Pure Wine Cafe

Had a wonderful experience here on a Saturday night, with a group of girlfriends. Table was ready right on time for a reservation, the hosts were very helpful and friendly, and the food was delicious. And of course the wine was delightful we have enjoyed a delicious crisp bottle of rose that was on special.
The only drawbacks: 1) heat of the upstairs dining area, there was no air conditioning. All of us were very sweaty but still enjoyed our meal.
2). Our waiter was very helpful, but sometimes it was hard to get her attention she seemed to be rushing off often.
We will definitely be back and hopefully will get an outdoor table so we won’t have to be so hot!
Please don’t review this business if you received a freebie for writing this review, or if you’re connected in any way to the owner or employees.

Pure Wine Café is full of some of the friendliest staff I’ve ever met. We always feel welcome when we come into Pure Wine. Everyone takes the time to get to know you and make sure you have the best experience while you are there. Their food is always amazing and I’ve tried almost every single item on the menu and never been disappointed. Definitely a go-​to in Old Ellicott City!

I want to give this place five stars, because personally I loved it, my date loved it, and we’re totally gonna go here a ton in the future.
…but I will give it four because it’s probably not for everyone.
This place is tiny, as is almost everything on Main St. It’s a little bar affixed to the side of a rocky hill and a few spare tables. They sell wine. Lots of wine. Conveniently they sell wine by the half or full glass. It’s great when you want to drink so many wines in one sitting. When you look at the list, you will want to drink so many wines. In one sitting.
They sell fancy little snack foods that you eat with wine when you call your friends and say you want to be fancy tonight. You know those foods. Meats, cheeses, pickled stuff, bread and oil, the occasional tapas thing.
Because of this, the menu is limited. They have «large plate» dishes, but I wouldn’t go here for dinner.
My date and I got the Athens Trio, Mushroom Charcuterie, and Olive oil and bread. We thought about going the meat and cheese route, or going for taco Tuesday, but my date was feeling grape leaves and the idea of mushrooms made five different ways was very enticing. We gave our order and asked for red wines that weren’t too bitter but would go well with what we ordered. They happily obliged and we went through three half glasses each. All suggestions were spot on. Also, the mushrooms were amazing.
We got the S’mores dessert and that was also so so so good. The blowtorched marshmallows are so perfect.
It was $ 75 for two small plates dishes, bread and oil, six glasses of wine, and two desserts. Sure, kinda pricey, but the place is also tiny and quiet and quaint as heck on a Tuesday night and I’m pretty sure I loved it.
So basically, if you want to drink flights of wine in a hole in the wall, and eat meat and cheese and delicious mushroom pâté, go here. If you want a full dinner, go to Cacao Lane.

I had a great meal with two girlfriends, and I thought it was absolutely delightful. Two of us got chicken pot pies (which had a taste of thyme, and a nice puff pastry). The two wines we got were delicious, as was my other friend’s Moscow Mule. And I got a cream of mushroom soup, that was worth licking the bowl. I’d go back in a minute!

As a teetotaler, I chose this place based on Unilocal reviews. I thought, for sure, that it would be a home run birthday surprise dinner place for my sister, an oenophile. Not quite so. A friend came and she thought the experience was less than overwhelming, too. That makes three out of three.
First, the good things. The place is charming and cozy. There’s first date lighting. The staff was excellent, friendly, accommodating, and non-​pressuring. The building is architecturally interesting. My sister liked the art. It’s in Ellicott City, a real beauty of a town. I’m beginning to reach, so I’ll move on to to the facts.
According to the drinkers, the selection of wines was vast, making selecting difficult.
While I can’t comment on the wine, I can comment on the food. We got the French fries, the fish tacos, and both sliders. To me, this is simple bar food cuisine. Delicious on all fronts, usually. However, when you start attempting to elevate it with aioli and spice combinations, it seems that you’re concealing mediocre cooking with fancy sauces that were taken off the shelf at your local Wegmans. All sophomoric attempts of what could be as easy as executing an Ina Garten recipe.
Or rather, it tasted more Sandra Dee than Ina Garten.
In a word for all of the dishes: over-​salted. I have no idea why. Maybe they weren’t tasting the food that night. We all needed a pitcher of water and waited for the bloat onset. The fish was so fishy, that together, we didn’t even eat more than one because we were worried. Disappointment city.
The French fries were the most promising – they are more more frite than fry, but they were slivers, so you couldn’t really taste the potato-​y goodness. Their size also lent themselves to being overlooked.
There’s a lot of potential in this place. But until they hit their junior year, I suggest you stick to the wine and the charcuterie.

Love this cozy place! Great for nights out and long talks over a bottle of wine. The food is delicious, shrimp scampi is lovely and decadent. Service is terrific.

Great night, great food, great service. Steak tacos and burrata are the best. Truffle fries are a must!

