liv2eat

3.5 stars, which I feel is a bit harsh, but it’s not a 4. That said, I would go back, and I would recommend liv2eat to others.
The setting is very nice – it’s a quaint, locally-​run restaurant, and the owner and service staff are phenomenal. Phil was our waiter and he was attentive, super friendly, and professional. He was decisive in his recommendations, which, I think, is the mark of a good waiter who understands the menu and understands his customers.
If the place had just a little more polish, it’d be one of the best in Baltimore. What do I mean by polish, and why the star deduction? We ordered the jamon iberico as an appetizer. While it was very nice, the plating was very haphazard: several slices just kind of thrown on a big dinner plate. I ordered the strip steak/​frites, and it was very tasty. However, the temperature was all wrong – I ordered rare/​medium-​rare and it came out completely cooked through the center. I still ate the whole thing because it was still tender and was seasoned well. My wife ordered the soft shell crab. It, too, was overcooked (over-​fried), which made it a little dry. This place is sooo close to being a go-​to spot.

Went here recently for the second time and again, they did not disappoint! Met a friend for dinner and ordered the parmesan truffle fries as an appetizer while I waited for her to arrive. I think my fries were gone by the time she got there less than 10 minutes later. Then it was on to the shrimp and grits for my entrée — superb! Whatever the chef’s are doing back there is magical bc they know how to impart flavor and cook this dish to perfection. My shrimp wasn’t overcooked and my grits were creamy like I like them.
The portion sizes look small, but once you dig in, you realize a little goes a long way when it’s made well. We wrapped up dinner with lifelong favorite dessert — chocolate chip cookies and ice cream, which stirred up nostalgia and was nice way to round out a wonderful meal. Really liked this place and our server was great and accommodating. I’ll be back!
Side note: I ordered the weekend special mushroom gnocchi to go and it was good as well — maybe a bit heavy handed on the garlic, but I still enjoyed it. Liv2eat is a smaller establishment with fewer options than bigger restaurants downtown, but they exemplify the «quality over quantity» mantra.

Food quality was good… but too many other things were all wrong and it made us agree we will never go back. First of all, the person in the kitchen was just prepping buns for burgers and other menu items at 515 when we came in (restaurant opened at 5) so we would have had to wait an hour if we wanted a burger. They also did not have the soft shell crab dinner item so with the bun issue, this made 3 of only about 10 menu options actually available to order. The bigger problem, though was the really rude ‘tude of our waitress. She was condescending and not friendly at all… when she was describing the specialty ham they were offering, she acted like we were idiots if we didnt know about a special spanish ham that eats only acorns for its entire life. Really what we were trying to understand was how it’s plated– but she never got to that as she just gave us a brochure on the ham so we could get up to speed. She was annoyed when we mentioned the diet coke was flat «well, did u put the lime in it?» and chastised me for not having my silverware when the entrees arrived after a 50 minute wait (no apology at any time). «You dont have silverware? He has his.» I said no, you took mine when you cleared the salads…” but she had already walked away. We finally asked for check and she said, «here it is» and laid it on the table. No smile, no thank you for coming in. It was the absolute worst. service.

My first experience with this restaurant was absolutely awesome. The service was excellent from the curb to the table complimentary valet, attentive waiters, fine wine and the shrimp and grits we delicious!

It wasn’t BAD but it wasn’t anything special to me.

Visiting from out of town and were looking for a non-​touristy place to have dinner with two kids. This place was PERFECT. Amazingly delicious food (and cocktails), plus a super patient waitress. (And they have a separate room — with a train table! — for families with really little ones.)
Thank you so much for helping us have such a wonderful meal!

Although this place is ADORABLE with such a great wait staff and the friendliest owner, this visit to the restaurant just wasn’t what it has been for previous meals.
We made a reservation for restaurant week very excited with the menu items, and got seated even 10 minutes before our reservation time, but there was just something off about the ventilation. I know that sounds picky and snobby, but it was really chilly and the draft was so strong it blew our candle out. It was a busy night so understandable wait times between courses was 15 – 20 mins, however sitting there in a cold room without warm food in front of us was uncomfortable.
Food:
The Brussel sprout salad was crunchy, refreshing and so unique compared to the more pan-​roasted Brussel sprouts other restaurants serve. It was finely chopped sprouts that served kind of as lettuce with Parmesan, spices and some good bacon chunks.
The mussels were also unique, but not in quite as great of a way. They came with a wine gravy that was just slightly overpowering, but tangy and fresh all the same.
The scallops were delicious and came with a terrific butternut squash purée that was perfect!
The hanger steak was good, ordered medium rare but would probably have ordered medium in retrospect. The potato purée was savory and delicious.
Dessert was the best part! The warm cookies were fresh and like grandma’s house (but, ya know, refined and simplistic) and the apple tart our waitress gave us with a little salted caramel ice cream — yum!
Cute place in fed with better food than all of the bars around, but pricey and not mind blowing. Would give 4 stars if we weren’t so uncomfortable with the breeze’

