Bowley's on the Bay — Restaurant in Middle River

Read Your Bill Carefully - "For Your Convenience" Comes at a Cost!

This dining experience was utterly disappointing, not just by the poor service and incorrect food, but by what felt like a deliberately misleading billing process.

To start, concerns were raised immediately upon our small party of 4 meeting our glazed glassy-eyed forgetful server. Sure enough this was followed by abominable service that was delayed, inconsistent, and incorrect, throughout the night. Three of the four meals were incorrect. Items were substituted without notice or explanation. One guest ordered a plain hamburger and instead received the more expensive option of a burger topped with a crabcake. Another dish was unrecognizable when it was brought out since two of the three components, were changed entirely without warning. To top that, my meal never came out!! The runner determined that the order was entered incorrectly.

Our server came back and asked why I refused my meal when it was brought out. Nope. Not what happened. We clarified, nothing had been brought out and what the original order was. Same server came back a second time and asked me again what was the issue with my order that I never received. Okay this is craziness.

An apology was offered, and I was asked if there was anything I could be offered in the meantime as my companions were finishing their dinner. Thank you, I'll have a glass of wine.

When the check came, I noticed that a 20% gratuity had already been automatically added in the total owed amount with additional tip suggestions printed on the receipt as if no tip had yet been included. Nowhere was it clearly explained upfront that this would happen -- it was buried in small text on the menu. What made this worse was that the quality of service did not come close to justifying a standard tip, let alone one that was automatically added without proper disclosure.

When I asked to speak with the manager, I was met with multiple stall tactics -- being told he was "too busy" to come to the table. As we waited our above mentioned server twice came by and asked to pass along our concerns to the manager, (unusual?inappropriate?). Eventually, someone who I seriously doubt was the actual manager arrived, explaining he was very, very busy as a reason for his delay. He gave vague excuses about "IT issues" causing the double-tip suggestions. He did agree to remove the automatic gratuity, but only after I specifically challenged it.

The takeaway: Read the fine print. REVIEW YOUR BILL CAREFULLY. This restaurant's policies and presentation of charges feel intentionally confusing and, frankly, dishonest. Adding a 20% gratuity automatically is one thing -- misleading customers into tipping again on top of it is another. It's not just bad service; it's a system designed to quietly take advantage of customers who aren't paying close attention.

I left feeling not just frustrated, but taken advantage of -- and that's not something any restaurant should leave its guests feeling.

Epilogue: I was charged...

We recently visited and had a disappointing experience from start to finish. We were told there would be an hour and a half wait, which we were fine with, so we grabbed seats at the bar to pass the time. Unfortunately, we spent 30 to 40 minutes just trying to get the attention of either bartender before we were finally able to order drinks. When the drinks did arrive, we noticed we had been charged for something completely different than what we ordered — that was the first issue.

Once we were finally seated at our table, things took a turn for the worse. We began to notice spiders — slowly but surely — appearing one by one. Every 10 minutes or so, another spider would crawl onto the table or near our food. As we started to look around, we checked under the table and saw a disturbing number of spiders, along with webs that clearly looked like they hadn’t been cleaned or maintained in a long time. Eventually, I got up and informed the nearest staff member, that we were uncomfortable and just wanted to get our check and to-go boxes. His response? “Uh, what would you like me to do? Kill them? There are spiders everywhere. I mean, we are outside.” That response was not only unprofessional but also completely dismissive.

He then said he would get the manager for us — we waited 10 minutes and nothing. When I asked again, he said “my bad” and promised to go get someone. We waited another 5 minutes. Still nothing. At that point, we decided to leave. As we were walking out, two hostesses ran after us saying they would get the manager. We were already on our way out but agreed.

When the manager finally came over, his first response was to ask, dismissively , “Would you like bags for your to-go boxes?” And he reinforced what the other staff member said. I told him no — we were already walking out, and his staff were the ones who insisted we stop and speak with him. I didn’t need him at that point. I was clearly irritated with his response, and only after noticing my irritation did he offer us three free drinks — as a last resort.

Also worth noting: The drinks tasted like juice — watered down.

Overall, I left feeling highly disgusted. Spiders were crawling on and around our food throughout the evening, the drinks were disappointing, and the service was frustratingly slow and unresponsive. I understand outdoor seating comes with some risk of bugs — but the number of spiders and the lack of empathy or accountability from the staff made this experience unacceptable. I’m not sure if it’s considered normal to have spiders crawling on your food just because you’re outside, but this is the first time this has ever...

Not the celebration dinner we were expecting. We arrived on time for our 7:00 reservation. We waited half an hour to be seated. It was 20 minutes till our waitress, very pleasant, took our order. 40 minutes passed and we hadn't received our appetizers, but we know staffing is a challenge, so we were patient. Two 4-tops who were seated after us had gotten their entire meals, including a flatbread (WE ordered one of those and some flash-fried brussel sprouts our waitress recommended highly). We asked the waitress what was up? She said they were at full capacity and the kitchen was very behind. We begged her for any part of our meal. In truth, the bar and the outdoor seating where the band was playing were packed; our dining room had largely emptied out but for a few tables. The waitress came back and said the kitchen would expedite the flash-fried brussel sprouts and she comped us a glass of wine. That was reasonable. We waited longer. 20 minutes or so later, it was now after 9:00 and we still had not received those flash-fried brussel sprouts or one piece of food from the kitchen. They could have sent out some saltines and bought more time. We had enough. We explained to the waitress herself and the hostess we were sorry but we waited patiently far too long. Clearly we weren't a big-enough party and we weren't seated outside. They forgot about us. The restaurant came highly recommended and we drove nearly 40 minutes for this meal to celebrate a happy occasion. Enough was enough.

Disclaimer: I work in the restaurant business and absolutely understand the staffing challenges (among others) the industry has been facing. The problem here was not solely lack of staff, but lack of focus. By all observations, the wait staff had many tables in the bar and outdoor area and maybe 1 or 2 in the dining room. They either lost our order or there were far more people seated elsewhere demanding to be fed while we waited patiently. I hate being the squeaky wheel because I don't like when I see it in our place. Yes, certain foods take longer to prepare, but that was not the case here.

We googled other restaurants, found Carson's Creekside a couple miles away, got a fabulous meal served in 15 minutes and enjoyed our lovely waitress Selina and the hostess Theresa. We highly recommend...