The Ordinary Hen

Should be called The Extraordinary Hen - food was 10/10. Excellent portion size and flavor - the hash browns were perfectly crisped.Great brunch menu. They had a sign out front saying "Walk Ins Welcome" and we were greeted and immediately seated! Service was super friendly. Stumbled in here by accident after another place had an hour wait for brunch on our way back from Harper's Ferry.We sat outside with heaters and it was walled off from the street but super spacious. It was a great setup! The inside felt like an old home (in a lovely way).

We went to this place on a whim while in Frederick after seeing delicious pictures of cornbread and chicken and good reviews on Google. It was close to 3 on a Sunday and we were disappointed to learn the menu was still brunch. We asked when the dinner menu started and were told 5. My daughter ordered hash browns from the "shareables" section. She received 2 fast food style hash brown patties like you might get at McDonald's. No sauce or garnish like you would expect at a sit down restaurant. My son got a burger. It looked like something you might get at a snack bar. The fries were okay he said, it just seemed steep at $18 for what he got. Typically a burger that price they also ask how it should be cooked, and they didn't. My husband got a bacon and egg sandwich I believe. He said it was like what he could make at home and came with the freezer fast food hash browns as well. It was good just nothing special. I was curious about the chicken but at $28 decided to pass because there's no way I could eat the whole portion. Plus it no longer comes with corn bread and there was no cornbread on the menu. I ended up with a citrus salad that was great except the dressing. The dressing was like a standard vinaigrette and added too heavily. I expected something more complementary to the ingredients. It detracted from the delicious fruit. It was a reasonable price though,My mom ordered an appetizer of French onion dip. It was pretty small. The homemade chips were good but the dip portion was skimpy, especially for an appetizer. We had the orange cake a chance and aside from being nearly chilled solid (hard to cut with a fork) it was really good. The sweetness of the cake and icing and the flavors were great together. They just need to thaw it in advance. The place was almost empty and we noticed most restaurants were packed. That should have been our first clue. I don't understand the good reviews, I think it was poor value for money. The service was excellent, however. The ambience is weird, mostly blank walls with some nice furnishings. Overall the experience was confusing. Okay food at okay prices in an okay dining room with excellent service.

How does this spot still only have a handful of reviews after being open for several months?! My friend and I stopped by for dinner a week or so ago when we were exploring Frederick for some holiday shopping. I think I learned about the restaurant through its connections to Bryan Voltaggio (who serves in a mentorship role for the restaurant, while Bradley Butts serves as the restaurant's Chef de Cuisine), and I'm so glad we stopped by even though the small number of reviews made me question when it was a brand new restaurant. The restaurant is nice, with some historic charm, and plenty of coziness. The service was also good (really friendly servers). My friend and I shared the citrus and greens salad (mustard greens, spinach, castelfranco greens, blood orange, mandarin, oroblanco, lemon vinaigrette, sheep's milk feta, mint, and fennel); the carrots and cavatelli (carrot butter, pickled carrots, shallots, lemon); and the scallops (honeynut squash, spigarello, champage beurre blanc). Everything was delicious but that carrots and cavatelli dish is going to go down as one of my favorite dishes of 2024. Seriously. What a plate of food. Overall, the restaurant was really great, and I'd love to return the next time I'm in Frederick!

You had me at deviled eggs with caviar. Yum. My husband and I like to come here once a week or so and sit at the bar. We consistently get great service and the food is always good. I am enjoying that the menu is changing frequently and there's always something fun and new to try. The fried chicken is really yummy and I end up ordering that every time. In the summer, it's really nice to sit out on the patio and enjoy the abbreviated menu with a cocktail on an Adirondack chair. This building is really lovely and one of my most favorite places to dine.

Tasting menu was delicious, with the wine parings. Top notch service from Clark. Was like dinner and a show since we sat watching the kitchen.

The beet cavatelli were delicious! i found the sparkling wine over priced. open only 4 days a week, so check!

Dinner was fantastic. My wife is celiac and they accommodated her Gluten Free needs with wonderment. Their pork dish and scallops dish were amazing. Appetizers of the deviled eggs and green salads as well.We will be back!

The Caesar salad and fries were really good (minus the fry sauce - really odd flavoring), but the rest of what we got wasn't good. Their deviled eggs were overly mustard-y (and I loveeee mustard in my deviled eggs), but it made it difficult to taste anything else. They were pungent. Their biggest disappointment was their spicy rigatoni, which I had high hopes for. The sauce was good but the pasta was raw and for $23 (delivered through DoorDash), the portion size was disappointing. It looks like it's $16.95 if you eat there and don't order online (kind of criminal to inflate your prices that much for mediocre food). It was not a dinner or shareable portion. They need to rework their prices through delivery apps if they want to have any semblance of a delivery business with these portion sizes and food quality. Just being honest, Wye Oak Taverns spicy rigatoni blows this one out of the water.

I hope that they can be successful. Their prices are extremely high. I don't plan on eating there anytime soon.