Rising Tide Tavern — Restaurant in Hoquiam

Arrived at the main restaurant entrance at 6:00 pm, very nice lady suggested the tiki bar was wide open, choose any table you’d like, so we did, sat at the booth in the corner. Sir immediately cleaned the table, and brought menus, silverware, and napkins. A+ till that time…25 minutes later, sir, that was the waiters name by the way, apologized for the delay, asked for our drink order, and if we were ready to order, in this time, two couples that arrived after.us were greeted, orders taken, and drinks served…we ordered drinks and dinners…20 minutes later, we were ready to walk as we had not seen or been acknowledged since ordering…Sir came with our drinks right at that time, fine, we’ll stay…(fyi, just arrived at seabrook from 4 hour drive), now starving from traveling, the bartender came from behind the bar to deliver what looked like our order to a couple that arrived 20 minutes after we did, I said to my husband, that looks like our order…it was. 5 minutes later, a gentleman we hadn’t seen came and said full disclosure, they ordered the same as us and received our order, but don’t worry, yours is right behind…I made it clear we were about to walk out, and we were not very happy. 5-6 minutes later still, Sir brought our orders and apologized for the mess up… Our drinks were empty, we ate our meals, drank water throughout, and finally Sir came well after food was finished with the bill, apologized again for having to wait so long. And the food mix up, I very politely told him all that aside, he served us and disappeared,and our drinks were empty well before our dinner finally came, and he never came back to check on us, or ask if we’d like more drinks, all I told him was to learn from this…I expected some form of discount, free drinks, anything…absolutely nothing. I absolutely hate being ignored by wait staff, especially at a formidable restaurant, but that was exactly what happened…we have been coming to seabrook 3-4 times per year since 2013, it’s our home away from home, unfortunately, worst experience yet, again, learn from this review...

I so wanted to like this place. Hopefully I went there on an off night.

Decor was a bit bare. Felt like there was no real design done. Back bar was plain drywall. No real decoration On the plain white walls. Felt unfinished.

Staff was great. Server very attentive and on top of things.

However someone needs to buy the chef a box of diamond crystal. There was no seasoning in anything.

We had the onion dip. Homemade potato chips were well fried but had no seasoning at all on them and were cold and slightly stale. Warm them up at least and season them right out of the fryer with some salt at minus but some paprika or rosemary would be a nice add. Onion dip needed some depth. Maybe some Worcestershire and/or salt. Onions in it were strings 3-4” long making it hard to get some dip on a chip without making a mess. Maybe dice or shorten the onion strands?

Wife had a farmers market salad entree. It was a well dressed mixed greens with a few red peppers , sesame seeds and a vinaigrette. Felt like a side salad with no fresh seasonality. Add some mushrooms, avocados, tomatoes, something…

I had cod fish and chips. Again no real seasoning. I think it was supposed to be a beer batter but no real flavor in batter. Fish was slightly dry and breading mushy in places. Tartar sauce was a very lemony, creamy sauce with not much tartar or pickles. Bright star was great thick cut fries that tasted almost double fried with a creamy center. Unfortunately I was told they were out of their regular fries and these were a stand in.

I can only hope much of the above is growing pains. I want them to have great food and succeed. However it was meh especially given the price point. Plan to try one more time on a weekend night in case it was an off...

My wife, two young children, and I ate at the Rising Tide Tavern on the evening of Saturday, August 12, 2023. We lucked out and went at 5 p.m. and got seated right away. It is simplistic but beautiful and clean inside…definitely an inviting place to eat a meal. We ordered my 6-year-old daughter the mini cheeseburger and fries while we got my 3-year-old son just a side of French fries (because he would just waste an actual entrée). The kid’s menu has several options and all plates run $12. In my opinion, the cheeseburger was too small for the price but at least it was good…or so my daughter says. My wife and I got two entrees to share. We ordered the fish and chips and the steak sandwich. It was perhaps the freshest fish I have ever ate and the steak sandwich was perfection with a roll just as fresh as the fish. Our food was superb.

Our server was Megan N. and she was professional, warm, and accommodating. You could definitely tell she has the food and hospitality business down to a science. We really enjoyed sitting at her table! We paid $72 for our bill which is pretty good for a tourist location. Aside from the overpriced kid’s meals, everything else was pretty reasonably priced. One peculiar thing: They brought out our kid’s food first, which was appreciated, but it was at least 10 minutes after they finished their plates that our food came out. Even though we wish the timing was better and that the wait wasn’t so long, I am still giving a 5-star review because our kids were able to go outside during the wait and after they ate and play the street games (Jenga, cornhole, etc) while we watched them from the window. We enjoyed our experience at Rising...