TOPPER'S — Restaurant in Nantucket

Having had dinner here years ago (2007) I was really looking forward to the experience again. Boy were we in for an unpleasant surprise. Once seated, and yes we of course had a reservation, it took quite some time for a server to show up. Joshua did and might as well not have. He forgot the water we ordered until we reminded him, he didn’t get our cocktail order right and we had to wait a while before he showed back up to get it right. When he brought the club soda for us to add to our drinks, it was flat. We went ahead and had our lousy drinks. It was curious to see Joshua who could be and was extremely attentive to two young girls seated next to us. So were other staffers. To the point I asked the girls did they know these servers personally. In fact they did. The two girls worked in the kitchen and it so happened it was their last night on Nantucket and they were having dinner “on the house” so said Joshua over and again. He kept encouraging them to order more drinks or bottles of champagne or wine because his goal was and I quote him, “I’m gonna get you drunk as sh#! tonight”. Lovely, right? It never got better. I ordered the vegetarian tasting menu and my husband ordered the halibut a la carte. It was taking a long time so I flagged Joshua down and asked him for bread service. He brought breadsticks to the table while walking away at the same time. Clearly too busy to properly serve us. When the first course came they brought the wrong starters. We were hungry so we started eating regardless. We couldn’t readily find Joshua so we flagged (or seemingly annoyed) another server to get him for us. Joshua came over and said it was the kitchens fault, he’d “grab” us the right starters. The next course for me if I recall was a radicchio dish and it was absolutely disgusting, a bad bitter taste. I couldn’t and didn’t eat it. The halibut was tasty and hot. We also wanted to have a bottle of wine with our dinner and once again, we had to flag someone down to ask for the sommelier. He was as friendly and interested in helping us as a door mat. My son is a 2nd tier somm and as a matter of fact, it was while having dinner at Toppers, and being so impressed with the somm, he graduated from SMU and headed to The French Culinary Institute to study for such. This sure wasn’t the same amazing gentleman who cared about pairings when I was last there. The attention to the help was certainly amazing, that is if you were them. It was so ridiculous I took photos of the nonsense. Early on in the meal we asked Joshua to call a taxi for us when our last tasting was coming out. When the taxi arrived, a different man came to our table to let us know the taxi had arrived. He pleaded with us to be sure to use him? I asked his name, David he said. I asked his title and he said he was the GM. I decided he should know what all just took place. He was very quiet. He did apologize and asked why we didn’t say something earlier. Surprised by his question, I asked David at what point do you really do that? He said he wasn’t sure. I was calm, polite and I hope helpful to him in pointing out the plethora of miscues and poor service we received. Two nights prior we had an incredible meal at Company of the Cauldron (outstanding) and to our left was seated a nice couple, also foodies, and they asked where all we had reservations. When I mentioned Toppers, both husband and wife said don’t go. We also had the same question asked earlier that week by a driver who said he hadn’t heard good reports from diners. I certainly think the house is beautiful, the interiors are dated but lovely and I hope David can turn things back around. And no, he did not so much as offer us a complimentary anything. This restaurant choice was based on my amazing past experience and to celebrate our recent marriage, what a total disappointment. I will certainly not recommend or...

If you work for your money you may want to choose to go somewhere else. Second time we've been to Topper's in the last two weeks. Spent over $1200 combined in those two meals - once was just two people ($400+) and once was with five people ($800+). Both times, food was good and service was TERRIBLE! Fool me twice, shame on me, I suppose.

First visit, waiter was slow and highly inattentive - acted as if it the restaurant was somehow doing us a favor to allow us to be there while we were the ones paying to eat there.

Second visit (the $800+ dinner), service was again slow, but his time (sarcasm coming) at least they cleared our table before we were finished with our evening - all we did was get up to go take a family sunset photo (like nearly every other table around us had previously done without having their table cleared)! Granted, we'd finished our food, but we still had glasses on the table containing the overpriced sparkling water we'd ordered. Also, we had not even asked for the check yet, and when we came back to discover our table was completely cleared and being set for the next guests our check wasn't even there!!!

I suppose we could have just dined and dashed at that point (sure didn't seem as if the waiter cared if we were even there anymore), but being reasonable, we stopped our waiter and asked for our check. Then, the FIVE of us had to stand in front of the whole restaurant (because we no longer had a table at which to sit!!!) waiting for our waiter to return with our check. We still tipped him more than 20+%, so maybe he can remember what it feels like to get his last tip ever from guests who appreciate great service, DIDN'T EVEN RECEIVE that great service, and felt sorry for their waiter because he didn't seem to know any better than an amateur country club summer server how to treat patrons paying a small fortune to eat at his restaurant!

I guarantee that will be the last dollar he or Topper's ever gets from us! I work for my money and don't piss away over $1200 across two meals to stand for some snooty, arrogant, overpriced place to act as if they're somehow doing me a favor by allowing my family and I to eat in their restaurant!

Topper's quickly sank to the BOTTOM of our Nantucket...

We took the 5:00 pm ride on the Wauvinet Lady from the White Elephant in town to the Wauvinet Hotel. We were told that this was the last ride of the season. The boat was fairly basic and small. We expected something with a little more character. We were a little packed in. Some folks had rain jackets on and that was the right call since during the ride there were a few times when we got splashed by salty water. The captain pulled a canopy in the front of the boat and that helped. I would not wear one's finest as my jacket got smudged at a few places while on the little boat.

Our dinner was at 6:00 pm. We requested to be seated under the awnings where the heaters kept us warm. We chose to have the following appetizers- The day boat scallops - 5/5 Probably one of the best scallops we have had. Well prepared, plopped on a decadent corn bisque, and topped with miso sauce. Absolutely delicious. The asparagus ravioli - 4/5 Looked great. Taste was good too. But expected it to lean more towards the asparagus, where was the dish was actually leaning more towards ricotta ravioli. For the entrees we had - Lobster - 3/5 Good but not great Sea bass - 5/5. Very well done. Crispy skin, with soft flesh. The bean minestrone (more like a brodo) was wonderful. For desert we had - Peach pavlova - 5/5 very delicious Chocolate desert - 3/5 Good, but not great

Most of the food not only tasted well, the way they were presented would rival the looks of dishes at restaurants that posses 2-3 Michelin stars.

Dennis, the Somm, helped us select a lesser known bottle of white wine from the basque region which was lovely. David the manager was very nice and attentive. Our server was lovely as well.

Once the sun set, the sky was ablaze in a sockeye salmon red. We left our table a few times to take pictures by the water with that amazing sky in the background.Overall, we had an amazing experience. We eschewed the return boat ride and just took a ride back to town. During our next visit to the island we will definitely dine here, but perhaps skip...