Annapolis: Factor's Row (October 2013)

My spouse and I dined at Factor's Row for dinner in late October 2013. We made our reservation online using the Open Table reservation system. No one from this restaurant called to reconfirm our reservation, which we were surprised about, but they did have our information when we arrived. When we entered the restaurant, the hostess asked us whether we wanted to sit upstairs or downstairs - we had thought that making a reservation ensured us of a table upstairs, but apparently we could have chosen to dine on either floor. (Supposedly, the menu downstairs is more casual and less expensive.) The restaurant also has outdoor seating on the sidewalk with a view of the harbor. There are not many tables in the upstairs dining room - some of the room is used as a bar area for drinks (with just a few stools) and space is dedicated to the open kitchen area (fronted by a chef's bar with 5 stools). We did not know about the chef's bar; otherwise, we might have requested to sit there so that we could watch the chefs work; however, it was not particularly busy on the Saturday night that we dined (despite there being a Navy home football game and it being homecoming), so there would not have been much to watch the chefs prepare. (We dined at 8:00 pm, which we did not feel was so late to have such a small crowd.) It did not appear that the chefs on the second floor were preparing food for the patrons on the first/ground floor, so there must be another kitchen elsewhere in the building.

The food looked better than it tasted - there was nothing wrong with our dishes, but for the price, we wish that they had been tastier and better executed. We shared a great beef tartare, the consistency and texture of which was coarser and chunkier than other similar dishes we have eaten. We also shared a roasted beet and smoked trout salad (which lacked flavor, despite the trout). For entrees, we ordered duck (which sounded as if it would be served in several different preparations, but was instead just plated in different quartered sections atop varying accompaniments) and scallops (which might have been good, except that the scallops that we had eaten the evening previous were so delicious that these paled in comparison). For dessert, we shared a generous slice of Smith Island cake, a 12-layer cake that can either have chocolate frosting between vanilla layers or some other combination (we had carrot cake with cream cheese frosting between the layers). The bread that was served prior to our meal looked great, but when we reached into the tiny wire basket, we were surprised to find that the rolls were completely cold (they looked freshly baked) and were also already sliced down the middle (so it seems that they came pre-packaged from a bag); by contrast, the butter looked unique and perhaps homemade. The cutlery was looked and felt inexpensive, which we did not expect from the prices that they charge for their entrees. Service was acceptable, but no one went out of their way to make it any more special than that. Our meal was satisfactory in general, but we would probably not return to Factor's Row.