410 Bank Street Restaurant — Restaurant in Cape May

What a great choice 410 Bank Street turned out to be. We haven’t been going out much recently due to covid restrictions and heard about the large outside covered seating option there. And although tables were spaced apart enough to make everyone comfortable, I do want to go back and dine inside next time. At the restaurant’s entrance, you walk on old pavers leading to a unique little courtyard-like waiting area with live trees shaped into a canopy overhead giving the feeling of being inside. Then as you walk up a few steps into the area where the hostess greets you, you become very curious as to what’s inside and around the next bend in this historic old building and then to your left you realize they have an opening at eye level and about 10 feet long looking directly into the main kitchen allowing you to briefly view the food being prepared. I always like places that allow you to see into their kitchen. Gives me a more comfortable feeling about how the food is prepared as well. So next time I would really like to sit inside, as I believe the atmosphere of being inside that old historic building would only make it better yet. And the food really was prepared wonderfully. Although different and unique, their food reminded me a bit of Peter Shield’s in the sense that you could see someone spent time and care to prepare each plate we received. Most of their food seemed to have a Caribbean or New Orleans style flavoring but nothing overly spicy or hot in the 4 appetizers and dinners we had ordered. We split 2 desserts between the 4 of us which were also great, and I believe our waiter Vonn said all desserts were also made in-house. We brought our own cocktails although I later realized they do offer wines form the Cape May Winery. But we had a wonderful evening out for dinner, from the people and service right down to dessert. We’ll definitely be back. Don’t know what took us so long, but they are a bit of a hidden gem not being located directly on the corner or...

Oh man... The last thing I needed was another expensive restaurant that I "have to visit" when I come to Cape May, but... well... I think I'll always have to visit 410 Bank Street from here on out.

We made a reservation (you'll need one), arrived a few minutes early, and were promptly seated after only a five or so minute wait. We didn't mind-- the weather was nice and the exterior waiting area was very pleasant.

The atmosphere is wonderful. There is a beautiful exterior seating area (we did not get to sit there), and another sort of interior patio seating area where we were seated. Both were lovely. There may be other seating areas but I didn't get a good look at them if so.

We had lobster bisque and a crab and corn cream soup as appetizers. Both were quite delicious.

For our main courses, I had the Gumbo and my girlfriend had the blackened catfish. Both were incredible, but the Gumbo is probably my favorite thing I've eaten in several years. So flavorful and savory!

Oh, it's a lot of food though. Between our two meals, there was a whole third meal of leftovers (granted, my girlfriend is a light eater). I would normally view this as an attempt to compensate for something, but that simply isn't the case here. The quality was fantastic. Every bite was delicious.

Our waiter was very nice. He had a great sense of humor, and was very prompt and professional. We also took the opportunity to pick his brain for his favorite coffee shop and patisserie in the area, which was very helpful.

The restaurant is BYOB, though we weren't in the mood for drinking that night so we didn't bring anything. It is a nice option though to help keep your tab down.

For the two soups, dinners, and tip, our bill came to $170. Money well spent, and I'll definitely be...

Overall a pretty poor experience. Extremely expensive for the relative value (I.e the food way under delivers) and the service was very poor (from both management and our “experienced” server. Ironically the only good part of the service was the bus staff).

Perk: Parking is a block away and reimbursed.

We arrived late for our reservation but they still sat us. Then both our server and management berated us for it THREE times. Sorry, am I here to serve you? The first words from our server were that he was “stressed” and didn’t have “time.”

Had children with us and they wouldn’t allow us to order their food early because it would “disturb the flow of the kitchen” and all main courses had to come out together. I’ve literally never heard that in any restaurant ever (I mean ever).

So let’s talk about their food. Typical poor quality food for the shore. Menu sounded like they wanted it be high end, especially for offering higher priced dishes. Admittedly the menu appeared to be pretty good. The delivery was far below their pompous self image. Plating was interesting and meets expectations. The quality was more average. Despite the shortcomings of the front of the house, this kitchen has a lot of potential. With some more attention to the quality the food would be much better.

The front of the house is so pompous that if it weren’t for my guests I would have left moments after we sat down. It took hours for the server to shake his condescending attitude.

Decided to give it 2 stars because there is potential here. Service was 1 (though support staff was actually quite good) and the food was 3 for quality (but like a 2 given the super...