I came here for Restaurant Week. It was pretty good, but not great. I can’t exactly put my finger on what was missing, but I do plan on returning to try more menu items.
We arrived 15 minutes early of our reservation on a Friday night and they sat us promptly. There’s a free coat check which is nice. I ordered the brussel sprout salad which apparently is a regular item menu and it was a tasty, crisp and unique take on an ordinarily warm vegetable. My friend ordered the risotto fritters and they were incredible. For the main course I ordered the hangar steak which was cooked perfectly on a bed of sauteed spinach and whipped potatoes. Nothing too extraordinary about this dish, I do wish I ordered something a little more creative. Lastly for dessert I ordered the apple tart tatin. They served it with a spoon, but the apple was still a little hard (definitely needing a knife) so I was «that girl» clanking her plate trying to cut the apple into bite-​size pieces with my spoon. Lastly, I had ordered wine (they only serve Moscato by the glass) and at $ 7 per glass, the servings were just several sips. I get the aesthetic of using a large wine glass and filling it maybe half way, but only a quarter of the way? Not really worth it.
Anywho, I’d try this place again. $ 35 for the pre-​fixed meal was a little steep in comparison to the portions you received, so I’m a little worried how their regular-​priced items stack up.
Service was decent. It got super busy so our girl would disappear from time to time. But she was very friendly and all of our orders came out correctly and promptly.

Between the cold coffee, slightly grungy décor and drafty environment the best I can say is time for a makeover. Too many options that overshadow the potential high points of this place…

Came here for restaurant week as the city is in the process of cleaning up from the snowstorm, and overall we were a bit let down. We were looking forward to having a cocktail to start the meal, but were a bit saddened when their cocktail list consisted of sangria, mead, and one other (which I can’t recall at the moment). Maybe they could have done more upon request, but I was just expecting a bit more in terms of options. To their credit they had an imported French cider which we ended up getting a bottle (750 mL) of, and that ended up hitting the spot.
We started with the risotto fritters and mussels. As others have said, the fritters were delicious, although I personally didn’t feel the sauce added much to the dish. Mussels were tasty, especially the broth which was well balanced. The disappointment came during the ordering of the entrée. One of the main reasons why we came was for the short ribs, which it turns out they didn’t have. Same for the scallops. When we asked why this was the case, we were told it was because they were super busy earlier in the week and sold more of these dishes than anticipated, and then with the snow, trucks couldn’t deliver more. While I can kind of understand the snow putting a damper on things, and I understand they want to use as fresh of ingredients as possible, it would seem to me that if you’re going to have 6 entrees on a menu for a week when customer traffic is likely going to increase, and you know a massive snowstorm is coming, you would plan ahead a bit more so you don’t run out of 2 of the 6 featured entrees. They replaced the short rib with a hanger steak which actually turned out to be better than we anticipated. The crab cake replacement for the scallops didn’t sound as promising so I went with the shrimp and grits, which while was tasty enough, didn’t blow me away. For dessert we got the chocolate torte and pot du crème. The torte was good, but seemed a little dry. The pot du crème was tiny, but good. Only complaint was that all of the cinnamon was sprinkled on top and not incorporated more throughout the crème itself.
Overall, while I like this place well enough, would consider coming back (just not in the midst of a snowstorm/​cleanup), and want it to stay around because I think it’s good for the city to have places like this, I just feel like there are a few details that they need to pay more attention to in order to really round out the dining experience.

