In Oct. my girlfriend suggested Lib's for her birthday, I said we should taste test. For our Oct visit, I was more enthusiastic & would be 5-stars based on that. Dec overall good but a few small complaints.Friday, 10/25, we both got the same thing as I had looked over the menu, read prior reviews, & asked the host his recommendations while I was waiting for her. All which lead me to the crab cake sandwich. It was excellent & thankfully a big size because sometimes it's just not quite enough. French fries were well seasoned & delicious as well. Server was very attentive & friendly getting refills on water quickly. After this, it confirmed she wanted to do this for her birthday.Saturday, 12/7 we arrived 15 minutes early to greet anyone early. They were about 20 minutes late for our 7 PM reservation, so the 13 were awkwardly waiting in small & narrow waiting area (mainly 9, 4 of them were pretty late themselves), & 2 more arrived after we were seated. In spite negative of extra waiting, they told us we'd get charcuterie boards free. Within about a minute after seating, they put out 3 boards in various parts of tables. It wasn't a traditional charcuterie board simply cheese & various processed pig. Thankfully, it was cheese cubes, Brussel sprouts, DEVILED eggs, strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, etc. which I liked better. I especially enjoyed Brussel sprouts, my 1 friend said that's all me...haha, meaning he's not a fan of them. Deviled eggs were great too. All other items on board were good too, but Brussel sprouts were well seasoned & delicious.As for food decisions, my girlfriend opted to get exact same crab cake sandwich we both knew were excellent. However, I refused to get the same thing as last time as I wanted to try something different. I was looking at the entrees. I felt 6-8 oz meat for like $35-40 was not worth it. I'm like I can make steak or salmon at home for a lot less & get more meat, & yeah it'd probably be better at Lib's, but still not worth the price differential. They had some chicken schnitzel bowl for like $26, but I wasn't sure I'd like that all that well. I didn't want a burger or any sandwich. So, I opted for the pasta, even though I had pasta Wed, 12/4 (3 days earlier) & still had leftover that I planned on eating on Mon, 12/9 for lunch. I'm having this $29 beef pasta dish too, which was a little steep. I'll be honest, it was just good for me but not great & compared with less expensive place in Odenton we had on Wed & some other excellent places (including Galiano walking distance from Lib's), this was subpar & more expensive. It was also not that big amount although did have a good beef quantity in. My appetite wasn't all there as I had a ton of food, beer, wine from an industry holiday party Thurs, & my weight inflated 3-4 lbs for several days after. In spite only a somewhat modest portion of pasta, I still saved half as a leftover, which I'm planning eating for lunch Wed, 12/11. I tried my friend's carbonara, which was better & looked like more food for only $25. A few people got pasta, there was also a $31 with scallops, which I might've considered but it clearly says bacon (I don't eat pork). Also, I'm realizing that the carbonara which I tried as proscuitto (which is a dried pork, like what you'd find in a regular charcuterie board).Next time I go to Lib's, I'll just stick with the crab cake sandwich or ask if they can make carbornara w/o proscuitto & to put something else in it to make up for the loss of a normal ingredient. Several people on my half the table got pasta, so it was a popular choice for folks.Many got alcohol too. My girlfriend & I each got a holiday cocktail. Neither of us are big drinkers, & if we get a drink, we often will split, but this time we got our own. She got Milk n'Cookies (vodka, amaretto, etc.) & I got a Santa-gria red wine blend, brown sugar, apple pie moonshine, etc. I liked mine better as she liked hers better. But hers was good too. Both had adequate alcohol content.Service was just ok. Water refills were slow. Some water was done, & I was looking out for my friend as I called server over to get him more water. My g/f & I split creme brulee. She loved it; it was just ok for me. I think I would've liked the key lime pie more & she might've liked as much. Server came around showing example tray display of desserts. I actually find it to be off-putting as a ploy to get people to buy overpriced desserts people don't need. But my g/f said days earlier we would split a dessert, so I was ok with it. I also am against forced gratuity even on large party; I probably was going to tip around 18-22%, but this is almost universal for large parties at restaurants.A friend got steak & greens top making fries soggy. He liked beef juices soaking fries. We agreed to disagree; I'd want those items separate & would've been annoyed with that.Staff was cordial, overall pretty good.
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"Enjoyed another great meal at Charleston The turbot and tenderloin were great. The oysters were surprisingly really good- had a very light fry. I wasn't a super big fan of the risotto but I don't usually like risotto- it was more runny and had more liquid than other risottos than I've had. Husband and I wanted to try the white truffle since it was in season but we were both a bit underwhelmed."
"Came here for dinner and had a great experience! Enjoyed the crab dip (shared with colleagues) and the crab cakes entree which came with a spicy slaw, and potato wedges. Everything was absolutely delicious and filling too. Service was also great too. Our waitress checked on us frequently and made sure we had everything we needed. I'd love to come here again!"
