Sandgates Inn — Restaurant in Maryland

I was born and raised and currently live directly across the patuxent River from this establishment. For years I lived just five houses from this location. My best friend still lives in that house. Historically the food here was a little pricey but fantastic. This is not my current experience here though. I came here with two friends around 12:00 p.m. because the stuffed shrimp here have traditionally been far above any other that I was aware of, anywhere. I must say I was much more than just merely disappointed. After being seated rather promptly which was a good start. We ordered our drinks. Two draft beers and one cocktail. About 20 minutes later we got those drinks. 15 minutes later we placed our order 35 to 40 minutes later our food was served. We ordered one house platter which is a combination of most of the available seafood here including crab balls, grouper, onion rings, fried shrimp, stuffed shrimp, fried oysters etc. hush puppies and french fries. I hate to be rude but to be perfectly fair It could have been served in a urn. All of it was hard, dry and way overcooked. We also tried what was a very generous amount of crab dip with warm pretzel. The crab dip was basically just cream cheese with very little crab meat and a light dusting of what was most likely j.o spice sprinkled on top. The pretzel was amazing The dip unremarkable to say the least. Also there was only enough pretzel for each of the three of us to place a little dip on for two bites each leaving over half the remaining dip behind with nothing but the table saltines to put it on. We also had fried zucchini. While the breading was fairly good it too was overcooked to the darkest color anyone has probably ever seen in a restaurant, and it was extraordinarily hard and the zucchini inside barely had any moisture left due to over cooking. My other guest ordered stuffed shrimp. Again ridiculously overcooked and super hard breading because it was. Myself, I ordered onion rings and fried chicken along with the previously mentioned crab dip (which by the way, could not be rescued by adding more seafood seasoning from the table, which was predominantly pure salt with a very little bit of seafood seasoning added in for not very much color). At this point I have been finished with my draft beer for about 10 minutes. Until my mother had finished her cocktail, and both empty glasses were at the end of the table We were not asked if we would like something else. She decided to go with the half and half tea, which she only drank a couple of sips of because she said she couldn't taste either tea or lemonade in any significant amount. Because I eat seafood all the time I wanted something different, so I ordered the fried chicken which had to be removed from the bone by hand. It was so cremated and dry It was very difficult to eat. All in all there was nothing that had not been severely overcooked. I never tip less than 20% even when I am not pleased with the service or food. Today I tipped 15%, only because the food was not the waitresses fault. Although the lackluster service was. It certainly wasn't the worst experience I've ever had, but it certainly was close. I think I should also say that there was only two other tables when we were seated that were occupied in the entire building, so why service was so slow I have no idea. All in all, I would give this place an overall rating of 1 on a scale of 1 to 10. A zero rating on a scale of 1 to 5. I was horribly disappointed since I recommended the place before we came because of my experiences here in the past on many many occasions but have not been here for about 10 years. So if you don't mind paying for the food that I listed here $149 before tip and you like your food cooked beyond recognition. Then by all means come and waste your hard earned money here. A terrible experience that I will not...

Save your money. The food here is so disappointing. This was our first time coming here and I regret not going the 100 feet further to Seabreeze.

Let me start by saying the service was great and our waitress was very pleasant and attentive, but the food was a complete let down. We were hoping for some crabs, but they stated they didn’t receive any shipments at the time. We started with the crab dip which should not even be called crab dip. It’s 95% sour cream, onion, and dill and only 5% crab. We actually struggled to find any crab meat in the mix. The “pretzel” it comes with is laughable. You get a giant bowl of crab dip with a 4 inch in diameter mini pretzel served on grandmas hand-me-down plate. The dip honestly reminded me more of sour cream and onion dip and would have been better suited if it was served with Lays Rippled Potato Chips.

My husband had the Cajun Catfish dinner and said he was very disappointed. He said it definitely tasted frozen and instead of blending the Cajun season into the batter, they just dumped it on top of it. The fish also had an abundance of bones in it which was gross to watch as he pulled them from between his teeth. Only thing appetizing about his meal was the beer he had to drink.

I had the Softshell Sandwich and boy, don’t I regret it. I took one bite and called it a day. Maybe I’m just not a fan, but it tasted as if I bit into a rock of sea salt. The meat itself was tasteless which is very disappointing and lacked everything it should. Only ate the fries which did alright. Basic.

Conclusion: save your time and your money and go elsewhere. This place is a joke and quite the hole in the wall. No wonder the parking lot was so empty on a Labor...

So last night we wanted to get together and have some dinner, so we went to Sandgates seafood restaurant. Now mind every time we go there we always full up one of their big tables if not more. We have gone there with large parties more than once. Even if it is just me and James we never spend less than about a hundred dollars. The have this waitress there that is very nasty, she had waited on us before and it was horrible. She does not have the personality it takes to be a waitress, in any case we got there at six-thirty with reservations seated roughly ten minutes later. Sat at the table for about fifteen, twenty minutes before we even saw our waitress, another fifteen minutes before we got our drinks (My daughter has to run out and get her id) so ok…. So then we waited again when she got back to us took our order and according to them at seven forty-four our appetizer came out with half the order….behind us was a table that came in about an half an hour after us and was getting their food????? The whole thing was just a mess….My husband went and confronted them with this information and the said that because we ordered fried food, that was the holdup…setting all this aside when we were leaving the supposed manager was at the table behind us calling names like a two-year-old….of course that did not go over well…the place has always been on the scattered side of things but we liked it…the food was decent, and for the exception of one the server has been ok…well it may not make a difference to them but we will no longer eat here…… only did star so i...