Leelynn's Dining Room and Lounge — Restaurant in Maryland

We went to Leelynn's on Saturday night, 2/6/16. I always hesitate to write a less than positive review for any business, but I decided to write this one because there was more than one issue across different "domains" of the experience. I'll start by saying that we were excited to try Leelynn's for the first time, because we prefer to support local, non-chain restaurants, and the menu looked wonderful.

My husband, 2.5 year old, and I did not have a reservation when we arrived, so the hostess told us we were welcome to have a seat in the bar area. She sat us at the first table right inside the door. When she asked if we needed a booster or highchair, she commented that she didn't know anything about children. She was young, and in the grand scheme of things, this is no big deal, but it was awkward and did not set things off on the right foot. However, the overall atmosphere of the bar area is quite nice. There was live music and a lively crowd.

Our server came quickly to take our order, and we ordered crab cakes (my husband), black and blue mac and cheese (me), and chicken tenders (our daughter). I'll start by saying my husband's crab cakes were really good - lots of crab, no bread, etc. We have nothing but good things to say about the crab cakes. They came with a side of broccoli (cooked just right according to my husband) and mashed potatoes (unfortunately, unimpressive and bland). Given that server volunteered that the mac and cheese was really good, I was looking forward to it. The steak in the mac and cheese was like pot roast (not good in terms of taste or consistency), and I could not taste any hint of blue cheese. I was very disappointed.

Perhaps I should have thought to ask, but they did not bring my daughter's chicken fingers out until our food came out. As others have commented, "service" was slow - in quotes because this actually means the kitchen was slow. This is not something that typically bothers me; I don't mind waiting when a restaurant is obviously busy. Unfortunately for me, my 2.5 year old does mind. Further, as is often the case with little kids, she takes forever to eat once her food arrives. If her food does not arrive before ours (as quickly as possible), then it becomes a challenge to get her to wait when the wait is long and then we have to wait on her after we are finished. At most nicer restaurants we've been to, the server asks if we would like the child's food to come out first. That did not happen here, and I am very sorry that I did not think to request that, especially given the slow kitchen times.

While we were waiting, there was a lot of activity at the host stand - right on the other side of the door to the bar from where our table was located. Each time the inner door opened, there was a blast of cold winter air that hit us. This is not really something that's fixable in cold weather and could be expected with the location of our table. However, it was made MUCH, MUCH worse because the hostesses would hold open the door to the bar area with their feet while guests trying to get inside the building to see the hostess held open the outside door. As a result, a direct blast of cold air would come from the outside straight into our table. If a guest is holding open the inner door, there's not much to be done about that, but the HOSTESS kept propping the door open with her foot while she talked with guests. After this occurred multiple times, I finally went and asked her to please stop propping the door when folks are not using it - or even looking at the bar area. We were SO cold.

While all this was occurring and we waited a long time for our food, we did not see our server once, and my husband had to wait a long time to order a second drink. As a former server myself, I tend to be forgiving of this sort of thing when a restaurant is busy, and I am only bringing it up because it was yet another piece of our experience that was not good. Although our server was pleasant enough, I'd be surprised if she said more than 2 sentences to us the entire time.

We will...

Leelynn's was a big yikes for me. I was excited to try Leelyn's for the first time last week after receiving recommendations from several people. I placed my order online through their website and did a curbside pick-up -- the associate who brought my order outside was great. I ordered the crabcake entree, which comes with sweet potato fries (I asked them to omit adding sugar to the fries as I'd heard they sprinkle them with sugar but they can accommodate leaving it off if you ask) and broccoli -- this entree was delicious, start to finish, the broccoli was cooked and seasoned well, the fries were crisp without being oily, and the crab cake was the best I've found so far in Howard County -- I was looking forward to telling my family and friends about the crabcake and sending more business to Leelynn's. However, very unfortunately, my experience turned badly and I will not go back. The second part of my order was an order of their 'regular' chicken wings -- these were terrible in that they tasted as if someone in the kitchen made a mistake and added WAY more salt than they meant to -- it didn't just taste salty, it tasted mistakenly and wildly over-salted, which accidents happen, no big deal, but they were not edible. I called the restaurant to inform the manager that I loved the entree but the chicken wings were inedibly salty and asked if I could be refunded just for the wings ($16 of my $54 order), I spoke with Lee, who I assume is the Lee of LeeLynn's, but not certain. Lee proceeded to tell me that it was not even possible that there could be too much salt on the wings because the sauce they use, a brand he named as Wingers, doesn't even have salt in it -- which was a weird and unnecessary lie. He was surprisingly and extremely argumentative and I was taken aback as I'd only heard great things about the place and assumed a manager would be glad to be informed that there had been some sort of mistake with the order and share the feedback with the kitchen, I assumed he'd offer the partial refund and we go on with our evenings. But no, instead he went back and worth with me telling me it was LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE for the wings to have salt because no salt exists in the product they use (the product they use contains TWO sources of salt in actuality. And I was not at all referring to normal amounts of salt anyway, I was referring to the crazy amount of salt in my specific order). I remained calm and polite despite Mr. Lee's style of communication and I simply asked again if he would refund that portion of my bill so the call could end. He said he would refund it but that I needed to know that the wings will be the same time and time again, implying that I should not order the wings again if I didn't like them -- trust me, I never will. And the final straw was that Mr. Lee did not issue the refund he promised, instead, he posted the full amount to my credit card to which I did a chargeback. All of this over 16 bucks for food that could not be...

A bit disappointing intro to this place.... I was looking for a place to get lunch with my family for my birthday. I happened to stumble on this place via google, examined the reviews, photos and the menu and felt it was perfect place to try out. I called and asked for a reservation for 4, and specifically asked for a booth. When we arrived the next day, a family who was in the waiting area has a hostess come up to them and ask if a booth was ok. They seemed indifferent on this option and said ok. I immediately knew this was going to mean a issue for us....but I was hoping for the best. When the hostess returned we were escorted to a table. I mentioned to the hostess that I requested a booth, and she went off to discuss with someone. When she returned I was basically told there was none available and that someone with a reservation coming in 30minutes had a booth booked....

Obviously this would annoy anyone in my position immediately. I mentioned again that I REQUESTED a booth the day before not on the fly as we arrived today. She scrambled with a answer and mentioned something about putting tables together (which is a unnecessary solution for 4 people at a table with 4 chairs). My family was rightfully annoyed at the answer and wanted to leave, but I got over it and pushed for us to stay and try the food.

After this initial annoying first impression we dove into the menu. Our server was very polite and good at being present to our table. The cream of crab soup is one of the bests I've ever had. The Scallop & Bacon flatbread was also very tasty and different. The crab dip was nothing special. I had the ribs and substituted the sides for mashed potatoes and broccoli. The sides were underwhelming (mashed potatoes didn't seem to have any taste). The ribs fell off the bone and were pretty darn good.

Multiple menu's have the creme brulee listed. After eyeballing that item and really cutting my meal short to try the desert, I was told they do not carry creme brulee anymore. (Why keep it on multiple menus?). We went with the apple crisp desert, it was tasty. The ice cream on top in particular was great.

Other than not being in a booth as I preferred for my birthday, as well as not getting the desert I previewed on menu before coming....it was a pretty...