The Blue Rooster Cafe in Cape St Claire: Excellent Food and They Find it Cute When My Baby Throws Things

Hold onto your hats, folks, it's time for another review of a Restaurant That Won't Kick Out My Kids. This time we are headed to The Blue Rooster Cafe which is located at 1372 Cape St Claire Road in Annapolis, in the same shopping center as Graul's.  Now, similar to my previous review, this establishment is also located near a park, this time Broadneck Park, which has a great pirate ship themed playground, dog park, and trails.  At the risk of self-linking to the point of absurdity, Broadneck Park is also where I do Stroller Strides. Anyway, let's stick to the topic at hand, which is that, for parents, finding a good restaurant near a playground is a massive coup, similar to Iwo Jima but involving more elaborate planning.

Food:  The Blue Rooster Cafe is an excellent place to bring your kids for breakfast or lunch.  For breakfast, they can have a bagel, a muffin, Banana Foster French Toast (!), eggs of any sort, or even beignets!  This is the first time I have seen beignets outside of New Orleans.  All of the options are delicious, judging from my children's gorging.  If you eat low carb, like I do in between the times I eat ice cream, they will make you lox and eggs upon request.  The coffee is the City Dock coffee so it's great.  

For lunch, I have tried and enjoyed both the egg salad and curried chicken salad, and my 2 year old enjoyed the antipasti plate (yes you read that correctly); she is weird, and she really loves olives.  My preschooler with more normative child tastes liked the muffins, cookies (stop judging me I can feel it), and the bacon off my husband's Cajun Turkey Wrap.   One suggestion is to have more green salads (in addition to the Caesar) as a lunch option for us low-carbers.  Otherwise the menu is varied and delicious.

For dinner, my husband and I usually come with our baby only, having intelligently and self-congratulatorily dropped the girls with a sitter.  The baby loves the Ribs To Die For and the Steak Frite.  My husband and I eat his leftovers and they were excellent although coated with baby saliva. The ribs are just as good as at a BBQ place but in a smaller portion so you feel less like a hog.  I also really liked the Summer Salad.  When they forgot my almonds on top, they quickly brought me out a dish of them.  Also, my husband enjoyed the selection of local beers.  The baby did too.  (Just kidding!  I'm not that bad!)   

In reality this is the best American food I have had in the area. I would expect to find it in Adams Morgan or Fells Point.  Thankfully for you and me, it is here.

Service:  The waitstaff seemed to genuinely find it adorable when our ten month old screamed loudly and smashed forks on the table.  They did not even once attempt to hurry us up and out.  They gave us extra napkins and bread for the baby.  A+ for family friendly!  Or really good acting!

Ambience:  This is a cafe feel and is light and airy.  Very casual.  There are prints on the wall in keeping with the jazz/New Orleans theme.  During breakfast time the fellow patrons are particularly friendly, or maybe my kids are just that cute.  During dinner there is a relaxed vibe, except when I bring my baby.

I know I'm about to eat all Mommy's food

Location:  Did I mention there is a park a minute or two away?  There is also Graul's for food shopping, some store with a mailbox out front that sells Melissa and Doug toys and really ought to advertise that fact better, a hardware store, nail place, a hair place, a yoga studio, a dance studio, Rita's ices, Baskin Robbins and Dunkin Donuts, and even a gas station.  And this is just off the top of my head.  I don't know about you, dear reader, but I try to bang out all my errands in one place, which is why I love suburbia, and if you hit the Blue Rooster for lunch you can easily accomplish 90% of your weekend errands in the same strip mall.  Fellow moms, start swooning. And then, BAM, you end up with extra time to watch some reality TV.  But back to the review.

Summary:  4.5 out of 5 stars.  The Blue Rooster Cafe has wonderful food, they are well-located for parents, child-friendly, friendly overall, inexpensive particularly for breakfast and lunch, and did I mention, delicious.  Bring your kids and go, so their noise can drown out the noise of my kids.