The Bayard House Restaurant — Restaurant in Chesapeake City

This review is based off of my two experiences at this restaurant.

My first experience was, overall, solid. Service was good, food was properly cooked (the crab cake is very tasty), and the prices were OK even if they were high even when compared to Washington, DC fine dining establishments, which is my basis for comparison. We left this experience excited to have found an option for fine dining that we felt filled the void we previously experienced since my parents moved to Middletown in 2017.

My experience last Saturday--which was supposed to be my birthday dinner-- was totally different.

Hands down, it was one of the worst dining experiences I've had in recent memory. The evening started OK, but quickly devolved. I ordered oysters for an appetizer ($4 per oyster, which is very $$$) and then I ordered a house salad with one crab cake for my entree. The oysters arrived poorly cleaned and with so much grit that I thought I broke a tooth. My entree salad showed up with the appetizers, and so by the time I got around to eating it, the crabcake was cold.

As for the entrees, my mom's meal never arrived. We waited 25 minutes for it, even after alerting both our waitress and the hostess. My boyfriend's meal was mediocre at best and uninspired, and my father's meal was not properly cooked and the presentation uninspired. The prices for the entrees were way too high - all in the high $30-$50 range for mediocre food. I get that Chesapeake City is "tourist" town, but I have had far, far, more superior meals in fine dining DC restaurants where the entrees were less expensive (like just this past Monday at La Bise). Also, we ordered a second round of drinks that never arrived but that did end up on the bill.

We were not even offered dessert, and even if we had, we would have declined it. This is unfortunate because the availability of Smith Island cake on the restaurant's menu was one of the primary reasons I wanted to go there!

When I asked the Hostess mid-meal (and while we were waiting for my mom's entree) to speak to the manager, we were informed that there was no manager (assistant or otherwise) on site... on a SATURDAY NIGHT. By virtue of our table location, we could hear shouting and yelling from the kitchen, and we learned from waitstaff that head chef was not there either!

The waitstaff (all 20-somethings) did their best, including our waitress who had only just started. I felt extremely bad that management would undermine their waitstaff like this. The lack of direction in the kitchen and front of house caused by the absence of management directly impacted the quality of the service and experience, and by extension, the ability to earn good tips. At least two other couples got up and left during our meal because they were not attended to, so this was institution-wide.

It took forever to get our check, and while the waitress was able to comp us my mom's meal, the extra round of drinks was still on the bill and we had to wait longer to get it taken off.

I left a note with the hostess that I wanted the manager to call me. She assured me that I would get a call on Sunday. It is now Wednesday and no call. Not only will I never eat here again, but I am going to challenge the charge on my...

Came here for Valentines Day dinner last night. This was the worst service I have every seen. We had reservations for 730pm, as did many others including reservations for 7pm. We arrived at 720pm and were told they weren’t ready yet and to give them about 25 minutes. Which is understandable, so we just hung out in the bar down stairs. They also said they would come down and get us when they were ready. It is now about 810pm and they still didn’t come get us. I go up stairs to ask and they said to give them just a few minutes as they set the table for us up. 15 minutes go by and they seat a large party of people who walked in after us. It is now 825pm and they finally seat us. Keep in mind also that all they needed to do to set up the table was put a table clothes down, set flowers on the table, and a candle along with normal utensils. Should have already been ready and shouldn’t have taken an hour to set up. It is now 835pm and the the waitress finally came by and got us drinks and took our order. At 910pm, we finally got our first course of a 4 course meal, which was cream of crab soup. At 930pm, we finally got the second course, which was a crab cake. At 1010pm, we still did not get our third course, which was a filet mignon and cod. Not only us, the table next to us as well had to get the hostess and tell them we wanted our checks and did not want the rest of the food mainly cause we couldn’t find our waitress to tell her that. She was also an apparent veteran there. Then the waitress came by and asked us the same thing. I told them that I will take my food to go if it is ready. She told me it would be a couple more minutes. I told her I will only pay for want I ate. Then the manager came out and asked us the same thing again. It took three people to come out and before we got a check. The manager also did not even apologize for the horrible service and just walked away when we said we just want our check. Well it is now 1025pm, here comes our waitress with our third course meal and our fourth course meal, which was red velvet cake and chocolate pudding, all bagged up to go. I ended up paying way too much for food that I could get elsewhere. The waitress also never came by and checked on us or asked if I wanted another beer. There was also a couple behind us who had reservations at 700pm, sat down, and never even got waited on. They just got up and left. The place we were sitting in was also freezing and there wasn’t even lightly played music going either. I heard this place also went under new ownership like two weeks prior. Who ever this new owner is, you better step up and learn how to run this place or sell it to someone who well. Other wise this place will go out of business. It is absolutely ridiculous to have to wait 3 hours for to sit down and get a four course meal. A four course should take about 40 minutes to get through and it took them 2 hours to get through half of it. After having the worst service I have ever had, I can guarantee that we will not be bad and many others that night will not be...

Where to begin...this experience was not our first time dining here but I can assure you it was the last. We had called ahead to reserve a table outdoors as this was our first time dining out since the pandemic. We decided to make it memorable and eat a bit upscale. We arrived slightly before our reservation and were immediately seated. Unfortunately, we were placed at the only high top table not sectioned at the bar, which was also in the direct path of the gateway to the outdoor seating. I was bumped by servers carrying trays of food three times in the first 5 minutes of seating before asking to be reseated. This was a problem because they were at capacity, although other tables appeared to be available. Only after I had order an above average bottle of wine did they move us to a more accommodating table. Thankful and appreciative with the GM coming and making our experience more pleasurable we asked her directly to help with our order as my wife has a gluten and dairy intolerance. We discussed options and ordered our meals confident that our concerns would be met. Our meals arrived delayed, and without our requests for dairy free. I asked for assistance, and the GM came over and had to check if the plate contained dairy. She came back quickly, and apologized, removing the plate stating they would take care of the problem. A few minutes later, she returned with another plate, without the dairy. We thanked her and began to eat our meal...my wife cut into the scallop only to see if was raw and cold. We asked for assistance and they offered to help...by no means were they any of the staff put off or upset, they genuinely wanted to help but after so many issues understood they had failed. I asked for the check, and they only charged us for the bottle of wine. I thought at a minimum that was fair as we didn’t get to eat anything. Certainly not what we expected from this caliber of an...