Beach Tavern — Restaurant in Monmouth Beach

I came with 2 of my friends after a long beach day because we were attracted to beautiful scenery and the presentation of the food we saw online. considering the food is expensive, we thought we would get what we paid for. we get to the restaurant and we were sat immediately (we made a reservation for 6pm) and we order apps. our appetizers did not come out until 650 pm. mind you, we were starving after a long beach day and we at least wanted to munch on something before getting our entrees. we order 2 appetizers (clams and calamari) and we only received one- the calamari. the other appetizer (clams) came with our entres later. we were confused since we ordered it as our APPETIZER. whatever, we eat our appetizers and they were okay- not complaining about the appetizer food. we were THEN put on another wait for about 40 minutes to receive our entrees. during this time other tables, who arrived LATER, were being served appetizers and entrees. Being SO famished, we began digging into our meals only to discover none of the seafood was seasoned. The clam appetizer was one of the dishes that was brought out as an entre- however it was the best dish out of our whole experience. It was actually seasoned and tasted like authentic seafood- as one would expect from an EXPENSIVE seafood restaurant. the grilled shrimp entre, however, was extremely disappointing. being one of the more expensive dishes on the menu (49$) had absolutely no seasoning and barely tasted like shrimp. not even salt or pepper seamed to be added. I had ordered the fish and chips. i took a bite and the fish had absolutely no flavor. the only thing i tasted was the crust of the cod being fried. when i tasted the fish by itself without the fried crust, it did not even have a fishy taste or any type of seasoning. I was very disappointed. we then asked to speak with the manager. we explained our situation to the manager very respectfully. the manager did not even apologize for our upsetting experience. he just told us he would talk to the kitchen and our servers. i was confused what that would do? so he left and we were left sitting in front of our barely half eaten plates for a good 10 minutes before our servers come by and tell us “the manager wanted us to tell you we can pay for one dessert to make up for the inconvenience”. first of all, why is the manager not telling US to our face. and second of all, that’s it? We kindly tell them we do no accept since we were planning on going out somewhere else to get dessert. (we also did not want to wait another 10 hours to receive probably melted ice cream). The server tells us he will go back and push for a better offer. so he does and says “yea so i was able to change his mind for a better offer. he agreed to taking off the grilled shrimp.” the server knew too that what the manger was offering before was not going to be sufficient enough to makeup for our upsetting experience. i thought this management was beyond unprofessional. the manager would not even come up HIMSELF to talk to us or at least apologize for our food. i want to add a disclaimer: i do not think our servers were at fault at all. i know our one waitress was new and it was her first day. i felt really bad bc i remember my first day serving. pretty place tho just wouldn’t recommend if...

Went for my sisters birthday. Our server, Rose, was incredibly sweet and attentive. She made the experience so much better. The reason for my 1 star review is the management and hostess. I called a month prior to reserve a table for my sisters birthday. When making the reservation, I expressed to the hostess how we wanted to be seated outside. The hostess, with confirmation from management, guaranteed that our party would be seated outside. Her words were "I have confirmed with management, we can make that happen for you!" Upon arrival, that was not the case. We were met with an incredibly rude hostess who no longer had our outdoor table. She gave no outdoor options (we would have waited) and stated our table was set for indoors. When I asked to speak with a manager, she responded "My manager is just going to tell you the same thing". Truthfully I would not have made the reservation if we were told that we would not be seated outdoors. We sat at our table and waited 45 minutes for a manager to finally come over. The manger very combative and was arguing with me. Then she abruptly left and said she would "be right back" and never returned the entire dinner. Her only form of rectification was "well if you want to sit outside you'll have to wait an hour and a half." This was said as we were already seated indoors and she clearly had no intention of making the situation right. I am logical and understood we could not be seated outside, though it was promised with the reservation. I simply wanted the situation rectified, which it was not. I've been to this restaurant countless times and recommend it to many. As a patron & restaurant owner, I'm very disappointed in the way this situation was handled. No...

Poor quality food, with a high price tag! We had been here several times before but, had been at the bar and ordered light fare. This evening, after ordering their "homemade pasta" lasagna dish, we were shocked to find it was black; not lightly toasted, but burnt with the whole top forming a cardboard covering (you could literally lift the whole top off). We gave it a taste, and it had some charcoal crispiness and flavor; certainly not edible. The waitress took it back to the kitchen and returned to us stating that "the chef says that is the way he prepares this dish". We were floored! We asked to replace the dish with a rigatoni with a bolognese sauce but, did question the chefs wisdom in allowing this type of food to be served. The manager stopped by to ask about our meal and disappeared into the kitchen when we indicated there was a problem. The bolognese was fine but, arrived 15 minutes after I had finished the lobster special (which was mushy and arrived with the wrong potato side). The waitress, while apologetic, charged us the $24 lasagna price as opposed to the $18 price of the bolognese we ate. At this point, we were so disgusted, we just wanted to get out of there. The manager said he was going to "forget this whole incident", which we later learned that the whole staff found the chef difficult with diva qualities. I would recommend that the manager step up his involvement and act like a manager and that the staff stop allowing the chef to bully them in representing poorly prepared food as an intentional "recipe". This restaurant will survive, but, only because the view is beautiful; not for the...