Shrimp Boat — Restaurant in Gastonia

Shrimpboat has been around for a very long time. During this particular visit, I invited 3 friends to join me here. All of us are from Gaston County; however, none of my 3 friends have visited Shrimpboat in ages. They arrived about 15 minutes before me and placed their orders. When I walked in, they were seated. Practically before I could get to the table, my friend from childhood, whom I've known for over 40 years, chewed me out. He's been living in Florida for over 10 years and must have forgotten Shrimpboat's cash only policy. He was jokingly livid. He said, "You should have told us they [Shrimpboat] only accepts cash!" I replied, "I assumed you knew. They have always ONLY accepted CASH." He said, and I paraphrase, "We almost had to leave. Who carries cash anymore? This place needs to get with the times!" He replied later that he would have been willing to pay credit card processing fees charged by the restaurant but that he wasn't willing to pay the ATM fees plus bank fees had he used the ATM to get cash from the machine that is inside the restaurant. Both my friends would reccount the horror of them digging in their wallets to come up with enough cash to pay for what they ordered for the 2 of them plus 1 teenager. My best friend said he had to change his drink order to water or else they would not have been able to pay the cost of their meals.

Foodwise, we all enjoyed the food. I ordered a combination shrimp and fish plate with a sweet tea. I wanted their banana pudding because it is very good. However, I, too, didn't have enough cash on hand for the $4.25 plus tax pudding.

We ate the meals there. I only managed to get through all of the shrimp, French fries, and some hush puppies. I took the fish and the remaining hush puppies with me. Shrimpboat makes all meals to go, and they are picked up at the counter in bags. If you are eating in, you open your bag at the table.

Anyway, As I settled in to eat with my friends, in between listening to them tell me of their uncomfortable experiences there, I whispered to them, that the place is under new management and the new owner has horrible people skills. I happened to have been in the restaurant on 2 previous occasions and had to endure the man just reeming out his employees and making up new policies on the spot based on his unhappiness with what was going on. On one of those occasions, he stopped full production of all food and counter service while I was placing my order just so he could b*tch and moan about something he just discovered. The resulting new policy is that NO REFUNDS WILL BE GIVEN FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER. Now, I can not tell you if that policy is still in place or not, but he yelled it LOUD and Clear enough from the kitchen that anyone anywhere in that restaurant that day could have heard it. So, I whispered to my friends, "If the new owner is in, we might be in for a dramatic show. He's a real hole that starts with a capital A (only I didn't say it the way I spelled it). [No one reading this should get too bent out of shape over this. I'm telling you the truth of my experiences there. Don't let this ruin your judgment of the place. As I said, I have continued to visit this restaurant many times long after the antics of the new owner. In fact, I was in there just a few days after the new owner took over. As a business owner myself, I asked to speak to the new owner, and I offered to discuss helping to set up a cash register system with a credit card processor. I'm sure I offered a few more suggestions as well. He wasn't very receptive to anything I mentioned, but the communications were cordial. I win some. I lose some. And some just rained out.

As we left the restaurant, one of my friends invited me over to his house. I accepted and mentioned that I would be there after seeing a client and running a few additional errands that I had to run within a couple blocks of Shrimpboat. I ran those errands, including getting some cash from Cash Points ATM and returning to Shrimpboat to get their...

Today I was truly sadden when I visited the Shrimp Boat. The service was good as always friendly but my food was not. I have frequented this establishment more times than I can count but after this experience I will truly think about not ever going back. I ordered a 2 piece chicken and a piece of fish. My chicken was good as always , fries good, hush puppies too hard to eat. My piece of fish was so very greasy and I couldn't eat it nor the hush puppies. I called to the Shrimp Boat to let them know about my piece of fish being too greasy to eat. The young lady apologized took my number for me to get a replacement piece of fish. She asked me could I bring it back. I explained that I had an appointment and couldn't bring it back. She apologized again. We hung up. A couple of minutes later I received a call back from the Shrimp Boat a young lady named Ashley told me the policy was for me to bring the fish back for me to get another piece of fish. I explained to her there was no way I could bring it back because I was at a hair appointment. She said I was told this is the policy, nothing I can do about. I said thank you, hung up.

I could understand if I was asking for a plate of food to be replaced but a piece of fish. I am curious am I the only person who has been told this. When I could take the fish back they were closed. I wish them well but I won't return there for...

The food was okay it’s just the customer service was not up to par at all.When I first arrived I placed my order and said very clearly that I wanted fried flounder with fries and banana pudding.When we went to get are meal I was given jumbo shrimp with no banana pudding so obviously I’m not just gonna pay for it and not correct my order.I came up to the front and explained nicely the problem and was basically treated like I was being difficult and that I said jumbo shrimp but I did not.Everyone was giving me this stank look and acting like I’m lieing about what I said because the older lady said “she ordered jumbo shrimp I know it”but thankfully fixed the issue.The problem I really didn’t appreciate was when I went back up there I was ignored then the older lady came up to me with a attitude just because I wanted more tea and the younger woman asked me “so what’s your problem now?”.All I wanted was some more tea!!!!! Zero out of...