sriracha and Honey wings sounds good looks good but the wings were just barely done and kinda bland. *Note to the culinary world: don’t rush wings.
Then the beer…3 beers on tap. All craft but… 3 beers? There’s small but decent wine list. They make house cocktails. I guess too my point I could swing a dead cat in Frederick and hit 10 places just like this one and they prolly execute better.
If you should come to Shepherdstown and you can’t get into somewhere else Domestic will not be a disaster but if you live in civilization I think you’ll agree with me.
Service is usually decent. Parallel parking is a must too park close.

Food was excellent, but definitely smaller portions. More complex, likely to use buzzwords like organic and farm to table… You know what I mean.
The desserts were fantastic!

When Domestic first opened its doors, while I hoped it would succeed (because we really liked its nearby sister Dish [which has since closed, sadly]), I feared it was doomed.
The retail space it occupies, you see, is cursed; NOTHING can survive there.
The first year or so was rocky — great ideas but inconsistent application, friendly but occasionally inept service, that gunshot from the upstairs apartment.
Fortunately for us all, Doug and his staff continued to try to do better. These days, every trip to Domestic is a pleasure. We visit regularly — every other month at least (and sometimes every other day) — and enjoy whatever we have, whether it’s drinks at the bar, a themed dinner, a quiet lunch, a fundraising event, or appetizers and local music.
Drink a delicious WV beer. Eat fabulous WV grass-​fed beef and pork. Try Domestic. Here, out-​of-​towners get to feel local, and locals (like me) feel at home.

My mom and I were on the hunt for a good lunch place in Shepherdstown. There weren’t a wide variety of options so we decided to check this place out.
It looked completely empty upon walking in around 11 30 on a Saturday, which made us a bit weary. But that was totally gone once we got a look around the place. So cute and really homey!
They were offering bloody Marys for $ 5 so obviously we took advantage of that. I was sad when it tasted just like tomato juice and ice, so I brought it to the bartender who made it super spicy and less icy on the second try. Yum.
We started with the mussels. Very tasty, as was the wine sauce. Nothing special though.
For lunch my mom ordered the cheesesteak which was different than she expected. The cheese was actually a cheese sauce and there wasn’t enough of it, and the steak was odd.
I however had an amazing lunch. You need to try the bacon wrapped whiskey dog with gouda sauce. It comes with two and is incredible. The bacon is crispy as it should be, and the gouda is a great addition. The combination and ratio of flavors are on point. Damn it… now I want one.
Solid place. Check it out.

This place is definitely worth trying out! We will be going back soon. Had lunch here today for the first time and we loved our food. I love the restaurant’s décor and fun vibe. Loved the Bloody Mary I ordered. Apparently, they make their own Bloody Mary mix in-​house. No nasty V8 juice with high fructose corn syrup lol. The staff is incredibly nice and efficient as well.
We look forward to our next visit.

Delicious food, outstanding service! I ate here with my husband and my five year old son on a Saturday evening. I had the tarragon chicken which was absolutely delicious! Very moist and flavorful. Also, the place had a great vibe, yet was welcoming to families. We sat up front by the window. The manager gave my son sidewalk chalk and he drew outside on the sidewalk while we waited for our food and while my husband and I finished our meal. In exchange for his artwork, the manager gave my son a free piece of chocolate cake! Needless to say my son loved the restaurant, too. Would definitely go back!

I have been in to have a beer before and was quite pleased.
5 stars for ambiance and décor. Well done.
Friendly staff.
All great so far …
But the food.
My meal was a disaster. I didn’t want it to be a disaster! I wanted it to be 5 star.
If you scroll through my reviews you can see that I eat a LOT of burgers at a lot of respectable restaurants. I’d like to think I have a good gauge for «what’s OK» and what isn’t.
Chopping up a raw onion and putting it in your burger?
Not OK.
Especially since I expressly asked for «no onion, I hate onions …»
At first I thought it was just an overly flavorful and gristly burger.
Nope! I am crunching on onions.
Yuck.
I ate half of my burger.
Fries were OK but the presentation was truly lacking and my catsup (ketchup?) showed up long after I was done eating.

When Domestic first opened its doors, while I hoped it would succeed (because we really liked its nearby sister Dish), I feared it was doomed.
The retail space it occupies, you see, is cursed; NOTHING can survive there.
The first year or so was rocky — great ideas but inconsistent application, friendly but occasionally inept service, that gunshot from the upstairs apartment. Fortunately, Doug and his staff kept trying!
These days, every trip to Domestic is a pleasure. We visit regularly — every other month at least (and sometimes every other day) — and enjoy whatever we have, whether it’s drinks at the bar, a themed dinner, a quiet lunch, a fundraising event, or appetizers and local music.
Try Domestic. Their extensive beer and wine selection (which always includes a number from the area) and fabulous grass-​fed WV beef and pork combined with their chefs’ seasonally-​inspired offerings make it a locavore’s choice. Try Domestic. Make it your choice, too.

