BASICS

Don’t Miss: The fried green tomatoes and the breads and spreads are a great way to start the meal. 

Ambiance: Casual yet intimate. 

Bar/Entertainment: The wine list is extensive yet reasonably priced. Live music almost nightly and free pool table. 

Service: Knowledgeable and helpful, 90 percent of staff has been with Lisa’s since opening. 

Location: Located just over the Bay Bridge, on the Eastern Shore. From Annapolis, take the first exit off the bridge; make a left off the ramp and a right at the second light. 

Cuisine: Eclectic cuisine from all over the world. 

Price Range: $5.95-$19.95; only tapas-style plates. 

Hours: Monday through Thursday 4 p.m.-10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 4 p.m. though 1 a.m., Sunday 12 p.m. though 10 p.m. 

Best Time To Go: Anytime, but reservations are suggested. 

Parking: Plenty; it’s located in a shopping plaza. 

Handicap Accessible: Yes. 

Child Friendly: No special kid’s menu, but children are welcome. 

Outdoor Seating: No.

Lisa’s Small Plates and Wine Bar, in Stevensville, offers dinners an interesting alternative to the growing chain restaurants in our area. At Lisa’s, you get a menu offering over 80 different options of tantalizing recipes from around the globe, served in a portion big enough to share and yet small enough to make you crave just one more bite.

Pub fare items such as a well-prepared Scotch egg, are commingled with Eastern Shore classics like fried green tomatoes. The Scotch egg is expertly fried breakfast sausage wrapped around a hard-boiled egg and served along side a delightful mustard sauce. The fried green tomatoes are crisp, not at all greasy, and drizzled with honey mustard vinaigrette that melts into the tart, fresh tomatoes. From our Latin neighbors to the south, Chef Robert has borrowed some inspiration for items such as the delectable black bean soup: rich and earthy with loads of cumin and just enough spice to balance the fresh avocado garnish. The guacamole is prepared fresh to order and even though the chips are nothing special, and it seems like everyone makes guacamole these days, there is a unique balance to Lisa’s that makes it irresistible.

Comfort food options abound but of greatest note to me is the mac and cheese that is mercifully void of the typical frozen lobster meat everyone seems to be using these days. At Lisa’s a simple yet soul-warming Fontina cheese sauce snuggles the orcchietti pasta underneath the tasty garlic bread crumb topping. If any one dish sums up Lisa’s Small Plates and Wine Bar it could be this one, simple, straightforward and just plain good. The less-than-inspired offerings on the Pacific Rim portion of the menu offer one shining star, the tuna tartare. An ample portion of raw tuna is drizzled with a spicy, creamy sauce and enough seaweed salad, red onion, and hard-boiled egg to top all of the crispy wonton chips you could want. This is a dish that you have seen before but here, you can’t help but feel you are tasting it again for the first time.

Asparagus tacos, mushroom pizza, and an interesting take on duck à l’orange that serves up just the breast, pan-seared to your liking with a not-too-sweet, not-too-tangy orange sauce, are just a few more of the multitude of options at your fingertips. Not to mention the dessert list with its ever-changing selections of temptations that demand you save room for them.

Lisa’s offers up to 50 different wines for only $22 a bottle, and the remainder of the options are not only very reasonably priced but well selected for their cost/value relationship. Lisa’s is one of the few restaurants in the area where you can order a $100 bottle of wine, and know that the wine is worth it. Tuesdays and Thursdays are half price wine nights, which helps the wallet and the soul.

Lisa’s Small Plates, 1235 Shopping Center Rd., Stevensville. 410.604.2550, www.lisassmallplates.com.

Jeffry Ruhlman is a Culinary Institute of America high-honor graduate and a certified wine specialist. He has over 11 years of experience working in the kitchens and dining rooms of various restaurants in the area. Ruhlman lives in Anne Arundel County with his wife.