Dead Freddies Island Grill — Restaurant in Ocean City

AVOID! If I could give negative stars, I would. The atmosphere can’t save the absolute nightmare of this place. If anyone goes here, fair warning, it can RUIN your day and whole trip.

We should’ve realized at the beginning that there were bad omens. The drink we were excited for wasn’t on the menu and the waitress was clueless about the menu items. She seemed nice enough at first, then it got ‘fakey’, real fast.

Since what we were excited for a drink that wasn’t available anymore, we ordered two different drinks. The frozen one was absolutely just bad. The pineapple cup one was cute and drinkable, but not good- Weak and overpriced. The food was overly salty, rather bland, and very disappointing. So, I asked for a sauce to make it better (but, I didn’t criticize the flavor because I didn’t want to be rude) and the sauce took forever to come to me. I had to track her down and remind her, but when it did, she said nothing to the table about a charge. So…wait for it…the more this experience goes on, the more horrible and perplexing.

Ready for the metaphorical rough seas to try and drown us? Here’s the worst part: The bread they gave us was literally harder than some types of rock. Unbreakable and inedible (see video). We told her about this and without an apology, she brought new. Here’s another shocker: we didn’t realize until the end that they CHARGED for the replacement bread. Excuse me, what? How does anyone think they can get away with this?

When it came time to pay the waitress was nowhere to be found. We asked a random employee to find her. At this point, despite us being pleasant the whole time to the staff, she acted SO bothered that we were ready to leave and pay…god forbid, right? She didn’t show us the receipt; only asked for the card to swipe on her handheld. My family member says she would like to know what’s she’s paying first and see the breakdown. Suddenly, the waitress pretends to be too nice and nervously hands over the handheld. My family starts questioning charges…like the charge for the sauce she forgot to bring until I reminded her (it should be illegal to charge for tiny sauce cups without informing the customer first) and, THE REPLACEMENT BREAD CHARGE!!! Charging for replacement bread is insane. I should’ve taken a bite of the ‘death’ bread and forced them to pay for the broken tooth/teeth that clearly would’ve happened (it did hurt my hand and damage a nail trying to break it before I realized it was solid all the way through). Plus, they can charge an automatic tip percentage (which anyone this happens to, know that’s the sign of automatic incoming bad service).

So, we asked for the manager. This guy was incredibly rude, too! Non apologetic and tried SO hard to justify the bread charge (which we were nice enough to only dispute that one), but, ultimately/regretfully removed the charge. We explained that the bread had to be touched to be served; they knowingly served something that would hurt someone if eaten. This is NOT acceptable. Yet, he still tried to justify it.

We paid a metaphorical arm + a leg to be treated like hell and get horrible food/drink.

After all this, my family asks for a hard copy of the receipt and rather than paying w/card (b/c these swindling scammers can NOT be trusted), she chose cash. The waitress has the audacity to ask if we want change 🤣 Firstly, the food quality was unacceptable + could’ve hurt someone if we didn’t inspect it first; secondly, the waitress wasn’t even present most of the time and was unpleasant; thirdly, she was sneaky, adding charges w/out prior information (news flash, omission of information is still lying). I don’t know why, but my family still tipped, yes a lightened tip, but, still a tip.

We should’ve tracked down the annoying guy who tried to guilt trip us into taking a pic in our booth, b/c it was ‘his first day’, to take our picture with our hands giving thumbs down. However, that would’ve just been another astronomical and pointless fee they’d sneak in.

This place should not be allowed to be...

Second time at this restaurant. First time we had nothing but great reviews for it. The second time was a complete disappointment.