My boyfriend and I came here for our 2^nd anniversary. We’d looked online and saw a lot of good reviews of the place and had to try it for ourselves. We ended up arriving 30 minutes before our reservations, but the hosts said it was fine and there was a table ready. They took our coats and hung them up in the coat room and led us to our table. We asked our waiter for recommendations and ended up inadvertently ordering everything that he had recommended to us.
We ordered the risotto fritters, that we heard were a MUST HAVE. They were indeed very very good. The fritters were very crisp on the outside. The risotto insides were the perfect temperature and very creamy with great flavor. The parmesan on the outside added a bit of extra saltiness and the sauce it came with added a subtle lemony flavor which all combined came together very well. I DEFINITELY could see myself eating an entire entrees-​worth of these.
Next, we ordered a mushroom soup to share. We had originally wanted to order the butternut squash soup, since we are huge fans of butternut squash, but it wasn’t on the menu today, so the mushroom soup would have to do. It was very delicious. It was the perfect texture and consistency – no chunks, very smooth. It had a very creamy mushroomy flavor. Mmmm. Amazing.
For our entrees, I ordered the Shrimp and Grits and my boyfriend ordered the Arctic char. The shrimp and grits were good. The grits had a subtle flavor and was very textured. The shrimps were cooked to the right tenderness, although they had somewhat of a ‘shrimpy’ flavor that I couldn’t quite pin. The sauce was very good and added flavor to the grits and brought the whole dish together. For the char dish, neither of us had had Arctic char before so we were excited to try it out. One of our new years resolution was to explore more seafood dishes, so this was our start. The char was very good! It was like a lighter salmon. The skin was very crisp and had extra salt which complemented the subtle flavor of the fish very well. It also came with a celery purée sauce and some «greens (zucchini etc.). which added some interesting texture to the dish.
Overall, we were very satisfied with our meal! Will definitely be back here again. I really want to try the butternut squash soup!
Also, of note, the servers were very up on their water game. They were always there to fill our water glasses and they were never empty. One small comment about the timing of the meal – it did seem a tad rushed. They brought our entrees out the second we had finished our appetizers. There could have been a slight delay between the appetizers and the main, but it definitely wasn’t a big deal. Awesome place!

I’m dumbfounded by how delicious our meal was. I had the munkfish. Wife had the chicken. Kids menu good too. Cute seperate room with trainset for the kiddos. Service was fast and friendly and the owner stopped in and said hi!

Yet again another delicious meal from this place! Went in for HH and got the house white, ordered the Risotto Fritters (a MUST HAVE) and the beet salad. The beet salad was big enough to have for an entrée. My BF got the HH burger for $ 10 which comes with fries and never disappoints. This is a neighborhood gem. Come check this place out if haven’t!

My boyfriend and I had a late dinner here on Saturday night and could not have been happier! We were late to our reservation by about 15 minutes, we called to let them know and the hostess could not have been more understanding, She was so nice when we arrived and sat us at a table outside. The outside is SO cute, the décor is very cozy and you almost feel as though you are in a friend’s backyard.
We got the house wine, I’m no wine expert but a carafe for $ 25 seemed like a good deal to me!
I got one of the specials– house made gnocchi tomato, garlic, and basil and it was delicious! Probably the best gnocchi I have had outside of Italy, it honestly melted in my mouth. My boyfriend had the burger and loved every bite.
Our server was very friendly, attentive, and helpful with the menu.
Great experience overall!

I almost feel this rating is a little bit too good, but what I did like was very, very good.
Came here for a friend’s birthday after we could not get in at another establishment in the neighborhood. She had eaten here before and really was raving about it. However, the only items that we could even try that she had in past visits were the Risotto Fritters since it was restaurant week and they had a special menu the entire time, with no exceptions. At this point, everyone in the party except the birthday girl was unhappy since everybody had at least one course where the choices did not meet anyone’s fancy. For me, I was intrigued by the Amish Chicken and Flourless Chocolate Cake, but the appetizer selection did not contain anything I wanted. We almost left, but we managed to all suck it up since it was her birthday.
What’s Good: The Amish Chicken was amazing in itself. One of the best chicken dishes I ever had. However, they paired it with a strange combo of green tomatoes and a relish-​type concoction that I really disliked. It was also sitting on some decent mashed (they say pureed) potatoes, but this made the crisp but delicate chicken coating/​skin mushy and less appealing.
My wife and a few others had the flatiron steak. It was very good and the sauce (credit to the waiter for explaining it) was very good. Decent portion, but I wonder if the steak would have been just as good sans sauce.
Dessert was extremely good. The chocolate cake was about the best I have had in a few years and the homemade cookies were very tasty, if a bit small for the normal $ 8 price.
The wine/​beer selection was pretty good. I enjoyed a Blood Orange IPA (I think it was Flying Dog but I can’t recall).
The Bad: Very small menu. I get that it’s a farm-​to-​table place and they have a constantly changing menu, but the restaurant week menu was a bit constraining in my opinion. Some of the items were either love ‘em or hate ‘em.
I did not like any of the appetizer choices on the restaurant week menu. I tried one of the risotto fritters. I was not a fan by any means, especially for the price.
Service was a bit poor. Our waiter was very attentive until the food arrived. After that, he was almost non-​existent. He also overcharged on member of our party by $ 30 and we had to figure out who ordered what items instead of him splitting the check. The food did not come out of the kitchen very quick, but it was warm/​fresh when it did finally come out.
Overall, I would like to try this place out when they have a more normal menu. However, I was not satisfied during this visit and would have been happier with the original farm-​to-​table establishment in the area that we originally were going to patronize.

