The Dinghy — Restaurant in Isle of Palms

If I could leave zero stars, I would. We had the most offensive experience here. We are traveling from out of state, and the officer stationed outside scanned our ids and ushered us through. When we got inside, the bartender insisted our ids were not valid and asked us to leave. On our way out, we talked to the officer and asked if he could see anything wrong with our ids, trying to understand the situation. He said that he has a scanner, and they did not inside. He was very kind, and went in to speak with them. He told us to go inside, that it should be all good. When we went back in, the bartender treated us terribly. I have never been treated so rudely at any business in my life. She said that she didn’t care if he scanned our ids. The officer even validated them in front of her. She said they made her “uncomfortable” and that it was her decision to refuse us service. I pulled up our states DMV site, and showed her that they matched our ids. We asked to speak to an owner or manager, and she said “that’s me.” She followed us out the door and continued to be nasty the entire time. It was clear this was an ego issue, and she didn’t want to admit that she was wrong in the situation. What’s incredibly ironic in the situation, is that 2 of the 3 people in our group were served here two days ago. I have never been treated so terribly in a business nor have I have I ever been told my id isn’t valid. BEWARE of the bartender circled in the photo.

EDIT Address the owner’s reply to my review, the person who’s ID was accused of being “fake” according to the bartender, was served at the Dinghy with that same ID two days prior, no issue. We also watched the bartender the entire time our IDs were in her possession, and she did not use a black light, she used her phone flashlight. Again, this was a clear issue of someone with an oversized ego not to wanting to admit her mistake. Considering all of the owner’s unprofessional responses to the other reviews for this restaurant, I doubt anyone has received adequate customer...

My mom, some family members and I decided to try this place out. We walk in and there’s a blonde lady who we assumed worked there that starts talking to us and telling us we could only order fried food so we’re like okay. (We later on find out that she didn’t even work there.) We go to the blonde bartender and tell her our order. Right off the bat she came off very rude and annoyed. As we explained our order and how we were planning to pay for it. One chicken tender and fry on one check and the rest on the other. (2 frys and chicken tender). So all together 3 frys and 2 chicken tenders. So she tells us our total which was way too much for what we ordered. So we tell her that’s not what we ordered and explained what we did order. Instead of changing it and giving my money back she argued with us. The dark headed guy jumped in and began arguing with us. At this point we’re very aggravated because we’re being argued with and no one was trying to make the situation right. As these 2 bartenders argued with us they also kept walking away laughing in our faces. So disrespectful and not how you treat customers. To make matters worse, there’s guys all around budding in our conversation not knowing what the situation was in the first place. To be Specific an older white gentleman standing beside us. He started cussing at my mother trying to intimidate her. The fact that this man was not told to leave and nothing was said to this man after speaking to a woman like that was absolutely ridiculous. The whole thing was a misunderstanding and could have been easily resolved, but they instead chose to laugh in our faces and argue with us about what WE ordered. Lol. This place is...

Not only was our food missing items, when they prepared the missing piece, it took 30 additional minutes for a tiny piece of chicken for a salad and we were left with cold food with no offer to reconcile the poor service. Even better we then got all the food only to find they forgot an entire entree, which is odd considering the waitress repeated back the order. She then had the audacity to say she didn't hear us, when she repeated back the order...

To make matters even worse, the waitress gathering our take out order stole her own $15 tip (who tips on carryout???) and made excuses when confronted. When an apology finally surfaced, it was made with an excuse. Well guess what honey, apologies don't go "I'm sorry but..."

I wish I could say the food was at least good, but sadly that wasn't the case either. All the fries were soggy to the point of wet and everything with salt had an entire shaker on it. The jumbo wings? Maybe to a family of ants... They were tiny and bland to the point of wondering if any sauce was even on them. The shrimp on the salads? I wonder if they found an extra box on the back shelf of the walk-in and said, "good enough" after making us wait forever. The fish tacos? Get ready to be surprised, cold as ice and I could be convinced that the sauce on them was from some that dripped on accidentally.

I would recommend avoiding this place at all costs, lest you walk in and get stuck on the poorly cleaned floor...