Wharf Southern Kitchen & Whiskey Bar — Restaurant in Newport

Let’s start by saying we came here for drinks once and thought the bar and bartender were awesome so we couldn’t wait to try brunch here. (The two stars are solely for the drinks and bartender the night before ) we make a reservation - we show up for that reservation, we notice there is only one other table there with someone at it. Not deterred , we still sat down. The waiter , Dennis , walks over after a few minutes and says “you know what you want?” (Not hello, no pleasantries , but I’m sassy so I’m ok with that ) we ordered drinks and food. Specifically a blood orange mimosa and the Bloody Mary - the rising sun . We hear the table next to us ask for no garnish, but we ordered the drink because of the garnish which should have been a jumbo shrimp and house pickled green bean. Drinks come - no garnish. Food then comes (ordered a banana foster style waffle that was supposed to have walnuts and it did not come with them and I ordered the breakfast burrito that should have included a gravy in it - it was completely gravy-less)

While there we also watched the wait staff get visibility annoyed with a big table with whom they didn’t see ask the table of two next to them for one of their extra chairs. One waitress actually threw her hands up at the other staff after they noticed the big table having this extra chair. A few moments pass and our waiter walks over to the big table and just grabs the chair and places it back at the table of twos table. (Both tables are bewildered and the larger table argues that they have another coming and that they asked that table and Dennis walks away rudely.) after the person arrives to the large table and seat that was borrowed for him Dennis comes over to tell them he didn’t believe them.

While all this is happening a women who is hostessing at both where we are and Diego’s next door at the same time walks over to our table and asks my boyfriend his name. When we tell her , she says “well good , I’ll mark your name as here - instead of a no show “ and walks away . (We had booked on open table and we had told the bar when we walked in that we had a reservation so not exactly sure what prompted walking over and acting like that.

Overall, I have worked in many restaurants and bars - what this mornings experience felt like was that they had a early morning staff meeting where the manager told them things they didn’t want to hear and that they were all in a bad mood from that.

Sucks that on a holiday weekend in a vacation town that a wait staff couldn’t provide even the slightest of pleasantries for a...

I wish Google let us give ZERO Stars because that's all this restaurant was worth. Absolutely horrible experience. My wife and I went for lunch while on vacation. We sat inside and there were only a couple of tables with customers seated, not very busy at all for a lunch time. The server took our drink and appetizer order. After 30 minutes, no appetizer. We chased her down to see where our order was and she went to check. After 5 minutes she apologized but there was a "computer glitch" and the order never went through. She said that she put the order in again. While waiting for the appetizer we ordered our entrees. My wife ordered the Falafel Wrap and I ordered the Pub Burger medium well. The appetizer came out followed shortly by the entrees. The wrap was average but the pub burger was completely under-cooked, almost raw. The bottom bun was soaked and soggy. Not the way I ordered it. My wife asked a lady clearing the table behind us if she worked there and she said she was the manager. We told her about the under-cooked burger and at this point I did not want it cooked further or replaced and to take it off the bill. We also told her about the long time it took for the appetizer to come out and she told us the waitress forgot to put the order in. We told her the waitress said it was a computer error, therefor she lied to us (and how would the manager know that, she did not go check with the waitress to see what the delay was during our conversation). The manager cut my wife off in mid sentence and told her that she was explaining why the order was incorrect and to let her (the manager) finish explaining. My wife calmly told her to just take the burger off the bill and the manager took everything off. When a customer has an issue you listen, you don't cut them off mid sentence. She never apologized either. Uncaring staff attitude, confrontational manager and they lied to us; very poor service indeed. Waitress never bothered to check on our appetizer until we chased her down so no follow up on putting in an order. We will never go back there and we do not recommend anyone else go there.The food we were able to eat was...

We were seated inside right away, which was a surprise considering how crowded everyplace was. Our waitress was very nice. We were a eating a bit earlier than we usually do, about 5:30, so being September it was still quite light outside when we sat down. We were seated near a window so you could see that it was nice out, but in where we were was like night time. The Wharf has a very dark, somewhat heavy atmosphere. At least to me.

We got drinks, I had a Newport Storm Ale and my wife had a cocktail special with strawberry and rhubarb. She let me taste it and to me it was undrinkably sour. She "got used to it" and finished it.

We decided not to have an appetizer, my wife had their duck sugo dish, while I ordered the Bondi burger with a side of spicy mustard coleslaw.

Now, while the burger was fine, I had to take the huge slice of beet out of it because it was so firm that biting into it caused the burger to squish and almost shoot out the back of the sandwich. It was also kind of weird. I ate it separately and it was fine. The coleslaw though was terrible. I might have gone into it with different expectations as to what makes good coleslaw than the creator of this side dish, but I would think that no one could be this far apart about what tastes good and what doesn't in the microcosm of the food world that is coleslaw. Suffice it to say, I didn't care for it.

My wife's entree was quite a bit better with delicious fresh gnocchi and large and plentiful pieces of duck. A very autumnal sort of dish that she enjoyed greatly and of which there was enough to bring some home.

There are too many restaurant choices in Newport for me to say that I'd go back to the Wharf to try them again, but on the strength of that terrible coleslaw I don't think I...