Such a charming place to take a date, especially on a warm summer night. The patio is beautiful with lights strung on the trees all around you. The interior is decorated with local art.
Definitely go for the risotto fritters. We get them every time.

We visited again last night, and we were pretty happy with our meal. I had some trouble making a reservation thru Unilocal,but was able to directly thru opentable. The menu seemed more limited than before, but there were at least 6 or 7 entrée items to choose from.
I ordered a glass of Pinot noir & the hubs had a glass of Merlot, but I’m almost certain they were the same wine.
We started with the Beet salad (good, not great — waitress claimed goat cheese, but was more of a Brie) and the Butternut Squash Soup (really good), and we had the Crab cake entrée (great, not much filler), and the Flatiron Steak (cooked perfectly with lots of flavor.)
Service was a little slow, but pleasant. Atmosphere was warm & cozy in the front room.

Recently, my Mom came to visit and wanted to go someplace nice in Federal Hill. When she’s in town, we don’t often explore the area and she wants to get a feel for the whole city, including the neighborhood where I live. in 2013, Liv2Eat was voted best new restaurant by the Baltimore City Paper. I knew my Mom was looking for something local because she wanted a true taste of Maryland crab so I figured this was the perfect spot for dinner.
When we sat down, we started with the Butternut Squash Soup. The soup was incredibly creamy and then topped with bacon bits which added a nice saltiness to the dish. While it was pretty straightforward in terms of flavor, it was delicious nonetheless.
My Mom and I also decided to share the Brussels Sprout Salad. It came with shaved brussel sprouts, toasted hazelnuts, granny smith apples, bacon, pecorino cheese. The dressing on this was nice and light and made the salad very refreshing, it complimented the bacon wonderfully.
As I mentioned earlier, my Mom was looking for a true taste of Maryland and decided to order a Crabcake. The crabcake came with potato purée, dijon crème fraîche, pickled cabbage. When my Mom ordered she asked the waitress if it was ‘very crabby’ apparently that’s New Yorker for ‘is there a lot of filler.’ The crabcake had minimal filler and a nice crust on the outside making it a true Maryland crabcake.
I decided to order the Creekstone Flatiron. It came with a potato purée, sauteed spinach, and bordelaise sauce. I swapped my spinach for brussels sprouts because I had a craving. The steak was well cooked and perfectly tender and I really liked the sauce. This wasn’t the best steak I’ve ever had, but it was still a very good, filling meal.
Liv2Eat’s menu highlights local and seasonal products and they do a great job rotating the menu to offer fresh and delicious options that truly showcases the best of the region.

This has to be the cutest place to have brunch in Baltimore! If the weather is nice be sure to ask to sit outside in their «secret garden.» There was plenty of shade underneath this frame with plants and vines growing over it (it’s killing me that I can’t remember what these things are called). There were string lights under there too so I imagine it would be really romantic at night.
For brunch, I ordered the green eggs and ham, which was Eggs Benedict with Canadian bacon and wilted spinach. It was so good! Their hollandaise sauce was amazing. I almost always order a variation of Eggs Benedict when I go to brunch, but this was probably one of the best ones yet! My boyfriend had the Eggs Benedict with crab and that was even better than mine! It had a large tomato under the crabmeat that was so sweet and really added to the meal. They both also came with a side of home fries cooked with garlic. You can definitely tell they only use seasonal products in their meals.
The service here was also really great. My boyfriend had the unlimited mimosas with his brunch and our waitress had another mimosa ready as soon as he finished the current one, without him asking. Just the type of service you would hope to have. I had the red sangria and it was amazing as well.
I originally came because I had a Unilocal deal since this place would normally be a little pricy for me, but when you consider the quality of the food, the environment, and the excellent service, it was worth it. I would love to see what this place has to offer for dinner, so I will definitely be returning.

Something about this place is slightly «off». They have a charming location, enthusiastic staff, and an interesting menu. The food quality is nearly always very good. What I find odd is that there is usually some hiccup with the service that detracts from the experience. Today we had three such instances. First, although there were only a few other people there for Sunday Brunch, and a tiny menu selection, the food was agonizingly slow. When it came, my wife’s was wrong, and they tried to coax her to take it anyway. Then they hurried and got it right (so why so slow the first time?). Finally, it took two attempts to get the Unilocal 10 for 20 deal to work.
We’ll go back but they need to tighten up.