Abbott's on Broad Creek — Restaurant in Laurel

We (party of 4) went on a Thursday night at 5 pm. We wanted to try Abbotts because it is away from the crazy beach scene further south towards Rehoboth. We had high hopes, but it fell short of expectations in 3 ways.

1: Poor Service: We arrived at 5 pm, and were seated at 5:05 pm. The place was surprisingly packed. Looking around, there did seem to be adequate serving staff. We were only given 2 menus for the 4 of us. We waited and waited for our server to return. They didn't . Finally, at 5:25 I flagged one of the servers to complain. She said she would find out. Five minutes later another server came over and said she would "take on" this table. No apologies or excuse, she just took our drink orders. She wanted to take our food orders immediately after the drinks arrived, which was OK since we had had plenty of time to decide. The server didn't "Check back with us during the meal, which is customary in my experience. Also, they cleared only 2 of the 4 empty plates on our table as we waited to settle the bill.

2: Menu : The food was OK, However, the Entrée menu felt limited in range. There were only about 12 entrees listed, seemingly 1 in each culinary category. It reminded me of a cooking show, where a contestant has to produce a menu for "new restaurant". The rest of the menu space was sandwiched , appetizers and other things in the more "Bar Food" category

3: Noise: With a full main dining room, the high ceiling and hard walls , noise reflected all around. It was so loud that my wife couldn't talk to the person across the table. We had to swap chairs for...

First of all this was my first time going here. But, I've been working a lot lately and needed to unwind and since I didn't have the kids, then why not enjoy some food and drinks?

WELL, I was promptly greeted and sat down. I was given a cup of water, and soon after the waitress, Angel, and I told her that this was my first time coming, she offered to go over the menu, I also don't go to bars so I have no idea what to order as far as drinks. I went with the cosmo, because it sounded wonderful, (and it was) it came quick and the calamari which was well seasoned and delicious! I ordered the special Mahi BLT and had been looking at drinks online. I saw this one that I wanted to try I showed her the recipe and she went to make it, it didn't look as dark as the picture online did, BUT it was AMAZING. Mmmm.. Let me tell you! Dark and stormy; dark rum, ginger beer and lime! She made sure that it was to my liking.

My meal soon after came, although it took a bit to come, it was worth it! The fries were a bit cold but it really didn't matter as I was STARVING! Angel, came over and asked how everything was. Apparently "okay" was not acceptable, I told her it was good the only thing was the fries were cold. So she quickly had me some more made. The plate of fries were HUGE and tasted great! The sandwich was phenomenal.

I was even pleasantly surprised at the overall bill..

I am not too frequently impressed by restaurants. But, this one has somehow became one of...

We had a simply terrible experience. This was my first time here and I am quite convinced to never return. I blame it on mismanagement. I have worked in the restraunt business before, so I do understand the stress of everything. However, when you only have 2 chefs and 3 waiters in a FULL house of guests somethings need to be done. For example, call in more staff. I only saw one new cook and one new waiter come in while we waited an hour and a half for our food. The table beside us we assume waited for two hours since they were there before us. We were not attended to well. We had children in our group and not once was an appetizer or even bread on the house was offered to us. The chicken fingers looked nearly burnt, my salmon tacos were...odd. One taco had spice on it. The other had no spice. One taco tasted very burnt. The other there was a lot of salsa (not the sauce) on it. I put my slaw on it to add flavor and bulk to my meal. I had to ask two different waiters 3 times for a cup of water for my child. It was simply a terrible experience. If a restaurant is that busy, then have more staff come in and/or turn guests away! Maybe if you come as a small party of 2 the experience is better, but as a large families group, it is NOT the...