Beaufort Grocery — Restaurant in Beaufort

My wife and I decided to celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary in Atlantic Beach. We have been there several times and are even considering buying some real estate there.

I wanted to find a special restaurant for our anniversary dinner and asked our realtor for suggestions. One of the restaurants she recommended was Beaufort Grocery. We looked at all of the menus of the restaurants suggested and Beaufort Grocery interested us because they had prime rib on Wednesday night and Wednesday night was our anniversary. Also, my wife does not really like seafood, so the prime rib was something we both liked.

I called the restaurant to make a reservation and explained it was our 37th anniversary and the person at the restaurant said they would make a note on our reservation, so everyone knew it was a special occasion for us.

My wife and I came to the restaurant (suit/tie and nice dress) and were seated. We were curious as to how much food would be served. Since we were traveling, we were not interested in taking any food with us. I saw some patrons being served the prime rib and the portion was huge - it covered the plate and was thick. My wife and I knew we could not eat two of these meals so we decided to split one prime rib meal and also order an appetizer.

When we told the waitress what we wanted to order, she stated that "it was their policy" not to split the prime rib meal. I explained to her it was the only thing we were interested in eating and that we did not want two of these huge portions. I also told her we would pay extra to split the meal. She told me again "it was their policy", so I asked for the manager.

When the manager came to our table, I explained what we wanted to order and she told us again "it was their policy" not to split the prime rib dinner. I explained this was our 37th anniversary dinner and that their policy was going to make us have our dinner at another restaurant. She said that was their policy and they would not deviate from the policy, so we left (we did find another restaurant and the waiter was outstanding - he made our night special even without knowing about the anniversary).

Once we returned to the hotel, I reviewed Beaufort Grocery's menu because I remembered something about a charge for splitting a meal. On the "Home" page, it states "Every Wednesday, Prime Rib Night $25, plus tax and gratuity". In a separate area underneath, it states "Every Sunday & Thursday Half-Price Entrees *excludes lamb; no shared entrees; dine in only; 20% service charge added before discount." There is no connection between the "Prime Rib Night" and the "no shared entrees". In fact on the "Dinner" menu it states "There is a $6 charge to share an entrée".

So Beaufort Grocery must have so much business in the off season (December) on a Wednesday night that they risk losing a customer (and anyone else this customer speaks with) that their policy overrides what the customer wanted - especially on this special occasion. How hard would it have been to cut the meal in half, add another plate, and then charge some appropriate amount for a split meal. ...

My partner and I were very excited to eat here. We’d planned the last morning of our week-long vacation in Beaufort, ending it with lunch at BGC. As we usually do, we scoped out the menu and looked over countless reviews and photos. (When we travel, we take meals pretty seriously.) Unfortunately, no amount of research would have prepared us for this terribly disappointing experience.

We were greeted by our server relatively quickly. She took our drink order and we ordered the crab dip appetizer. She was very personable and courteous; I have no complaints about the server herself. We ordered a couple sweet teas, a diet, and a sangria from the bar. The teas came quickly, but my son had to wait nearly 15 minutes for his drink and my partner waited about 20 minutes for her drink from the bar. We finally ordered our food. The appetizer took about as long as I would expect our actual meals to take. This was where my main issue lies. We waited well over an hour for our meals. We were told a party of 11 ordered just before us; however, that would excuse only a slight delay. We waited for another 25 minutes AFTER our server said it was coming right up. I suspect she forgot to place the order earlier, but it was never admitted.

My daughter’s food did not come how she asked for it; however, since we’d already waited so long, we didn’t have time to have it corrected, and who knows how long that would have taken. My son enjoyed his meal. My partner and I liked ours okay, but the experience had already taken most of the enjoyment out of it. We had to rush through eating and leave.

We finally received the check. It was a gut punch. I would never ask to be comped for any reason, as demonstrated with this experience, but I couldn’t imagine a world where I would let a customer pay full price after a wait like that. $142.99 for a family of four…for lunch. I worked as a server and bartender for 15 years. I am extremely patient with the staff because I understand, more than most, all of the uncontrollable variables that go into executing a meal. That said, this was one of the most egregious cases of delayed food that I’ve ever seen, let alone experienced.

Had this been a normal lunch, I would be more forgiving. It wasn’t, though. This was the last day of our vacation. We had plans to get back to our resort in a timely manner to hang out with our new friends one last time and had dinner plans early that evening. This derailed all of that, and took a chunk of time that I’d like back. Sadly we won’t get that time back. There is no consequence to the business because, since they are always busy, they don't seem to care about the personal experience. We would have likely never returned anyway, since we don’t usually vacation in that area, but I wanted to leave this review for the next family who wishes to enjoy their vacation by not sitting for a 2-hour lunch. I can't award any stars for the food; it didn't matter after what we'd been through.

For the record, I reached out to the business to air my grievances, but they have chosen not to...

We had dinner at BG a few weeks ago. The food was good, as always. However, our waiter Risa (?) was a nightmare. She was one of the most unpleasant, hostile waiters I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. She was obviously mad about something before we arrived and she proceed to take it out on our table (and probably others).

To start, we ordered a bottle of white wine she recommended. It was a little warm so I asked her for an ice bucket. She insisted that the marble wine chiller would work just fine. When I asked again if she had an ice bucket, she slammed the wine bottle on the table and raced off in a huff, slamming a few cabinet doors on her way to retrieve the bucket.

When she returned, she impatiently asked if anyone wanted to order an appetizer. She took the orders from two persons at the other end of the table and raced off again leaving the other six of us staring at each other, wondering what just happened. When she returned later with the apps, we asked if the rest of us could now order our apps, she informed us that she had already taken our app orders. After an uncomfortable pause, she announced that the reason she only took orders from two persons was that, when she took the original order, no one else “spoke up quickly” enough. She then reluctantly, and with plenty of attitude, agreed to allow us to order more apps.

The evening progressed with numerous other equally ridiculous exchanges that I will omit in the interest of brevity. Risa is obviously an experienced waitress, but her uniformly disagreeable attitude had everyone in our party alternating between laughing in disbelief to simply rolling their eyes.

Fortunately, BG continues to have a great kitchen and the food salvaged...