Waterfront Seafood Market Restaurant Ankeny — Restaurant in Ankeny

How many strikes does it take to drop a star?

When I first got there I asked to be seated in the bar area. I was the only person sitting in the bar area but it took forever for the wait staff/ bartender to approach me.

I then ordered an Old fashioned and the bartender went to make it and then disappeared for several minutes.

When he came back he said that they did not have any oranges but he'd be more than happy to make me an old fashioned.

How does a restaurant not have oranges? The bartender said they were back ordered. I am sure they could have picked some up at the local grocery store as there was one relatively close. I jokingly mentioned this to the bartender and he took offence and said "It's not my job to decide that."

He then proceeded to gather orders from several other people that recently showed up and I sat staring at my menu for many minutes before he got back to me.

It also took a while to get my beverage.

I then asked whether the smoked salmon or smoked salmon bacon was better and he told me that the salmon bacon was out of stock as well

That is strike number 2.

I ordered the smoked salmon as it sounded very good. It was tasty but nothing exceptional. There is very little to no smoke flavor at all and the horseradish sauce was very bland.

Another strike...

Again it took a long time for him to approach me about ordering dinner. I would think that you might ask if somebody wanted to order dinner at the same time that you took the appetizer order but when he took the appetizer order he just walked away.

Another strike...

I told him I wanted the Texas prawns and a side salad and their "famous" Clam chowder as the sides.

I asked what dressings they had and he listed several including blue cheese. I asked him whether the blue cheese had chunks in it and he said yes they did.

The dressing was bland at best it tasted just like ranch with a few little pieces of blue cheese. There were no chunks and no blue cheese flavor.

Another strike....

To be fair the old fashions were not bad and the clam chowder was good but again not exceptional.

A plus....

The other thing that was kind of an issue was that he gave me my salad and then a couple minutes later brought the soup.

This was a little bit odd timing. I would think that you would wait for the person to finish the salad before they bring the soup.

When he brought my soup he asked if I wanted a second drink. I did order that one.

That was essentially the last interaction we had until he brought the bill. There was no interaction to ask me whether dinner was good or whether everything was going okay or anything of that nature.

Also when he grabbed my dinner plate there was no request for another drink or dessert or whatever. He just grabbed my plate and then brought my bill.

When he brought my bill back I put my hand out to grab it and he just laid it on the table and walked away without any comment.

I came here not expecting too much for a seafood restaurant in the middle of Iowa.

That being said, they did not even live up to that low expectation. Is this a decent place to go?

There is a variety of food and they do have a decent looking sushi bar but I would think there would be better seafood places in the area.

Being that my mother was a professional waitress for many years and my daughter now works as a waitress working her way through college I did tip 15% but that is low compared to my...

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER! We have been going here for many years but now no one in our party will ever go back. We asked our waiter to slow the service down, that we did not want our dinners until we were done with our salads. Half way through the salad out came our food. We restated we did not want our food before we finished our salads, so she took it back. A minute later the manager came over and yelled...yes yelled at us demanding to know exactly when they could bring the food? We told her after the salads. She “yelled” that it would be cold and what was she suppose to do about that. I asked her why she was so hostile? She said she just didn’t want us eating cold food so my husband said Maybe she could make it over, we had asked not to have it before the salads were finished. She blew up again, yelled she wasn’t going to do that and said the owners would allow her to do anything (and apparently she’s their daughter-in-law) so we told her maybe we should just leave (this was too uncomfortable). We went to the car, and then my husband went back in and told her we weren’t looking for conflict that we had been coming there for many years, she told him how upset we had made HER and that we should have just asked the waiter not to bring the dinner before the salads were finished. He said we had and she yelled “well that’s the way we train them!” With no resolution he gave her his business card and requested the owners call him. They didn’t...so we wrote them an email about the incident, and said we needed a call in order for us return to the restaurant. WE HAVE NEVER HEARD BACK. I don’t understand why they just didn’t put our food under the warming lights and bring it to us when we’d asked, there was no need for the manager to have come over. We hadn’t been mad at the waiter. We had actually been there the week before and well after we’d eaten our salads and the meal should have been served the waiter came out to tell us they were out of salmon, but they had wild caught salmon so if we wanted that there would be an up charge. I said but you’re the one that ran out why do we have to pay more? The manager, a different young lady, came over was very apologetic and said the owners would not allow her to do anything. We weren’t thrilled but ordered anyway because she was so nice. It’s not hard to be nice and should be a requirement for managers even if the owners decide not to fix their mistakes, which seems very short sighted on their part. They lost 8 long time customers...

So this is a perfectly honest review. I came with my husband and my parents and we were seated right away and we ordered appetizers. It did take I would say longer than average to get our appetizers. My parents had the bacon-wrapped scallops and my husband and I had the Sunday special fried oysters in parmesan crust. I liked them my husband however thought that they were too slimy? I did not have that same opinion but they weren't as crispy as normal fried oysters. My parents seem to enjoy their bacon-wrapped scallops.

I ordered the large shrimp dinner along with my mother. We were shocked at how large the shrimp actually were. Probably the biggest or second biggest shrimp I've ever seen. Me and my mom loved them. My husband had one and thought they were kind of chewy. I did not feel that way and neither did my mother.

My husband had the Sunday special parmesan cheese walleye. Even I have to admit that once it came I was a little grossed out. It just looked like a heaping gob of cheese poured over a walleye fillet sitting in grease. It essentially made the fish mushy. He said the taste was okay but he didn't eat even a quarter of it.

I did not have the coleslaw but the other three did and none of them were impressed. The coleslaw was dry with not nearly enough sauce. It was like bits of cabbage. It was awkwardly weird.

Both of my parents had the rice with their meal and both of them loved the rice!

My husband and I also tried the New England clam chowder. I personally loved it. There was not an overwhelming taste or smell of clam. It honestly tasted like cheese and potato soup with an aftertaste of clam. I loved it my husband just thought it was okay. You could definitely tell there was clam in it so in no way am I saying that they skimped on the clam!

Just my honest review of everything we had. I am definitely going back again I had a wonderful experience as did my mother. I believe my dad as well. I honestly think my husband just ordered the wrong dish. That was maybe not the best dish on their menu. I would recommend skipping the coleslaw unless you like dry coleslaw.

Otherwise I think it's a fantastic place to go and even though it's a bit pricey I personally think it's worth it. I really only gave it four stars because of the coleslaw and my husband's dinner. For as much as it cost it should have been better than that. Maybe just avoid that dish and you'll be fine.

Also our server was great. He seemed a little standoffish at first but...