Hobbit Restaurant — Restaurant in Ocean City

Update on June 2023 at bottom

Great dinner as always, beautiful views and great food.

Have been here multiple times…this is a nice break from the typical “tourist beach restaurant” experience. The food is wonderful, great flavors and presentation, and a very good cocktail and wine list.

As there are big glass windows facing the bay, no matter where you are seated you will have a great view, especially as the sun is setting during dinner.

Dinner was excellent, portions are nicely sized, and usually come with a small addition of rice or a vegetable. Some of the meals come with a side, others don’t depending on the meal, but you can order from a side selection if you like.

A couple issues; one is that because the restaurant is very open to allow everyone views of the bay, the flat windows, walls and ceilings allow conversations to bounce around the room and it is extremely loud with all the tables full and everyone talking. Definitely needs some some professionally placed acoustic sound treatment panels, which would easily take care of the issue and drop the volume significantly. The other was for some reason our white tablecloth looked like it had been balled up before being put on the table…weird because it was so wrinkled it was noticeably distracting.

Price is as expected for a nicer beach restaurant… we averaged $70 per person for a meal with cocktails, wine, and desert.

Would recommend…definitely! Will we come back…absolutely!

Update June 2023 Went for our annual beach trip dinner again, enjoyed once again. Noise level seemed much better, maybe something was done to the room to help? Either way, was much better sound level. Always love coming here…a beautiful setting, great food, great atmosphere.

A few minor downsides this time; first was one of our party wanted a steak instead of our usual seafood, and unfortunately there is only one option available, filet mignon. A great cut, but as there are multiple seafood options, might be nice to perhaps have another steak option. Wound up ordering the Veal Pistachio, which was good, but just not what we were looking for. The second downer was two of our party ordered the pistachio crusted salmon. Got the salmon, but the pistachio crust was missing from both. When we pointed this out to our server, he made a lame excuse that maybe it was there and just not browned as much as usual (it was not) or maybe the kitchen mixed up our order with someone who did not want the crust…either way, he made no attempt to make it right so we would up with a “non-pistachio crusted salmon”. Salmon was good, just not what is described on the menu! Probably should have sent it back, but as everyone else had their food, would have been awkward as half of us would have been watching the other half eat their meal while we waited for the fix.

Had desert, Mary’s delight which was amazing; a nice blend of chocolate pudding, cream cheese and whipped cream, not too sweet, a...

I enjoyed a lot about this dining experience but the waiter blew it at the end. I’ll start by describing my experience chronologically. When my wife, mom and I arrived I was super impressed by the elegance and ambiance of the restaurant. The staff was very warm and welcoming and they even open the door for their guests as they arrive. The views of the bay are magnificent. We were celebrating my birthday and I was extremely grateful to be in such a nice restaurant.

When our waiter, Trevor, and his assistant arrived to our table he gave us a good description of the cuisine and we started off with the duck cigars. They were amazing! The staff worked in such great harmony together.

For dinner my mother ordered the filet mingon, I ordered the short ribs and my wife ordered the pistachio veal dish. All were incredible! You can tell the chefs play a ton of attention to detail. My favorite dish was the veal. It was a very heavy meal but the taste was super unique.

As we finished up a busboy asked my wife if she’d like a box. She answered in the affirmative and he took her meal to box it up. After about 10 minutes her meal didn’t come back so she asked the waiter if he could locate it for her. She said, “I think he boxed it up” and pointed to the busboy. Trevor replied by saying, “I’ll find it, you don’t need to rat him out”. I was a little taken aback by the comment but we laughed it off. No big deal. A couple of minutes later Trevor came back to our table and said they had lost the meal. He offered to take $ off of the bill or cook us another meal to go. I would have preferred taking $ off the bill but didn’t want to penalize the waiter so I chose his second suggestion and chose to take a meal to-go. A few minutes later he came back with a box. They had found my wife’s dinner. Great! Then my mom said something like, “good because I felt weird about taking a whole meal to go” and the waiter said, “well somebody didn’t”, referring to me! As if I should have denied his request to take a meal to go. I understand mistakes get made and I wasn’t upset at the busboy at all, but it was extremely rude and unprofessional of Trevor to make these underhanded comments to my wife and I.

I hate to write negative reviews but after sleeping on it for 2 nights it would be inauthentic for me to not disclose my dining experience exactly as it happened. I would definitely come back again, just need to ask for another...

Nice place, great view but the service was not up to par in the kitchen. Allow me to explain. The waiter is a nice guy, pleasant conversation however when you look at their menu and see the chef & sous-chef names proudly displayed one would think they can accommodate food allergies, not soo fast. 20 year anniversary dinner and my Love could barely eat anything because the Hobbit can't seem to cook food without garlic! There just weren't any options and no chef's for that matter to help. I felt horrible about it but I guess the chef didn't because other than the waiter no one came to help. They did put out a nice little paper on the table that said "Happy 20 Year Anniversary" so I know they knew. I called earlier in the week and was told they can accommodate and I gave them all my reservation information hence the paper. Guess that post-it got deep sixed, so much for that. All the Google reviews raved about the place, no allergies I suppose. My meal was great, except I really wasn't told what the fresh catch was but who cares. My love however with a SIMPLE garlic intolerance, horrible for what the Hobbit claims or tries to display as being an up-class gourmet restaurant. We've had better food accommodations at places on the boardwalk! Not happy and not returning unless we hear otherwise...

Update on 7/5 Response to Owner:

Garvey, thank you for your response. Just to make sure were on the same track, yes several options were given however the options presented were the same food items with nothing on them, i.e - a plain piece of fish with some salt & pepper and the side, very, very bland. All but two items on your entire menu had some form of garlic and could not be altered or prepared in another manner which did not contain garlic or wasn't a bland meal. The Simple Filet (for $59) and the sides could of been cooked at my home! I think you are missing my point and I want to my reviewers to have very clear knowledge that although you believe you you tried it wasn't up to par, it just wasn't. We have been dealing with this for decades and have experienced good and not so good service. The waiter and staff were very polite but after dealing with the issue and the options presented we just wanted to get through it. In closing my rating is correct because if my meal or anything else was bad it would of been one star. ...