Scampi

Nearly everyone has a warm spot in his heart for the classic Italian restaurant -- the big, casual neighborhood place that serves giant bowls of garlicky shrimp scampi and generous slabs of lasagna. Put that restaurant on a main street near a courthouse, and you almost can't go wrong, especially if your spacious dining room is next to a nice-looking bar and you hire unusually nice and helpful people to wait tables. Poor:]

On Wednesday night, you can shop and eat the Manor Tavern . The Monkton restaurant is bringing in some two dozen vendors and offering complimentary gift-wrapping. Vendors include the Point at Pintail, Claudia Brookes, Farmstead Goat Cheeses, Maria Ciarpella Classic Works of Art, Silpada Designs, The Pampered Chef, Jack Christopher Custom Clothing and Jewelry, Third Mind Arts,  Radcliffe Jewelry and Main Street Cigars. Reliable Churchill is providing liquor and cocktail sampling, and there will be live classical guitar and flute music Author Michael Rybak ("Transitions")

Bay Cafe, 2809 Boston St., (410) 522-3377. Want to see Baltimore in the '90s? What was and is -- from one comfortable place? Head for the Bay Cafe. At this time of year, the Bay Cafe is an open-air restaurant with more tables outside than in. Its atmosphere, clientele and menu are eclectic, at the most conservative. But the food is surprisingly good for a place where even the wine is served in plastic cups. The swordfish kebab and shrimp scampi were satisfying to both the eye and the palate.

Nearly everyone has a warm spot in his heart for the classic Italian restaurant -- the big, casual neighborhood place that serves giant bowls of garlicky shrimp scampi and generous slabs of lasagna. Put that restaurant on a main street near a courthouse, and you almost can't go wrong, especially if your spacious dining room is next to a nice-looking bar and you hire unusually nice and helpful people to wait tables. Poor:]

Item: Mrs. Paul's Meal in Minutes What you get: About 2 1/2 servings Cost: About $6 Nutritional content (1 1/2 cup serving): 180 calories; 1 gram fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 550 milligrams sodium Preparation time: 5 to 8 minutes microwave, 12 to 16 minutes stove top Review: Mrs. Paul's has two new meal kits: Shrimp Linguine and a similar shrimp stir-fry. We tried the linguine, which included vegetables and a scampi seasoning. On a positive note: The linguine defrosted easily and held its shape well.

On Wednesday night, you can shop and eat the Manor Tavern . The Monkton restaurant is bringing in some two dozen vendors and offering complimentary gift-wrapping. Vendors include the Point at Pintail, Claudia Brookes, Farmstead Goat Cheeses, Maria Ciarpella Classic Works of Art, Silpada Designs, The Pampered Chef, Jack Christopher Custom Clothing and Jewelry, Third Mind Arts,  Radcliffe Jewelry and Main Street Cigars. Reliable Churchill is providing liquor and cocktail sampling, and there will be live classical guitar and flute music Author Michael Rybak ("Transitions")

Got some seafood lovers on your Christmas list? Why not send them some down-home crab cakes, or even an old-fashioned clam bake? Phillips Harborplace will ship crab cakes or crab meat, as well as shrimp, lobster and fresh fish fillets virtually anyplace. Or you can buy a gift pack that includes a can of Phillips clam chowder, a can of vegetable crab soup, a jar of cocktail sauce and Phillips' blend of seafood seasonings. -- Or you can send a clam bake for two that includes lobsters, clams, mussels, shrimp, corn and red potatoes.

Akbar. 823 N. Charles St.Akbar is a small, pleasant Indian restaurant with a below-street level entrance and about a dozen tables. Akbar serves an all-you-can-eat luncheon buffet for $6.95. On the day we were there, it included a large salad; Dal, a lentil soup; rice and about four other hot dishes, which were not labeled. From the lunch menu, we ordered a variety of appetizers, entrees and breads. The Bengan Bharta was our hands-down favorite, a blend of eggplant, tomatoes and spices. It had a lovely, somewhat unusual, taste with a bit of fire to it. $$moderate (Last visited 8/90.

Want to see Baltimore in the '90s? What was and is -- in one comfortable place? Head for the Bay Cafe, the warehouse turned condos in Canton, the working-class neighborhood turned upscale.Even more than two years of wandering through the old-and-new of Baltimore restaurants hadn't prepared my husband and me for the bio-diversity of the Bay Cafe.Walking along the restaurant's promenade, we thought we must be among the oldest people there. Not comforting for two fortysomethings.Yet, as the night wore on, we realized that there really was a considerable number of fiftysomethings, sixtysomethings and even-older-somethings dining amid the youngsters.

We're probably not the only ones with a teen-age daughter who has dinner out more often than we do. Just about any excuse, and she's restaurant-bound -- usually with her boyfriend.So it was no surprise that we were expected to take her to dinner when she turned 18 recently. Although, as excuses go for dinner out, that one was pretty good.We chose for the occasion a place highly recommended by one of her friends -- a pub! One might wonder about teen-agersturning into pub crawlers, but fortunately this one is the type of pub one might find in Ireland -- family-friendly.

