Rusty Hooks Dockside Grill — Restaurant in Oak Island

I rarely write reviews, but we were so blown away by the service we received at rusty hooks last night, everyone in our party agreed we needed to! When we arrived, the staff was very kind and pleasant. They let us know there were 7 parties ahead of us, but our party of 6 agreed to wait. The area to hangout was beautiful and the spicy margaritas were delicious! When we got in, our server was kind and helpful. We ordered our dinner, but about 10 minutes later the server and owner came up and very apologetically told us there was an issue in the kitchen and they weren't able to cook what we ordered. The owner was INCREDIBLY apologetic and lovely. They made an unfortunate situation honestly an even better one. She told us what she could make us, and it was by no means an upset as it was their delicious Maryland crabcakes. We are from Baltimore, Maryland and I told her how hesitant we were to ever order them outside of md. We heard of the great lengths she took to make sure she had one of the best recipes that originated in baltimore. And BOY was she right, they were authentic delicious no filler md crabcakes. So delicious, and exciting to have this option when we're in OKI! She also overheard how upset my 7 year old daughter was about not getting the steamed shrimp she was so excited for, so without even telling us she found a way to cook them for her using what she had, and they were truly DELICIOUS. The owner and server checked in periodically and remained wonderful to us all. They made the bill right in many ways as well, which was very appreciated and not even necessary. We were beyond blown away by everything they did to make up for an unfortunate circumstance that was out of their control. We had an amazing night with friends we haven't seen in 5 years, and much of that was because of the wonderfully kind and helpful staff and owner at rusty hooks. We were happy to see when we were leaving around 9:30 that they already had a company there fixing the issue! Thank you, thank you for taking such great care of us and for the spectacular dinner and drinks! We will be back every year when we visit oki that...

Rusty Hooks is one of our favorite places to eat in the Southport area. I understand they do not take reservations, but I called ahead to inquire about having birthday dinner for a close friend from out of town this past weekend. From my call I knew the earlier we arrived, the better chance we had to seat our party of 6. We arrived at 5:12 and there were already parties waiting.

We were patient and went into the bar and had one of their famous margaritas while waiting.

We waited over 45-50 minutes to be seated while observing many open tables While Covid has slowed restaurants, this was a long wait at such an early hour.

Our waitress came and took our drink orders. Since we were hungry, I ordered a basket of fries for our table. The drinks came within about 5 minutes and we ordered an addition order of the crab claws and bread appetizer and a dozen oysters.

I had to ask several times for the fries. It took 20 minutes just to get those. Then the other appetizers arrived at the same time. In the meantime, we ordered our mains.

The service was extremely slow from start to finish. People who arrived after us were being served their appetizers and mains before we even got our order of fries. We are usually very patient people when dining out, but the timing of service was unacceptable Saturday night, April 17th. It has NEVER been this slow. My husband even had to wait 20 minutes for his second glass of wine.

One person in our party ordered the shrimp pasta dish. It was not good at all, oily and almost no flavor except for the shrimp. The crab cakes that we love so much were not the same either. There was a very different flavor to them.

We were extremely disappointed since this was the first time for many of our guests and we had raved about Rusty Hooks. I will come for lunch again when I can sit at the bar and where the service is much better. It will be a long time before we come in for dinner.

I usually write excellent reviews for restaurants, but I couldn't stay quiet about this past evening.

I contacted Rusty Hooks directly before posting...

Updated 3/26/22

I’ve only decided to do 3 stars because of the view, and that the food is most times pretty decent. It’s not anything you can’t get anywhere else and it’s no in-your-face flavors either. The downside here is the service, and the food of course. Every single time without fail we have been here for more than 3 hours. This does NOT include the wait time to be seated . It does not matter if it is two people or four. The servers are polite, but they are not very attentive and the food takes forever to come out. You are greeted, get your drinks, and you sit. And wait, and wait some more. 1 or 2 refills (the whole time) at most. You get your food, ( during my experiences 30mins to an 1.5 later) and then you wait for the check. Then you leave. Again the whole dining experience takes up at least 2.5 to 3 hours. And I am not talking about during rush. This is during non peak hours/season. Even longer during peak. I work at a restaurant, so I understand the fault does not fall directly on the staff. It falls on training. This place really does have the potential to be great. So I’ll keep giving my business and always being kind, even with rough experiences, because I think this place could get better.

My most recent visit I walked in and was greeted by the hostess rolling silverware on the hostess stand, then was told it would be a few minutes wait. Which is fine. 10-15 minutes later we are seated and then another 5ish minutes and we are greeted by the server. This visit I got the Jerk Chicken served over mashed potatoes and also ordered the crab dip as an appetizer. (The Crab Dip is amazing, the best thing I’ve had on their menu) the Jerk Chicken on the other hand severely lacked in flavor as well as the mashed potatoes. Overall it’s decent, but I think I’ve only finished my plate once or twice. And this is due to lack of flavor/ seasoning. I mean come on this is the south. They have a wide menu which is great and GF options as well. All of these things are fixable. Again I am only speaking from MY experiences but I know a lot of people...