Willoughby By The Bay — Restaurant in Norfolk

Hate to leave a review like this but I didn’t see any recent updates on this spot, so wanted to provide some transparency. We stopped in last night and unfortunately it was just one of those nights that wasn’t going well for anyone involved it seemed. We recently moved to OV and I’ve been dying for a good seafood spot, folks— this isn’t it. I don’t know what website I looked at, but the menu online was different and gave a vibe that this was a bar AND restaurant. However, on a Friday night in January, the “restaurant” part was lacking; a few tables off to the side with barely any heat.

I’ve worked in bars, I know a bad night when I see one, but the bartender did nothing to hide it from her other customers. Before we ordered we were told they were out of oysters, crab cakes, and salmon, leaving only limited options. At that point we should have left but we stayed and I regret it. I heard someone sent back the same thing I ordered (Flounder sandwich) because it was “nasty”. The table near us had issues with their food as well and the blame was put on the kitchen where just two people were working. The cook and the bartender went back and forth the entire time. At one point we overhear the bartender telling other customers that she was having a bad night and had a fight with her boss earlier that day.

Finally, we get our food and I only devour half of this sandwich because I was starving from not eating much earlier and having to wait so long to even get it. At a local spot, I’m expecting handbreaded fresh flounder— what I got was a frozen filet from the yellow bag, a tomato, and lettuce. Honestly the Filet-o-Fish at McDonald’s looks more appealing than what I was served last night. Fiancé ordered fried shrimp, I tried them, not great. Honestly the hush puppies saved the meal.

Then the wait to get the check and the box— the bartender is having a full conversation with some people she knows, while one of the cooks sat on his phone at a nearby table watching TikToks on full volume. The worst part was the cost of this, too and I didn’t get to see the receipt because the bartender took my card without giving a check. A flounder sandwich and fried shrimp dinner with two cokes ended up costing me $52.00 and change, which I still tipped $10 on despite everything, because maybe it really was just a bad night.

I’m sure in the summer, on karaoke nights, this place is great and I’m sure the bar atmosphere is awesome. Maybe we just ordered the wrong thing, but we...

If I could’ve chosen zero stars, I would’ve. Visited this bar last night after driving 10 hours, hoping to find a nice little local place that had good food. My two girl friends and I wanted to go into the dining area but were told no, sit at the bar. We stated we wanted to order dinner, so the barmaid gave us the bar menu. One girl ordered Mozzerella sticks, which were good but they had no marinara sauce. Okay, no biggie. The other girl ordered onion rings and chicken tenders. The tenders were completely flat and flavorless, she was not offered sauce/condiment to go with them, the onion rings were cold. I ordered a garden salad with chicken, the chicken looked wet and half was ice cold and half was warm, as if someone had popped it into the microwave for just one minute and put it on the salad. Then we wanted to order drinks, the barmaid said she could make me a sweet mixed drink, she made something that tasted like expired cherry cough syrup. I said I did not want it, but would still pay for half. Then ordered a dirty Shirley, cherry vodka and sprite, it was solid sprite absolutely no vodka. The final straw was when we ordered potato skins THAT TOOK AN HOUR TO MAKE. Then we asked for them to go, AND THEY TOOK ANOTHER 30 MINUTES. All the barmaids kept saying was that they had too many orders come in at one time. From more people coming in and sitting in the dining area, where we were told not to sit. And these barmaids were barely there to check on us and hear our complaints. At the end, I was so frustrated and exhausted I didn’t spend the time to argue over the bill, that drink I didn’t like? I still paid $11 for it. So $25 for a drink I returned, a cup of sprite, and a barely touched half cold/half was chicken...

We went on SITW weekend came in from out of town hoping for a wonderful food experience. We found it to be very poor service and the one food item we ordered was dry and gooey. We asked for the bill to have the gooey item removed and the owner said nope and to pay for it. The gooey item was suppose to a crab cake sandwich that was dry brittle and not cooked all the way inside it was gooey and gross. When our server came to serve us she had attitude and rude. The table did not get cleared till we were getting ready to leave and the tables around had a ton of dirty dishes on them while we ate that was gross. When I asked the server why can’t you remove the uneaten gooey crab cake sandwiches she said I can’t do anything about it, the owner was there and would not do anything either all they wanted was the money and do not care about customer service. So overall this place is a rip off. Do yourself a favor take your hard earned money to a real seafood place and save yourself the headache from being ripped off. I do customer service for a living this place has no customer service. Customer service means you make customers happy not just take their money. The food you serve has a health code to follow and you should not be selling dry or uncooked crab cakes it can make people sick. The rating on this place is poor and I find unclean and gross food handling items that do not meet cleanliness or...