Over the past year, Howard County's thriving restaurant scene grew even more diverse with the addition of a sophisticated vegetarian restaurant, a dim sum palace and two Ellicott City brick-oven pizza parlors.
Great Sage (5809 Clarksville Square Drive, Clarksville, 410-535-9400), which opened in June, is a vegetarian restaurant serving flavorful, imaginative food in an elegant environment. The menu is coded so diners can tell if the meal is vegan, soy-free or gluten-free. Entrees - which include a Tuscan stack of polenta, spinach and roasted vegetables, and a Thai dish with the rich flavors of lime and coconut milk - are about flavor as much as health.
Jesse Wong, owner of the Asian restaurant Asean Bistro (8775 Centre Park Drive, Columbia, 410-772-5300), has opened Jesse Wong's Hong Kong (10215 Wincopin Circle, Columbia, 410-964-9088), which features a complex menu of hundreds of traditional dim sum items, from familiar pork-filled dumplings to more unusual fare such as frog meat with butter and chili. Like Asean Bistro, it also offers more traditional Asian dishes for less adventurous eaters.
As for brick-oven pizzas, Ellicott City diners can choose between Luna Bella (8809 Baltimore National Pike, 410-461-1122) and Serafino's (3419 Plum Tree Drive, 410-465-7775). Luna Bella, which opened in January, is the second restaurant in a mini-chain that started in Columbia at 6420 Freetown Road (410-531-0250). Serafino's has been an Ellicott City mainstay since 1996, although it recently moved from a smaller location on U.S. 40 to a much larger site on Plum Tree Drive. It now seats 220 people, instead of 44.
All of these are in addition to the wealth of restaurants already operating in Howard County.
For fine dining, there's Tersiguel's French Country Restaurant (8293 Main St., Ellicott City, 410-465-4004), which serves prepared French classics such as chateaubriand and roasted duck in a charming 19th-century building.
Nearby, Jordan's Steakhouse, (8085 Main St., Ellicott City, 410-461-9776), wows customers with its elegant dining area, luscious steaks, sumptuous desserts and thoughtful wine list. This is a steakhouse with a soft side, with plush seating and quiet, romantic music. And there's plenty on the menu for diners not in the mood for steak.
