The Ruddy Duck Brewery And Grill

ThisWangsChung

Maryland

3.75/5  rDev -10.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4 | $$

This is pretty much the only place in the tri-county area that brews its own beer, and they offer a nice selection of food, so why not come here?

Coming here, it looked fairly clean overall. The layout was simple yet effective, and it was set up nicely. I do have to say, though, the waitress we got wasn't that good. She seemed a little inexperienced, and there were several instances she forgot about us.

I liked the food overall. I wasn't too impressed with the appetizer of potato skins (keep in mind, I omitted the bacon, 'cause I don't like it), but I really liked the fish and chips entree I ordered. The beers on the whole were pretty good; some were better than others, though I do think I should have ordered the Helles instead of the IPA to go alongside my dinner.

Would I come back? You bet.

12-29-2011 04:38:44 | More by ThisWangsChung

Lowin

4.78/5  rDev +14.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

My local boozer, within staggering distance. Popular with us Ex-pats. They brew their own excellent craft brews and serve excellent food. Plus weekly live bands.
Regular craft beers on tap:

Rud Light - 4.8% low carb light ale
Helles - 5.0% - lightly hopped smooth blonde lager
Festbier 5.3% - Oktoberfest style lager with toasted malt flavor
I.P.A. - 7.2% Dry hopped Amber Ale, balanced malt to hops ratio
Biere Nouveau 4.8% - Gluten free organic tipple with Sorghum, Quinoa & Honey

They usually have another 4 varieties of craft beer on tap which are seasonal and short runs.

I can't recommend this place enough!!!

11-28-2012 00:44:58 | More by Lowin

AgentZero

Illinois

3.6/5  rDev -14.1%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4 | selection: 3 | food: 4.5 | $$

Visiting the fiance' in MD and we decided to stop here after touring the lighthouse that was in the area.

The atmosphere is typical sportsbar fare, but that's not a bad thing. This would actually be a really fun place to come and watch some football games. The server was nice and friendly, and recommended the stout as their best beer. The beer selection as a whole was mostly their own brews, with a couple of guest craft taps, but nothing that blew your socks off. The beers themselves were not bad, they showed some potential, but not world beaters. I could drink them and not have any complaints though. Food was outstanding, we ordered a couple of appetizers including the spinach dip, and it was great stuff. Pricing was exceptionally reasonable for the food, and I got a great flight of all the beers for only 5 bucks, which I thought was a steal.

If you're in the area, this isn't a bad place to swing by, as it seems they change their beers fairly regularly. I'd also really recommend giving it a try during football season.

10-05-2010 04:43:20 | More by AgentZero

DefenCorps

Oregon

4.18/5  rDev -0.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$

After sailing from Annapolis to Solomons and sleeping on the deck of a Beneteau 44.7, there's nothing quite like finding out that there's a local brewpub, one that's been on my radar, up the street from. the marina. The Ruddy Duck is located right next to the Hilton Garden Inn in Solomons, right off Rt 4 (and 2). With a nice looking bar and a large dining area, this place had a nice vibe. Atmosphere? It's hard to judge in a non-touristy area at 11AM, but it did have a bit of a sports bar vibe.
As far as beers, they had 7 house beers on tap of which I tried 6. All were decent to good, with the IPA and Imperial Stout being quite good. Glasses were clean, and it seemed like the lines were clean as well. In addition, they had a couple of other guest beers including some stuff from Clipper City, so it was nice to see all that MD-brewed beer in one place. Quite clearly a young establishment, the beers do have rough edges on them. They also had the lite beer trifecta - BMC light/lite - in bottles, as well as Corona. Service was top notch and our waitress made sure to check on us quite often, dutifully refilling our glasses of water.

The food was quite excellent. I had the cream of spinach soup which was very, very flavorful and top notch, as well as the crab cake sandwich, which at $19 was pushing it, but it truly was one of the best I've had. Incredibly fresh and flavorful crab, no filler, not greasy, not overly seasoned, all of which really helped one appreciate the freshness of the ingredients. For the quality, the price is quite reasonable. And the beers are decently priced too, $4.50 -$5 for a pint (or 12oz glass of the high ABV stuff). If you are in the area, I highly recommend stopping by.

07-18-2010 03:51:07 | More by DefenCorps

Slowwhistle

Maryland

4.9/5  rDev +16.9%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

If you find yourself in southern Maryland and looking for a good beer, the Ruddy Duck is a diamond in the rough.

