South Bay Mediterranean Kitchen — Restaurant in New Haven

It's a shame that poor service ruined what was a delicious meal. We wanted to celebrate our daughter's 25th birthday at South Bay last night, coming from over an hour away because we wanted it to be a special occasion. We chose this restaurant over many other options based on the menu and the positive reviews it received in the past. When we made the reservation, we indicated that it was a birthday celebration, and when I arrived at the restaurant, I reminded the hostess before my daughter arrived, and asked if they could put a candle in any dessert she ordered. It was apparent that our server was poorly trained, and most likely had just begun working there. She was unable to answer basic questions we had about the items on the menu. My daughter ordered a salad and 2 dishes from the tapas menu, and my husband and I both ordered a salad and an entree. Two out of the three salads arrived. My daughter's hot tapas dish (which should have been treated as her main course) was brought to the table at the same time as her salad. My salad never came. When we asked our server where it was, she seemed surprised that it had been ordered. There was such a long wait for the other entrees to arrive, and all the waitress did was to came over to our table several times to ask if everything was OK. She didn't offer to check with the kitchen to see where our entrees were. She didn't refill my iced tea, and my glass was obviously empty. She seemed continually confused and unsure what to do. When our entrees arrived, they were delicious, however. When the dessert menu was brought over, she announced that both the key lime pie and some sort of brownie chocolate cake were sold out. We were very disappointed as these were the two desserts we wanted on the limited dessert menu. At this point, we had been at the restaurant for 2 1/2 hours and it was almost 9:00 pm. If she knew they were running low on some of the desserts, and she knew that this was a birthday celebration, she should have informed us before it was too late. My daughter checked to see if there were any places nearby where we could run in a get a piece of cake. I ended up running to Claire's Corner Copia to buy a couple of cupcakes and brought them back to the restaurant so we could have a sweet ending to our meal. It was a frustrating and...

This place needs work! Went here a few weeks ago on a Shubert night. Firstly, please have the servers ask or lean into getting the answer if you are seeing a show. Our waitress should have asked and dropped the bill before we could tell her.

Ok, back to the dinner. We sat in the back room and I have to say ambiance was a little to be desired. There are old hooks and nails in the walls, leftover from some past years holiday decorations. The lighting was far to high and could have easily been cut in half. There has to be a better place for that POS in the back room? Our server was fine, not great, not even nice, just quiet and fine. There were times we could not even hear her, so that was weird. She did clear plates and reset the table again fully, which did not go unnoticed. The runners from the kitchen had no idea what they were doing. On 3 occasions they brought us someone else's meal. One of the times, the lady across the floor got up and said "that's mine". One of the times it was placed down in front of us. Please teach the servers how to place a plate, not drop a plate, it is really annoying and I don't think he knew any better, so that is on SB management.

The food was good. But based on the prices it should have been a lot better. Also, please just put the receipt on a clip board or in a book. I was not the only person who noticed, shortly after I heard the table two away mention the same thing. You are supposed to be at a nice restaurant, nothing like a receipt rolled up on table to end the night. There are some easy things here to fix. There are many great restaurants in NH, so I might say skip it unless there is something so amazing on the menu, you must have it. Food is a 3, atmosphere is a 2, and service is a 2....

South Bay brings in a charming vibe the moment you walk it. Its a cozy place and the staff greets you to your table. We had a fantastic start with the drinks. I ordered the smoked old fashioned, and it was delicious. The perfect blend of smoky and bitters, paired excellently with a peanut butter bourbon. Unfortunately, that is where the good experience ended for us. Being a seafood restaurant, I asked the server what she recommends, and I was recommended a Paella. It was one the most bland things I have ever tried in my life at a restaurant. There was no salt/seasoning on it (looking at other reviews, I have read about “bland food” in many of them). Perhaps, there’s one particular chef who under seasons the food? For the second time in my life, I sent a dish back after taking 2 bites. I opted to switch to braised short rib. The problem repeated. Absolutely no seasoning. I was shaking salt on every morsel. At that point, I was too conscious and didn’t want to offend our lovely server that I chose to eat this $38 dish which was absolutely not worth it. We got the desert and I ordered the puff pastry with Nutella. It was good but not out of the ordinary. As I was on the last bites of my desert (hadn’t finished it yet, was still working on the ice cream), a different server came and just took the plate away as I held the spoon in my hand! I was so surprised and shocked that I didn’t know how to respond. In summary, South Bay has good ambience and cocktails, which couples well with the friendly staff (apart from the one server who just took the plate away while I was eating) . Food was absolutely atrocious and I would recommended everyone to stay away from the food. Go there for good vibes and good cocktails. 2/5 (for cocktails...