Incredible food and wine! The staff are helpful in guiding me to the best wines to fit my preferences. Taco Tuesday is my favorite night with very interesting options that change each week!

Wonderful evening on the patio, great service once again!

Attended a birthday here and as soon as I find some time I will be back. Having never visited this place before I was pleasantly surprised by all of their offerings. While there were small plates set out for the party I ordered the steak tacos as well and they were really enjoyable. Planning to try out the rest of the menu as soon as I can.

This is a nice little French inspired restaurant in the heart of Ellicott City. The atmosphere is a mix of cozy, elegant and charming. We were seated close to the bar, and the server have us a great wine suggestion which fit our budget, and the specials were spot on.
The food is a bit on the expensive side. They are priced and grouped according to their size. You would usually get a few plates and share with the rest of your table. Both plates that we got were very tasty. The menu includes some very unique finds!
To me, the price was the only downside, but that may just be me being a cheap bastard.
I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a place for a more informal date.

Valentine’s Day was the first time my wife and I tried Pure Wine. We made reservations a week ahead. On V-​day there was a set menu for couples looking to celebrate. It consisted of a 3 course meal. We were seating right away upon arrival to a tiny table next to the bar. It was okay but not very private. If I moved a little to the right or left I could probably touch elbows with the person next to me. For a Valentine’s Day geared reservation it would have been nice to have gone upstairs to a bigger table with a little more privacy.
The menu had some very appetizing options, we each ordered and each got a mimosa (which are $ 7 extra for about two shot glasses worth). So at this point the meal for each of us is $ 30 add $ 14 more for mimosas. Our first course came out and like expected was tiny since this place is tapas oriented. It was delicious so no complaints there, 15 – 20 minutes later the main course comes out and was delicious as well. Now before I go on let me just say that the place was not packed or busy whatsoever yet it took between 15 – 25 minutes for each course to come out. Lastly for dessert we got cinnamon rolls. Unfortunately they were horrible. They were hard and stale, it’s like they went to a grocery store got the small, cheap cinnamon rolls cooked them overnight and left them out to sit. The next day they heat in a microwave and serve.
Overall I’m going to give this place a three star rating. I do not recommend this location if you are hungry. It’s extremely over priced and the quality of the food is good but not great, especially when it comes to 3 course meal specials. The service was okay, we always got a refill of water without a problem, the environment was very nice and every employee attended to us with a smile. The only problem was the food taking FOREVER to get to us.
I recommend this place if you love wine and enjoy a pricey snack. It will taste good but it’s up to you to decide if it was worth the price. It’s a good place to stop by and check out after having a nice filling lunch or dinner. More of a place to sit and relax and just enjoy some good company with a glass of wine.

Came here for Valentine’s Day brunch. Nice atmosphere & each lady received a red rose at the end. I liked the jazz music in the background.
The food was a set menu with a couple options to choose from. I had a crab hash that was pretty tasty, a egg type sandwich that was good & at the end you share cinnamon rolls. The waiter was really nice.
Onto the downside. Forgot this place is tapas. If you’re hungry/​starving, don’t come here. It was a three course meal but you’ll be hungry in about 30 minutes. And it’s a little overpriced. The food took forever to come out. Maybe 15 minutes between each.
I really wanted to like this place. But unless I’m going somewhere to have a glass of wine & a snack, I may not return.

The service is friendly and the atmosphere is warm and inviting.
They liqour and wine selection presents a better upper shelf variety than many of the other local establishments.
The food plates are smaller but the qualtiy is quite good. Of note is the pwc dip which is their take on a french dip, the best i have had anywhere.
The food selection is very good with small, medium and larger plates. The food is quite good.

This place is incredible. Baltimore Co is lacking places like this, making it so desirable/​difficult to get a table (at prime times). Their staff is friendly and helpful, and the food is excellent. If you don’t mind somewhat tight corners (at a table or bar), and love good, quality food, surrounded by local art– come here.
Cheese Plate=must, Trueth steak tacos= best thing on menu, large plate, short ribs= will make you cry and miss your mom’s home cooking, but will soon realize mom can’t touch this. All in all, this place creates good vibes and food that leaves you satisfied. Do it. And enjoy!

Came here for a girls night out. The biggest problem I had all night was deciding what to eat first as we ordered several dishes to share. The truffle fries were AMAZING, they were perfectly fried and salted. We also got a meat and cheese dish that was also wonderful… the cheddar was a bit of a let down (tasted more like swiss) but the duck and prosciutto made up for it. For the main course, we got the steak tacos which also didn’t disappoint (the sriracha aoeili on them was fantastic). We then split a lava cake which honestly didn’t look appetizing when it was brought out but it was very rich and moist so I’m glad we did.
The bar itself was very clean and it had a nice modern aesthetic to it. The only problem is that the tables are VERY small which can make ordering more than 2 dishes at a time difficult (especially with wine and water glasses on the table as well). The restrooms were also very clean which is always refreshing to see on a Saturday night. The service was ok, it would have been nice to be checked on a bit more but it was a Saturday night so I’m sure she just got busy.
On the whole, it’s a pretty nice place to take a date or have a girls night.