The waitstaff, bartenders, and owner, Carlos, do an outstanding job making you feel welcome and getting you what you want when you want it.

There is always a collection of 6 or so house brews on tap. New this week is an excellent Irish Stout in time for St. Patrick's Day in addition to the Helles, Pale Ale, and Barley Wine (running out...better hurry). The Irish Stout was as dark as a moonless midnight with a smooth finish and creamy head. I combined it with a Popeye's Pizza that was a tasty combination of spinach, goat cheese, and mozzerella over a tomato sauce and a really, really good thin crust, baked to perfection.

Since The Duck is on my way home every day, it is now a regular stop on Friday afternoon after working out to round out the work week.

Pull up a barstool sometime and join me.

03-13-2010 22:04:27 | More by Slowwhistle

RoySaves

Maryland

4.6/5  rDev +9.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$

My wife and I chose to come here for our weekend drive "destination". I'd have to say that we chose well.

As we typically do, we sat at the bar and ordered the sampler. Our muscle-bound barkeep was very friendly and chatty without bogging us down with his life story. Perfect. The bar was almost empty with just one other couple at the bar, and maybe two families at the tables. It was, after all, about 1 p.m. on a Saturday.

The beer sampler was pretty good. I didn't care for the Märzen, but that is probably only because I'm used to the one at Gordon Biersch...so no fault of their own. Funny that is their beer that won all of the awards. Anyhow, I really enjoyed the Pale, IPA, Oatmeal Stout and Barley Wine, while I thought the Helles was the best of the bunch. I ended up getting a pint of the Helles with our potato chip nachos (awesome), and a glass of the Barley Wine with our goat cheese pizza.

Overall I thought the food was prepared well and the ingredients tasted fresh. One of these days I should just start walking back into the kitchen like I own the place. I'm so interested in how people are preparing food these days. The beers were good and I'm glad the 'tender laughed a bit when someone ordered a miller lite.

Take a drive to Solomon's and check it out!

01-13-2010 14:38:10 | More by RoySaves

ghiaman74

Virginia

4.55/5  rDev +8.6%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $$

I went to NAS PAX River on business and visited this place after reading about it in the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. And then I returned the follwing night.

The beers are solid. Their IPA was my favorite, generously dry hopped with Ammarillo and Cenntenial hopps. I was also very impressed with their Belgian Double, it had a nice roasted taste with an noticable but balanced hop flavor. Additionally they had a really nice selection of 'guest' beers on tap as well as a good selection of bottles.

The food was of similar quality. On my first visit I had a roasted duck quesdilla, very good and very genorous with the duck. Then second night I had a 'Dude, Be Serious' Pizza made with prosciutto, blue cheese, and roasted onions, also very very good. Both nights I had an order of Cipas al a Carlos, a traditional South American cheese bread. I have had Chipas before while visiting Brazil, and the Ruddy Duck serves some of the best.

I highly recommend this pub to anyone that loves good beer and eqully good food.

07-09-2009 00:49:10 | More by ghiaman74

tasslehoff69

Maryland

3.15/5  rDev -24.8%
vibe: 2.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 3 | food: 2 | $$

Visited the new Ruddy Duck over the July 4 weekend because they were offering a great deal: buy one beer get the second for one penny. Hopefully they will continue to have deals like this one in the future.

The building was impossible to miss as it looms just off the main road. Everything in the building was very clean and modern, as you would expect from a new restaurant. There were a few flat-screens around the dining room, but not so many as to be distracting. There was even one above the urinals in the men's room, which I particularly enjoyed.

Despite being only lunch time and the dining room being only half full, the restaurant was very noisy. I think the volume level could be an issue when the restaurant is full if you're trying to have a conversation.

We sat on the patio for our lunch. It is very small with only about a dozen tables. The patio was also situated right next to the road. Like the dining room noise issue, this may be more annoying on a busy day, but we did not have any issues.

At the time of our visit, they only had four of their own beers on tap, but also offered a number of other brews on tap that were of good quality. They also offered free samples of any of their beers. Our waitress said that the sampler trays were not ready yet, so it sounds like they may start charging for this in the future.

Although I would not make a special trip to visit this brewpub because it can be a bit out of the way, if you are already in the area I would recommend Ruddy Duck was a nice place to visit for decent food and beer.

07-05-2009 12:51:19 | More by tasslehoff69