Kathryn's Bistro & Martini Bar — Restaurant in Emerald Isle

We had friends in town, and we have been taking family and friends to Kathryn's for over 30 years for fine, albeit expensive dining that was usually worth the price point. Not tonight!

We had a party of five and arrived at 5:05 (I'm a detail man) and the bar was already packed, a sign of the reputation this establishment has. The restaurant opens at 5, so I knew that since Kathryns does not take reservations (supposedly) we needed to be prompt to avoid a long wait. We were ushered past the packed bar and into the dining area and at that time, there was maybe 25% of the dining area filled with early diners. The very young, detached hostess (it seemed like we were putting her out to get us to a table) escorted us to a small four top table that may have been comfortable for four IF it were away from a dark high wall. She was going to stick a chair on the end, to squeeze us all onto the table, when I asked that we be moved to a table that would accommodate all 5 of us comfortably. She looked at me as if I had just asked her for some unattainable goal, and when I insisted, a waitress who had an angry look on her face told me the best she could do was seat us at a small round table for 4 and squeeze in a fifth chair. This also would have been a very crowded dining experience as we had an elderly couple, with unsure physical capabilities and between water glasses, large Martini glasses, appetizer plates, main course plates, etc. I envisioned an uneasy experience at best.

But this was the kicker... there were two six top tables that would have perfectly seated us totally unoccupied! I went to the rear of the restaurant where I saw a gentleman with a mustache who seemed to be the manager and I spoke in a very low tone telling him if we could not have one of the two 6 top tables we were leaving. A manager with savvy and proper customer service skills would have immediately seated us at either of those two 6 tops, but he told me "there is a party of 6 who had called in and said they were coming soon." I said, "I am confused, you take no reservations, yet you will seat the party when they come in as you are reserving a table for them? Is that not accepting reservations?!" He stared at me blankly and as I was ready to gather my group of five who were standing awkwardly in the middle of the dining area, one of my group (NOT the restaurant staff) suggested we move to to 4 top by the window where we could move the table away from the wall slightly to give us a bit more room.

This was the compromised seating, and although the meal was good, 4 out of 5 were satisfied, (don't get the short ribs, which is basically several large hunks of stew for $28, my selection) the waiter was great, and we dropped almost $500 with appetizers drinks, main meal, and desserts.

And I noted the probable manager who NEVER identified himself nor came out of his dark back area, pointing and gesturing toward us to his wait staff several times during the meal.

It will be a long time before I return to Kathryns and I think training is in order for the manager so he can realize that if Kathryns wants to be the best, and charge the highest prices, it needs to give outstanding customer service. Our sub-par experience is not the way...

To start this review off, I’m not here to just complain and throw shade on this restaurant. We have been coming to Kathryns for over 10 years. Enjoying their martinis and also their delicious food. Tonight, that didn’t happen.

We decided to go to Kathryns to celebrate both a huge business milestone as well as my fathers birthday. We had a 45 minute wait, which we didn’t care about. During that time we treated ourselves to some amazing martinis that Kathryns always offers.

Our issue comes when we ordered our food. Our waitress, Karen ( name suits her), failed to put our order in when we made it, costing us an additional hour+ waiting. We know this because she came back 15-20 minutes after we ordered our appetizers asking what we had ordered (in regards to the appetizers). When we received our appetizers, we ordered our main meal. This must have been around 7:30pm. After talking to the owner later that night, ticket times were only 20 minutes. Around 8:50pm we finally received our meals, however they were wrong.

Out of the 6 of us, 5 of our steaks were miss-cooked. Sides were not correct. Some of the meals were steaming as if they were fresh out of the microwave. One of the steaks hadn’t even been asked how it should be cooked, which resulted in that dish being sent back. Our waitress decided to remove the shrimp from one plate and move it to a side plate and offer it as a kind gesture, only to state “I was trying to be nice but now I have to apologize”. I didn’t realize it was common etiquette to “share” food from other plates. The steak that was brought back for being over cooked came back severely over cooked, resulting in one member of our party not eating: Our waitress, Karen, seemed to be more concerned on leaving than taking care of us.

We spoke with the owner, and at first he argued that his restaurant was performing correctly. But after further discussion, he realized that error that had taken place, and offered to make it correct. He was fantastic and well carried, and handled it as best he could. It’s just a shame that we were the “only complaint” and that a night that was meant to be a celebration turned into a disaster due to one individual not caring.

Kathryns is an amazing restaurant, which is why I gave it a 2 instead of a 1. It just takes one person to ruin a night meant for joy. I hope this helps someone, just ask to not have Karen and you should have an...

This would have been 5 stars if not for our level of service. It was definitely an older crowed and with myself and my partner who are much younger we did feel neglected. It seemed our server checked in on his older patrons 3 times the amount we were checked on. I had to wait 12 minutes and after 3 attempts on the 4th was finally able to flag them down just for a refill on my beverage. To note my partner and myself have a great love of food and were just visiting the beach for the day and we did look like beach bumbs where most were in more casual attire to fine casual attire. My partner and I still left a generous tip for our check total but did dock some due to extensive waits between being checked on.

Now onto the good bits. The atmosphere was upscale casual chic with beautiful lightfixtures and martini bar. Since I'm pregnant I did have my partner order the emerald isle martini to which his said was very good and I thought well presented and beautiful.

The appetizer we went with a jumbo crab and spinach au gratin and it was delicious. I personally would have loved to have a bit more crab in there as the cheese and spinach overwhelmed it. The crumble on top was perfection.

For the main course we chose to do the special of the day.

The first special was filet which was perfectly cooked to the med rare request. The sauce on top was a gravy and very earthy. One of the more fine steaks I've had and I've had a lot!

The second was the grouper in a pesto sauce. To me, this dish was stunning on the taste buds, well balanced, beautifully displayed and all around enjoyable. I could see this being added as a favorite of mine. I would drive back 2 hours just for this.

We did end on dessert and found the chocolate lava cake to be underwhelming at best. HOWEVER the key lime pie, now that is a pie worth fighting for. The crust alone was immaculate and the touch of lime and caramel on the plate sent this over the top. I would have this time...