Last night was my second visit here, my first had been on a slow afternoon and I had no problems with the service while seated directly at the bar area.
But last night… we were seated at a bar high top table, it took awhile to be initially greeted but the waiter seemed moderately attentive after that. However this all changed around 10:15, we ordered a cheese plate and needed more bread my friend also wanted a second glass of wine. 15 minutes passed after we let our waiter know we needed more bread… An unusual amount of time for something as simple as bread and he doesn’t even bring it over! Another member of the staff did, my friend commented she saw the waiter leave in regular clothes, which is all well and good if you have to leave but why not tell us or have another server come take care of us, because we were obviously forgotten and ignored. The rest of the night was unbearably slow from making direct eye contact with presumable owners to the other bartender. 15 – 25 minutes would elapse before we were checked on, you couldn’t get another drink here if you tried. At the end of the night we just gave up and sat around for 30+ minutes before the check was brought over to us.
The cheese plate was great and the S’mores dessert was solid. But I can’t possibly give a place with such bad service more than 2.5÷3.0 stars. My friend who is a regular here comments she comes back for the food, wine, and ambience but poor service is commonplace.

This is a great spot for date night! We heard that Pure Wine Café is known for their great wine selection and yummy charcuterie plates.
At first glance, this is a really neat looking place. In direct contrast to the old-​looking downtown Ellicott City, Pure Wine Café is very modern. It’s also very small. We were seated upstairs where the restaurant managed to cram about 10 tables on that floor. It was pretty snug, but it wasn’t an issue. The thing that definitely catches your attention is all the nude paintings. Because it’s such a small place, it’s easy to feel that they are right in your face. Every time I looked at my boyfriend, the large boobs in the painting right behind him were always in my field of vision. Things like that don’t bother me, so I was mainly amused by this sight.
Consistent with other reviews I have read on Unilocal,I would give the service a ²⁄₅. Maybe a little less. Our waitress was pleasant enough. The problem was that the staff didn’t care one bit that the room was absolutely freezing. When we sat at our original table, I couldn’t even take my coat off. There was cold air blasting on me, and it was extremely uncomfortable. I looked up and saw a giant AC unit. When I asked they turn it down, they just suggested that I move over one table. Not the best answer, but I wasn’t going to argue. An hour later, another couple sat at that table, and within minutes, the woman switched places with the man because she was too cold. She asked them to turn it down, and they did nothing. When you looked around the room, many women had not even taken their coats off. Seriously. At that point, it’s inexcusable.
Note to Pure Wine Café: When most reviews on Unilocal say that your service is generally unpleasant and not good, you may want to do something about it.
Luckily the wine selection and food were able to make up for the service experience. My boyfriend and I tried their Malbec and Pinot Noir. They gave us a nice sample when we wanted to try the wines before ordering a full glass. For our dinner, we ended up splitting a lot of small plates. We started with a special crostini dish that blew our minds. Second, we split the truffle fries, and once we added salt, they were very good. I have to admit that when the charcuterie plate came out, we were disappointed. For $ 15, they could do better. All the meats and cheeses were delicious, but boy were they stingy. The plates were way too small, so we were still hungry. My boyfriend ordered another (smaller) charcuterie plate, and I tried the mushroom charcuterie, which was okay.
I would not run to come back here for dinner. If I wanted to stop somewhere for a nice glass of wine and a charcuterie appetizer, then I might come back here. Overall, we had a nice night here.

Loved this place for a nice girls night. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable. Helped pick out great glasses of white Spanish wine! Also had the taco Tuesday specal they were delish. Love the selection of cheeses.
This place is fantastic and really unique. The dim lighting really relaxes you and the wine is fantastic!

This little restaurant is perfect for sipping sangrias and eating delicious munchies.
I’m that girl who only drinks Riesling because it tastes like grape juice. So I love their sangria is sweet and fresh.
I love drinking their sangria with their fish tacos and their truffle fries.
Don’t let me get started on their truffle fries. I am that girl who can eat fries everyday, it’s one of my favorite things to eat. But these truffle fries are so much more delicious than the fries you would normally order. I like how they use small drops of the oil rather than being super heavy handed about it. The truffle does not overwhelm the fries.
Their tacos are perfect. They offer a range of different tacos (fish to beef) and they even have taco specials! The taco shells are soft and tender.
To make this place even better, you walk out into the cutest old city with the cutest antique stores around.