Level a Small Plates Lounge — Restaurant in Annapolis

WEDDING RUINED. Asked to leave because our children were being "too crazy". I would never go here again. Which is sad because I thought the food was great. After other guests and the bride have left reviews, the owner has commented with mostly false information and has told them to say the whole story, so here it is. It is long but I truly hope you read the whole thing so the real truth about this owner can be told.

On some of the responses, the owner mentioned that they gave us 6 warnings. FALSE. We had one conversation with her. She also mentioned the bride and groom were belligerent. ALSO FALSE. They got rightfully angry about being kicked out of their own wedding reception after spending close to $10,000. The owner also stated that 3 of the friends confronted her in a menacing manner… It was two 35-year-old moms wondering why their children were such issues for the owner. Safety of the children was mentioned as being the reason the owner was upset. Funny that this was never mentioned to us until we were leaving and now online in her ridiculous responses.

The main response I want to set straight was that the owner stated, “many of the guests in your party were apologizing as they left because they were embarrassed.” I want to make one thing PERFECTLY clear. We were not apologizing out of embarrassment or because we thought we were in the wrong. The only reason we were apologizing was to the two female servers that helped us and were so kind all night and got the wrong end of the anger. We apologized to them and THEM ONLY for having to be the bad news messengers for that nasty owner.

THE EVENTS: We booked a wedding reception there in a private room with 40 guests, 12 of them being children. I was the photographer, so I was paying attention to everything the whole night since I was snapping photos of everything going on. We arrived at 5 pm and were taken back to a private room next to the bar. We were given two servers (one male and one female) and a female manager who came in and out to help as needed. They were all very polite and helpful until the male server got upset when a child got in his way. Around 730, I noticed the bride standing outside of the curtains talking to who I assumed was a manager, but it was the owner. She had pulled the bride aside and told her that our kids were screaming and being too loud and disrupting her bar guests. She stated that all of the bar guests had left because of the children. When I looked at the bar, there were roughly 10 chairs and maybe 4 of them were empty. The bride then asked her if those 4 people and their money were more important than her, her guests and our money. The owner responded no but continued to say she was "worried about the reviews" they would leave about it. She told the bride that we had 15 minutes to get the children under control or they would have to leave. This made the bride RIGHTFULLY upset. The owner said had she known we would have this many children, she would have put us in another room. To which the bride responded that she was told in their email conversations that the party would include 12 children. I asked the bride to walk away so I could finish the conversation as to not further upset the bride on her wedding day. I asked the owner what the actual issue was and if the guests specifically told her they were leaving because of us. She said yes. I later found this to be untrue after speaking with a guest at the bar who said we were not disrupting them in any way. The mother of the bride came over and also got upset (I mean who wouldn't when the owner is telling you to basically make your children shut up or get out). I told the owner I assume this restaurant just isn’t a place for children and they would all be leaving by 830 anyway. We ended the conversation and I walked back into the private room.

To be continued in the photo as the review exceeds the...

Inattentive staff, decent if over salted food, wildly loud restaurant.

I arrived early for my reservation, so I took a seat at the bar to try one of the fabled house cocktails. The bartenders were so busy trying to keep up with table guests (I was one of only 3 at the bar) that they didn't look up while asking for my order, and wouldn't be engaged in making recommendations. Lacking better guidance, I ordered the Bourbonappolis (an overly sweet and overrated cocktail). While I sipped my drink, the party next to me had to order three different times to get one new drink.

Table service wasn't any better. The server dropped water at the table and gestured to the QR code for a menu that sends you to what looks like a JPG of a Word Doc. Twenty-five minutes later, she came back, and seemed surprised that we wanted to order, asking "can I get you anything else?" Our first round included the beet hummus and smoked fish salad; both were well prepared, although the server seemed unsurprised that we needed more pita.

Our second course included the Brussels sprouts and stuffed peppers, but we had to do plate jenga and go without water throughout the course due to some neglect from the server. The Brussels sprouts were well prepared but over salted. After a second request, the additional pita for the first course arrived as the second course was being cleared.

It took so long to order the third course that my companion skipped the planned steak and went straight to the rice pudding. I ordered the cheese board to share. The rice pudding was delightful in a way that most vegan desserts aren't. The cheese board was dropped by a runner and neither he nor the server thought to tell us what was on the board. It took so long to get the accompanying glass of wine that I left half of it on the table.

Please understand, this wasn't us being impatient at euro-style service. This was overworked/understaffed servers pushed to resignation and disinterest. At the end, we spent about $175 for dinner for two, and I came away embarrassed that I'd recommended the place.

Lastly, in the unlikely case that you've read this far... This is an extraordinarily loud dinner venue, and even as we sat at a table for two in a corner, we had to be progressively louder to maintain our...

Upscale casual with an emphasis on simple items that couldn't quite stick the landing.

We started with the charcuterie which came with approximately two servings each of two cheeses and two meats with pickles, apple, crostini, and some jam. The server didn't say what they were so we were left to guess; likely Cabot Horseradish, bresaola, capicola, and some other non-descript cow's milk cheese. The pickles stole the show as they seemed like a house bread and butter cure but everything else wasn't anything special.

For mains we got the pork ribs and the lamb chops. The lamb chops were incredibly small, overdone, and not seasoned or even seemingly salted. The frisee salad with tomato it came with was simple with a non-descript mustard seed dressing. Not recommended. The ribs were again overdone as they had started to get tough, but hey had a great flavor. The star though was the potato salad they came with. It might be the best potato salad I've ever had. A small dice of waxy potatoes, red and green peppers, and a fine dice of habenero added a great kick. The acidity was perfect but I got no hints of vinegar. I'm unsure if they used mayo with vinegar or if yogurt brought the tang but it was great.

For dessert we got the chocolate chip cookies and the bread pudding. The bread pudding was split as two bread pudding slices and half a banana torched like creme brulee. The banana was phenomenal while the bread was very dense and dry. The dulce de leche (seemed like straight from the can) couldn't save it. The chocolate chip cookies came with milk and whipped cream. The whip had cinnamon which made it very tasty and combined well with dipping the cookies. The cookies themselves were fine, just standard baked chocolate chip cookies. I was disappointed that they had clearly just microwaved them prior to serving as they were extremely hot.

Overall the food would have been great had it not been for some noticeable failures in execution made more noticeable by the simplicity of the dishes. If you're only going to put a handful of ingredients in front of a customer, you have to nail it, and Level fell short. With that said, presentation, atmosphere, drinks, and overall vibe are top-notch which brings this up...