Norfolk Seafood Company & Oyster Bar — Restaurant in Norfolk

Horrible Experience! I would love to give this establishment a higher rating as the food was delicious and the majority of the staff ( including Megan and Cat) were great. However, my experience on Friday, January 19th was the worst I've ever had while eating out. Chic-fil-a gives way better customer service than I experienced on Friday.

My group of 13-16 people were treated like trash by the "General Manager" Rachel. We sat for our reservation just after 5pm. After eating our appetizers, and waiting for our entrees, Rachel asked if the 3 empty seats would be filled by late arrivers. We responded yes and was directly told that we only had a 2 hour limit to eat because they had other people booked for 7pm. Rachel was nasty towards us when we expressed that we were not told this before booking or even before ordering. She said it was their "policy." When I challenged the policy and asked to see it in writing, she got irate with me.

At that time it was after 6 pm and we still had not received our entrees which was not a big deal as we were enjoying each other's company. As the late comers arrived, Rachel told them that if they wanted to eat, they needed to sit at the bar and not order from our table.

The night continued to get worse. As Rachel cleared some of the table, she asked a member of the group if she was finished with her plate. The group member told her no and Rachel tapped her wrist and told her our time limit was up and forced her to give up a plate she was not finished with. In addition, we had not received our dessert. I kindly responded that we do not have a time limit and if so please show me the policy. She could not and when I told her she didn't have to be rude to us, she argued with me as if I was rude for asking for the written policy.

We finally received our desserts at 8:15. Because I felt we were being treated unfairly, I asked a group of 4 who arrived at 5:30pm if they had been made aware of the 2 hour policy. They were shocked and had never heard of it.

After paying for my food and tipping well, I nicely asked Rachel as I was leaving if she was able to locate the written policy. She became enraged, yelled at me in front of other patrons, clapped her hands in a threatening way, and told me to go look on Open Table because she wasn't going to do anything because they were busy. She continued to yell at me and told me to leave as she sprinted down the stairs .

I love this restaurant but will no longer patronize due to the way the General Manager acted towards us. Her behavior towards us was unacceptable and quite frankly inappropriate as a person in a leadership position. As patrons, my group alone easily spent $1000 or more tonight only to have our Restaraunt Week experience ruined. It is...

Based on reviews I read, I thought it would be nice to try this restaurant for my son's 19th birthday. BIG mistake. When we arrived around 7:15pm on a Friday evening, we were asked if we had a reservation, which we did not. The restaurant had a ton of empty tables, so we were seated almost immediately. There was a couple across the room from us that looked frustrated that they weren't being served. Now I know why. No one acknowledged us, asked us for a drink order or even gave us water for at least 10 minutes. Then we were given water and our waiter disappeared for another 10 minutes. We finally ordered the fried shrimp appetizer and Crawfish Beignets. And before our server could rush off again, we ordered our dinners - Caesar Salad and two clusters of the Snow Crab Legs. Keep in mind, the restaurant was maybe 25% full, so I'm not sure where the waiter kept dashing off to. Our appetizers arrived in an appropriate amount of time. The fried shrimp was ok. The Crawfish Beignets were flavorless, including the mustard aioli. They tasted like they were over-fried breading. But, the manager assured me there was no filler or breading used in the recipe - just crawfish and crab. I've never seen crawfish or crab pureed and fried like this before. They were absolutely awful. The Caesar salad was good, but the lettuce could have been a little crisper. Now to the crab legs - DISGUSTING! We have snow crab all the time and I've never seen anything like what was put in front of my son. They had a brown tint to them, over cooked/steamed and dry - not moist and sweet like they should be. As I mentioned before, we asked to talk to the manager and she was less than pleasant. In fact, she was rude. She did remove the crab from our bill but refused to remove the Crawfish. She suggested a replacement, but by that time, our taste buds were ruined, so I didn't order a replacement. The waiter actually apologized and I said the manager essentially ruined my son's birthday celebration, as he was livid and wanted to give her a piece of his mind. The waiter disappeared again and came back with a little chocolate cake and ice cream for my son's birthday, which was very nice of him and changed our mood a bit. Needless to say, I will not be back to this...

If your restaurant is not staffed with capable personnel - do not participate in restaurant week. To start with, our reservation had been given to another party when we arrived - and we arrived early. Even after an hour long wait for our table and another hour long wait for our salads, we attempted to make the best of it. Friends of ours from the Peninsula had driven over to experience what Norfolk Restaurant Week is all about and we were looking forward to a fun evening.

We overhead the table next to us speaking to the manager about their poor experience. It was shocking to hear him blame the customer for not allowing themselves enough time to make another engagement later that evening. The manager said, "You should have known it was Restaurant Week," then continued, "I've had to tell every other table the same thing."

Most decent people are understanding of delays when a restaurant is busy, but the manager is the one who should have known it was Restaurant Week and prepared accordingly. However this manager, the same person who had fouled up our reservation, looked completely in over his head and had no problem faulting the customer for having unrealistic expectations. Our waitress forgot drink orders and other requests and disappeared altogether for about thirty minutes. The only credit goes to the expediter who efficiently took over for our missing waitress. According to the excuses being thrown about by the wait staff, there were only two cooks in the kitchen. I wonder who the manager blames for that?

The food was only fair for the price. Having never been to the restaurant prior to this experience we will certainly not be returning. The woman from the table beside us ended up crying and made it pretty obvious she won't be returning either as she was leaving. When our waitress returned, we felt bad that our tip would go to her and not the person who did most of the work so we ended up giving the expediter a cash tip as well. I could never recommend this establishment to anyone under its current management. The experience was so bad it...