Chef Justin’s Sunset Keys — Restaurant in Lavallette

Made reservations. Showed up on time. Hostess was very nice. Said they are just waiting for a few tables to get up. We sat on the bay and watched the sunset. Checked in a few times and still no table. 50 minutes later triple checked only to be told it will be another 30-45 minutes. The female Manager was very unfriendly and had no empathy that dozens of people were standing by for over an hour. She was extremely rude and basically told us to bug off.

Here are some suggestions. 1. Be honest with your customers… we understand that sometimes things just get messed up, but don’t leave them on all night and ruin a perfectly good Saturday. 2. Be empathetic to your customers and thank them because you’re going to want them to return when it’s not a peak Saturday night in August. 3. Move the hostess desk to the corner of the restaurant so you can at least have some kind of orderly fashion greeting your guests and tee up a line so they know where they’re supposed to stand and go. 4. After the bright sunset straighten out the umbrellas , so they’re not all cockeyed all over the place with any type of view. 5. Get some kind of table lamps or candles. People can’t eat in the dark and needs a bit of ambience . 6. Have a manager working the floor so that they can keep people on pace with their meals? Instead, the manager shouldn’t be busing tables and setting silverware. They should be orchestrating service 7. parties of six or more tend to stay a little bit longer at the table because there’s more interactive conversations. You should allow at least 90 minutes 10. Hire a restaurant consultant for one week, to develop your reservation system and pace of service. The female manager also needs service training. Plus, Your entire indoor facility should not look like a big side stand unorganized with garbage and leftover food everywhere 11. Have staff come a little earlier in the shift so that they can prep the roll ups, glassware, ice etc. This way when you’re going through the high peak service crunch, your staff is not in the back rolling up silverware napkins. 12. The outside lighting is horrible. Need a softer light. 13. Shrink the menu until you get the basics right and build from there. Use verbal specials to expand the menu but when the crunch is on and the kitchens back up, the staff should be told to you stop verbally selling the specials.

Note - the service staff was excellent and very nice. It was unfair that the management put them in a difficult environment.

We ended up leaving...

It should be a crime to waste a prime spot next to the beautiful bay side beach of Lavallette, but this restaurant somehow managed to turn that idyllic setting into an exercise in culinary torture and abysmal service. The one star rating is one more than they deserve, I only gave it that so I can post the review.

After being seated outside—far from the only other table of customers at noon—we sat there for a solid 20 minutes before anyone bothered to take our order.

The wait for food was even worse: it took them a staggering 40 minutes to deliver four eggs Benedict and 2 coffees. I have no idea what took so long, considering they clearly weren’t seasoning anything. I’d be shocked if they even knew what salt and pepper were. There was more salt in the bay breeze than in the food. The hash browns were the worst I’ve ever encountered—overcooked on the outside and a sad, gray mush inside. They tasted like someone tried to fry up day old soggy potato scraps salvaged from the bottom of a garbage bag. On the plus side, they didn’t make anyone sick. The eggs Benedict with crab was fine, I guess. The egg was decently poached, but at $28, I felt like I had been blatantly swindled.

Throughout the meal, we were visited by no fewer than three different servers. One was kind enough to offer to split our check, which seemed straightforward enough. Yet later, an entirely new server materialized to inform us—rudely, I might add—that we should have notified them earlier if we wanted to split the check. Apparently, they forgot that one of their own staff had offered! With four plates and two coffees, splitting it shouldn’t have been complicated, but after handing over four cards, they came back with three after 20 minutes. I only got mine after an extra wait, and while luckily mine wasn’t charged, my friend got double-billed.

As we left, we finally noticed the “under new management” sign. For everyone’s sake, do yourself a favor and wait until there’s an even newer management sign. Because under the current one, not even the view can save you from this disaster of...

Honestly I never post negative reviews but this experience warrants it and I would have given zero if I could review with no stars. Had they tried to make it right or even acknowledge our complaints, I would never have posted…but they didn’t. We had dinner there a year ago under previous owners and it was great. We were aware it had changed ownership but was willing to give it a shot. Worst decision! One of the worst dining experiences we’ve ever had. Had a bad feeling from the lack of welcoming from the gentleman that seated us. Started out ok and waitress was pleasant. She then knocked over my iced tea soaking the entire table…ok I can deal with that. She did change us to another table but literally just grabbed all the drinks and waters on the table to move them and don’t know who’s was who’s. She brought me a new drink but then no silverware so I had to ask. Dinners were eventually brought out. Pork chops were decent. I ordered beet salad with burrata but came out missing the burrata, which the waitress brought to me after I asked for it. The absolute worst was the bronzino. We asked for it to be deboned and made it crystal clear we didn’t want the head or bones on the plate and to please filet in the kitchen. The fish came out the most mangled filet I’ve ever seen and wait for it…the bones and head were on the plate. The filet job was terrible and did not look professionally done and there were still so many bones in the fish. When we were asked about the food we were honest…pork chops decent, salad ok once I got the burrata but the fish was inedible and told them it literally looked like it came out of the trash. NO ONE CARED! Management should have stepped in and offered a different selection or perhaps a reduction in the bill or free dessert…NOTHING! Completely ignored. We get the bill and we had to pay $45 for disgusting fish that came out of trash. It was ludicrous. Horrible customer service. I wouldn’t go back even it they gave us free...