Another city that I went to over the summer was Frederick, Maryland. While living in Maryland I had gone here only a handful of times to visit friends at their homes but never knew it was such a poppin’ town! I always thought it was farmland for some reason (mostly because one of the friends I visited actually lived on a farm). I guess when you are young you see the world in a different way.

That same friend told me Frederick downtown is becoming a very popular place so I thought okay, let’s check it out with my new adult eyes!

I parked next to Baker Park which is what we walked around in first before heading into downtown. The park was really cute and at this angle had a European look to it.

After strolling around in the park and working up an appetite, it was time to find a place to eat. This for me was such a hard task that day because literally everything had good reviews.

Which annoyed me a little because I kept asking myself why I had never thought about coming here before. I guess it always seemed far from where I lived and visited (in Silver Spring, MD). Oh well, better late than never right?



(Aren’t these houses so cute?)



We managed to settle on Isabella’s, a tapas restaurant! This was such a great idea because with tapas you can try more things without feeling too full (which is always the problem of my life).

We started with asparagus fries, which were uuhhh-maaazinggg!!



The sauce they came in, I could swim in it. I really enjoyed this a lot and wish there was more lol but alas that is a downfall of tapas!

Next, it was time for a watermelon and basil salad which tasted just as good as it looks!



The goat cheese really enhances the flavor of the watermelon and the basil freshens it up a little bit more. Would definitely eat this again as well!

The next thing was something I had never tried before but was willing to because my friend liked it a lot, mussels.



My thoughts? I can live without eating this dish. I wasn’t a huge fan of the texture but the sauce was really good so maybe the mussel lovers out there would like it.

Then we got something called Pollo a la Gallega which is a Spanish style slow cooked chicken with sweet onions and crispy potatoes.



This was nice and moist and pretty decent, but the potatoes were alright.

Then, for our final plate, we had a braised short rib.



The short rib wasn’t what I was expecting (I thought it was going to be a bbq style rib or something…I clearly ignored the word ‘braised’) but it was perfectly cooked and seasoned well.

All in all it was a good restaurant and would recommend it.

If you live in Maryland, and have never been to Frederick, you need to check it out! It’s such a happening town! (I ended up going twice in my 2 week visit to the east coast!)