Mermaids Restaurant — Restaurant in Cape May

Do you know how hard it is to get me to straight up leave a restaurant after waiting for my food, because the experience was so bad I lost my appetite?

I come in mid-day to a very not-busy restaurant. I literally just order a chicken Caesar wrap. This is something that takes about a minute to make. A half an hour later, the waitress comes over and says she doesn’t know why it’s taking so long. I say, yeah, it feels like they forgot my order.

A minute later she brings the wrap. Look at the photos below: it literally looks like something I threw together while drunk at 2 am. It looks deflated. There’s like nothing in it - even lettuce to make there be some volume to it.

I tell the waitress that it’s not her fault, but let me talk to the manager. I pretty calmly explained to the manager that this is not something I was going to pay $14 for after waiting a half an hour. She seemed incredulous when I suggested adding lettuce, or croutons, or just something to make it not look like a car had run over it. No empathy for having waited a half an hour for this, either.

The real bad taste in my mouth (the only thing I ended up tasting) came when I decided that I just didn’t want whatever “fix” the kitchen that sent that out was going to do. I walked to the front desk, just very calmly said hey, I’m gonna go somewhere else. The manager literally said nothing. No “I’m sorry about that”, no “try and have a good rest of your day” — nothing. Stuff happens that is out of front of house’s control - but her total lack of empathy or courteousness was just such appalling customer service.

This was so simple. And handled so badly. Deliberately, without any care for the situation except for the waitress who said she wouldn’t charge me if I got a drink (I got a coke that I didn’t even feel like drinking). I don’t know what on earth was going on during such a not-busy time to cause this, but I hope management really shifts the next time something like...

We went with a party of 10 and asked if the check could be be divided into two. The waitress said sure and asked who would be on the first check and we preceded with our drink orders. Both party ordered appetizers…one appetizer came out fairly quick which were mozzarella sticks…soon after 4 children’s meals arrived. While the kiddos were eating there meals the second appetizer came out which were crab bites. About 10 minutes later 2 adult meals arrived. Then about 10 minutes later (after all the children ages 5 and under finished eating) 3 other adults meals arrived but we were still missing the 4th. The waitress said they were working on it ( it was simply a lobster roll…nothing even heated). After all the adults were all but finished eating a person from the back delivered the lobster roll. The kids had been ready to go…service was terrible. It was around 4:00 and only a handful of other customers!!!! I’d hate to be there when it’s busy!!!!! We all needed refills and not one of us were ever offered one. I asked for a water and it was never brought to me. We finally received the check all on one bill!!!!!!! When we went to pay we asked it be divided, explained kindly that are service was subpar in complete detail and all the girl said was we don’t split checks. Maybe they should train there waitresses proper protocol. Too boot they charge 20% percent gratuity on parties 4 or larger. My hubby is a very generous tipper and always tips above 20% but for the terrible service???? We all left thirsty which should not have been. Couldn’t find any waitress let alone ours and the kids were incredible restless from sitting so long!!!!! To boot there is an up charge for using a credit card of 3%! Not a pleasant experience...

Very sub par food. We ordered takeout for 3 people, simple dishes. Chicken fingers and fries were disgustingly oily. Something I would expect from a snack stand on the beach, not a "restaurant". The Mediterranean dishes were okay but nothing special. And they charged a $2 upcharge for fries with an entree but literally recieved about 10 fries (we counted, the entire portion could fit in a toddlers hand). Salad was extremly soggy with wilted lettuce without any dressing on it, mostly unedible)

And the best part is that they automatically charge a 10% gratuity to all takeout orders. What!? I should back charge them for my delivery fee for my gas time and energy. Nobody served us or cleaned up after us. It was takeout on a $60 order. I normally tip a respectable amount even on takeout orders, butbwhen its deserved. Its bad enough that most places turn the tablet to you now and ask if you want to tip. But automatically adding 10% without telling me until I travel there and to pickup my order and not giving a choice. What a joke. As a business owner myself I would never run a business like that and treat customers like money bags. That's not a "tip" that's a surcharge.

Seriously this is Cape May, your business is in a prime location and you have the opportunity to serve a large and relatively wealthy clientele yet the atmosphere of this establishment is of a cheap grungy hole in the wall.

Here's a tip, do better. 10/10 will not...