The Red Roost — Restaurant in Maryland

My extended Family has been going to the Red Roost for about 30 years. Our recent experience was extremely dissapointing. We understood the shortage and inexperience of the wait staff, but the restaurant was not full and we were ignored for at least 15 minutes before we had to find someone to take our order. We were given several incredulious explanations (the best one was that the waiter was so sick that he had to go to the hospital - really? But he kept on serving for another 20-30 minutes) when a simple and honest "we're a little short-staffed" would have gone a long way (more about honesty later.) Half of the food arrived followed by another 15 wait minute before the other dinners arrived. The shrimp and chicken were Red Roost standard excellent, but additional servings as part of the "all-you-can-eat" price were very slow in arriving. At one point the nice but green waitress brought us what looked like deep fried chicken backs to hold us over until the chicken arrived. However, the crabs were small and served at room temperature, instead of hot. If you are a long-time Red Roost patron then you know that the corn on the cob, served in the cob, is a highlight (at least for my Family.) What a disapointment to find that the corn was inedibe. We showed the waitress and Manager (Nick) that the corn was rotten at the cob and they try to resolve the problem by bringing ear after ear of rotten corn! A little honesty would go a long way by just saying that there was no fresh corn and offer us an alternative. There are too many alternatives, and the hour-long ride to The Red Roost is just not...

Update(2/20/2023): I have not been to Red Roost in a couple years now. It's not worth the money they charge these days. I don't mind paying a premium for orange crushes as long as they have fresh oranges in them but they don't anymore. I'm not playing games with lying servers. Also the snow crabs are what I went for and they are so astronomically expensive now I just go to Sam's Club and buy 2lb or 5lb boxes of snow crabs and eat them at home.

Original Review: I hesitate to write a review for the Red Roost simply because I don't want to ruin the atmosphere. It's our little slice of seafood heaven... in a chicken house. Two things that are synonymous with the Eastern Shore.

Out-of-towners should stay away as the mosquitoes are the size of small cats. I've heard stories of small children being carried away by them. Oddly enough it's only happened to people not from the Shore.

If you do decide to brave the elements and the wildlife to trek to the Red Roost you won't be disappointed. The crabs are hot & the drinks plentiful. The vintage contemporary light fixtures add wonderfully to the atmosphere. The servers are friendly & fast most of time.

The business has changed hands and the quality of the food didn't change. Which is always a concern when that happens. Ribs were replaced by french fries as one of the sides for the all-you-eat options on the menu. That was a let down but other than that nothing else seems to have changed food-wise in the last 30 years I've...

The food here is amazing! I'm giving a 2 star rating because there was little to no real measures taken against Covid.

I called ahead and they assured me that the restaurant would be operating at 50 percent capacity and that all wait staff would be wearing a mask. This gave my family the push to make the 40 minute drive, but when I got there it was a completely different story.

They had a sign on the door again assuring customers that people would be spread out and hand sanitizer would be provided. However, once I opened the door that was completley not the case! Almost 30 people were crammed into the front bar area. They sat people at every other booth which was good, but the center section with the long tables was still lined with people and the Minimum 6 feet was given for aisles. All the windows were closed which could have helped. The worst part was that our waitress and many other waitresses were not wearing their masks correctly and leaning in to talk with many customers.

I was forced to stay (because the other people in my family wanted to) but did not feel comfortable or safe at all. I will not be returning. If you are okay with this type of environment then by all means go, the food is wonderful, but do not go if you expect social distancing regulations to...