Categories: Food & Wine

Fireside Restaurant in Hagerstown, MD: Great for Family Dining and Couples

The Fireside Restaurant and Lounge is an upscale yet friendly restaurant in Hagerstown, MD at 1716 Underpass Way. It is part of the Plaza Hotel, which was formerly a Howard Johnson’s. The restaurant is open 7 days per week, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as a Sunday Brunch. The food is good quality, the service is generally friendly, and the setting is a relaxed atmosphere with a fireplace in the middle of the dining area. The prices are on the high end for the Hagerstown market, but usually worth it.

Hours and Location

The restaurant is open every day of the week. This is useful if you are staying in the hotel and really don’t want to go anywhere. Breakfast is served Monday through Friday from 6:30 am to 10:30 am, and 7:00 to 10:30 am on the weekends. Lunch is served from 11 am to 1:30 pm, with a Sunday Brunch during the same times. Dinner is served from 5 to 9 pm daily. The only downside to this is that dinner is over at 9 pm even on the weekends, and I often have chosen another restaurant because I wasn’t ready to eat until about 9 pm on one of these nights. Most other restaurants in the area are open at least until 10 pm, and the Outback right next door is open until 11:30 on Saturday and Sunday. This can be a drawback for the business. The location, however, makes up for the hours.

The Fireside is located right by the Valley Mall, a popular indoor shopping mall. There are only two restaurants in the mall itself that aren’t just fast food, so mall-goers frequently tend to go elsewhere for lunch and/or dinner. Right across the way from the mall there are also other restaurants, such as the Outback Steakhouse, Buffalo Wild Wings, Crazy Horse steak restaurant, Sakura Japanese Hibachi Grill, Red Lobster, and some others. THis gives the Fireside a good bit of competition. The benefit to customers is that you may wait less time to be seated on a busy Friday evening if you choose to come here instead of going next door to the Outback. Interstate-81 is less than a mile away, luring traffic to the Plaza Hotel that hosts the Fireside.

Setting and Service

The restaurant is in a calm, relaxed setting. I particularly enjoy sitting right beside the fireplace. This is a nice section when going on a date. There are no booths, but the chairs at the tables are comfortable. The setting can be romantic, but is also suitable for families and business meetings. Near the front of the restaurant is a section that is generally reserved for large parties or meetings. It isn’t totally closed off, but has a wall that divides it from most of the rest of the restaurant.

The service is generally positive. I find that the wait staff is usually willing to go out of their way to provide you with the best service possible. I eat there enough that I know many of them and the hostesses, and everyone greets me with a smile whenever I walk in the door. On holidays and during the Sunday Brunch, it can take some extra time to be waited on and extra time for the meal to arrive. The good news is that there is a salad bar to keep you occupied until the meal arrives.

Food and Prices

The food is overall high in quality. I find the prime rib to be of extremely high quality as compared to other places that serve prime rib. The crab meat and shrimp are also upscale. My favorite appetizer is the shrimp cocktail, which comes with five shrimp on a bed of ice with cocktail sauce. The price is $8.99. For dinner, I almost always have the prime rib. I just can’t get enough of it. The flavor is unique, and has a hint of pine scent, like gin, which is very palate-pleasing. If you read any of my other restaurant reviews, you will hear me speak over and over about how well the steak was prepared. Most of the time, at this restaurant, I have had a positive experience with having my prime rib cooked medium well, so this is a thumbs up! So many places either burn the prime rib or undercook it. The prime rib is usually $18 for a 12 oz cut and $20 for a 16 oz cut.

The Fireside has a good selection of steaks and seafood. The dinner menu boasts lobster tails, jumbo lump crab cakes for $21, stuffed flounder, salmon and tuna for between $17 and $19, and Filet mignon 8 oz for $24. Alternative dinner selections include roast pork tenderloin for $16 and linguine marinara for $13. The price range for dinners is $13 to $25 (for a seafood platter.) Other appetizers include stuffed portobello mushroom for $8, and baked french onion soup for $4. The salad bar is included in the price of any dinner. I enjoy the salad bar. Usually, there is a soup of the day, which is often Maryland crab soup. A caesar salad mix is available, or a regular salad with your choice of vegetables. Fresh fruit can always be found, such as strawberries and melons. Some type of pudding is served on the salad bar.

For holidays, such as Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, there is a buffet with a set menu. The buffet was around $20 to $25. Last year for 2006, I went for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Both times prime rib was available, turkey and mashed potatoes, and ham. The salad bar came with the buffet, as well as a dessert table. Strawberry mousse was one selection for the buffet, and it was incredible! If you visited on Mother’s Day, they gave you a coupon for say 10% or 20% off if you came back for Father’s Day. During holidays, it is extremely busy, and you have to make reservations in advance. Two sittings are available, one at noon and one at 1:30 pm.