Waterman's Seafood — Restaurant in Maryland

Went to Waterman’s today at 2:45 pm for a 62nd Birthday celebration. To start Website offers early bird and week day specials from 11:00 am - 3 pm, again we arrived at 2:45 assuming the restaurant was open, not necessarily looking for any specials , just a late lunch early dinner. The Hostess sat us at a table at the downstairs bar as we had requested, we asked , are you open as the bar was empty, but there were people eating at dining room tables. The hostess said yes Jeannine is here, we sat and waited and waited, my husband went upstairs, young man told him yes we are open. He came back and Jeannine came to table extremely mad we were there, said oh there are 3 of you as we were waiting on our daughter to join us, she informed us she would be back when she showed up and she didn’t even know why we were seated, never offered even a drink of water , she was the rudest most hostile bartender/server I have ever encountered, in my 50 years of being a career waitress/ bartender. To say she was just so hostile and down right ignorant is an understatement, what she doesn’t realize is that we are local folks who have lived and worked in this area for many years. We have recommended Waterman’s a million times to people, that will never happen again. My daughter is a manager at a very well known restaurant in the area and said if it were her employee she would have been fired on the spot. Shame on the management of Watermen’s to have staff who finds it ok to behave in this manner to anyone, local, tourist, whoever. Shame on you Jeanine for being such a unprofessional service worker, you give a bad name to a lot of good waitress/ bartenders, because of actions like yours today , I will make sure when anyone asks me about Watermen’s the way I was treated today by you will be the first thing I tell them. Do better if you are going to continue in the restaurant business. I hope whatever you are so miserable about gets better for you. Your misery really shows in your treated of people who tip you, by the way, last time we sat at your bar your service was not very good but you still got a 25% tip. You should think about that, you never know who your treating so horribly.

We were very hungry especially after sitting in traffic so long trying to get to Ocean City boardwalk. We had nowhere to park so we decided we would stop in waterman's seafood. It was late and close to closing time. But they still sat us and we ordered. The order did come out botched up but the manager made certain to correct it by removing an item off of our bill. We were upset that the appetizer came out along with the meal. We get it it's close to closing time everyone's in a hurry and want to go home but if that's the case the customer should not have to suffer for that. Since that is the case and you (Waterman's staff) want to make sure everyone eats then perhaps extend your hours and make a cutoff time at least an hour before closing. When we finally received our entree they were hot and very tasty. The hush puppies, I've never tasted hush puppies like this before. They tasted the way a hush puppy should taste. I had the haddock I believe that's what it was it was a nice thick flaky meat and my girlfriend had the crab clusters. The strangest thing is that they do not season the clusters they'll give you some seasoning for it but they don't season it . I've never heard of this before. Nonetheless it didn't stop us from enjoying the meal. The artwork on the wall is not the greatest but if you are not there to enjoy the entire surrounding but only there to eat then it should not bother you at all. Our waitress a female I forgot to get her name perhaps it's on the receipt, was very attentive to our needs and we appreciate that as we showed her in our gracious tip. It seems like this place is definitely a winner for all who come to eat. We may return sooner than we think.

This may be a bit long. I wanted to try Waterman’s last March. My husband and I come a few times a year in off season and when we bring our teenage daughter and a friend, they don’t want seafood…. To clarify, we live 5 hours away in NC in the town home to the NC Seafood Festival and Big Rick Blue Matlin tournament . Seafood is wonderful. The kids always want something else. We came without them and I wanted to try your crab cakes. Unfortunately, my husband and I were walking on the boardwalk and I was bragging about my walking!(I experienced a paralysis from the waist down years ago called Guillain Barre Syndrome. W was paralyzed for a while and used a walker for a long time. We were on the boardwalk walking and talking about going to eat when I tripped and fell. It was bad and we didn’t go to your restaurant. Ate pizza and drove 5 hours home next day. Kneecap was broken. We have been back twice for short visits and I finally got your crab cake! I have become quite a snob as far as “crab cakes” are concerned! We have wonderful seafood in EasternNC but nothing like this when it comes to crab. We came back again and I got the sandwich that had the crab cake and a soft shell crab . Never in my life have I had a sandwich this great! I am bad about putting tartar sauce on everything seafood but this was so juicy and tasty that any sauce added was unnecessary! After breaking my knee, coming to your restaurant twice, food was fantastic! Service fantastic! Hoping to come next week just to get away for a couple of days! Just wanted you to know how much I enjoy your establishment! Staff was great as well!