The Landing Restaurant — Restaurant in Newport

"S" show of magnanimous proportion. Walked in at our 4:45 pm 4th of July reservations. Fairly busy, there were about 4 hostesses working. It would seem they were doing a very nice job as the line was moving rather quickly. As we approched the front of the line, all hosting abilities seemed to seize. In unison, all started searching the floor, the sky, and all around; pretty much anywhere except straight ahead to look at us. After what seemed to be forever passed and they could look nowhere else one of them finally looked up "are you being helped?" Clearly knowing the answer was a no. We were finally sat on the outdoor patio and waited for our waitress. She came about 4:55 to take our order. We mentioned that we were starting with a bottle of wine, and will be ordering food a short while later, as we were planning on staying for a while. "No problem," she mentioned as she left to retrieve the bottle. She walked away only to spot her from a distance looking at our table with a colleague, chatting and laughing. She return a few minutes later, now slightly past 5 pm as she initially couldn't find the wine we ordered to explain "So we have a two hour table max as we have another reservationat at six." The math here wasn't mathing at all, plus I've seen this before. We placed our first food order at 5:30, starting with oysters and quahog. Followed by another oyster. Shortly after, ordered clam chowder and a 2nd bottle of wine. It was at this the waitress truly relax and smile as she realized we were not just there to sit and take up space. We are newly wed on vacation that chose Newport as a place to explore and spend our July 4th holiday. At this point, the "ONE" hour limit seemed to have disappeared. Still determined to have an exceptional time, we placed our main course both ordering the swordfish entre. Absolutely abysmal! The fish, tough and dry, the bok chop was cold, and the rice, severely undercooked and chewy. As she asked, being honest, we mentioned this to her, which seemed to have struck a nerve in the waitress. Kept things moving as this was not going to ruin our evening. Ordered desert, relaxed and finished our wine. Paid the bill, exited the outdoor patio area and walked towards indoors to their facilities prior to leaving for our last reservations for fireworks. Remembering an old man bouncing as we accidentally attempted to enter through bar area, there he sat in a chair at the entrance, sun shades and folded arms, uninviting. Approached and told him we that we had a 4:45 dinner reservation; he pointed us to the side entrance to the hostess stand. Same old man relocated near the hostess entrance now blocking our entry to use the restroom, he directed us to visit a different bathroom. We approched his recommend area, and realized it was a different restaurant simply sending us away. Enough was enough. We walked back and told him "No, that is a different restaurant, we are going to the bathroom here at this restaurant." His next question infuriating... "well, do you have a receipt for having dined with us?" There it is right there... the do you belong here B.S., which we saw from a mile away. I stepped up to him and said "we just spent over $300 in your restaurant and I'm going to use this bathroom." I walked in while my wife stayed to present the receipt and shortly followed. Zero apologies from him. On the way out I mentioned to him "You guys need to work on your hospitality!" His reply "humor me for a sec... I was looking out for you trying to send you to a cleaner bathroom." If that were true, why ask for a receipt??? We will never be back to The Landing. Being of African decent, I experience many levels of racism and discrimination. Most never bother me as I know who I am and how I view and treat others. Its never about me; its about the fear and hatred the other has in their heart and mind. My wife just moved here from Germany and she got a crash course on how discrimination can be, even here in the Northeast, especially at places like this with a pretty pink bow...

Bad Service - Terrible entree

It started already at the hostess table. 4 young woman were standing at the desk. We had our reservation an 4:45. We waited patiently in line. Once it was our turn 1 of the girls was answering the phone. The 3 other ones looked down trying to not make eye contact with us. After minutes of silence and the line getting longer one of the girls finally woke up and asked us if we were already helped. Obviously not. She then found our reservation and brought us to our table in the outside patio.

There we waited a while until our waitress appeared. We ordered a bottle of white wine and let her know that we’re going to first have a drink and then are going to order. First she couldn’t find the wine we chose. Around 5:10 she came back to tell us that the restaurant has a 2-hour max to stay at the table and that she has another reservation at 6:00. (That’s just 1 hour).

Anyway we were on vacation and wanted to have a good time. I expected her to come back within some minutes (as they had „another reservation at 6:00“). Instead she stood around talking to her colleague. At 5:25 I had to get her attention to finally place an appetizer order.

The oysters were delicious, although very inconsistent in size. We had 2x 6 oysters. The first batch extremely small. The second round normal size.

The entree was more than disappointing. My husband and I both ordered the sword fish. Especially after the waitress recommended it. Again inconsistency in sizes as my husbands piece of fish was very small. Therefore really dry/ overcooked. I ended up giving him half of my fish as I didn’t like it. Way too spicy. Our waitress again wasn’t very attentive so I had to try and call her to get more water for the burn.

The rice was completely undercooked. Dry and hard. The bok choy arrived cold. The only good thing were the cucumbers. So when I was asked how I liked it I had been honest. The waitress clearly is not trained in hospitality as she declined me having more of the cucumbers (the only ingredient that brought a little bit juice to the dry occasion). She told me that the cucumbers only come in a package with the sword fish and declined making my experience any better.

We wanted to end our dinner on a good note. But I have to say: Don’t order the lemon torte as it is terrible as well.

At that point we had enough and we were just ready to leave. It was after 7:00 by the way. The „reservation at 6:00“ might have not shown up or took another of the 5 empty tables around that time.

Our last stop was the restroom. First we were declined to come inside and use the restroom. A security guy sent us away to another restaurant. After insisting to use the restroom of the restaurant we just finished our expensive dinner I was asked to show the receipt?! I have to assume that he didn’t like the looks of my husband (he is from West Africa) as when I went to the restroom before by myself (I’m German) there was zero problem.

All in all a disappointing...

If you want to be treated with dignity and respect I suggest patronizing any other business in a 60 second walk from The Landing. Every single employee, from the bouncer, to the bartender, to the manager, treated us as if we were the scum on the bottom of their shoes. This occurred Sunday evening 7/21/24. They were so incredibly rude to all of us for no reason, it still feels surreal. We came from a Wedding on Goat Island, about 14 of us in a limo with the Bride and Groom and most of the wedding party. The Father of the Groom called several days in advanced and spoke to a manager, notified him we would be arriving between 11:15pm-11:30pm and gave an estimate of how many of us would be there. After they made sure to ID the bride the groom and every other 60 year old with us they "allowed" us in. She was in her wedding dress, we were in our suits and no word of a lie these employees seriously would not even make eye contact with us. We were ready to spend several hundred dollars and tip graciously. We were jovial, kind, and polite. They served us two beers, then immediately said we were cut off from purchasing any more beers because "it takes too long for people to finish beers". Astonishing. This "business" closes at 1am, according to their website, Google search, and according to the manager the Groom's father spoke to. They said they will serve us shots but not beer or mix drinks, this was at 11:30pm. Many other patrons were drinking mixed drinks and beers and were still being served them. The groom politely asked to speak to the manager to whom he calmly explained the situation to and the manager was, well, unaccommodating. It was in this moment the "manager" of this "business" made the choice between several hundred dollars or a lifetime of public slander from all of us. We left, we walked about 60 seconds towards Thames St. where we found another establishment that was very welcoming and were very happy with us spending our money there. We could order whatever we wanted, we stayed their till close at 1pm. The staff bought us free drinks and treated us graciously. To conclude; if The Landing offered a $500 gift certificate as an apology to us I would promptly throw it in the trash. Instead, I plan to publicly slander this "business" (along with many of the 100+ wedding guests after they learned of this incident) whenever I hear the word Newport. Go spend your money literally anywhere else. Don't give these clowns a single dollar because this place...