Library IV

Our go to spot for a great meal. Service and food are consistently spot on. Hubby loves the clams casino, bacon wrapped shrimp, and their specialty… steak. Sometimes we go for apps and salad only. Very versatile. Recommend reservations for weekend meals.

Salad bar was a little messy. Great steaks, but price has gone up with no increase in quantity or quality.

If you like steaks this is the place to go. The salad bar could use some updating. Usually a long wit but this pass weekend was empty.

The filets we ordered really weren’t that great. I’ve made better. We were disappointed.

This place has fallen. Far.
We used to eat here 5 – 6 times a year at least, starting 10 years ago when I met my husband (it was our «visiting Dad» go-​to); my father-​in-​law brought his sons here regularly for decades. It was THE place to go.
Now we might go twice a year at most. It’s sad to see how the quality has dipped while the prices have skyrocketed.
My husband always orders his beef medium-​rare now vs medium because it’s normally overcooked, so he knows he’s more likely to have it turn out right this way. The last few times my father-​in-​law ordered prime rib it was ridiculously fatty — much more so than usual.
Salad bar needs updated, point blank. Yes, there’s something to be said for continuity… but come on. Add a new topping, maybe. Keep it cleaner. Use ripe tomatoes vs the pale, tasteless ones I always skip over. We’re in NJ for heaven’s sake. We have good tomatoes.
I almost always get seafood, either salmon or crab cakes, and I’m generally pleased. But it’s just so.darn.expensive. We wince when the bill comes and always comment on how much cheaper, and often better quality, the food is at our favorite places. If we can go to a Center City restaurant voted one of the city’s Top 50 and have multiple drinks, several small plates, entrees, cappuccino and desserts for less than drinks, entrees and desserts at the Library, it seems like a real waste.

Great food great bartenders, just one of the few places in the area that can satisfy my taste for fine dining.

Over priced & not a very good dining experience. Whoever came up with the plan of the customer taking their check up to the window, to stand in line to place your $ 30 entrée is insane! When you’re spending that much you don’t want to order at a window! Salad bar was dirty too! Never again!

The food is very good but the service is the pits! We have been here a few times and different waitress every time and the service sucks no matter who it is! Never come back to see if you need something etc. The only thing that keeps us coming back is the Incredible salad bar and good food

Love it here. Always a fantastic meal.
Salad bar is great. Ordered a Petite Filet with baked potato.

A fallen star! Over the past 25 yrs, it used to be the place to go – you never had a bad meal there. Delicious Veal Stefano, Chicken Marsala, steaks, a great salad bar, THEN something happened over the past 1 – 2 yrs. Food is tasteless, salad bar boasts cheap, waxy cheddar block of cheese, not the good stuff like years ago. I don’t get it – they put all this $$ into renovating this place. They need to invest in a better chef.

It’s only getting 2 stars because the owner is a nice person and truly does care. This place was our favourite since we moved here 2 years ago. A great salad bar with fresh crispy vegetables; great delicious entrees… However the last year or so this place has slipped in service. The quality has dropped severely. Their to go salad should be either cheaper or you should get 2 tins. $ 11 is a lot for a salad. The prices are hefty for williamstown. My to go orders have been wrong or food didn’t taste right. It’s really a shame, I hope they make some serious changes and measure up to their menu prices…

Was not impressed at all with this restaurant. Had the crab cakes with no flavor except parsley and for an additional $ 3 upgrade got a nicely burnt sweet potato. Will not be dining here again.

Today was our first time at this restaurant. Usually when we are in town, we take a drive over to Philadelphia and eat at my favorite spot but today we did not have time.
So, my father-​n-​law suggested this restaurant and said he liked the food. He usually knows what he is talking about and his wife co-​signed. So, we went.
First off upon arriving, there was a guy there at the door and he was very friendly. He is the only reason I gave them a second star. He greeted us all. He was on the heavy side but he had a warm welcome.
Then we were seated. However, I started to smell something. I do not think they have their carpets cleaned because there was a stench in the place. The waitress came over and suggested a drink. She took our orders and told us what we are to do. So, we walked over to the counter and ordered our food. I had crab cakes and lobster and crab bisque. Then we grabbed a salad. The salad was just mediocre. The salad station appeared a bit messy. People eat with their eyes, so that station should always be right.
Once we were seated she brought our drinks. I looked in my drink because something was there. It was a fucking roach! A baby roach! She apologized and took it away. However, I was pretty much done after that.
Once our food arrived, I picked at my bisque. The taste was off for me. Ended up giving it to my father-​n-​law. Then our main course showed up, and my crab cakes were just bland. I have had much better. I was not impressed! I ordered a sprite because my stomach felt like I wanted to vomit. I also could not take a chance with a Coke because I was afraid I may have a roach floating. So, needless to say we skipped dessert and came home. The next time I am in town, I will wait the long ass line and go to Cheesecake Factory.
Yep not worth the money!

Wasn’t to sure about the ordering from window but it was a pretty cool experience. The lobster and crab bisque is awesome. I’m a huge steak fan the filet was amazing. Minus the expensive bill I was very pleased. Will definitely be going back again!!!