I came during the Shepherdstown Festival as a refuge for the pouring rain. I liked the sparse yet chic décor and the service was good. I wanted to just sample the place and had a caprese salad. It was tasty and I had a strawberry cheesecake drink with a graham cracker crust. I didn’t taste any of the alcohol but it had a nice flavor. The menu did seem a bit pricey and it cost more than I thought it should for two cups of Maryland Crab soup, a caprese salad and a drink (I had my two girls with me). But overall, I would come back.

If I could rate this restaurant purely by aesthetics it would be a resounding five star review! However, since I had to rate it not only the aesthetics, but also the food and service, I would give Domestic 3 stars.
Having gone to Shepherdstown at a late hour for a Father’s Day lunch, I was ecstatic to find that such a cute restaurant like Domestic was still open at 3 pm for lunch. We walked in and were enthusiastically greeted and seated in a well-​lit room with interesting artwork on the wall.
The menu was basic — appetizers, salads, sandwiches, burgers. Basic isn’t bad, it’s just… basic. At the recommendation of our waitress, I ordered the portabella (mushroom) sandwich with fries. The portions were small, but the meal was good. My brother ordered a burger about 7 – 10 minutes after the rest of us placed our food orders, but it took much longer (over 20 minutes) for his meal to arrive after everyone else had finished their meals. It wasn’t a major inconvenience because we weren’t in a rush to go anywhere, but it would have been nice to have gotten updates as to why it was taking so long, or offer him bread while he waited or something of that nature.
The wait staff, though friendly, were splitting their time between servicing our table and servicing folks at the bar. I know we were not eating during peak «lunch» hours, but that made it hard to get our server’s attention.
If I lived in the area, I probably would frequent this establishment for their drinks and appetizers, but not a sit down meal.

Cute and hip little spot in Shepherdstown. We were in town from Los Angeles and found this great restaurant on German Street. We very much enjoyed the local beer options The great service. I had a yum Lasagna and my sister had a turkey burger which was so so. All in all a great eat!

Nice décor, friendly staff, delicious food, gluten-​free options and — best of all for me — dog friendly! This is one of the best restaurants I’ve tried in the area. For sure will try them again. Recommended.

Fantastic! Fantastic! Fantastic!
First, let me start by saying that Shepherdstown is a delightful little college town. And, Domestic is a delightful little restaurant! I REALLY wanted a bloody mary and the bartender didn’t disappoint. Their craft beer selection was well paired to their menu. The food was fresh and YUMMY! Well done, Domestic!

Great menu. Changes periodically with new innovations. Very good value for your money. Same meal in DC would cost at least twice as much. New pastry chef — leave room for desert. A regular diner from DC.

Domestic continues to provide the best eats in town as a new chef steps up to deliver savory and sweet in a new way: fast! Two new features at Domestic include an expanded desert menu and the ability to serve large parties in a timely fashion. I didn’t think it could get better, but it did. The wait staff is exceptional as usual, and if you are lucky enough to get Leslie as your server you will also get the benefit of her lovely smile and attentive service. These changes show that the owner is involved, knowledgable, and dedicated to providing the best space, food, drinks, and service possible. Keep up the great work, Domestic!

To put things simply, Domestic has been a bit of a disappointment so far for me. I’ve been twice, once for a lunch on a Sunday, and another time for what should have been a nice date on a Friday night.
If I were to review this restaurant exclusively in comparison to other restaurants in Berkeley County, it might deserve 3 stars. If I lived a little closer, it’d be a fine place to stop for drinks and appetizers, but that’s probably it. Obviously it’s higher quality than the run-​of-​the-​mill chain fair around, but it still has far to go to live up to it’s own menu claims of «what we think an American restaurant can be.» Be
The first time I went, the first thing the server let us know that nearly everything on the printed menu was no longer accurate. She was friendly and helpful, but when every item on the menu is changed, it can be a bit of a pain to figure out what you want and to remember what she said. Service was a little sluggish, but not overly so, and the food that first visit was reasonably good, but the portions were a bit small and the prices weren’t justified, in my opinion. Overall, I thought it was a decent lunch, but nothing special. Still, I liked the ambiance, with the local art decorating the walls throughout, and it looked like they had a decent selection of drinks. I definitely wanted to give it another shot on a dinner date another time.
Unfortunately, the second trip to Domestic, a date with my girlfriend, did nothing to improve my impressions, and in fact, quite lowered them.
The visit started well: we had called ahead to see if we should get a reservation but were told that wouldn’t be necessary and they had open seats. We arrived and were seated quickly. Our server did a bit of a hit-​and-​run at our table at first, saying «hello» and dropping off two glasses of water and disappearing before any other words could be said. She came back a few minutes later and complemented my on my style, and asked what she could do for us. It didn’t take us too long to decide we both wanted to try the prix fixe 3-​course selection of BBQ Bacon-​wrapped Shrimp, Ribeye Steak with red potatoes, and chocolate cake.
Little did we know at this point which direction the evening would take. We waited about 20 – 30 minutes for the appetizer shrimp. These were in interesting concoction, and while I’m not normally a big fan of many shrimp dishes, these were pretty good, mostly because the shrimp were truly mammoth-​sized – though there were only two for each of use. It was downhill from there, though as it took OVER AN HOUR for the rest of our food to come out; an hour between appetizer and entrée is unbelievably unacceptable. When I finally started to ask the server how much longer it would be, she cut me off in mid-​sentence and said the food was on its way. The entre did eventually come, but it wasn’t what the menu described. The potatoes had been replaced with risotto, which caused my girlfriend some concern as she is very particular about what she orders due to some allergies she has. Had she been told the the menu was changed, she could have ordered something else – instead of waiting over an hour for something she wasn’t expecting. The risotto was good for what it was, in my opinion. The steak itself was very thinly cut – probably the thinnest ribeye I’ve had. I ordered medium rare, but it was cooked a little past that. It was still quite tender, but the taste was nothing exceptional. Both steaks had large sections of fat, leaving the already smallish 8 oz. steaks even smaller. The chocolate cake was served cold; I doubt it was made in-​house. It was again satisfactory, but nothing special.
Midway through eating our entrée, our server came up to the table, knelt down and asked if there was anything she could do to make our experience better; she noted that she could see in our body language and faces that we weren’t satisfied with our experience thus far. We let her know about the allergy concerns over the menu change, regarding which she was very apologetic for not having informed us. She stated that she would offer us dessert on the house, but since that was already included in the prix fixe, she offered to take the one meal completely off the bill. Then either the manager or owner stopped by as we were wrapping up dessert, and he noted that he was very sorry that our experience was less than perfect and that there were problems in the kitchen.
I do hope that Domestic is usually a better experience for other people and that the my experiences have been the outliers. Before they took the one meal off the bill, I was thinking that I probably wouldn’t return, due to the slow service, high price, and mediocre food. However, because they did make an effort to make things right, I’ll probably give them another shot eventually.

