Surf Club — Restaurant in Newport

I’m very shocked as to how I was treated about 60 minutes ago. I was made to feel so uncomfortable by the manager that I left. I asked the hostess if it was ok to just order some drinks, that I wouldn’t be eating. She asked me where would I like to sit, as I’m pregnant, I asked for some shade and asked if it would be ok to sit under a parasol at a table. I took my seat and as I’m pregnant, ordered a non alcoholic drink. Over the course of 15-20 minutes the manager was present with the hostess and waiters and I watched them as I waited for a phone call from my husband and the captain of our boat that is in a berth nearby. Then the young blonde hostess whispered to the middle aged manager whilst gesturing at me, it was not at all discreet. The middle aged manager with a masculine voice and terrible halitosis then told me that I had to leave as the tables were reserved for food. I was embarrassed, apologised and explained that I had been seated here by the hostess after I had informed them that I was only interested in ordering beverages. Nevertheless, the manager didn’t acknowledge that, excuse herself for the breakdown in communication nor did she apologise for how the hostess or she had handled the situation. I have to say this is the only negative experience that I have had here in Newport since we arrived a fortnight ago. However, the behaviour during this interaction was shocking. I hope this isn’t the norm here in the US, we are European and normally do a Mediterranean summer. I hope the staff reflect on this incident. I will however not bring our guests or yacht crew here for the duration of our visit and I will be sure to inform people over the coming days of the poor experience and...

This has been the WORST customer service I have EVER experienced while visiting the Surf Club last Saturday 7/13/24. They are not friendly to people of color, we can tell because we were the only hispanics in the establishment. I had family visiting Rhode Island for the very first time & wanted to take them to Newport. When going to the Surf Club we sat down at the tables & waited to be served. The hostess came over and told us she could not serve us because the section was only for food. We let her know we would be ordering food and had to ask her to give us menus. After giving us the menus she came back a second time to tell us she could not serve us. When asking her why she said our party was too big. (This section was empty with only another table sitting there) I asked her where could we be served if we wanted to eat and she said downstairs. The host did not offer to take us to a table downstairs, just walked away. After a few minutes of waiting for someone to guide us to a table downstairs another host came by and asked us to leave. We asked why & she said our group was too big and outside they could only sit 4 people to a table. The other group sitting in this section had over 6 people in a table. We asked her what was the difference with us and if we needed to sit separately we would or we would go downstairs. She did not give us a reason, did not even offer to walk us downstairs to a table, simply told us to leave. We did not get served. The hosts who spoke to us were beyond rude in their delivery and unprofessional. I would not recommend this establishment. My family and I have never been treated this way, what a terrible and...

I want to start off by saying that I'm not one to take the time to write a review, but this is necessary. This was my first time visiting Newport. I was with my husband, my young children (ages 2 and 3), and family members who also had two young children (ages 5 and 8 months). We stopped at the Surf Club to order refreshments and enjoy the fresh air.

The hostess approached us and informed us that the table tops outside were for those ordering food. We understood and proceeded to ask for menus. She took an extremely long time to return with the menus, and when she did, she had another reason as to why we couldn't sit where we were. She said such a large group had to sit inside. We agreed and asked to be seated inside. She never came back or set us up indoors, but another young lady came and told us we couldn't sit there because the table tops were for no more than two people.

We looked over and saw a table top with four people and another with six! So we asked why those tables were allowed to have larger groups of people, and as she stumbled upon her words, she said she didn't notice. We wanted to understand the difference between how two tables were seated and served with groups of four and six and how she didn't notice when they were already eating. Well, the difference was evident and very transparent... we are not white.

This was a very distasteful and unfortunate experience, especially to do to families with such young children in attendance. We decided to leave on our own. We didn't want to support a place like this, but if you are thinking about visiting,...