Waterfront Wine Bar — Restaurant in Manitowoc

Group of kids to have dinner prior to homecoming dance:

6:30pm RESERVATIONS for a group of 9 8:00pm STILL NO FOOD

One in the group never even got her food. Owner refused any accountability, refused to come out & acknowledge, apologize or do anything to make it right. Instead waited until I walked away to address our kids in back with rude comments & stormed around as if we had inconvenienced HER. Our kids had reservations for 630. Still no food by 8pm. It was made clear we were there for dinner before the Homecoming dance. Upon arrival, the group was seated in the back. They were the only table back there. The front of the restaurant was about half full and some at the bar. There was one other group of 8 in there, they left right around 730. The group of parents (total of 7) sat at the bar & ordered drinks/appetizers. Before half of us had our drinks, the wait staff had all taken a shot together. The group of our kids in back ordered cheese curds as an appetizer. It took 45 minutes for them to get that. It took about 45 minutes for our appetizers as well. Around 730, the kids asked how much longer it would be as the homecoming dance STARTED at 730pm. By 750 I asked where their food was and stated again that they had the homecoming dance which had already started. They said "it’s being made right now" for the second time. By 8pm, I was livid and demanded to know EXACTLY what the status of their food was. The owner was in the back making snarky comments. Anyone who has been here knows you can see right in the kitchen. She refused to come back to the table by the kids which I waited at until everyone had their food. Only once I had walked away did she go back & address the kids in an unacceptable rude manner. One of the girls in our group never even got her food! It is now 820 and we are the ONLY PEOPLE IN THE ENTIRE PLACE. There were multiple people in the kitchen at all times & behind the bar. The place was well enough staffed. There was no excuse. There was no accountability & we were met with nothing but attitude. We didn't walk in on a Saturday evening expected to be seated and served immediately, hence why we had RESERVATIONS. Even if the place was full, there is NO reason that we should have been there 2 hours and there is absolutely no reason someone in our group should have had to leave without even eating. Unacceptable. But if you look at the reviews on google, plenty of people have had the same experience. It could be an amazing place. At no time was there any apology from the owner herself. She sent her waitress out to address everything. I even made a comment to the waitress asking why the owner wouldn't come out & acknowledge the situation. I hate to think how the kids would have been treated had a parent not been there to speak up. I don't know that I've ever posted about a restaurant & a bad experience but this was far beyond that. Please head over to yelp and read reviews there as well. They ALL echo the same...

Bridge front watering hole is a more appropriate name. Poor service, slow and mediocre food, and prices Way above the quality you receive. Dressing up is a definite don't go there as the only access is a metal grate set of stairs that would be dangerous in heels. The "waterfront" outdoor seating is mostly picnic tables with an umbrella and a few high tops with backless metal stools. Interior is nice enough if you're into leather seating mixed with exposed pipe basement ceiling. Plenty of seating available, and a table of two was still wedged between two large loud groups. Each stage of ordering took triple as long as is typical in ANY lower end establishment. A wine bar should be a cut above, and yet they only carry ONE import beer and the usual pile of artisan (code for someone's experimental efforts) beers. Go figure that one decent beer was out of stock. The wine selection was limited to young wines 5 years or less and no ports, sherries, or champagne. Mostly American wines with south American, Spanish, and Australia also prominent. There were 4 Italian (counting the prosecco), and only ONE French wine. The wine flight was presented to be consumed with the driest first which is backwards! The kitchen was so slow getting food out that everyone was showing signs of having consumed too much alcohol on an empty stomach. The artichoke dip was more acidic than creamy and served with tortilla chips rather than crostini (even Olive Garden knows better than that). Chips might not have been that bad if they had been presented well rather than having the crumbs and broken bits from the bottom of the bag dumped on the plate. A simple refill of soda took close to ten minutes, after the waitress (decked out in leggings and a leopard shirt) took the glass away to refill. The $32 dollar steak was 6oz of unflavorful, overcooked on top with nothing but frozen bag fries that had almost no flavor (certainly not truffle as was promised). Pasta primavera was a pound of pasta with a few vegetables mixed in and little flavor to speak of (also missing the crostini promised on the menu, but other diners received). Over $75 dollars and two HOURS later (most of which was just waiting) I was truly disappointed and wishing I had gone back to Ryan's on York. Between a wine bar that doesn't deliver and a dive bar with professional chef level fusion...

Worst dining experience I can remember... We arrived at 6pm with a reservation for 13, they sat us at a table for 12. Fortunately two of our party could not make it that evening so the seating worked out. The staff told us it may be an hour because they were busy (foreshadowing). It was around 20 minutes before the server took our drink orders which I understand as they were busy. We ordered our food as well at this time because we had plenty of time to look at the menu. At 654pm our drinks finally arrived. Nearly one hour to receive drinks from the gun, we're talking lemonade and iced tea, nothing too difficult. I could grow, harvest and squeeze the lemons in less time than it took to bring out the glass of lemonade we ordered. At 715pm I went and asked if we could get refills on drinks and asked about the status of our appetizers. The server said, sure let me take a look. Again we ordered lunch meat on a piece of wood, nothing too difficult. She brought a pitcher of lemonade and our lunchmeat after I asked. We waiting longer and our food finally arrived at 820pm. The restaurant closes at 9pm. They had starting sweeping the floors and putting the chairs up before we even had our food. Also the food did not come out together, we had to watch as some of our table were able to eat as the rest of us drooled and looked at their plates longingly. So for the food itself, it was also not good. I ordered the pad tai and it was liking eating mushy oatmeal. Normally I would send something like this back but at this point I would have eaten the menu I was so hungry. My daughter called the alfredo "mid" which is young person speak for "bad". When the bill finally came and we were about to escape this terrible social experiment there is a "service charge" on our bill. I asked the server what this is and she let me know it was the 20% gratuity and then had the gall to say, "you don't have to tip any more than that". Worst dining experience I...