Black Pelican Seafood Co. Greenbrier — Restaurant in Chesapeake

Friday night date night with my wife. She ordered the twice-grilled steak and mahi special and I ordered the chef's pasta special with shrimp and scallops and squash. Both dishes looked good, but had zero seasoning. We spent the first several minutes of our meal opening small McDonald's size packets of salt and pepper and seasoning to taste. We had to ask for seasonings twice as there were none on the table. The first time, the waitress brought us a bowl full of small pepper packets with zero salt packets. That should tell you a lot about what prior customers had to do to their meals as they were zero salt to be found. She had to raid several more bowls to find salt and bring to our table. Salt and pepper should be done in the kitchen. That tells you all you need to know about the chef. My wife's meal was cooked perfectly, looked good and tasted good after seasoning. The pasta also looked very good, but only had three pieces of very small shrimp and two small scallops in a giant bowl that also had very little squash and needed loads and loads of seasoning. I asked the waitress if the small portions of shrimp and scallops were normal, she didn't know but a short time later the manager showed up at our table and I asked him the same question. He asked if I wanted another bowl. I still had a mound of pasta from the first round. He said he would find out if that was normal. He disappeared and never showed up again. They bring you some "wood fired" pita bread before the meal. The bread tasted like it came out of a bag and was simply warmed up. The taste was something like you might receive from those tasteless bread morsels you get in church during communion. About the middle of the meal, my wife ordered a beer which never came but managed to showed up on our $90+ bill.

During the virus, crowds at restaurants are down and chefs have an opportunity to slow down and do things right. That also goes for waitresses. There's no excuse for a high end restaurant to not season their food and for a manager to disappear with a question from a customer and never return. It just shows a lack of pride and caring and quality. This used to be a place that we get excited about going to. The food was decent and the atmosphere was also good, but things have changed. We...

Overall, my experience was disappointing. The service was very poor for my sister’s graduation dinner. It shouldn’t have taken 2hrs for a party of 40 to receive orders. I was not aware that the restaurant served bread and butter until my siblings & I read the menu. After an hr of being seated, we were finally given bread. MULTIPLE people received the wrong order. Some people, including myself, did not get the appetizers that we asked for because it was given to someone else. On top of that, we had to deal with a waitress that was very flustered and rude. She was cursed at by a family member and we apologized about that. But before that moment, we all had plenty of patience! Even though we did not like the service, I and other people in my family tipped the waiter and waitress.

After this day, a manager (Crystal Smith) decided to call my sister the following Tuesday morning (the party was Saturday, MAY 11th)to not only apologize, but to complain about the party and the family member. This was VERY unprofessional. The manager explained to my sister, on Tuesday, that her party of 40 would have been better organized if she would have placed a deposit, which was $200. She also informed her that with a deposit, we would have gotten a special menu which would have gotten the food to us quicker. This to me, is a major excuse. No, my sister did not decide to place a deposit down for her party but, This restaurant was notified about the 40 guest since DECEMBER. She also called more than once before her dinner. Regardless, if a deposit was given or not, management shouldn’t have been as careless as they were. More employees should have been assigned to our party and this restaurant needs a better method for larger parties. I do not recommend anyone to visit this restaurant. It is clear that they are very selective about who they provide...

Went for lunch, ordered the crabcake sandwich BROILED and substituted sweet potato fries for the regular fries and a side order of fried okra. When my meal was delivered to our table, it was a fried crabcake and regular fries, I told the lady that brought it, what I had ordered, she stated she was just filling orders and she took it back. The bext thing I know a different woman showed up with a plate of sweet potato fries and asked me what was the difference, that the sweet potato fries were fried, seriously, like I was just supposed to take what they brought me, even if it wasn't what I ordered. I told her, in my personal opinion it's a sin to fry seafood. Who questions why you won't take fried over broiled since your fries are fried?? She left the fries and said I don't want you to not have anything while waiting, how kind of her. The crabcake they brought me was not broiled, it was thrown in a pan and flipped, it barely had color and was not even warm, after that I still had to ask for the tartar sauce I requested with my original order and the okra. I really thought from the other reviews it was going to be a great lunch, I understand places can have an off day, ha, it was horrible to be treated like I did something wrong by not accepting something I didn't order. I would have given it another try, but the staff messed that up and I will make sure to pass that on! *I'm responding to your reply of my review, you stating "really" what happened, implys I was not telling the truth, but in the end our stories match up for the most part. I will stick by my original comment adding it was the OWNER that prompted my review in the first place and as it seems with all of the negative reviews, you come back at the customer with a very combative attitude, which is really telling of...