Oceanic Boil - Rego Park — Restaurant in New York

This was my first time at Oceanic Boil & will likely be my last. I dined with a friend on Valentine's Day & luckily a couple had just left. It took roughly 22 minutes to be acknowledged & receive water or be addressed by the server. Service is a MAJOR factor in this review, including the quality of the seafood boil itself. While I witnessed other tables get more timely service, & understand it was V-Day...witnessing other tables get more timely service was the issue. A couple came 15 min after we did & was served water immediately after seating. I get that V-Day is a hectic day for all restaurants, but seeing 2 separate tables get adequate & timely service was an issue. They also brought me the wrong beverage order.

On to the food: the fried oysters & sweet potato fries were good. However, they only give you one dipping sauce option (& they brought me the wrong one). I had 2lbs of shrimp (head-on). They cut their potatoes in half. I have no clue as to why. The potatoes were soggy & falling apart. The boil sauce itself had minimal flavor & simply wasn't well-seasoned at all. I have lived in 9 states & love dining out. The best seafood boil I have ever had was in Henderson, NV at Angry Crabshack. That place is the closest to a genuine Louisiana seafood boil. Oceanic Boil simply missed the mark on the quality of the seasoning & the service. I understand not everyone is able to try new restaurants everywhere they go, if they are able to travel at all. I've had a woman from Louisiana make a seafood boil for me. I know what it's supposed to taste like. This place simply isn't it. If you just want quick seafood in Queens, it's up to you. Hook 'N' Reel is a slightly better option, especially if you can travel to Hicksville or possibly Valley Stream. Sometimes it must be taken into consideration that food is only as delicious as the exposure of the pallet of the person eating it. It's 2/5 b/c I've had enough seafood boils both in the South and elsewhere to know it's simply not good. I tried this place off of the strength of the Google reviews, I left...

The place was ok, the food was not ok. The top half of my seafood boil was HOT (which was perfect), but the bottom half was COLD, not room temperature but cold cold. My friend and I were catching up on good times and every 10 seconds the staff kept interrupting us asking if we were ok. That was weird because they didn’t go to any other table EXCEPT OURS and at the time we were the only African Americans in the place. It was really annoying that after the 10th time (literally 10th time) we decided to ask why do they keep hounding us? Their excuse was that the lady didn’t understand english smh and that excuse had absolutely NOTHINGGGGG to do with why they kept rushing us out and hounding us while we ate our subpar meal. It’s safe to say I will NOT be back to this location. The prices for the food don’t add up and the drinks were watered down, I didn’t taste a drop of liquor. I’ve been to places wayy better and paid less. Please do better and learn the difference between checking to make sure the guest is ok VS....

Horrible service! I used a $25 vanilla card for my purchase. My receipt said $18.51. I was charged $22.21. I brought it to the attention of my server and he immediately said, “thats impossible”. I even showed my card statement and he said “I dont care about that, call your bank then”. This was the worst service I’ve ever gotten in my life! ZERO STARS.

@ oceanic boil: the issue is less about the $3 charged and more about how I was treated. The server didn't even take 3 seconds to look at what I was showing him and was EXTREMELY RUDE! Telling a customer “I dont care” as a customer-satisfying business is not okay. Do better. The fact that your response focuses solely on the small price gap and not on the treatment I received from your staff is ridiculous and unacceptable. You need to focus on training your staff better for these types of issues instead of waiving them away like you did me and being rude to them. This response did not justify or satisfy any of the discrepancies in this situation. ONCE...