Portside Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Cambridge

So, I used to love Portside. I work in Baltimore and lived in Easton. So, my daily commute was about 1:45min one way give and definitely take. I did this for a year. They had the best wings on the shore and I am a connoisseur of wings worldwide from the really small wings on the coast of North East England to the over fried wings in this hotel in Beijing, China a few years ago. All of my friends know that the first order of business was wings.

6 of us used to frequent Portside every week. Our average nightly bill together was $150 before tipping at least 3 times a week. We knew every server and loved one in particular, Rachel. She knew how to treat customers and I used to call just to make sure she was either in or out. 9 years in the restaurant makes me overly serious about my service and my money.

Portside had wing night and shrimp night and burger night. The establishment cut out wing night. To their defense, I will say that the wing night was crippling the kitchen because the orders spanned from only flats to only drums. It was tough for any kitchen. In all fairness.

None of us have been back since then except for a couple of us. We spent approximately $18k in one year as friends for this restaurant.

These are my suggestions:

Survey your customers before shifting the culture of your restaurant. The culture of your restaurant is built on the relationships your establishment, including staff and customers, have with each other. Culture is built on great food or not. Understand and respect what customers are thinking rather than make arbitrary decisions about the menu that only account for the restaurant's perspective. This is one thing that showed me that Portside didn't really care about the way we felt about the culture of Wednesday nights. Again, I drove from Baltimore just to meet my spouse and friends.

Employ servers who are welcoming and service oriented, not just servers who carry a prejudice attitude and determine whether they will be nice to you based on whether we are a loyal long term customer or not. We never know how important people are and whether it is just one visit or not, each visit makes a difference. Maybe I will get a little slack from this, but I felt like there was a racial indifference that undergirded the tone of this restaurant. Not one person of color represented the floor staff as a server in the one year I supported this restaurant. The Eastern Shore has a long and historical precedence for slavery and racism. Even if Portside isn't perpetuating this perspective, lacking diversity is one piece of evidence that may, not does, tell us something about the climate. Climate influences culture and the climate of Portside can sometimes be questionable as it relates to diversity. I will definitely say that there were people of color in the kitchen.

I am not expecting anything to come of this post, but I had to share my experience. Usually, people who are disappointed in restaurants never come back and never say a word. It's been over a year now I haven't gone back and I have been to Cambridge at least 20 times or more and tempted to stop by.

Why would I? They don't care. They took my money and gave me a notice to leave and never come back. My money should be spent elsewhere. Thanks for the...

When I'm in the mood for seafood, Portside is usually the first place i think of. I've only ever ate there as dine in a couple of times... Everything was great. All the other times, I've chosen take out... When I call to place an order, nobody ever answers the phone so I end up going inside to do so. Almost every single time, to my surprise... It's not overly busy... Someone could have definitely answered that phone! Doesn't matter the day or the time. Anyway, I always end up waiting for someone to take my order... As workers just keep walking by multiple times, stands at the counter looking at ya, but don't ask if you've been helped, etc... Finally after 10 or so min is when someone will take my order.. Those last time I waited 45-50 minutes from the time I walked in to when I walked out... For TAKE OUT!!! And I only bought crab balls and a crab dip. The crab dip is ok, but could honestly use alot more crab meat! My order was ready, sitting on counter, and workers just kept walking by... I don't understand. Smh Something needs to change, maybe have someone solely to take orders over the phone and make sure customers are taken care of when they come in to either place an order or pick it up. I've walked out of there more than I'd like to admit the past few years... Was so agitated the last time because they look right at ya, but won't acknowledge anything... So I stopped going for a while... Finally went back after a year and its STILL the same. I've worked the restaurant industry for years, and there is no excuse for that. If you can't get to the customer right away, acknowledge them, tell then someone will be right with them, etc... That's one of the first things you learn entering the restaurant business for customer service... Hope they can get...

The fellahs and I usually stop by here on our way back from Ocean City. We sit on the deck and enjoy the outdoors and the food. It always takes forever to get our food but we always talk and the hour goes by fast so we don't really mind.

Enter last weekend. My family and I were on our way back from a day trip to OC. Same scenario. We waited over an hour for our food. My kids were about to go crazy and they are good but I was about to go crazy myself.

We were told over and over that our food would arrive by our server but it never came. Finally a couple at a table next to ours spoke up on our behalf to their waitress and complained that we had been sitting there patiently for over an hour and that someone needed to do something.

Servers kept coming and saying they were sorry and we were comp'd 20% of our check total but its not like we ordered anything other than crab balls, chicken tenders, salmon and fish and chips. Basics. We were told they had overbooked a class reunion but other people were getting their food. Something is amiss when all 3 times I've been it has taken over an hour to get my food. I'll pass next time I'm in Cambridge.

I love the crab balls and fish and chips. The salmon was bland. My son liked his chicken tenders. But there are so many other options that won't cost you 2 hours on the road if you are trying to get somewhere. Only go here if you have time to spare and aren't famished or you will regret it.

On the flip side, Eddie, a local, made the wait worthwhile by performing magic for my kids and telling jokes in the parking lot on our way out. If only we had him sitting with us while we waited for our food!!!

Note - I just noticed that it says average time spent at this location 1-2 hours. ...