Fish House — Restaurant in Lower Township

Had a pretty bad experience here not once but twice now which is why im writing this review. We were here over the weekend and arrived at about 10:30am. They alerted us that once they cleaned off the bar facing the beach, we would be seated there which really excited us as we didn't expect to be placed there. The view was beautiful! We waited, and the bar was not cleaned for some time, and once it was cleaned, we weren't physically sat and given the yes to sit there until someone came over eventually and grabbed us. Once we sat down our waiter came over and asked for our drink order and we asked for two waters and two cocktails: their famous blueberry lemonade was my order. He said ok and then informs us that the kitchen doesnt open until 11 so they wont start cooking until then. We hesitantly say ok because its like 10:45 at this point and no one told us until now and we're super hungry. He eventually gets us two waters and then asks for our order. We order a prosciutto sandwich and a bass sandwich and a salad. 45 minutes goes by, everyone has gotten their food and drinks and we havent. We flag our waiter down who hasnt checked in for awhile and ask the waiter if we could have a refill on our water and if we could have our drinks. He goes "oh- what did you order again?" And we told him. He proceeds to eventually bring us our drinks. Except he just gave me a regular lemonade. I clarify that i ordered the cocktail, he apologizes and gives me my correct drink after some more time and assures us our food will be coming soon. We were flabbergasted that we did not get our food yet and no one had come to check on us. We mention it to the manager and the waiter comes back. They apologize. We get our salad.

At this point its 11:45 and still no sandwiches. We talk to someone again and we feel bad for complaining but why does everyone else have their food?

They bring us the sandwiches finally.

The bass sandwich had METAL in it.

I kid you not. A shred of metal from what seemed to be a staple, or part of a brush that cleans grills. We didnt feel comfortable eating the sandwich. We asked for the other to go, ate the terrible sad fries they serve and left as quick as we could.

So i think the staff was nice. The people who own this place need to completely rethink it. The food is overpriced, the fries are worse than mcdonads fries, the view is beautiful but come on. Seriously? Last time i was here it was an hour and 45 minute wait. The least they can do is offer bread, or make sure everyone seated is getting served. This was enough to make me not want to come back for...

I feel compelled to share my experience given the inconsistent recent reviews for the fish house and that the vast majority of reviews on here are old ones for the sunset grille. I’m also hoping that the new owners will read these and make improvements to a space that has great potential.

The good: the service and atmosphere.

Unlike some recent reviews, our party of 5 received friendly and attentive service. We arrived after 6:00 on a Monday and the wait was about an hour. It was a nice night and the restaurant is small so plan for a wait on a night like that.

The restaurant was redone beautifully and has a location that can’t be beat for watching the sunsets at sunset beach.

The bad: the portion sizes, the prices and the quality of one specific dish.

The menu is limited in terms of food. The biggest selection here are cocktails and wine which we did not order. Just a few beers. I started with the goat cheese house salad which was $13. It was a decent portion for the price and it was delicious. The food experience only went downhill from here. Some other dishes we ordered were the chili garlic shrimp, the crab chowder croquettes, the sunset burger and the fish platter. The burger seemed to be the best bang for the buck which is not saying much since it was $20. The chili garlic shrimp were good but $22 for about 6 shrimp is laughable. Same for the croquettes, about 5 very small pieces for $15.

The worst dish by far was the fish platter. $26 for 3 pieces of crispy but very dry fish with no sauce to dip in. The waffle fries were not hot or crispy, a very small portion and the cole slaw was in the tiniest container possible. Another review shows that.

The combination of the high price, the small portion and the lackluster taste equaled the most disappointing dish I can recall in recent memory at a restaurant.

I hope they can do better here by listening to feedback since they’re new. There needs to be either a reduction in price or an increase in quality and portion of certain dishes. People will not continue to eat here if it continues...

We ate here twice during our recent vacation to CM. The first time was 5/5 being an hour from close, we got our food very quickly which was delicious, the waitress was great, etc. A couple days later we went back for a late breakfast around 10:30. It was a completely different experience. For starters most of the staff looks like they're in high school and the hostess was clueless on top of it. The poor people in line in front of us didn't want a table, but to get some drinks at the bar and she said she didn't know if that was okay because she only handles seating people at the tables. That's not acceptable for a hostess to say and shows either they're hiring incompetent people or not training them well enough, either way it needs to be fixed. Half the tables were empty so she told us we'd have to wait 30 min for a table because the kitchen was backed up and that way we wouldn't be sitting waiting for our food for 30min, which was fine. We went in the shops while we waited, came back when they texted our table was ready, I get up there and give her the name and she has no idea what's going on and proceeds to talk to another staff member (also teenager) for a while. We sit down and the corner booth is infested with flies so I ask the manager to open the windows and that helped a lot, but it was an obvious problem that the staff should've fixed without needing someone to complain. After giving our food order, it still took over 30min to come out anyway, however it was very good when it did come. The staff seems very disorganized and needs some older people in charge because the manager (Max) was our waiter but didn't seem to managing anything that day. In conclusion, food is delicious and is the saving grace but overall needs improvement from the service aspect. Get a real manager in there managing instead of waiting tables and a real hostess too, they make the first impression and...