Annapolis: Level Small Plates Lounge (October 2013)

My spouse and I dined at Level Small Plates Lounge for dinner in late October 2013. We made our reservation online using the Open Table reservation system (although they do NOT award points for actually dining there). When we arrived at the restaurant, the hostess had a problem locating our reservation, but she was still able to seat us despite the restaurant being very crowded on a Friday night. (As it turns out, another party with the same first name as one of our first names was seated under our reservation, so when we checked in, it appeared that our reservation was already seated.) No one from this restaurant called to reconfirm our reservation, which surprised us.

The restaurant covers two floors - the ground/first floor contains tables spread throughout two rooms, one of which contains a bar and semi-open kitchen. Steps lead to the upper floor, where there are additional tables. Tables in the main room near the bar (where we sat) are fairly close together, but there is a good buzz in the atmosphere so that you do not feel as if someone is eavesdropping on you.

Small plates is the concept of the restaurant, and our waiter recommended ordering 3 to 4 plates per person. We settled on 6 plates total. We tried a roasted beet and carrot salad (not enough flavor in the bland buttermilk dressing), sweetbreads with tomatillos (this was a special dish of the evening; we would have preferred that the two large sweetbreads were quartered instead), scallops with potato and bacon (fantastic!), pork ragout with unusual strozzaperti pasta (delicious!), Korean BBQ open-faced duck tacos (a bit spicy), shrimp and grits (too spicy for us). We had planned to order dessert, but service was so terrible by the end of our meal that we did not want to waste any more time. We waited approximately 15 minutes after we finished our last course until someone came to remove the plate, or to fill our empty water glasses, or even to offer to refill our empty alcoholic beverage glasses (which would have earned them more money). Many staff (including food runners and table bussers), as well as our own waiter, continued to pass our table yet not look our way. It was an unfortunate ending to what might have otherwise been a good meal.

Because we liked the atmosphere and the food, we might give it another try, with hopes for better service on our next visit.