The flaws began when we walked in. Apparently the menu was revamped 5 days prior to our arrival. Which is fine, however not once were we told by any member of staff that the menu had changed, with several items removed. We didn’t find this out until we went to order. When the item two members of my party had wanted was apart of the items removed from the menu we requested more time. Petar, our server, went ahead and put my fiancée and children’s orders in without our permission. We had been in talks of leaving as the one item over half our party wanted was no longer available. He came back out about 10 minutes later, but not before the kids meals were delivered as well as my fiancées soup. This sealed the deal as we now had to stay, since again without our permission he had placed half the order with the kitchen already. Myself and my mother in law selected items we were less than thrilled to choose. My mother in laws soup came out ten minutes later. Then my fiancées food came out. Just her meal. We waited approximately 10-15 minutes for the rest of our meals to come out, her food growing cold but out of a desire to eat together sitting. We asked the food runner for tartar sauce as most would think that’s a typical condiment for crabcakes. He said “ask your server”. So 5 minutes later when we finally got the attention of petar we asked for it. He said yes and went off. 5 minutes go by. He finally returns with tartar sauce in little prepackaged commercial containers. He says nothing to us about a cost. Now by this point he has visited our table twice and seen the empty soup bowls and plates. He does nothing about them. We finish our meals as a couple is sat next to us, to be served by Petar. He gives them his full attention, but doesn’t even bother to check on us, even with our “attention card” provided by the restaurant turned to the side indicating we need assistance. 15 minutes go by in which he visits the other table repeatedly, and we get nothing. He finally stops and asks what we need. We tell him the check. He finally clears some of our dishes. He comes back with the check and sets it on our table. He doesn’t ask if we have any questions about the check, simply turns and stands behind me pacing, waiting for me to finish with the check. There is a charge for the tartar sauce! What restaurant in OCEAN CITY would charge for tartar sauce. Due to his pacing there isn’t any way I feel comfortable trying to track down a manager with my concerns. I finish with the check and get my receipt. I find a manager. After explaining everything to her she says she’ll speak with him but that nothing can be done anymore tonight as we already paid. I am told if we come back to ask for her and she’ll see what she can do. Well after this last venture who would want to? $160 for a meal we were generally frustrated with. While the food was good, it wasn’t what we had been hoping for and by the time we realized what we wanted wasn’t there anymore we had been trapped into staying by our server putting half our order in. Overall between the fact that we weren’t made aware of changes to the menu (we looked 5 minutes before getting there online), our meals came out at all different times, we weren’t made aware of charges for tartar sauce, and the delays in any true server duties from petar it is safe to say we won’t be returning. Simply saying “I’ll see what I can do next time” is not helpful in any way when people spend hundreds of dollars on meals for their families. Hopefully upper management sees this and attempts to stop these incidents from happening any more. If you experience bad service don’t pay your check right away or they’ll tell...

When we first walked in we were happy by the ambience. There were statues of pirates, a fake pirate's chest, a t-shirt shop which looked like it was on an island cove and more.

We asked to be seated outside and it was a 30 minute wait which was cool, because this gave us a chance to take in all that the front of the restaurant had to offer.

We were seated outside. And that is where everything seemed to keep going downhill. Our waiter was amazing, however not even his great attitude and service could make up for everything that was to follow.

First we were giving menus. On the first page of my daughter's menu was a piece of green onion which mean they did not do a great job of wiping the menu down after each guest. This is always unacceptable and definitely unacceptable when the restaurant did not seem to be busy. Outside there were only two other parties of three.

They gave us water in our own individual pictures of water. I thought was cute until I turned mine around and there was a piece of green onion on it. I was beginning to think maybe this was the theme. lol. The server was embarrassed and brought me another picture.

We ordered the crab dip. It was decent. I've definitely had much better.

My daughter and I ordered the Pineapple Rum Crush, which was pretty good. It came in the cutest pineapple cup that we were able to take home with us.

I ordered the Caesar salad and added chicken. When it came I opened up my utensils and my fork was bent. By this point I was ready to press restart like in a game. I was given a new fork. I began to eat my salad and someone was definitely heavy handed on the salt.

My daughter ordered a pasta dish. By this time I checked out on what everyone else ordered and was in a funk.

My BFF reminded me that she ordered the Black Beards Burger. It was plated beautifully. She said it was ok.

I typically give restaurants a second chance. I do not think that will be the case with this restaurant.

We were all very underwhelmed as soon as we picked up our menus.

If you like green onions on your menu, salty food and bent utensils THEN this is the place for you.

IF I did go back it would be for another cute...