Ocean Grill & Tiki Bar — Restaurant in Carolina Beach

I left with more questions than answers. I ended up eating here twice & I'll explain. My daughter got married on the beach that morning. It was always a tradition for us to eat here when we vacationed. We always had a great experience. The wedding guests all agreed and set plans to eat here for dinner. Earlier that day, my mom & I stopped in for a quick lunch & to ask ahead of time about large parties & what to expect. We were advised to arrive early. During this lunch, I ordered a BBQ platter & sweet tea which was great. Our waitress however was really nice but we sat for a long time waiting to get our check & had to get back to the room. So we went down stairs to inquire about paying. We were met by a young man who asked what table we sat and I understood his actions to mean, we could pay him. I handed him a $100 & he seemed irritated and came back with change for the $100. It confused me because I thought he was bringing the remaining change. I expressed to him that I didn't understand. He very abruptly stated. "I'm bringing you change for your $100, now pay your waitress & tip her!" I didn't have a problem with what he said, it was how he said it that was overly rude and aggressive. My waitress did approach and I paid her. I wasn't upset at the waitress, I was just simply trying to pay without sitting at the table for a long time. I'm a very patient person, I promise.

My mom & I chalked it up to just an odd encounter with a grumpy staff member & didn't think anything of it.

Later that afternoon, we came back to go ahead & get seating for our party of 14. We were seated & the waitress then pointed out that there's a policy that any party over 10 has to go on 1 check. I discussed this with the others that arrived & we then asked her to clarify. We also asked her how the parties over 10 typically handle this. Do they throw down cash, venmo, cash app, 1 person with a big credit card balance is stuck with a huge bill? She then explained how this is typically handled and we were then okay with it. But THEN...the grumpy guy from earlier comes to our table. His approach was as if we were upset and we explained to him that we were just trying to make sure it was going to be okay with our other guests. He then offered a solution of splitting the check 3 ways & we asked that since we have 4 different families, can we split it 4 ways. He took back his offer for the 3 and in a very rude and condescending tone said, "well, you don't even have your 14 people here so we are talking about something that isn't even an issue yet." We assured him that our party would add up to 14 & again in a rude manner he kept repeating that statement. In a nutshell, it worked out. The food was great. It did take a long time to arrive but was worth the wait. Our waitress was very nice and attentive. We were able to pay the bill according to how it was divided but we were just really puzzled as to why this guy is even there as an employee/manager/etc. He doesn't have any people skills and if there is confusion, speaks to people like they are beneath him. If in the future, I see him there, I'll just walk back out. It's a shame because this is a great restaurant with loyal customers that return every vacation. If he keeps talking to people the way he does, I don't see that tradition continuing.

I also want to add that our families dine together all the time and we are always polite & respectful to restaurant staff as well as being considerate of other patrons. It was odd that this "manager" was so bothered by us asking questions about the policy but never once addressed a table across the room that was behaving very belligerently, inappropriate, & loud. Also, he kept stating that his restaurant is low on staff. We saw at least 3 different waitresses in our area which was not full. There were at least 3 empty tables. If he speaks to his staff the way he speaks to the customers, then being low on staff during a busy vacation season is...

I live locally and have been a customer for several years. My mother has advanced parkinsons but we still try to venture out as often as possible to maintain her quality of life. We had a hard day and were looking forward to sitting on the pier and enjoying the view despite her having a feeding tube and not being able to eat. We come for the view. Her electric scooter died so a friend and myself pushed her from the parking lot across the street into the restaurant, then we had to carry her up the two stairs and thankfully had a very kind gentleman (also was a customer) to help carry the scooter. After all of that to be sure my mother could enjoy her view, we ask the waitresses if while we are eating if we could please plug in her scooter and let it charge as we are eating. Both waitresses wanted to help. The manager, I did not catch his name at the time steps in and as a manager or maybe even the owner you would expect for better customer service. He was extremely rude and inconsiderate. He lacked any type of moral compassion. He states " I have no where you can plug her scooter in without it being in the way and being unsightly for other customers". Mind you this is a very tiny scooter made for on the go. He watched us struggle to come to enjoy this restaurant and refused to allow us to plug it in and said go some where else and charge it. There were literally open outlets at every section that would be reasonable to access for us without disturbing anyone. Our hearts broke. We will never spend any money at this establishment again as they truly crossed a line and discriminate against people with disabilities. She is unable to walk at all , the neutral setting would not allow us to roll the scooter. So we had to carry her out of the restaurant and carry a scooter out all because he did not want a scooter plugged into his restaurant. He had zero empathy and was cruel. We left with broken spirits and hurt hearts. It doesn't take much to be a kind human. If you are searching for a restaurant to enjoy great food and great service from kind humans I highly suggets: Big daddy's whom have always been handicap and customer family with wonderful food, or the new riverview restaurant on the right heading to Fort fisher. Another great choice is lazy pirate if you are looking for great seafood. Do not waste your money supporting heartless people and not to mention their fish tacos are always served cold as if reheated . You wait for long waits for the food. People go for the view but go to a great local restaurant other than this and then enjoy the view by walking on the Kure beach pier. Do better and find kindness...

Rude staff and the most flavorless food you could possibly imagine. My glass of water had the most flavor out of everything in my meal (not in a good way). The only salt was the salt in the air. We ordered fish tacos and peel and eat shrimp. The shrimp was fine, not great. The fish tacos sounded like they should be good but I might as well have been eating air. It tastes like nothing and I was still hungry. I don’t know how this place has so many good reviews. I never ever leave reviews but I fell compelled to prevent other people from wasting their money, time and taste buds.

In addition to terrible food, the staff (some guy maybe the manager) was very rude. Long story incoming but the details are necessary to get the full picture. We walked in to see a girl drinking at the bar just behind the hostess stand. She looked like she worked there. Another girl greeted us and asked us if we wanted to sit at the umbrella tables or near the tiki bar. We didn’t know so we walked out side to see. Clearly establishing that we’ve never been here before. Then we told her that we would sit by the tiki bar. She said we could go sit down and someone would be right with us. Okay cool that’s pretty normal. We then waited a while at the table and no one came over. So then we decided to go walk over and sit at the umbrella tables. We weren’t upset just confused and thought there was a miscommunication. Then the staff guy is staring at us and yelling across the restaurant that we should’ve gone and seen the hostess which we obviously did. Then he proceeded to make I can see you hand gesture at us. Forreal my guy. Then the girl who was drinking at the bar walked up with menus (she saw us walk in) and said with a bored sarcastic tone “what’s the problem”. Like cmon really. I calmly explained the misunderstanding and she really didn’t have that much to say and walked away. No apology or sense of care at all.

We thought about leaving (we honestly should have) and the waitress who walked up was perfectly nice. We were hoping the food was at least good but we were extremely disappointed.

Bottom line take your hard earned money...