We tried this place as our introduction to the «finer dining» of the Williamstown area. After all, it had decent reviews, and with four locations, they must be doing something right, right?
I’m not sure what it could be.
Right off the bat, I ordered one of their special cocktails. It arrived and was completely undrinkable. The menu said Hendrick’s gin — I don’t know what bathtub hooch they’d substituted in that night, but it bore as much resemblance to Hendrick’s as gasoline. I asked the waitress about it and she just shrugged. Ooooookaaaaay… I gave up and resigned myself to drinking water.
Onwards to the food.
We walked over to the window for the steaks and weren’t terribly impressed with the price/​value for the cuts, but figured we’d give them the benefit of the doubt if they were good. I decided to be a little adventurous and got the rack of lamb; my fiancé got the filet.
On the way back to our table, we passed the Applebee’s-esque salad bar. I skipped more than one container of veggies there because it didn’t have a utensil, had obviously wilted veggies, or had had the neighboring containers heavily spilled into it. (Thank you, but no, I don’t need thousand-​island dressing in my macaroni salad.)
When the meals showed up, my fiancé’s filet was bady overcooked — charred on the outside and grey in the middle, not medium rare at all. My lamb was worse, impressively worse. Rack of lamb with mint jelly is Cooking 101 — and has been since the 70’s, which might be when it was put on the menu here. This lamb was shrunken, overdone, chewy, and extremely salty. (Even more of a problem due to the drink situation, since my water glass was empty before the food arrived and never did get refilled despite requests.) The radioactive-​green mint jelly had obviously come from a can or jar, as it still bore the cylindrical shape of that container despite being lazily chopped at a couple of times to try and disguise that fact.
After the cocktail thing, we figured mentioning anything to the waitress would get is nowhere.
I never did get a refill on my water and was reduced to frantically stealing my fiancé’s. (So much salt!)
The bill, when it finally came, was borderline outrageous for two people with no dessert and it still featured the Jail Cell Trash Bag Special cocktail.
Once we were safely outside, I remarked to my fiancé that we could have had a better dinner, cheaper, at Outback.

I’ve been coming here for years. My wife hates it here but I come without her when she has a late shift at work. She hates it because of the clientele. They come out to dinner is sweats. I can look beyond that because the steaks are pretty good. I sat at the bar tonight and they were very busy so I didn’t mind waiting for one of the two female bartenders attention. After 5 minutes or so she (the shorter of the two working tonight) approached me. I ordered a Guinness, steak potato and a side of onion rings. The Guinness ²⁄₃ head. I let it settle and wound up with half a Guinness. I tried to get their attention a few times and finally just drank it. For the next beer I ordered an IPA from the other bartender. She got that right. After 20 minutes my meal came minus the onion rings. I asked the server for them and they came in 5 minutes. I had to wait 5 minutes to get the bartenders attention for sour cream. The bar had slowed down by now (it’s been an hour now) and they were so focused on counting their tips that they couldn’t pay attention to the two people left at the bar (me and another guy). The tab is kept in front of you in a rocks glass. I looked at the bill and gave her my credit card. She brought it back for me to sign and it was a few dollars higher. Apparently I didn’t get my onion rings with my dinner because she forgot to ring them in. She must have saw a leftover onion ring and added it after I gave my credit card. This might sound petty but geez.
I live 5 miles from here and I’m never going back.

The service is great, the food is mediocre, the prices are too high. I go there maybe once a year and am continually reminded once i get there… «why???»

It’s with a heavy heart that I write this review, because I used to really enjoy going out to the Library to eat. But that was many years ago, and the years have not been kind to this restaurant.
This was a birthday dinner for my husband, and we were excited to go.
First of all, the wait staff does not take your food order. As a matter of fact, there are no menus (except for drinks and desserts). You must walk down, past the salad bar, and read the menu & specials off the wall.
This makes for a clogged up area, as people who may be unfamiliar with the menu have to take their time deciding. In retrospect, we should have looked up the menu on our phones and sat, in comfort, at our table, while we made our decisions.
We all got the salad bar which was OK. But not terrific. Cole slaw, long, stringy and had no tang. Just kind of blah. Bread was nice.
For appetizers, my family ordered mussels in red sauce, which arrived lukewarm. The sauce was not seasoned well, and the mussels were quite small.
My appetizer was mushrooms stuffed with crab. Mushrooms were mushy. Crab was fresh and very nice.
Dinner: My husband ordered a steak, and commented that me could make steaks better at home. I got chicken oscar (chicken with hollandaise, crab meat and mushrooms) Mushrooms were canned. Chicken was mush. Hollandaise was ok, but needed a bit more lemon and spice. Crab meat, as mentioned before, was fresh and lovely.
For dessert, we shared peanut butter & chocolate pie, which was quite nice, except for the unfortunate hershey’s syrup that was underneath the slice. Really detracted from the dessert.
Overall, for the prices, I found this mediocre. I truly hope someone from the restaurant sees this review and takes the time to correct these problems.
The Library was once quite nice and well worth the money spent. But we were disappointed, and honestly, we will not be returning. It’s a shame, really.

Nice staff but management needs to get their heads out of the sand. All their steaks are priced nearly 40% higher compared to other area restaurants like Outback, Texas Roadhouse and Carrabba’s who serve the same grade steaks. I went from eating here 3 – 4 times a month to zero.

I have been a regular at Library IV since moving to the area five years. While I do love the salad bar and the good service I no longer find the food worthy of the hefty prices.
My visits have become fewer and further between. After our most recent visit the Hubs and I agreed that it would probably be our last, sadly.
Too expensive for what you get.