Heidaway — Restaurant in Bethany Beach

I really wanted to like this place because the decor and location are very cool, but overall a pretty poor experience. Most of our meal was incredibly bland - the rosemary fries were only vaguely seasoned and undercooked, while the pasta was almost inedible. I'm honestly not sure there was pesto on it. And it wasn't just my meal but really a consistent problem for all four of us. If it had just been a problem with the food I would probably have considered either a second chance or a higher star rating. The waitress was very gracious and removed the pasta from the receipt. But unfortunately it was more than that - one member of our party was told that she couldn't order a burger without tomato and onion because it was "the signature burger." There was literally nothing special about this burger that necessitated putting extra things on it that the restaurant knows will immediately be taken off and not eaten. It's not the waitress's fault, because that's restaurant policy. But it was just silly. The real issue that gives this a 2 star rating is the way one member of our party was treated by restaurant staff while trying to use the bathroom. After spending well over an hour eating, after we had paid and were leaving, she was waiting outside the bathrooms because they were full. An employee gently grabbed her arm and, apparently assuming she had just walked in off the street, told her "excuse me, ma'am, but the public bathrooms are across the boardwalk area." She then didn't believe we had just eaten there, until our waitress confirmed our friend was indeed a customer. This was borderline humiliating because it took place in front of other customers and she did not even receive an apology.

Given the totality of the experience, it left it a very poor taste in our mouths...in...

We stopped in this past weekend after making our way to Bethany Beach for our summer beach trip. The server was nice and was attentive. The atmosphere was good, kids like the “swinging chairs” that were close to our table. My daughter was disappointed that they were out of the kids pizza, and had to settle for grill chicken (she’s a picky eater, so not having a chicken finger/nugget option, as the grilled chicken appearance was new to her, freaked her out a bit.). I order the scrambled eggs from the brunch menu that came with bacon and home fries. They were just okay, kind of bland, eggs were not what I considered scrambled, they looked liked the folded over egg slabs you would see on a McDonald’s breakfast egg sandwich. The taste was a little bland as mentioned, like they forgot to put seasoning on everything. The other couple we were with said their food was also just ok, same issue with the seasoning so not sure if that’s just how it is or maybe that chef didn’t realize. Either way, a little disappointed since we decided to try here once we saw they had a brunch option, as opposed to just grabbing something quick from the boardwalk after a long commute...

We heard about Heidaway and were really looking forward to trying it for lunch. Because we have small children, we went at off-peak hours right at 11:30 am. Unfortunately we never made it to ordering because we were informed that we could not bring our stroller in, not even to the outdoor seating area. We've had plenty of experience with no-stroller policies, and it is understandable that restaurants need to keep the space between tables free. As we were the only guests in the restaurant we had hoped that there would be some solution. The manager was incredibly unfriendly and unaccommodating, telling us that we should've brought a sling if we expected to get in anywhere in Bethany. Our baby would 'for his own safety' be allowed to sit in the stroller on the sidewalk. We went next door, where - despite a no-stroller policy - we were placed at a table out of the way, no problem at all. Too bad for Heidaway and the poor reception...