Sissy's At the Harbor — Restaurant in Atlantic Highlands

Nice warm day and I decided to take my family for a lunch on the water. We walked in and found signs that read seat yourself which we did. After 25 min. I had to get up and get menu's myself. After another 20 min we get 2 cups of coffee (cold) partially because after the coffee was brought it took another 10 min to get the cream for it. While waiting for our food we saw 3 tables get up and leave, after they ordered food because it was taking so long for food to come out. I went inside and our waitress said "it will be another 10 min the kitchen is backed up" I responded if the food is not out in 5 you can keep it. I looked to the manager and said an hour and 20 min. so far is ridiculous. All he could do was motion with his hands to calm down. 5 min later 2 of the 5 dishes ordered were brought to the table along with 3 dishes that had the wrong food. I had to ask the server did the cook quit, why was there so many problems? She responded we are busy today. They quickly brought out the right food and removed the 3 dishes that did not belong. At this point I asked my 13 yr old to go in and get forks,knives, and napkins because my children did not want me to cause a scene, they know me well enough to know by this point if I went to get them a scene I would have caused. As far as being to busy, I have had more people than what was in the restaurant in my house and offered better service with just my wife and I doing all the work. When the food came out it was terrible. Not only ruined my lunch Sissys ruined what was supposed to be a great afternoon. An apology, an explaination, any sign from the restaurant would have been enough to make this better. I was looking forward to a great afternoon rather I had a truly awful experience. Can only believe the good reviews came from employees or plants. There were just too many things that went wrong for it to be...

I normally don’t complain online and we love to support local businesses but I had such a disappointing experience today, I’m still scratching my head. We’ve eaten at Sissy’s many times before with no complaints and decided to have lunch there today with our kids and puppy. We confirmed we should take one of the outdoors tables out back (the place was empty) but noticed there were no umbrellas over any of the tables (it was scorching hot and the brellys had been there before, which is why we thought it would be a good place to have lunch). We asked if an umbrella can be put in and the waitress said no, they don’t do that on Fridays 😳. We asked why not and she said because there aren’t enough people to sit outside. I mentioned here we were - 4 of us - ready to sit outside and that otherwise, it would be too hot for the puppy. I got a snarky remark that maybe I shouldn’t have taken the dog out at all!

Really? So disappointing!

We ended up going to Emilios where we got excellent food and service.

Perhaps it’s time to...

Worst service ever! Just had lunch there today... You walk in, seat yourself but you would think that someone would come over and welcome/start taking orders but no, we just sat there and the staff looked at us as if we sat there to enjoy the view. When I finally was able to literally wave someone down for a menu, it took another 10 mins for her to come back to actually take the order- and no it was not busy! When the food finally came (I had a salad)- no utensils! I would still be waiting for those if I had not flagged the bus boy, even after telling two different waitresses that I needed a set. And to be honest the bus boy looked like he didn't want to give me the ones he had in his hand! We basically fetched our own check after we finished eating since no one ever came back to check on us. Do not recommend unless you plan to serve yourself and the food is not...