Dory Cove Restaurant — Restaurant in Lincoln City

Let me get one thing straight, our waiter Jesus was really kind, attentive and took care of us. This review is not reflecting his performance. In fact; if it was easy to do so, I'd separately give him a 5/5 for his service at the restaurant.

Now on to the actual review:

Just another pub along the coast. Nothing special in terms of food offerings and atmosphere. I wouldn't be writing this review if it weren't for some issues I had at lunch today.

Firstly, looking over the menu, nearly everything is deep fried. You have options for poached items of fish and some pastas, but I've never been one for mediocre Italian dishes at a Pub. Looking over the entire menu reveals one thing, the steep pricing. I know in today's day and age, the cost of entertainment and food is going up. It's undeniable. Yet when I look at an appetizer for some Crab Cakes, I'm shocked to see a $27 price tag. I look at my wife and think "it should be more than 2 cakes in this dish, especially for the price." My wife orders their club sandwich with no tomatoes.

When the food arrives after nearly 20 minutes (mind you we were one of only 3 tables at the restaurant), they forgot to remove the tomatoes from the sandwich as per requested. My wife also ordered a cup of the chowder, so at least she had something to keep her busy as they remake the club. If those were the only issues, I wouldn't be writing this review.

What left me flabbergasted was only seeing 2 crab cakes on the plate. 2. They're the about the same size as the bottom of a typical plastic Pepsi cup that all pubs tend to use. I look at my wife and the first thing she says is "that's $27?"

Look, I'm not asking for Michelin star gourmet food and atmosphere. I've lived in this state my entire life and have gone up and down the Oregon coast since I can remember, so I know what to expect overall in these eateries up and down Hwy 101. But $27 for only 2 crab cakes?! To top it off, I recognize the breading and fry style that Sysco foods offers. I would be surprised, but glad to be proven wrong if these were battered and fried in house.

Jesus really stepped up when he saw the tomatoes on the sandwich, by immediately apologizing and taking the food back to the kitchen to be remade. He also comped the cup of chowder and provided us a free dessert. We declined initially, as my wife and I are not big dessert people and try to not make a scene in restaurants in order to get in and out quickly. Jesus insisted and after speaking with him, we accepted the offer.

If I can go to several restaurants in Newport, Waldport and Lincoln city with better pricing on their entire menu, I don't see myself coming back to this establishment. They can either drastically decrease the price of the dish (and many others) or add 1 more cake in there, in order to justify nearly $30 for an appetizer.

To wrap it up: 3/5 on the restaurant, atmosphere, food and pricing. 5/5 for Jesus and his service for the lunch.

You reading this review may go there and find yourself in a perfect restaurant. You may find that I was right. Opinions are like some necessary body parts, we all have them. It's up to you to check it out for yourself and give it a try. I myself won't be going back until I know some necessary price/menu changes are to occur. Most folks born after the year 1965 prefer to have some items on the menu that aren't deep fried/frozen and shipped from out of state. You're right on the ocean, prices should...

This is the only review I've ever left but the experience was so bad I felt like I had to. Overall bad experience and mediocre overpriced food. We called beforehand and asked if they had bread bowls with their chowder and the guy said yes they did and was very short and borderline rude on the phone. Turns out they don't. When I brought this up to the waiter he just said they had a new guy and they haven't had them for a while. From there on out our waiter seemed like he was annoyed the whole time. We had 3 adults and 4 children eating (plus a baby) and our bill came to $113. $15 clams were way too salty. My $24 halibut fish and chips had small fillets that had a rubbery texture with some bites. Understandable for $10 but not for $24. Red potatoes were decent but literally swimming in a pool of melted butter. The clam chowder was ok but very few clams. Everything else was average but for the price I would expect at least a little above average. Our waiter was never very pleasant. At one point a fork slid off the plates he was collecting, admittedly partially my fault for trying to help by putting the fork on the tray, and hit our 9 month old in the face. He showed literally no sympathy and just gathered the dishes and walked off while our baby was crying in pain. I understand things happen but showing zero concern for the situation as a server is ridiculous. We also had to ask for one of our entrees well after getting everything else when it became apparent he forgot the last dish. There were multiple other little things and again, zero care from our waiter. Finally after waiting till our table was cleared and the rest of our party had enough time to go to the car, I got sick of waiting for the check and went to our waiter for the it. After waiting a little while longer I finally just went to the front and had someone else ring us up. Our waiter never ended up coming back. We will never...

The food was really good, definitely worth going back. For appetizer we order the calamari... yuum yummy yummy!! Seriously, that good. The clam chowder my wife had was amazing. The best we've had compared to many other places, you could actually taste every ingredient and not the taste of "thickening" flour. I had the salmon melt... if you like smoked salmon, but I mean REAL in-house smoked salmon, this is the place. And the French fries?? WOW!! also a big hit!. My son had the fish tacos, which he said were VERY tasty. One thing though, he asked for mashed potatoes, and although the flavor was delicious, they were way too stiff, I mean, it's nice they put effort in presentation, but don't sacrifice taste and texture for that. Now the service: well, we got seated, the waiter brought us water, and then we waited almost 20 minutes to get someone back to take our order. The place wasn't that full to begin with, AND we had 4 different waiters walk by without even saying a word. We were considering walking out. But someone showed up just in time. I know there are things going on that you can't control, but hey, at least stop by and tell us someone will be with us shortly, or at least take our order for drinks. Overall, it was an ok experience, the quality of the food made up for the delays. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, beware when ordering sodas, taste them as soon as they hit the table, we had to return 2 of them because they had no flavor, and the other tasted like dirt. But I would recommend this place, hands down the food is well worth the trip. I'm looking forward to a better experience next time.

• Prices are...