Yella on the Water

TLDR: Rude manager, meh food and service missteps have taken Yella off of our list of restaurants to patronize. The good: location, drink menu and some service staff. The bad: location (extremely limited parking), rude on duty manager, meh food, limited outdoor seating with heat.

Thank you Yella! As a result of a rude manager and spotty service I do not have to dine here again. I have never been a fan of the menu, but my family is (was?) until last night. My daughter chose Yella for her birthday dinner, so my spouse made a reservation for 7pm. We arrived just before 7, and were asked to wait at the bar as the restaurant was very busy due to the Gloucester Block Party. Totally understandable! We were seated outside (even though we had requested inside and tables were available) around 7:15pm. It was chilly, so we requested a table with a heater (one was available). The hostess said that another party was coming for that table, but she would ask the manager about getting a heater for our table. Ten minutes after we were seated the other party arrived. We had no issue with another party getting the heated table until we realized it was a group of the managers friends (the manager actually sat down with them for a few minutes). Hmmm…

Our appetizers came out quickly, and were ok. My spouse and daughters were getting cold when the hostess came around the corner dragging a heat lamp to our table. Wow, great service! This young lady was the shining star that almost saved the night! I say almost because the manager wasn’t done ruining the night yet. Our food came (mine being meh, the others ok+) and we ordered a couple more drinks. Rather than stay for desert (it was still too cold for our daughters) we decided to go to another establishment. My wife and daughter still had wine, so stayed at the table while I walked to get the car. It was a bit of a walk since Yella has extremely limited parking and the Block party was still going on. The manager came up to the table after I had left to inform my spouse that another party was coming and they needed the table. The manager wasn’t apologetic or friendly, she was very direct (borderline rude). At this time we had been seated for one hour and ten minutes, TOTAL. We appreciate a restaurant’s need to turn tables, but what did we spend $280 on? Some ok at best food, good drinks, spotty service and to be cold? Yella’s selling point (IMHO) is its location, but location alone is not enough to keep me coming back. I can live with the ok food, as this is my opinion and is subjective. Poor customer service though is easy to spot. While the hostess was great and deserves 5 stars, the manager’s poor attitude doomed our experience. We will not be back.