Waterfront Cafe Steak & Clam House

08/18/08

If there was a zero-star rating...

by black_velveteen at Citysearch

We decided to try this place for dinner based on an article about restaurants with al fresco dining options. I guess I should have looked for an article about GOOD restaurants with al fresco dining options. Where to begin... First of all, this place is located well off the beaten path -- OF the beaten path. In terms of what that means for the bar or driving range, well, whatever. For the restaurant, though, that translates into bad news. After all, how much food can they really be turning over, and how fresh can it really be?

To start, I order a glass of wine from the wine menu. There were a good 6 or 7 options under each category (reds, whites, etc)...and the waitress tells me that they don't have any wines except the house wines. I think her words were "I don't even know why they have those menus there; they need to update them." Ohh kayyy... So I order a beer, and the stuffed flounder entree. Said waitress comes back from the kitchen to announce that there's no stuffed flounder, and not really much of anything from the menu (which probably turned out to be a blessing in disguse). Ohhh kayyy... I order a burger like my boyfriend did, and she gives us a "heads up" that there's no fries or anything... all they have is chips. Allllrighty then! At this point we were kind of just ready to up and leave, but we were hungry and decided we'd be ok with our beers and burgers.

We get our burgers, and (luckily) I put too much ketchup on the top part of my bun. I turned the buger over to flip up the bottom side and put the extra ketchup there... and what's staring at me but some beautiful tourquoise-blue MOLD SPOTS on the bottom of the bun. Oh, did I mention there were flies everywhere (mind you, we were eating inside), the driving range looked like it was abandoned years ago, and the mini-golf course was decrepit. The staff was EXTREMELY nice & apologetic, but I can't see this being anything more than a locals' bar (stay away from the food).

• Pros: Extremely friendly staff; good customer service. Lots of potential but nowhere near there at this point.
• Cons: The mold on my burger, run-down appearance, flies, mediocre food, bad location