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Two of the four of us were returning customers, from 3 years ago, and the service and quality of food is drastically different now. What you need to know…  Food: Lobster in 3 of the 3 lobster rolls ordered were overcooked (rubbery) and the seasoning overpowered the lobster. The sandwich ordered at our table was mediocre. The fries were incredible.  Service: Waitperson was rude and unwelcoming. (see below if you want the rest of the story.  Charge: We were automatically charged a 18% tip on a 4 person check and charged 2% more for asking for two separate checks. The good news is that we usually tip 30% because we are nondrinkers and feel for the wait staff when they depend on tips, so the automatic tip did not feel like we were rewarding poor service and attitude since it was far less than we normally tip.

On our 10-day New England trip, we had amazing wait persons and food. This was our first and only substandard experience.

Late hostess…rude waitperson…cramped seating…overcooked food…poor service…disappointing lobster fare in Newport…

The rest of the story: We were excited to return to a place that our friends loved on a past visit. Upon entering at the second-floor level, the bartender told us to go ahead and be seated. We did. The room only had one other table occupied. A waiter, who ended up being ours, came over and brusquely told us we had to move because there were reservations for the table we were at. He led us to a table crammed next to the door going out the back to a employee area. We were literally sitting on top of one another.

The waiter then came back and took our drink orders. His condescending reaction and comment to two of us who were not ordering drinks was a first. The water glasses he brought were comically small. I was a bit taken back but no comment. He was far from friendly and a bit cocky to boot, almost like we were lucky he was waiting on us. I can’t remember having a wait person like this ever. The lobster was so disappointing. Our three orders were overcooked (chewy and tough), over seasoned and in big chucks that were tough to break apart.

During the meal, the door, to the outside, next to our cramped table, kept being opened and closed by employee’s who were pleasant. After the initial couple who was seated when we arrived left, there were no other diners the whole time we were there and none waiting when we left. It felt like we were on a Saturday Night Live skit! Seated in a corner, cramped, with sub-standard fare and punishing service when all the other tables were empty! Can’t you just picture it!

After depositing the food, the server never returned. Maybe we were on Punk’d!! At the end of the meal, we asked for separate checks, he said there would be a 2% add on to do that. There was an automatic tip on the check for 2 and a 2% upcharge for 2 separate checks for the 4 of us. Both were firsts on our 10-day New England trip. A first for at home as well. Maybe this is the argument made about putting on mandatory tips, substandard service? Our children have all been waitpersons. We are all for generous tips so that is not an argument we have with mandatory tipping. In fact, we always add on to a mandatory tip, except this one time at Benjamin’s.

I will not include our wait person’s name but will say he had worked there for 3 years, according to what he said when we told him 2 of us were returning customers after we were seated. I give these details about the server in case the management would like to address the condescending behavior and sub-standard service. Perhaps, in the 3 years since our friends were there, there is new management. The waitperson said the hostess was late in getting to work when we apologized for sitting at a reserved table (which was not marked or seated our entire meal).