Salerno's Restaurant & Catering — Restaurant in Maryland

We've been to Salerno's many times over the years. We have found the food usually pretty good but rarely spectacular. We have found the service uneven, ranging from top-notch to seriously lacking. Everything I wrote in 2024 about the all-you-can-eat crabs special, still stands. The value associated with that gimmick is illusory for reasons I laid out.

More recently I visited on a Friday for lunch. Our entrees (blue catfish and fries off the specials menu) were served promptly and were tasty enough. However, despite Salerno's experience and reputation, service was markedly uneven:

Our waiter repeatedly vanished quickly before we could ask for what would think were standard and expectable requests (silverware, cocktail sauce, tartar sauce, drink refills, the check). Not too many tables for too few people either; the restaurant was pretty empty.

Once our check arrived, I was presented with one of those electronic wireless devices. I entered a custom tip amount which seemed overridden by a default sum which was larger. Again, no one around to ask or complain.

Like with our crabs experience of over a year ago, service lagged. Did our waiter have too many customers and was being let down by the kitchen. Again, something was amiss.

We'll return to Salerno's when memory of this experience fades, as it is too convenient to us to take off our list entirely. Salerno's continues to need is professional restaurant management, or...

This is the 4th time I have gotten crabs from Solerno’s Restaurant all 4 times have one dozen of jumbo crabs and I have to tell you they have been the best tasting crabs I have ever had from the Mt. Airy area I usually go to Trouts but they only sell bushels of crabs on the weekends because they are closed Monday-Wednesday. I use to work in crab house when I was young and know a lot about cooking crabs the correct way. Solerno’s takes a lot of pride in the way they cook their crabs you can tell when you get a crab that was either dead when they threw it in the pot or at least near dead when they were cooked. You know when you open the crab and the mustard inside is grayish looking that means the crab was dead when it was cooked. The crabs I have gotten from Solerno’s was bright yellow mustard looking inside the crab you can tell it is very fresh. The meat was very sweet and was not dry very moist. Solerno’s will have all my future crabs buying for sure. Of course when you pay $150 dollars for a dozen crabs they better be top of the line in weight and must be not over cooked to where the meat sticks to the shell and...

I want to give it 1 star but that would be unfair. They totally deserve two.

The service was, meh. I had no idea who our server was since 8 different people were coming and going. Fast to clean up, but completely ignored empty glasses.

The food was either not very flavorful, or way over the top. Cream or crab soup was like eating thick meaty milk. Decent crab content, but flavorless. I added a lot of salt to get through it. Ordered buffalo onion rings, supposedly "marinated in Texas Pete." They were obviously plain onion rings, and they tried to convince us that we were just missing the subtle buffalo flavor. Ohh please. The $25 dollar signature crab imperial tasted like yellow mustard. Someone not paying attention in the kitchen. Ordered large steamed blue crabs and they were very light (empty). Not much meat at all. I think they were boiled. The prices are $$$, but they only deliver $$ on the food. I'd pass this place up...