The Library Restaurant & Pub — Restaurant in Indianapolis

My husband and I used to come here quite regularly. In fact, over the course of the last year, we have brought at least 15 new people into the restaurant for different gatherings. We love supporting a local, small business and love the food. However, the inconsistency in the quality of service has kept us away most recently.

Our first bad encounter, I failed to even take notes on because it was the first bad experience. Our server, who was in her mid thirties, had never opened a bottle of wine and I actually had to open it for her. Since we were with a larger group, we sat out in the dining room. However, this is a restaurant AND pub. Every server who is 21 or older should know how to open a bottle of wine. This was slightly embarrassing as we had four other first time guests with us to celebrate a birthday. Again, it was the first negative experience, so we let it go.

The second time happened on October 31, 2017. I had stopped in to pick up an order of wings that I had called in. I waited in the lobby area and chatted with the hostess being that I had arrived earlier than the time they had projected for pickup. After about 15 minutes of waiting, she went to check on the order. At this point, she realized that the kitchen staff was unaware of an order of wings to go. After asking around, we figured out that it was the older, male manager who was preparing for a party later that evening upstairs who had gotten busy and forgotten to place the order. Working in the food service industry in the past, I told them I understood as they both apologized immensely. Since I had already paid for the wings while waiting, the manager took the receipt back to his office and was going to cancel this transaction to allow me to be refunded for waiting twice as long. He failed to ever cancel this transaction. YET AGAIN, we excused this because we are loyal customers and were trying to be understanding of the fact that they were having a party that evening.

The third time was what "broke the camel's back" as they say. This encounter occurred on February 8, 2018. Being that I work out of town right now, I had driven nearly two hours home from work to surprise my husband and take him out to our "favorite" local restaurant. On this particular day, we had Amanda as our server. Long story short, we waited an hour and a half to receive our food. Although our appetizers came out on time, we sat and watched as many of those at bar (who arrived long after us) received their food. I had to flag Amanda down multiple times in which she gave us every excuse under the sun ..... the food was getting ready to come out soon, there was an issue placing the order in the computer as it gave an error and she thought it had gone through but didn't (She claims this happens often and has reported to management.), the stuffed salmon takes the longest to cook on the menu (We knew this wasn't true as it's your prime rib.), and lastly she threw the chef under the bus stating he always underestimates the wait time. We SHOULD have just paid for our appetizers and drinks and just left; however, she kept promising it was getting ready to come out so we asked to just have the order packaged to take home at that point. We SHOULD have looked in the box, as when we arrived home, our stuffed salmon was burned so badly it was black. We were in such a hurry to get home knowing we had wasted so much time already, we failed to look in the bag. The worst experience as a customer is to feel as though you are being given excuse after excuse and lied to, but to wait more than double what it normally takes when we were already pressed for time, AND THEN get home and our food was burnt crisp, this ruined our opinion of the restaurant as a whole. I have attached photos for reference.

Look, we love your restaurant. The food is awesome. We appreciate and utilize the Loyal Rewards program. The ambiance is perfect. But you don't invest enough into your service.

Loyal customers can only put up with so much before they just stop coming. We have not been back since this...

I'll keep this as short as possible. As much as I travel on business and eat at restaurants most of my meals, I have seen a lot and am a pretty understanding guy when a waiter screws up or a meal isn't quite up to par. Last night was an exception to that. Today is Rox's Birthday & I took her and our son to "The Library" over by the airport last night. We've been there several times before with minimal issues. Until NOW! The evening started out normally with ordering Drinks and an appetizer and also our meal orders. The server stated as he was leaving with our order he would bring bread shortly. He brought our drinks, my soup and son's salad. No bread. Thinking it still might be being prepared, I said nothing. After drinks were drained, I flagged him down for refills and reminded him he still had not brought out bread. He arrived back with bread and no drinks. It was another 5 or more minutes for the drinks to show up. In the mean time we TRIED to eat some of the bread. I tried ripping a pc. of the bread in half (Italian) and could not do it. I then tried to bite through the crust..... Couldn't do it. It took me seizing it in my teeth and ripping with both hands, a piece of crust off. The inside was reasonably soft but the crust was like dried leather. I used the Olive oil and spices to try softening it with no success. I gave up. (Now the drinks arrived). I said nothing about the bread. As we started our fresh beverages, a Waitress showed up with our main courses! We told her we had not yet even received our appetizers! (Sea food sampler). She called our waiter over and we told him he had not brought our appetizers. He said he would go re-order?? it....... Kind of muffled as he was spinning around. As he was turning around, I told him this better be discounted. He stated he would talk with the manager... About half way through our main course the Sampler arrived. The waiter stated the manager authorized 1/2 off on the appetizer! I said nothing, but REALLY? We ate part of the Appetizer and finished the meal for the most part. My meal was a Beef and Gorgonzola alfredo dish. It was not up to par either. Our son got up for what I thought was a Men's room break. It was not. He went and confronted the Manger and She basically told him Too Bad. At that point I was done... I had promised Rox dessert for her Birthday and went ahead and ordered that. We shared their Stuffed Brownie which was fine. I got the waiters attention and got the bill. I paid it and reduced the Tip so that I at least fully did not pay for the Appetizer. This was the first time I did not leave at LEAST a 20% tip for the Server as far back as I can remember. Our bill was in the range of $160.00 with tip. On average I have spent $900 to $1,000 dollars in a year at this place. They just lost my future business. Do yourselves a favor and never...

I always like coming here to eat dinner. They have a nice selection of food and drinks. Alot of people probably think it's on the business district so why come here. Our waitress name was Jessica she was very nice, and made sure we always had what we needed. I ordered the stuffed shrimp for the first time which comes with 2 sides. I ordered the garlic smashed potatoes, and seasoned vegetable was carrots. The stuffed shrimp has 2 kinds of cheeses, bacon and jalapeno. The bacon is barely there which is good, and the jalapeno is not chucks. The jalapeno gives it flavor more than it being spicy.. Now here comes the issue. The Library changed their menu, and kept alot of the items on the menu. But what they forgot to do is tell their regular customers that they changed the flavor on the items. So my other half was looking forward to eating the Gorgonzola and Blue Cheese meat tips pasta dish. I dish looks the same, but the meat looks and tasted boiled not nicely seared and flavorful like it used to be. I remember tasting his dish and remember it being full of flavor and a little spicy. The meat was cooked beautifully. We asked as always for the meat to be cooked medium it was well done no pink. I asked the waitress how long has she worked there and she said 4 years. I told her we haven't been here since last November. She did say they changed the dish because people were complaining it was too spicy. They also changed the French Onion soup to a smaller bowl, not the clay type pot it came in before. I also want to say that I believe the prices increased by 2 or 3 dollars. What I am disappointed about is if my other half would have known they changed the flavor of that dish he would have gotten the Beef Manhattan. Have you ever wanted a dish, and thought about it....only for it to change drastically in flavor. I also get their news letter, never was it mentioned that some of the items has changed in flavor. The shrimp dish was good, and if you like a bland pasta dish with meat then you will like it. Not bad, just not what...