The food is mostly meh, but there are a few things on the menu that are consistently quite good. As with a lot of places, you just have to know how to order. I agree that the beer prices are kind of expensive, but their prices are cheaper than Dogfish Head Alehouse and Churchkey DC, for example. Alcohol is taxed more in in MD than VA, so that should be taken into consideration.
I'm not a resident of Columbia, but I have friends who are. Columbia actually has several good places for quality beer besides just Frisco Grille. The other one that stands out is Victoria Gastro-Pub, which has better, more sophisticated food than Frisco Grille and their rotating beer selection is comparable, but it's also more expensive. They also have a very large list of bottled beers not found on their website.
http://victoriagastropub.com/And Rams Head Tavern in Savage Mill is only a few miles away from Columbia. While they have a handful of quality beers on tap in the Rathskellar and the Fordham house beers are pretty good, I actually prefer their selection of imported bottled beers.
http://www.ramsheadtavern.com/savage/documents/2012%20Savage%20Drink%20Menu.pdf