YASSSS! 1 million yes’s for Domestic, please! I went here with my friend, and the menu was so well written, we couldn’t decide what we wanted. Everything sounded so good. The chef happened to be nearby and she recommended some amazingness she just whipped up. She even gave us the backstory on the veggies and the farm they came from. Gave me some shades of that one Portlandia sketch but regardless, THE FOOD WAS SO GOOD! Every five seconds, my friend and I kept saying, «oh my god, this food is so good.»
Absolutely delicious. Seasonal. Savory. Fragrant. Goat cheese so good, you’re going to grow goat horns. I don’t remember what I ate, I just remember how I felt while I was eating it. Isn’t that some testimony right there?
Great place. I wish I was a fancy person who had fancy events they could cater. If you’re scrolling Unilocal wondering, «eh, should we eat here?» do yourself a favor and please eat here!

Upon recommendation from my friend who is a Shepherdstown native, we ended up at Domestic on a Saturday night. We walked in and the place was nearly empty– we were seated in the main dining room and we were the only ones in there.
The menu states that their concept «reflects our views on what we think a creative American restaurant can be.» With a statement like that, you’d think the menu was going to be really innovative and exciting! Maybe I am spoiled by the foodie wonderland that I call home (and others call Atlanta), but I wasn’t blown away by Domestic. The food was alright, but their marketing may have oversold it.
We shared the beer battered mushroom appetizer, and it was ok but badly needed seasoning. I had the veggie pot pie, which was more like a stew with a thin layer of crust on top (c’mon man! everyone knows you get pot pie for the puff pastry!!). My friends seemed to like their chili and flatbread. But overall, the food was nothing to write home about.
If I could, I’d give 3.5 stars for a nice drink menu and cool ambiance. If I lived here, I would probably stop by for drinks and apps.

A Family Meal Ruined By Poor Service
This is not a food review due to no food being served. We went into this restaurant with high hopes due to a fairly high review score. BUT DO NOT BE DECEIVED. We sat for a full hour before having to REPEATEDLY ask the wait staff about our appetizers. Who proceeded to tell us that people that made reservations had priority over our meal even though we were there far before them, And when our appetizers finally arrived half and hour AFTER THAT they were cold and sub par at best. We finally left after a hour and 45 minutes had passed. Currently headed to five guys with for better service and better food.
Update to my experience at Domestic.
The owner of the resturant messages me calling me a jackass and told me never to come back. A real restaurant would of invited me to comeback and win me over. But it seems that Domestic really doesn’t have the food to woo me. I will never know because they didn’t serve me any.

This place is really cool and it has a lot to offer with it’s attentive service, comfortably hip atmosphere, and delicious food.
I decided to give it a whirl for two reasons:
1) I was missing home (San Francisco);
2) I loved the aesthetic.
It’s a radical departure from the fast food, chains and crumby restaurants in the surrounding towns. Great specials offered on each of three nights I visited, each and every meal was delicious! From the pork chops and rib eye, to the grilled caesar and grilled asparagus — the food alone begged me back (my three visits were in one week by the way!). The owner was there on two of my visits — he’s very friendly and down to earth.
I appreciated their simple but ample menu, and the selection of wine, cocktails and beer (think hand-​crafted).
**of note, they’re eager to assist in gluten alternatives and even have a gluten free beer!**