Caribsea Restaurant — Restaurant in Emerald Isle

Quick Review: Food is fine, service stinks, and I don't know when you add those two together its worth the $$$$$$.

My friends and I dined at Caribsea on Saturday 3/26 and made a reservation for 10. The building and restaurant itself are beautiful. It definitely starts things out on the right foot. We were seated by a very nice hostess and provided menus. We met our server which I will not name because this evening became a comedy of errors and she is not solely to blame. My friends and I are kind women, mothers on a fun weekend trip. We were in no rush and were celebrating a birthday while there. We all have manners and patience and this entire experience was jaw dropping to us. Our server came to our table and seemed stressed and overwhelmed from the start... though there were only small tables and we appeared to be her only table. She was rude, and short tempered and talked to us like we were stupid. We laughed it off when drinks never came, doubles and refills not ordered came for others and appetizers were never even entered and came randomly once pointed out. Our salads came without dressing and upon receiving dressing it was 1/4 teaspoon at the most. Please keep in mind that the "Simple Salad" is $9 and is exactly as described (lettuce, friend goat cheese ball, 4 halves of cherry tomatoes and if you're lucky, dressing). This restaurant has fine dining prices with the service of an Applebees, though I have had better service at Applebees. One mistake after another led to our server leaving the restaurant in the middle of our service. Please know we never fussed or yelled or asked for a manager... we honestly tried laughing it off and just fixing the issues at hand. Upon being assigned a new server we politely asked what happened to our previous one... she blamed us for being difficult!!! In no way had we been difficult other than kindly asking for what we ordered because everything was wrong up to that point. That may have been the old servers "story" or excuse but it wasn't the truth.

The new server was on the ball and got us all the things we were missing. Then our entrees were served and it was rather interesting what we received. The menu alludes what the item will be but the actuality is rather different. (example: Prime Steak Sandwich has tomato relish, its pico and there is hardly any "cheese sauce" at all, let alone steak.) Several ladies at our table didn't even try to customize their meals because by the time we ordered we could see that any change was going to cause the server and maybe the restaurant a nervous breakdown. The Birthday girls shrimp scampi was never put in and sushi and a salad for two other friends that were entrees were brought with appetizer salads. IT WAS A MESS needless to say. The servers here need a valuable lesson in fine dinning service. (which I have done) because again if you are going to have fine dinning pricing you should have fine dinning service. Though I think we would have all been happy with any small amount of customer service.

At the very end of our meal my sweet friend did finally ask to speak to the manager. She explained to me that her heart hurt and she had never been made to feel like that in a restaurant in her entire life. That she didn't want anything other than to explain to the manager her feelings. Upon speaking to the person who said he was the manager, he did say "what can I do to make this right" but I don't know that there was anything they could do at that point other than to do better for other guests moving forward. Afterwards we received our bill(s) and they had 20% auto-grated the table, after all that mess. We kindly paid our bill and left. Never to return! If you choose this...

Very disappointed. This place’s bread and butter is… the bread and butter. The bread rolls are the only thing I would recommend.

Ordered crab dip appetizer, steak frites and lobster roll for main course.

Crab dip was just okay while the pita chips served with it were good. The crab dip had an odd spice which added a little heat and made for some not pleasant taste.

Ordered an extra $24 crab cake to split. Crab cakes need to be done right. Underdone, they turn out watery and can leave you feeling like you’ll get shellfish poisoning. Overdone and they turn out dry. A good crab cake is just moist on the inside.

Their crab cake which they “are known for” per our server, was watery on the inside. The only thing that saved it was the lemon beurre blanc on which it was served, which gave it some flavor more than anything.

The steak frites I ordered and substituted Mac and cheese. The chimichurri sauce which comes on top of the steak may as well have been blended grass clippings from the yard outside. It had absolutely no flavor, no spice, and no acidic tang. The steak itself was pretty good, ordered medium rare and got medium but the seasoning tasted great. Unfortunately it was covered in the chimichurri sauce, so I didn’t finish this cheap $39 entree.

Even though the a la carts sides are all priced identically, they still charged me $2 to substitute the fries with mac and cheese. The mac and cheese was bland and boring. Creamy texture, no cheesy flavor. The dish is topped with bread crumbs that looked freshly dispensed from a Progresso Italian Bread Crumbs tub (and tasted like it, too). The noodles were over done as well.

Moving onto the lobster roll, which my wife ordered. I’ve gotten a better lobster roll from a side street shop in Atlanta. Mixed with an odd slaw, the filling left an odd taste on the palate. The brioche bun was great, and the truffle fries also great. Asked for ranch dressing, instead of house-made it was Hidden Valley.

A good lobster roll is a no-frills buttery bun with plain lobster meat inside, dipped in clarified butter on the side. This lobster roll is just a solution looking for a problem.

Would not recommend. For the price paid, I expected high quality food. This chef’s style is just not for us. I am normally one to clean my plate even if the food is just mediocre. As mentioned, I didn’t finish anything, which says a lot.

Server was good, a little slow on the service initially and it wasn’t a very busy night, but got better. Atmosphere was good, nice dining area and not too loud (again,...

This was an excellent last moment find for a upscale dinner out. Let me say this was almost 5 stars for me and I will certainly go back to Caribsea, but a couple minor details and issues kept me from the max rating. Generally agree with the 4.5 star rating it gets here on google maps.

The cocktails were good. I tried the Nautical Reserve followed by old fashioned. They muddled a cherry in the old fashion, presenting a beach vacation vibe. Those that got them enjoyed their seasonal martinis.

The oysters were fresh and delicious, and the cold crab dip (they swap from hot during the summer apparently) was a solid app, though some was left at the end, so perhaps our group would have preferred the hot version. They do serve nice dinner rolls and butter, so consider that as well.

The issue with service: The sides are presented on menu as a la carte, and we asked if it was family style - to which we were told yes. However all the specials (“features”) came with sides as did a steak a group member ordered. We ended up with an unnecessary amount of food, one of which was- the Mac n Cheese - was mediocre. This was billed by our waitress as nice a creamy and it came bland and heavy. On the flip side the collard greens were exceptional and every team member raved about them. Creamed spinach was also on point, but again collards stole the show. The clam chowder is good, and filling, though very clam forward so you better love clam!

The issue with the food: Every member of the group found it slightly under seasoned/under salted. Granted too little can be self corrected and too much cannot so best to err on this side of that fence. Two of us got the wahoo feature and it and the risotto were excellent! Except just another pinch of salt would’ve been desirable. 3 of our group members asked for them to bring it out. While I didn’t feel it was egregious enough for me to salt my risotto, everyone else added salt to their dish. Since this was confirmed across our party I had to mention it. Other than that the filet was well executed and the burger is a home run. I stole a bite when one group member couldn’t finish and wow!

We went early around 6pm so no wait. It really did fill up fast! The atmosphere was nice, modern and clean and we got the story behind the theming which was really neat. As the restaurant is on the 3rd floor of a commercial building you can get views to the ocean and sound depending on table location. Overall, a delightful experience, and would...