Panini's On The Waterfront — Restaurant in Beaufort

Came here for lunch today and hoped for a good sandwaich(panini) because of the name of the restaurant. I went ahead and ordered the pastrami Reuben. I did not even bother to read the description in the menu. That ended up being a HUGE mistake on my part. I thought “who would mess with a classic?” Well I was very wrong. First they brought me out a sandwich that was not correct and when I looked in the sandwich it had a dried looking grilled piece of chicken and sautéed onions. Unless the chicken was perfectly seasoned, and cooked perfectly the sandwich as a whole looked depressing and no way would that sandwich have tasted good. I met the waitress know and she brought me out the correct order. I was excited for a split second when I saw it. I took a closer look and there were carrots in the sandwich. So maybe they knew a different combo for the Reuben that I did not know. Then I did not see and sauerkraut. Well I took a shot and took a bite. It tasted like pickled radish and carrots. That’s it. Highly disappointed, not only at the taste of the sandwich but also at the quality of the bread. There might have been two slices of pastrami. Maybe. The bread was so thin and brittle that it started to fall apart at the first bite. Fries were cold. Then they up charge for fries. Who does that!? Fries or potato chips are the staple side for sandwiches. Not pasta salad. Which is what they give here and charge you to change it. So I told the waitress and sent it back and ordered the linguini with white clam sauce. That was an even worse mistake. I should have just cut my losses and not ordered anything. So the pasta came out and it looked very unappetizing. The pasta was dry and tasteless. Could not taste the wine sauce at all. All I could taste is clammy pasta water. I’m all about garlic and onions went sautéing, but why would you not cook it down. No one wants to crunch raw minced onions and garlic when eating their food. You guessed it, that was my experience with this dish. Chuncks of raw onion and garlic. Pasta that tasted like clammy pasta water. My son even asked if my pasta dry. It was! I will never visit this place again. I wonder what day of the week everyone else went to have a better experience but we went on a Sunday afternoon for lunch. My wife’s chicken Marsala was JV at best. Chicken was over cooked and dry. And my sons Mac and cheese has soon much butter on it that the plate had pools of butter on it. Terrible terrible experience. They need different cooks or need to...

In my opinion, a great dining experience involves excellent service, positively memorable food, and an awesome environment.

Panini's would have met that criteria if an oddball waiter named Shawn had not stepped in at the end of our wonderful dinner.

We arrived at Panini's about 4:15 pm and requested a patio table. The Beaufort Boat Christmas Parade starts at 5:30 pm, so we planned to enjoy drinks and dinner while waiting for the parade to start.

At no point were we told there was a limited amount of time we could sit at our table. In fact, we talked about the boat parade with our awesome waitress (Lindsey).

After enjoying drinks and dinner (about 5:15 pm) , Shawn appears and leaves a check on our table. I told him we had not requested the check and I would like to order another glass of wine for my wife. In a raised voice, Shawn told me there was a "two hour wait" for our table and we could not sit at our table and only order drinks. I told him we would gladly order additional food.

Before Lindsey brought me a menu, Shawn appeared with the glass of wine and as he aggressively placed the wine on the table he said, "you can't order any other drinks". I stood up and asked Shawn his name. His response - "Scott". Later, another server told me his name was Shawn - not Scott. He apparently lied about his name and about the two hour wait.

We ordered a bowl of She-Crab soup. Frankly, we were so upset over the interaction with Shawn that we did not enjoy it. Whenever Shawn spoke to us, it was always in a loud voice so everyone around us heard him. We were embarrassed and shocked that a waiter would treat a guest in the manner he treated us. And, that he would openly lie to us.

Our tab was $78.12 before tip. I tipped Lindsey $20 for her awesome service. More than half of the tab was alcoholic beverages. With experience in the restaurant industry, I know the profit margin on alcoholic drinks is much greater than the profit margin on food. So, a high profit guest was treated rudely by an employee. Unbelievable.

Shawn's behavior reflects poorly on the owner and managers of Panini's. If they care about their business, Shawn will be dismissed immediately. No hospitality business should employee someone who treats guests as we were treated by Shawn.

This review is a true recollection of my personal experience. This review is not meant to damage Panini's or to harm any of its employees. Instead, this review is designed to inform others about my...

1st off I want to highlight right off the bat that our server was AMAZING. He was very personable, had light hearted banter with us, made sure we were taken care of, all the things. I’m definitely going to butcher spelling his name so apologies! But josway, you’re fantastic! Now, the cons… the manager on shift was RUDE to all the employees. She verbally berated servers right in front of our table, made snarky comments, and just ruined the atmosphere. One girl dropped a cup on the ground and picked it up to then which the manager swooped in and said uhm did I just see that, are you now going to serve with that?! The girl stated that no, she was just collecting it and herself and would take it to the kitchen. The manager grabbed the cup, huffed and stormed past our table annoyed. All of this in front of customers! Then, we had asked our server for a few extra minutes to look over the menu. He gave that to us and after a few the manager came by and said are y’all ready? We told her yes, just whenever we were now ready. She went over to our server and said are you going to check on them because I’m about to take your tables order because I haven’t seen you go to see them. She was very sassy and we profusely apologized to him and said we could tell her we had asked for time if it got him in any kind of trouble. She then was standing at the corner demeaningly looking at him while he took our order so my mom did say to her he’s fine! We did ask for extra time! Our server took it in stride and just let it roll off and laughed it off which makes me think this is a very normal experience. Also, the hostess was off at 8 and no one had a clue because a line piled up in the entry way that a staff member who was off duty on a date there near our table had to then handle. Just for the way that manager acted and treated the staff I will not be returning. Do better, and just be kinder! There are some great people working there that deserve...