Big Fish Grill Ocean View — Restaurant in Delaware

Very disappointing. The 20 minute wait was hardly worth it. The outside was lovely and quiet, but the entire dining area inside of what we thought was a nice seafood restaurant was a loud, crowded sports bar atmosphere with cramped tables, slow service and wrestling on TV. The first thing we noticed was the chaos and customers complaining about their order being wrong, cold and taking too long. I ordered ice water with extra lemon and 15 minutes later received warm water with one tiny lemon slice. The menu is misleading as it clearly stated the entrees we ordered came with sides (otherwise we wouldn't have ordered them), only to find out when the bill came that we were charged for sides, which tasted awful and were huge for sides anyway (the lobster mac & cheese "side" was enough for a large family). When my husband questioned the huge bill, the server brought over a "manager" who was rude and accused us of not understanding the menu, then walked away mumbling something under her breath. 20 minutes later the server placed a new receipt on the table without a word. None of the host staff said goodbye, thank you or anything either. The crab bisque appetizer was delicious, but that's not enough for even two stars due to the poor service, bad atmosphere, misleading menu and overpriced, sub-par food. Being rude to customers clearly lets them know you don't value their business or want them back. We'll gladly oblige and try one of the many local small businesses next time we're looking for a place to eat in the Ocean View/Bethany area instead of any of this big chain's restaurants, and we'll check...

We liked going to this place, but recently the place simply fell short and made our dining experience aggravating. Due to holiday weekend, they were clearly overwhelmed, understaffed, and you can see it in the faces of the staff. Stress all around, frowns and struggling to smile as they interacted with customers. They took a long time to serve us, almost to a point I was about to get up and chase someone down. Then the food took a long time, one of the kids dish, chicken tenders was not cooked properly, the meat was pink! How can any reputable restaurant mess up chicken tenders? When we changed our order to something else as a result, again, they took forever to bring out the replacement dish for our child. No one took away the dishes after finishing appetizers until we asked someone, and after we finished, no one came around to clear dishes to order desserts. We left thinking its going to be another 45 minutes at least to clear dishes and get desserts. The kicker was they charged us still for the uncooked chicken tenders and we had to wait to get that corrected and no courtesy anything due to the mishap. It was just not a great experience. Felt bad for the staff, I realize they were probably not placed in the best position to meet expectations of a great restaurant, understaffed and overwhelmed is not the type of atmosphere anyone...

To preface, we've eaten multiple times on the Wilmington riverfront location and the Glenn Mills location (when it was open). Being in Bethany Beach for the week, we figured this would be a familiar, high quality dinner.

That is NOT what we got. What we got was zero accommodation for higher quality substitutions for our kids meal (even though we offered to pay any upgrade charge). We had our ten year old order the seafood combo to avoid said kids menu only to have the scallops and shrimp come out raw. Very very clearly undone. We had to revert back to the kids menu for buttered pasta. Unsurprisingly, never did get the "included" ice cream shop on either kids meal. This isn't including my wife's undercooked crab cake on her salad.

Food was served undone yet zero effort was made to make it better. We were charged full price for all meals - including the substitute meal - regardless of their mistakes so my family didn't go hungry. Terrible. At least the upstairs dining room was nice. That's about the only good thing I can say about the entire experience.

I hope this is only this location but it honestly gives me pause to any of these restaurants owned...