Hemingway's Steaks & Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Cape May

Read Updated review for latest visit July 25th 2024. It follows previously excellent review.

Very, very good food. Reasonable prices and very thoughtful service.

Off season, Saturday evening 630pm 3rd week of September. We were a party of four adults, 1 child and one toddler. Quite frankly, I wasn't expecting much.

We had a reservation for 630 but arrived around 6. The host was very welcoming, polite and friendly. The manager was also very accommodating and sat us early. The place was busy with a nicely- mannered, seemingly fun crowd.

Our waiter Steve promptly greeted us. The bus staff was also attentive and friendly.

Again, the waiter was friendly and attentive.

We ordered a round of drinks for the adults. The bus staff brought us milk for the kids. I ordered the rum and punch special "The Beast". The others ordered bottled beer. My drink was large, generously liquored with premium rum, sweetened just right and served properly chilled. I enjoyed it; the bartender knew what he was doing.

3 of us ordered off the 19.00 complete meal special menu. That includes soup or salad, choice of entree and house dessert. My brother in law ordered a steak off the regular menu.

All of us had salad. 3 house (included in special) and one wedge. Fresh, crispy, well-portioned. Mixed greens. All with a nice portion of thick, chunky blue cheese on the side. It was delicious. (Hint, hint, Lobster House, your salad sucks lemons! It always has! Read my review on Yelp.)

We all ordered the clam chowder at an additional moderate price. Large portion, just the right temperature and consistency; richly flavored.

We were anxious to try the chowder since it has won recent numerous Best of Cape May awards. No wonder; it is probably the BEST clam chowder I have had in years! It is made from scratch, in-house to boot.

Now the entrees:

I had the locally sourced pan seared flounder in lemon, capers and brown butter sauce. No fishy smell, firm but tender and cooked just right. Just the right amount of spice and wonderfully flavored; not over-salted.

My sister said she enjoyed her wild salmon entree, while my Mother enjoyed the crab cake.

Pan seared crab cake in roasted red pepper dijonnaise sauce, grilled asparagus and saffron rice. I had a taste: great, great, great.

The salmon was served with saffron rice, grilled asparagus, and seared in lemon beurre blanc. My sister loved it.

My brother in law ordered the NY strip medium rare. He also enjoyed it. He gave me a sample. Correctly cooked to order, tender and juicy.

Great food, great service, nice atmosphere! The total bill for four adults, liquor, salads, soups, entrees and desserts (a wonderful brownie) with two kids meals $162. including tax.

We had such a nice experience, I had to find the Manager and tell him what a great time we had. Thanks Sean!

Update:

Service and atmosphere excellent. We have been eating here for years, always very good to excellent food.

Tonight was a crashing exception.

We ordered the Conch "frittas" for an appetizer..This is an appetizer don't! Over-cooked, 4 large tennis-ball sized fritters that were just awful. Soggy, over seasoned and disgusting.

Next, the entrees.

| ordered the Beef Wellington. Not hot at all, but on the cool side. | made an error injudgment in ordering it here. A gourmet entree such as that should never be ordered at a restaurant in an establishment that is primarily a banquet facility.

Soggy pastry surrounding meat and duxelles that topped the meat were off-flavored and congealed. Absolute dog-food. At 59.00 for that entree alone, garbage.

My friend ordered the 8oz prime steak medium rare. It came out well. We should have sent it back immediately. But by that time it was too late to salvage the meal.

| politely let the manager know.

See my other reviews on this site about Hemingway's. | gave them high ratings for food and service in the past.

We...

Tonight my husband and i ventured out for dinner to Hemingways located in the Grand Hotel. I was looking forward to it since we had not been there yet. Everything was excellent. The shrimp scampi was excellent as well as my husbands cowboy ribeye which was a perfect medium rare.Since dinner was a wonderful experience we decided to end our otherwise perfect night with cocktails at the bar, again provided with the same stellar service as our dinner. The date night we had planned had gone beyond my expectations and I attribute this to the level of attention and service provided by our servers and quite specifically a young man I believe was the manager or host. Which is why I felt the need to shed light on what happened next. If i didnt see it with my own eyes, i wouldnt have believed it ,But first it was the commotion i heard that interrupted an otherwise charming night. A gentleman at the bar suddenly loudly and without warning, started to complain about his having to wait a bit before he was to be seated, as any patron out to dinner has experienced. His complaint grew to shouting as he made his way towards the dining room to find the manager who by the looks of it was working hard to prepare this gentleman’s table. Cursing and screaming in this young mans face, most of us were visibly shocked at such a display of behavior. As the manager tried to apologize several times while trying to accommodate him, amidst the verbal attack, this customer was unrelenting. It appeared as the manager was trying to retrieve menus for his table, it was then that the man attempted to grab him by his shirt and continued as i see It to verbally assault him. I felt the need to note this whole ordeal as many of us, including myself find ourselves working with the public and it is a prime example of not only how stressful it can be, but also to recognize extreme professionalism under abnormal circumstances. After all of this and again, why i feel the need to write this review, is the manager who introduced himself as Bill, still managed to make his way over to us at the bar and to see how our dining experience was after all that. Its for the service by our waitress, our bartender Siobhan, the food and mostly for Bills effort and professionalism,I give...

Well here we were after living in Cape May for many many years and having had lunch in this establishment many many times we were so disappointed with Hemingway's today, 10/07/2018. First of all, while arriving at the establishment 1/2 hour before dinner was to be served, we were greeted by a not so happy hostess who looked to be about 17 years old, and a manager (wearing an eagles t-shirt) who informed us that we needed a reservation as they were booked solid until 7:30pm, did not offer us a seat at the bar or to order food from the bar and not to mention that when the other party had a look of disappointment he simply stated "What's wrong"? Now in all my years of dining out and about a several different restaurants in "Cape May" I have never seen such behavior from a manager and yes his name is Shawn or Sean he wasn't very pleasant or professional. I would think that the owners could do themselves a favor by finding someone else better suited for the job. As for dinner, the salad was seriously lacking in quality and quantity, The main menu looked appetizing until it was served. I ordered the shrimp scampi which tasted more like lemon pasta than any scampi I have ever had not to mention the 3 solitary pieces of shrimp on the plate. To be honest the bar apps were so much better now I know why there were so many people eating at the bar. As for the "booked reservations" the whole time we were at the establishment, there were 5 empty tables which seemed to present no problem. After the waitress asked us if everything was okay and my response was no that the scampi didn't taste anything like scampi, the "Manager" Shawn came to out table and announced in a not so gentle voice, I removed the scampi from your bill, what was wrong with it? Again the lack of personality and professionalism shows that the owners of Hemingway's has much work to do to re-establish a good reputation as a fine dining place...