Perry Hall has a new resident. Raffy's Restaurant is set to open today at Belair and Silver Spring roads. It's the latest restaurant venture of Dr. Jack Gordon, a local orthopedic surgeon, who has long been a partner in the Bayou Cafe at White Marsh. Gordon's partners this time are Raffaele Mazzone and his grandmother, Yolanda Mazzone. He says the three felt there was a lack of family restaurants in the Perry Hall area and hope their eatery will fill the bill. Built at one end of the Perry Hall Crossing shopping center, Gordon says Raffy's has both an official dining room and a bar/lounge area.

Anew light is about to shine on the corner of North Charles and Biddle streets. Make that lots of little twinkle lights as Sammy's Trattoria opens its doors there. Those lights are some of the few changes owner Sam Curreri is making to the place that used to be known as Limoges. Curreri says the space was already beautiful and all he wanted to do was to give it "a more romantic, relaxed feel." So he's adding small white lights around some of the windows, lots of soft votive candles on the tables and twinkle lights in the trees outside.

Item: Mrs. Paul's Meal in Minutes What you get: About 2 1/2 servings Cost: About $6 Nutritional content (1 1/2 cup serving): 180 calories; 1 gram fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 550 milligrams sodium Preparation time: 5 to 8 minutes microwave, 12 to 16 minutes stove top Review: Mrs. Paul's has two new meal kits: Shrimp Linguine and a similar shrimp stir-fry. We tried the linguine, which included vegetables and a scampi seasoning. On a positive note: The linguine defrosted easily and held its shape well.

Never have our restaurants been so sophisticated and so varied. And never has service been so lousy. For every restaurant like Hampton's in the Harbor Court Hotel, which got as high a ranking for service as for quality of food in the latest Zagat Survey of Baltimore-Annapolis eating places, you have 10 others where the help makes you wait for a table even with a reservation, ignores you after you've been seated, forgets to bring the steak sauce and...

The historic Pikes Theater in Pikesville has taken on a new life as a market, cafe and full-service restaurant, DiPasquale's at the Pikes. The venerable old space has been used to full advantage by the new owners, who have decorated it in cheerful reds, accented with blond wood and shining chrome and brass art-deco fixtures. The lighting, worthy of a feature film, casts a warm glow over everything. The owners have thought of everything, too. There is a great-looking little market, which sells wine, pre-packaged Italian delicacies, such as panetone, and imported cooking supplies, such as vinegar, olive oil and pasta.

We're probably not the only ones with a teen-age daughter who has dinner out more often than we do. Just about any excuse, and she's restaurant-bound -- usually with her boyfriend.So it was no surprise that we were expected to take her to dinner when she turned 18 recently. Although, as excuses go for dinner out, that one was pretty good.We chose for the occasion a place highly recommended by one of her friends -- a pub! One might wonder about teen-agersturning into pub crawlers, but fortunately this one is the type of pub one might find in Ireland -- family-friendly.

Never have our restaurants been so sophisticated and so varied. And never has service been so lousy. For every restaurant like Hampton's in the Harbor Court Hotel, which got as high a ranking for service as for quality of food in the latest Zagat Survey of Baltimore-Annapolis eating places, you have 10 others where the help makes you wait for a table even with a reservation, ignores you after you've been seated, forgets to bring the steak sauce and...

ANGELO'SWhere: 28th Street and Coastal Highway; (410) 289-6522Hours: Dinner served 4-10 p.m. daily.Credit cards: Accepts all major credit cards.We arrived at Angelo's Italian restaurant one recent Sunday evening to find the place packed with diners taking advantage of the early bird specials (offered from 4 p.m to 6 p.m. daily except Saturdays).Instead of the endless wait we'd feared, however, the small room emptied a bit and our dining experience soon got under way.Angelo's decor might be best described as Italian-inspired hodgepodge.

You know just what you like when you eat at one of the top restaurants in the Baltimore area. You have your favorites and you stick with them. But wait, what's that delicious-looking entree the guy at the next table is eating? And how about that gorgeous mile-high cake that's being wheeled by on the dessert cart? What's that all about?We thought it might be fun to find out just what Baltimore diners are ordering when they go out to eat -- to help us all expand our dining repertoire. And after talking to executive chefs, chefs, sous-chefs, owners, managers and maitre d's at a number of places around town and just beyond, we think we have the skinny on favorite foods at some of the favorite restaurants in the Baltimore area.

Got some seafood lovers on your Christmas list? Why not send them some down-home crab cakes, or even an old-fashioned clam bake? Phillips Harborplace will ship crab cakes or crab meat, as well as shrimp, lobster and fresh fish fillets virtually anyplace. Or you can buy a gift pack that includes a can of Phillips clam chowder, a can of vegetable crab soup, a jar of cocktail sauce and Phillips' blend of seafood seasonings. -- Or you can send a clam bake for two that includes lobsters, clams, mussels, shrimp, corn and red potatoes.