Wharf Casual Seafood EastChase — Restaurant in Montgomery

Update 6/2/23 - Made my 3rd visit and my wife's 4th. We will NEVER return. Waited a few minutes behind another couple who said they'd been waiting 5 minutes for any employee to even appear. All tables dirty except for 1 small section. Couldn't give me an ice tea because they were out of ice. Got our order wrong despite repeating and verifying multiple times. Gumbo was lukewarm. Didn't get my sweet tea ordered at the counter until well after meal was delivered and we'd asked repeatedly. Big tall guy with bad BO came out and brought sauce that was the defining portion of the dish. It's called Honey Pecan Shrimp, but fried shrimp. We ordered EXTRA sauce on the side, not NO sauce at all. They finally brought a little side of sauce. Not a pecan to be found. 5th or 6th request finally got a little bowl of crushed pecans. Employees walked past us a half dozen times over next 20' bringing food to customers without even making eye contact, much less refilling my empty tea, etc. I mean they had to "brush our table to get by" close. Again, we're in the only section not clean. Basically, all 10 customers in the restaurant had to sit right next to each other or at a dirty table. Interior temperature of restaurant was over 80, service was non-existent, and order was wrong. Food was good, but I can't believe this place is even still open. I've had friendlier and more competent service at the Greyhound bus stop in Chicago from a drunk bum that didn't even work there, wasn't wearing pants, didn't speak English, and had pissed himself. Are you getting the picture? I wouldn't eat here again if I had a lifetime coupon for free food and drinks. As before, this seems unique to this location as the Wharf in Wetumpka has been fine and we haven't tried the one on Atlanta Highway. I can't even share how bad it was. Employee was chewing food as she said "No problem" to my wife after she'd waited at the counter to get a refill. Did I mention we could smell the tall Manager" walk by? We tipped 18% while paying upfront at the counter in the CC machine and only that low because we'd been waiting so long. What an absolute ripoff. NEVER GO HERE!!! Original review last year - Not as friendly, quick, clean, or tasty as the...

I was in Montgomery back on June 7th traveling for work. I wanted seafood but didn't want to go sit down at Bonefish for dinner. Found the Wharf on a Google search and it was close to my Hotel. Their online menu looked very good. I decided what I wanted to eat and called in my order for pickup. The gentleman on the phone said it would be 15 minutes before my order would be ready. I arrived at the restaurant at the 13 minute mark. Went in, told them my name, paid for my order and sat at the bar/order area. This was late in the evening and the place was not very crowded. As I sat and waited, two other patrons came in and picked up to-go orders. I noticed there was two bags of food sitting on the counter behind their bar area. At the 25 minute mark, Manager Eryk (yes, that is the correct spelling) approached me and asked me my name. When I told him, he looked at the order sitting on the counter and it was marked for a "Don", rather than John. He was IMMEDIATELY very apologetic and re-entered my order. He gave me the food and said "You can start snacking on this, I am so very sorry for the mix up." After he gave me the food, he asked for my debit card so he could refund me half of my purchase while the fresh food was being prepared. (Very kind of him to do so). As the conversation went on, he asked if I had dined with them before. I told him that I had not and this was my first visit there. He then began to apologize even more. He then proceeded to give me a $30 gift card for the first time dining experience. If you ask me, this is 1000% customer service. I went back to my hotel and my meal. Totally amazing food. I had the fried Grouper & Fried Crab Claw platter. For the sides, I chose red beans and rice and cheese grits. I would put this food up against any 5-star restaurant on the Gulf. In fact, I was so pleased with my food and the overall experience that I went back the VERY NEXT day and used my gift card and had the same meal for lunch! If you are in the area and want a delicious AND affordable seafood dining experience, give this place a try! This will be my new "go-to" seafood restaurant the next time I am...

This restaurant reminds me a lot of a place down along the Alabama gulf coast called Shrimp Basket. Like that place, this is a small casual seafood chain restaurant, with fried, grilled or blackened fish, shrimp and oysters. The Wharf, however, has better quality food all around. Better fish, better sides, and instead of ordering at a table, you order at a counter. The interior is certainly nice for a casual restaurant, too. Seating is limited due to the coronavirus, but it seemed very clean indoors and outside, too.

Of everything I sampled here, what impressed me most was actually the crab cake. It had real, identifiable chunks of crabmeat in it! You won’t find that at most places down at the beach! The collards were quite tasty, too, as were the sweet potato and red beans and rice. The fried fish (“crispy” on the menu) had a good batter that lived up to the crispy nomenclature. It was a bit salty, though.

Blackening seasonings are a little on the weak side but that’s not out of the ordinary for Alabama for some reason. Also, everyone at my table wound up with a different amount of hush puppies on their plates: the one who got a whitefish basket got three; the grouper platter got five. My Destin Platter got a whopping six hush puppies! I ate them all, too. They were good and clearly made in-house. Again, much better than the seafood places on the beaches of Alabama. Theirs are all pre-made and frozen.

The only down side was cost, it was a bit expensive, especially considering how little fish was on the blackened grouper plate. My Destin Platter had a lot more food for the price, as did the crispy white fish basket. But, they do mostly sell Mahi-Mahi and Grouper, and those are good quality fish, so the price probably reflects that to some degree.

Overall, I’m glad I detoured out of my way on my roadtrip to try this place. It made for a good meal in a nice atmosphere, and I’ll be back next time my travels take me through...