Ropewalk Restaurant - Chincoteague — Restaurant in Chincoteague

Overpriced tourist-trap restaurant with a view. Crowded with tourists due to view and location, but you probably won’t see locals because the food is a marginal and highly overpriced experience. The tables and menus are sticky. Gross. The 1st time I went there I was ignored by the waitress and left. 2nd time I went, my waitress was good but the $23 seafood cobb salad I ordered was ridiculous. It was barely larger than a side salad and I couldn’t even see the crab on it. I asked for no bacon and a little extra seafood, even the cheaper shrimp, but obviously that was out of the question when what crab IS included I could hardly find. No bread, no crackers, nothing else with it to fill the “hole.” The manager came over to explain the crab is in premeasured 2 oz cups before shift. I could order an extra for additional $8. Fine, bring it, I said despite my sensibilities telling me to send it back and order a proper dinner. I thought about adding a $20 crabcake to it but at $43 for the meal I could’ve bought a real seafood dinner at a more ethical, respectable seafood restaurant. And I could only imagine how little crab would be in the “cake.” So they brought out a tiny catchup-type disposable cup with a dab of crab. I ate it. Tasted good. But left hungry. I took an $8 sliver of keylime pie back to my hotel and to no surprise, it was in fact a “sliver” that consisted more of granular sugar (not fine desert sugar that quality keylime pie is made with) and of chiffon-dairy consistency. I gave my waitress a $100 bill and the change she brought me would require me to leave a 25% tip if I hadn’t had more smaller bills with me. So she shorted her own self on her tip because I had to dig out what I had trying to leave her 18-20%. Not smart. All in all a pathetic experience. When I tell locals I went there and had a substandard experience, unsurprised they all tell me where I really SHOULD go for great food, service and fair prices. I guess they have to make a killing during tourist season because winters are likely famine season for a place that locals know better than to go. Having lived in several world-class resort destinations where the best restaurants know better than this, I found this place sadly...

In short, this place was disappointing. The food is overpriced for what it is, there are flies inside the restaurant, and our food took a long time to come out - even the appetizers. However, the service was good. Came here for dinner. We ordered fried calamari and chicken wings in jerk seasoning for appetizers, crab cakes, fish tacos, fish and chips, 1 lb of crawfish steamer, and the gipper burger for entrees. We waited around 20 minutes for the appetizers to come out, then another 10 minutes more for the entrees. One table that arrived shortly before us had finished eating and left already before our entrees came. For the apps, the chicken wings were dried out. Calamari was ok - tender but the sauce was on the salty side. The crawfish had little to no flavor. The was no visible seasoning on the crawfish. I guess that's the style where it's just steamed and then you dip it in butter. The fish and chips was sad, mainly the fish. It was super thin. What looked like a quarter inch thick with breading. I've never seen fish and chips fish this thin. Then, the fish was dried out like the chicken wings. Anything fried we had was dried out. Maybe the ingredients are not the freshest and they over fry it to compensate. The outside texture of the fish was like McDonald's hash browns. Fish tacos were ok, the fish inside was fried and, you guessed it, dried out. But, the sauce kind of balanced the dryness. The burger was ok as well. I asked for medium rare, it was over cooked to medium. Still pretty juicy. But man it was 19 dollars. For a 19 dollar burger, it should be cooked like you asked for. The crab cakes were the best of what was ordered, no complaints there. I did not try it, but the wife said they were tender and full of crab. Or server was nice and refilled waters without asking. The prices do not justify the quality of the food here. Combined with the long wait time, I was completely turned off by the time our entrees were delivered. We were also constantly fighting off flies while trying to eat. The food experience felt like a tourist trap restaurant. Would...

RAW FROZEN SALMON ISNT COOL. Really sorry to leave this mediocre review but for a restaurant in a coastal resort area teaming with fresh seafood it’s just inexcusable to service a piece of salmon that was raw and clearly (at least to anyone who knows seafood) not fresh, and still partially frozen and mushy.

I know seafood. My family owns three seafood restaurants. I worked in high end seafood restaurants all my adult life since I was 18. If they didn’t buy it frozen they froze it after it arrived.

We ordered it medium. The outside was a just slightly opaque as if it had been poached for a few seconds or broiled lightly. I was expecting a nice sear or broil. But Inside was completely raw and literally mush which is a characteristic of the cellular breakdown the protein experiences when the water in the flesh freezes and the cells rupture. I could eat fresh salmon rare or raw and often do - salmon sashimi is one of my favorites. But… Sorry but this just isn’t cool. And by the time the server checked on us my wife was already turned off so much we just wanted to go.

I showed the completely raw fish to the server and he profusely apologized but the bill was not adjusted in any way. No manager came out to apologize or explain.

My Day Boat scallops dish did not match the description. Completely uninspired. The scallops themselves were ok, but No taste of any garlic butter anywhere as advertised. The orzo was bland and completely tasteless. I had to add salt to get any flavor and it was just salt. No other flavor. There was supposed to be crab in the orzo but they didn’t supply a magnifying glass for me to be sure but based on taste it was not apparent if it was forgotten or what.

Only positive was the smoked chicken wings app. They were very good wings. The view is great but views in Chinc are plentiful and life is too short for mediocre-to-bad food.

Will not be...