Fishing Rock Eatery & Lounge — Restaurant in Lincoln City

2nd Response to owner: My motive for writing the review was to give other diners a "heads up" regarding the lack of food quality and the poor service that you offer. They have a right to know what they can expect from a restaurant before they decide to spend their money there. It was also a “heads up” opportunity for you to address these issues and fix what’s broken. You are responsible for the quality of the food, drinks, and service in your establishment, NOT the customer, so you need to shoulder it. You, not me, initiated this dialog by posting an extremely defensive reply to my review that inferred that, from your perspective, somehow the negative issues addressed lay with me personally. I have only presented facts. Instead of listening to the criticism of a successful long time professional in the field and using it as a tool (as you should use all critical reviews) to improve your business, you dug your defensive heels in by adding totally inappropriate and offensively personal remarks (which you couch as "concern") regarding my emotional health. You also question the credibility of my statements regarding professional experience, basically calling me a liar. FYI: any information regarding my personal life is none of your damn business. Finally you sign off with a hypocritical "God bless" to somehow justify your mudslinging. You've received additional negative reviews from other unhappy diners, one of which is below. I would've included more but space is limited.

Jo Fisher Local Guide · 12 reviews 4 months ago- Bland, poorly prepared food that is not in any way authentic to it's claimed heritage. The rice on the "ettoufe" (which it was not) was crunchy and stale, the shrimp and grits featured undercooked grits that were hard and dry in the middle and the shrimp were overcooked salad shrimp, covered with unmelted grated cheddar cheese. Both dishes were"garnished" with six inch lengths of unsliced french bread, nice and cold from the refrigerator, rolling around on the edge of the plates. The fried food was greasy and uninspired. The final straw was watching the drunken owner pawing her equally drunken girlfriend at the bar a few feet away, laughing and shrieking loud enough to drown out the very good live music, and generally making an obnoxious fool of herself. The entire experience guaranteed that we will never return.

Update: Reply to restaurant owner: Really? You stoop to making defensive, snarky remarks in response to an honest restaurant review and posting it for public scrutiny to somehow justify serving overpriced, poor quality food and drinks? This is how you choose to react and represent yourself and your business? That's unjustifiably rude and extremely unprofessional. FYI: I was restaurateur/caterer for over thirty years/bartender for more than 20 and absolutely recognize when I'm being served poor quality prefab food (to either cut costs or the result of having an unqualified or lazy cook), or when another bartender is "short shoting" the drinks they prepare (by watching their actual pours while and tasting how weak their cocktails are). I'm not an unreasonably picky diner as you imply, far from it, I enjoy restaurants from low cost burger joints and "mom and pop" bar/restaurants to high price dinner houses, and there are plenty of them in the area that I patronize regularly (Side Door Cafe, Bay House, Otis Cafe, Sea Hag, Tidal Rave, Blackfish, Newport Cafe, Pier 101, just about any restaurant serving seafood in Newport, etc.) that don't disappoint their customers because they serve well made, freshly prepared, well executed food and honest drinks.

Unfortunately, your restaurant fails to meet those standards.

Original review: This place is very close to my home so I really wanted to like it. Not a chance. If overpriced prefab microwaved frozen food dishes are your thing, you'll love it. Seriously some of the worst food that I've ever been served in a restaurant anywhere plus extremely under-poured but spendy drinks. Don't...

UPDATE - We've been in several times the last six months and it's quickly become one of our favorites. The food is great, atmosphere is relaxing, service is quick and courteous, and the prices are reasonable (which is not common dining out anymore).

Kids are also allowed into most of what was previously the bar now that the video poker has been removed. There is frequently live music, which my kids love, especially now that they can sit closer and see the musicians.

Whatever kinks we experienced when they reopened have clearly been worked out and I highly recommend Fishing Rock to anyone. Looking forward to returning!

**We loved the food, service and atmosphere of Brixxton's and have been anxiously waiting for them reopen. We were excited to return a few weeks ago, but were quickly disappointed. While the remodel looks great, the food wasn't quite up to the standards that we had enjoyed in the past.

I had the shrimp po boy, and gone are the Cajun seasonings they previously featured in many of the dishes. While certainly not bad, it was just basic grilled shrimp on a bun, more akin to something I could have made myself. The shrimp pasta was similar, just the unseasoned grilled shrimp on spaghetti with butter. The pretzel bread sticks were good, albeit a little overpriced at $9 for two. Drinks however, were great (two well made, reasonably priced Moscow Mules).

I chalked this all up to being open for just a few weeks, but it does seem the focus is much more on the bar and less on the restaurant than it used to be. It would have all been tolerable, but adding insult to injury, we were charged $7 each for the three cupcakes we ordered for dessert for the family! The server didn't offer a dessert menu or mention the prices before we ordered. When we questioned the bill, she just said "Oh yeah, sorry, they are pretty expensive". I've never had a cupcake worth $7, and while good, these were no exception. Unfortunately unknowingly spending $21 for three cupcakes really soured the night for us.

We'll give it another try after a few more months, hoping they get the kinks ironed...

Gave my server 4 starts because she was new and sweet and was trying hard to satisfy under the circumstances. Ordered the strawberry pecan salad, but requested a substitution of gorgonzola cheese for the Bleu cheese it's supposed to come with. Should have been a simple substitution, since they had another menu item that came with gorgonzola, but was told that wasn't possible. Ok.... Hold the cheese. Salad came out dry because my server and I forgot to address that variable during the order. No big deal. Asked for vinaigrette. Server came back from the kitchen and told me they had ranch, Bleu, and 1000. Nothing else. Really? Ok... 1000 island. While she was off getting that, my friend reminded me that there was no way the kitchen didn't have some oil and vinegar on hand. So when my server brought the 1000 island, I asked for oil and vinegar. Server said she would be right back with that. Didn't see her again until the plates were ready to clear. So I learned that strawberry pecan salad is better dry than with 1000 island dressing, and Fishing Rock will be a restaurant of last resort for me going forward. As for atmosphere, the interior of the restaurant is really nice, fresh, and lovely. I gave atmosphere 2 stars because of the earsplitting open mic night going on. I thought it was common knowledge that the live music should be pros on the weekend, and save the open mic for the lower traffic days as a marketing boost. But sitting there on a Saturday night, listening to some of my favorite songs getting butchered leads me to believe that the owner has a different approach... Not in a good way. On a stretch of Hwy 101 with so many wonderful restaurants on offer, I feel like this place needs to step up its game to avoid...