Lost Boy by The YB — Restaurant in Cape May

All the way down at the bottom of New Jersey, on a road called Beach Avenue, is a restaurant which somehow manages to block out all of the amazing light and splendor of the beach. Sure, if you’re in New York City and going for a night out, I guess I understand why a dark and mysterious lounge feel would be appropriate. But, why have a restaurant right on the beach and then quite literally pull black shades across the view? Perhaps you get bored of looking out at the beach and the crashing waves when you live in this area but I would imagine most of the diners are visiting from out of town and are craving any additional time gazing at the ocean. Certainly something I will never understand. Our party of 6 had been sold in the reviews on what was apparently a delectable lobster roll, but given the restaurant is recently under new management the roll wasn't on the menu. That said, the food we did end up ordering was all artfully presented and amazingly tasty. The new owners share duties of waiting tables and chef-de-cuisine and are very pleasant. Our waiter, Michael, was attentive, knowledgeable, and had a great sense of humor. We ordered a mix of appetizers which were all quite tasty but somewhat dainty. Tuna Poke Credo had absolutely beautiful cubes of tuna, and with about 6 we each got to taste one teeny tiny bite. So much room on the plate for more! Swordfish Crostini was tasty with an addition of mango if I recall which amped up the flavor. Lastly, the duck wings were both tasty and meaty and, since they're stacked on top of each other, you are able to play a quick round of Jenga before consuming. Highly recommended (both the wings and the Jenga). Entrées were artfully plated and delicious, however certainly on the expensive side. The crabcakes were among the most expensive dinner options and came with two rather large hockey pucks of fantasticness which were gluten-free and packed full of crab and were absolutely exquisite. Barramundi was lacking sufficient seasoning and sauce for our taste, and the texture for someone not familiar with barramundi was not what we had expected. Certainly not flaky, but also not dense like a Mahi Mahi - sort of in between. One comment for the chef - most of the entrées came with some sort of bean sprout shoot which neither added complementary flavor nor much in terms of decoration. I found it rather amusing that after we all essentially had licked our plates clean each plate still had one or two bean sprouts remaining. Perhaps a sprig of parsley would be more welcome and prettier and tastier too. Forgot to mention - this is a BYOB establishment and they’re happy to provide nice glasses as well as ice as needed. After dinner, unfortunately when we were there they were out of any gluten-free dessert options so we were unable to give them a shot, but for you gluten eaters the options seemed somewhat abbreviated but sounded potentially tasty. Overall, would recommend in terms of food, but still rather surprised at the lack of scenery given...

i came here for a birthday dinner hoping for something special... the food was not amazing or even good. it wasn't inedible by any means, but it was just so so so bland and lacking in any flavor whatsoever. i ordered the sea bass (which i guess was a nice piece of fish) and it did not taste like it was seasoned at all, not even salt and pepper! it came with potatoes which were barely cooked and also not seasoned at all. my friend who is vegetarian ordered the mushroom entree and it was seriously just a plate of unseasoned, under cooked mushrooms... no sauce or anything. the entree portion sizes were huge which would normally be a good thing, but because the food was so bland i didn't want to finish even half of it. the only thing i liked was the side order of brussels sprouts, which were cooked perfectly (but nothing i couldn't make myself at home).

the service was great, although in hindsight i think the server may have been a bit disingenuous about the quality of the food. when we asked what she thought of specific dishes, i think she oversold each dish by telling us everything was amazing (or maybe she just has no taste buds). i guess if you like unseasoned food, you may like this place. but if you like food that has flavor i would steer clear. i don't like leaving negative reviews but hopefully someone in charge will see this and make some changes to their preparations. i'm actually jealous of all the people leaving 4 or 5 star reviews because i really wanted to like this place (and i chose to eat here BECAUSE of all the good reviews). our server said they recently changed their menu so maybe the old menu was better a...

The reviews about poor table management set a good expectation for our first and likely last visit to YB. We were a group of 4 and no table was immediately available. They sat the two people behind us in line, totally fine except rather than seating them at a two that was all alone they put them at a two in the area where two tops could be combined into a table for 4. Our wait was probably 15 - 20 minutes longer than needed as other twos had gotten up and we could have been seated if they had sat the two people behind us intelligently. The icing on the cake was that despite us asking where to wait and no one gave us a clear answer, so we waited in the doorway, we were rudely asked to wait outside. This was just as our table to be was being cleared, the timing made it seem unnecessary and almost spiteful. The manner in which we were asked was not polite at all.

The food was good, not great. The unlimited breakfast is a good deal if you don't mind the wait or the staffs lack of kindness. There is a picture on the wall of the staff, no one is smiling, and no one working that day smiled either. That should tell you something about their customer service.

Lastly, I appreciate that this restaurant takes credit cards when others in the restaurant group do not. However, the suggested tip starts at 20% and goes up to 25% both on the bill and the CC machine. Maybe if this was the best restaurant in Cape May this could be justified. The service wasn't even close. Standard gratuity in the US is 18%, why does YB and their staff think they...