High Tides On The Potomac — Restaurant in Colonial Beach

I had refrained from posting my review, giving the restaurant every opportunity to reach out to me, and given we ate there shortly after restaurants began to open for dining in….but, there is no excuse for having unknowledgeable servers, especially when it comes to Food Allergies! So, here I go!

Back in August we were entertaining friends from Texas. After a day of playing on the beach and sightseeing, we decided to try High Tides on the Potomac for Dinner. Our party was large, 8 people be exact. We started off with drinks and a few appetizers. My wife and 2 children have Gluten Allergies and figured a Seafood Restaurant should be safe. We also assumed the staff would be knowledgeable. Well, that was not the case.

When my family ordered their meals, we consistently reminded our server that the meals must be Gluten Free! She even had commented that she will check on a few of the items, as she was not sure. Mind you, a gluten allergic reaction comes from within, and you can’t see it happening. No Benadryl or Epi pen is going to combat or reverse this type of Allergy.

As we began to eat our meals, the Shrimp tasted very “fishy” as to say it was not fresh and honestly was not consumable. As we neared the end of our meals, the Bar Tender noticed we were a bit frustrated. She came over and asked what the issues were. We explained and she then told us the Stuffed Shrimp was NOT Gluten Free..after our waitress has assured us it was. My wife had already consumed it, and she has a severe Gluten Allergy. In addition, the service was horrible. We had to ask several times for drink refills, appetizers came out with the main meals, and our waitress (which we were her only table) was less than attentive at any time.

The Bartender continued to tell us that the waitress was the Granddaughter of the owner, and she really doesn’t want to be here, but “grandma makes her work here”. As if that was making the situation better? The Bartender even adjusted the bill for the items my wife ate.

We paid the bill and left. Later that night, 3 people from our party were very sick with what I thought might be food poisoning. My wife was violently ill (for anyone who has ever experienced and exposure to Gluten for someone who is allergic) and this continues for several hours. I attempted to contact the restaurant (Phone and email), including disputing the charges. To date, no one has bothered to reach out..even after they disputed my dispute, still no phone call.

Please heed the reviews for this place..and add disregard for the well being of their patrons as one of their attributes. I am hoping after reading the review, I might actually get someone to...

Went right before the season started in late April.

We called reservations in advance. The woman asked if we wanted indoor or patio seating: we chose the patio seating. She didn't take our names or anything but said ok, we've got you covered!

Fast forward to our reservation time (which actually arrived about 5 minutes later than it, due to finding parking). They were pretty busy when we got there. However, not only did they not have a patio table reserved for us, they clearly didn't have any methodology for reserves in place.

So we waited for them to wipe down a table and set it for us, where we were promptly ignored for about another ~15 minutes (not exaggerating).

We were about ready to stand up and leave when our waitress had arrived. She apologized profusely and didn't notice we had been seated.

So all of that to say, their host station and organization sucked.

How about the food, though?

I personally ordered the crab stuffed rockfish, and I got the salad and cream of crab soup with it.

My wife ordered the steak, and the others ordered similarly.

Can't complain! Actually, the cream of crab soup was incredibly good. But I would pass on the rock fish, it was barely seasoned and dry. If it wasn't for the stuffed crab (which was good!), it probably would have needed something to wash it down with.

I got to taste some of the steak, and that was cooked very well and seasoned great.

The sweet potato wedges (they're not like fries, they're dense and come with cinnamon sugar... It's more like a dessert), were good, but not what we expected.

Good food overall, and music was great, as well as watching the water and beach while eating.

Be prepared to drain the wallet though, it's very expensive. 4 of us ate, 3 had two drinks, the bill was $200. Service was fantastic and our waitress, Chanelle (sp?) was amazing! She was extremely accommodating...

Wish we had checked reviews before going here. This was our 3rd visit here. I must say after today's experience we won't be back.

We got the appetizer platter, the wings, cheese sticks and poppers were okay but the crab and shrimp dip was nasty. Cold and so thick made it hard to drag stale chips across this catastrophe. We also ordered a chicken quesadilla which was overcooked, semi burnt, and the steamed shrimp were dry and unappealing.

Our meals. 2 sirloin steak dinners that were overcooked and had some strange tasting seasoning on them. The potato cakes sounded good but they had no taste and were overcooked and very dry. Salad was OK but was an additional charge.

Fried flounder and fries were okay.

One of us got a chicken dish along with the potato cakes and sweet potato fries. The chicken had a weird taste from the seasoning, was compared to someone just taking random seasonings and putting them together. The sweet potato fries were overcooked and so crunchy you could hear the crunching across the table.

Kids Mac and cheese and hot dog were good as the kid downed it all but how can you mess that up?

As for the service. Mediocre at best. While the waitress did answers our questions, she could have done better. Had to ask for refills, a tray was left at a table next to us where we were told we could put the dishes we were done with so the flies would go there and after we got the kids meal to go, we were told she would need to close the check out as she was supposed to be off at 4. And we waited a bit for the appetizers and was told to eat up as our food would be coming out right behind.

The flies were awful!!!

The only positive I can say about this place was the view. It is beautiful there, great location. Our kid enjoyed playing in the water and on the beach.

I really think they could benefit with a visit from that...