Fishmonger's Honest Seafood — Restaurant in Holly Ridge

Well, Fishmongers Honest Seafood is off to a really bad start from our experience, the new owners whom replaced a previous restaurant concept in this location that had a very poor reputation in the area and hence the previous restaurant lack of success.

We were really welcoming a new restaurant with caring new owners. Tonight Friday 12/6 my wife and I and two other couples from South Topsail (whom all eat out regularly) attempted to enjoy a nice dinner out at this newest restaurant in town and never got past the two inept front reception/host persons manning the front desk; and witnessed 2 other separate couples like us walk out after not getting past the front desk.

Let me explain – my wife at 4PM ish called the restaurant in attempt to secure a last-minute reservation for 6 persons at 7PM and whomever answered the phone advised us they did not take reservations. Ok, we understand, that’s the restaurants choice. But we decided to drive over anyway to check out the newest restaurant in town and arrived at 6:50PM and advised the two hostess persons we were party of 6 that would like to have dinner.

Then told by the two young girls manning the hostess desk, one stating it would be a minimum of at least an hour, but “had we called in advance” they could have put on us on some type “call in advance list”. Well at that statement of course my wife asked then why was I not informed this when I called for the earlier reservation that this service was offered.

These girls both made one or more contradictory responses back regarding policies regarding reservations as neither seemed to understand the seating process, or that was our interpretation of their conversations made in front of us and the other couples who came in about same time as we did.

While waiting to decide, do we want to wait a minimum of an hour or more, one of the other separate couples noted above asked could they sit at the bar, after a joint discussion of the hostesses one of the young ladies said you can, “but you can’t order anything for an hour as our kitchen is backed up”. I think our group of six was as shocked as the other couple at that statement, as yes you can go to the bar, but you can’t order. They promptly walked out of the restaurant.

The other couple also asked about wait and overheard the go to the bar, but you can’t order comment, and they also elected to leave the restaurant. A classic restaurant red flag of under-staffing!

Ultimately, our group of 6 decided this does not look like this is stacking up for a good experience, we left and went to one of our many other restaurant choices in the area and Fishmongers Honest Seafood lost a $350.00 dollar check from our group of six as that is what we spent on nice wines, dinner and gratuities at a local competitor!

In fairness to the restaurant, parking lot had a lot of cars, I can only assume somewhere past the hostess stand they may have had a number of customers tonight, but we didn’t see them as were never ventured or offered anything other than conversation at the hostess desk.

But another couple with a young son was waiting in the reception area when we walked in and apparently waiting to be seated also but were just shaking their heads at the conversations they were overhearing from these two hostesses to prospective customers which was almost laughable.

Our group very much hopes this restaurant as a new upscaled concept, based on their on-line posted menu and declarations and what I think they strive, a needed and welcomed new food experience in the Topsail area; and our group wishes them success!

But as prospective customers to a new restaurant venture, they will be measured by these customers, 1st by the persons greeting them, then the service and food and unfortunately tonight they fell very short on the 1st step and left the six of us very disappointed. I wish them well, but buyer aware until they get their act...

Very sad to see Holland's Shelter no longer here. We decided to still try the new seafood place. First off, the sign outside is hideous. Just my personal opinion. It reminds me of a steakhouse bar and not a seafood restaurant. We went during lunch on a Friday and there was almost no one there. 2 tables had a few folks, but no one else. We waited a few minutes to be seated, since there was no one at the front and no bell to ring for service. The inside was dark, with very low lighting. Our waitress was nice and assured us their food was 'amazing'. The lunch menu was small. When the waitress took our order, she advised us they were out of a handful of items. We ordered the Crab dip, shrimp basket and pimento pablano burger. We were really surprised there was no hushpuppies or side salads, just fries. The Crab dip was...awful. It tasted like warmed tuna salad. And by warmed, I mean slightly warmed. Barely. It was extremely fishy. It comes with deep fried and seasoned saltines, which I've never had. The pair together is a mess. Saltines have air pockets and the heavy oil sits inside the air pockets. You really need something light and crispy with Crab dip, not heavy and oily. The seasoning on the crackers was nice, but that's it. We had 3 bites of the Crab dip and couldn't eat anymore. I tried a few crackers with tarter sauce and they started to make my stomach sick. The waitress asked us if we liked it and we flat out said no and explained why. If I were a waitress, I would have offered something else or not made my customers pay for something they barely touched. The tarter sauce was really good, though. The burger was great. The pimento was delicious and the toppings were fresh. The bun was buttered and toasted, which is always a plus. The burger meat itself was mid. Nothing special and bland. The toppings are what saves it. And I asked for medium and it had zero pink. The fries were pretty good and had had a good crunchy exterior. I dipped mine in their homemade ranch, which was delicious. The shrimp was nothing special. They were large shrimp and fried well on the exterior, but they had no actual flavor and they were chewy and overcooked on the inside. By the time we left, the place was completely empty. Needless to say, we've been to places like this before and unfortunately, they don't last long. Hopefully they take the constructive criticism from their reviews and try to improve. We will not...

Tonight went to the restaurant at 5:30, 5 tables were there before us, that were eating and getting food. We ordered the strawberry margarita and a draft beer. We didn’t want appetizers, so our waitress said oh you get free bread, but I do not bring it out until I know you are not ordering appetizers. She stated she was 18 years old,and she brought our alcoholic drinks to the table, which is not legal in NC to my knowledge. And the manager was bartending and allowed her to brings us these drinks.We ordered and she brought the bread. We waited and waited and waited for our food, the restaurant started to fill up and food was going out to others that came in way after us, so I ask her to check on our food, She came back and stated it will be the next one coming out, which was a lie!! She took out appetizers and then four tables at least there food, We had waited a HOUR NO FOOD. I wanted to speak to Manager and let her know someone I said boo-boo who is mess up, she said she would check on food and told us if it didn’t come right out it would be on her, will it never came out , but she said the were plating it, we didn’t believe her after all the lies we were told, so we we stated we need to pay for our drinks and leave, which was a half of the margarita- which was not good at all!! and one full beer, and another beer which he had a couple of swallows. The manager had us pay for all of the drinks and charge me the fee for using a debt card. This was a very upsetting experience to say the least. I would like to have a response to see if any one reads these reviews...