Ocean Cafe — Restaurant in Ocean City

This cafe was the biggest waste of money. My boyfriend decides to surprise me with a beach day trip and we were having a GREAT day. Time comes for dinner and we ofc decide to walk the boardwalk. After debating between a few places, we decided to have a sit down meal at Ocean Cafe. The menu looked good, and we were both really hungry so in the mood for a good dish. When we first got in there, we realized there was no AC, they had fans all over the place, and their floor was wet. Waitress comes to our table immediately and ask us what we would like to drink, (an important part here is we did not get to look at the menu yet) and starts reading us off drink options. She asked us if we would like lemonades to which we said yes, sounded great on a hot day. Didn’t give much thought to it. We put in an appetizer of the fried calamari, which to be honest, was very rubbery and fishy tasting, I’ve never had it like that before, was not good. we decide to look past it because we’ve already walked a long ways up and down the boardwalk a few times, so we put in meals. My boyfriend’s pasta he described as “edible”. There were tiny pieces of shells, broken up all throughout his pasta that made it not so pleasant. The sauce was very watery. I had the capellini ala vodka. Sauce and pasta was decent but the waitress asked me if I wanted to add a meat (note this price not on menu) I added shrimp. My shrimp was soooo soggy that I didn’t even eat them. We ask for the bill and our jaws dropped. $136 for a less than mediocre “meal”. Not only this, but the lemonade she suggested was $10 a cup. She did not mention that it wasn’t their lemonade, it was the business next door. At one point she asked my boyfriend for a “refill” but failed to mention it wasn’t free. $30 on some freaking lemonade is insane. It wasn’t fancy or anything, no special cup that would make it cost more, just a Coke glass size lemonade. She also over-charged us for “frozen” lemonades, when we only got regulars. She even said it to our faces upon me mentioning it, but went and ran the card for full price. So thanks Ocean Cafe for wasting my boyfriends vacation money on an unfair and massively over priced...

I cannot believe that this restaurant actually has some good reviews for breakfast. It honestly makes me think it is the owner or employee who are writing them. There is just no way these good reviews are legit, I'll never believe it.

First, we tried to order coffee and was told we cannot order coffee until we order our food. Huh? Still don't understand why but by reading the reviews, it seems it's their thing.. IMO coffee should be served asap when eating breakfast at a cafe, when you are a paying customer .. what is the sense of making someone wait til they order?

Then comes the breakfast.. I have never had such a horrible breakfast like I did here. I ordered 2 eggs with home fries and a side of bacon. Absolutely disgusting, the bacon tasted like it was cooked in grease that sat for weeks (not days, weeks).. the home fries were.. I don't know what they were.. definitely not home fries, both my father and I took a bite and spit it back out into a napkin. The eggs had such a funky aftertaste to them. Not one person in our group ate (besides first taste attempts) their meal. When clearing our table, the plates looked untouched, every piece of food left, and they didn't even ask why!

While we were waiting for our check and other family were arriving, I actually felt so bad knowing they were about to spend their money on what I consider the worst breakfast I have ever had in my 36 years. I wanted to warn them, but decided not to.

With all that being said about the breakfast, we actually had dinner here the night before, which we were pretty happy about. The dinner was much much better than the breakfast (which was the reason we chose it for breakfast the next morning).

So while I complain on and on about the breakfast, I have to say the dinner was good.

I hope the owner reads these reviews and takes them seriously to better the quality of the food. Since the dinner was good, the potential for breakfast to be good is there.. baffling.. also they need to change their policy about only being able to order drinks when ordering food (what sense...

For starters, I do go here every time I'm at the OCNJ boardwalk for breakfast, and I really do like the little cafe that overlooks the ocean.

Unfortunately this time, it was not the same as before. The next few sentences are not said out of malice, but rather a reflection on what this diner used to be.

The service as always was friendly, and we were seated almost immediately. Our waitress, as we had last time, greeted us with a smile and was very nice during the entire service.

The menu was the same as it always was, with a few price increases, to be expected with year over year inflation. All good there too.

Then go to order, and we are informed that they only have water bottles, which is also fine. What then got me in the end, was that each water bottle was charged as $3.50 each (which was not clearly conveyed to us the price of the water). This water bottle was clearly from a 24 pack of bottled water, which could not have cost more than $5 a pack. A little upsetting considering that would be over 1000% profit on water bottles, something compared to other places on the same boardwalk, would be between $1.50 and $2.00 typically.

Then comes the food. Cost: $10-$17 a sandwich. A higher price for a boardwalk meal when compared to the competition. It does comes with potatoes (which are great!) or bread typically. The part that was upsetting as a recurring customer, is the amount I was given on the sandwich. Only one slice of pork roll on the sandwich with one slice of cheese and egg. Compared to the last time I was here, where I got 3 slices pork roll, 2 slices cheese, and egg.

Overall the experience as the customer is at best conflicting. The service is good, but when you get the bill it feels as if you were just being squeezed for every penny, unlike how it was in prior experiences. I really do like this little diner, and hope they listen to the reviews not as attacks, but as true experiences of customers. I will see you again soon, and hope for a better...