If you've ever been to Bubba Gump, you've essentially been to Ropewalk, minus the Forrest Gump memorabilia and somehow worse in every possible way.

Our experience of Ropewalk's overpriced menu for poor quality food is best exemplified by the mini wedge salad. For $16, we were served a quarter head of lettuce cut in half, topped with a meager sprinkling of bacon and bleu cheese, no trace of bruschetta, and drowned in what tasted like mass-produced bleu cheese dressing. For comparison, the nearest Ruth’s Chris serves a far superior wedge salad with half a head of lettuce, real toppings, and house-made dressing for $15.

Here's the heart of the problem, even if Ropewalk were to charge significantly less for their items, it would be a hard to convince me to go back. The food largely flavorless, aside from an overwhelming amount of spice. A little heat can be fine, but nearly every dish such as the Murphy's mac and cheese, blackened chicken, and even the rice pilaf was so aggressively spicy that it drowned out any actual flavor. Mind you the food wasn't some attempt at Cajun food or Szechuan spicy food, it just seemed like it was an attempt to cover up poor cooking. For example, the crab and shrimp mac and cheese (aka Murphy's Mac and Cheese) contained no noticeable pieces of crab and three shrimp that contained unnecessary amounts of spice that covered up any semblance of the cheese, even if the dish was priced half the charged amount ($28), I just can't justify such a cost.

Service was just as disappointing. After waiting 40 minutes, our appetizers and salad finally arrived. Our drinks were empty and never refilled, so we ate quickly out of sheer hunger. But the worst moment came when our server returned, not with our entrees, but to ask if we were ready for the check. He had completely forgotten we hadn’t received our main courses! I genuinely can’t recall another restaurant experience where a waiter thought they had brought us the entrees.

As for the atmosphere, it fits the beach bar theme, but not in a good way. The place felt dirty, and we were constantly bitten by horseflies. While it’s true Chincoteague has insect-heavy seasons, there appeared to be zero effort to keep the bugs out or make the dining experience remotely comfortable.

All in all, maybe we had a perfect storm of a disastrous dinner service compared to everyone else. Though, there are some structural issues with our dinner that I simply cannot overlooked that would make me not recommend this...

Alyssa M is a terrible waiter. The food was subpar. And this place BLASTS a patriotic song, yet has no military discount, so disappointing.

SERVICE NOTES:

1. the wait time wasn’t too bad, about 30 minutes for a table of two. It was PACKED in there.
2. our server Alyssa came up to our table and asked if my stepbrother wanted a drink. But didn’t ask me. He was kind enough to answer for the both of us. She turned around and I said “wait, I had a question” because she didn’t give me the opportunity to speak, but she was only one foot away from me when I called out to her and kept walking. Completely ignored me.
3. when I asked Alyssa if the deadliest steam pot had 1/2 pound of each ingredient, or if it was a half pound all together (two very different amounts of seafood) she responded with “ummm it’s just like seafood thrown in together, like, sometimes they do different amounts and stuff”…wow…that was so helpful…how are you a server and you don’t know how to answer that question?
4. while she was unhelpful and dismissive to me, she was very friendly and helpful to my stepbrother. I would ask her for help and she would say “yea sure.” While when my stepbrother asked her for help, she would find a way to make it into more friendly conversation. Why were you providing better service to him, why not be friendly to the both of us? Is it because she was expecting a large tip from him?
5. they started playing the “I am proud to be an American ~” song on FULL VOLUME and my stepbrother and I joked about how hilarious it would be if this place didn’t have a military discount after going all out on that song - our waiter comes along and funny enough, they don’t have a military discount !! That has to be the most ironic thing I’ve seen in a while.
6. WHAT IS UP WITH ALL THESE TAXES???

FOOD NOTES: Bahama Mama: it was mediocre, pretty expensive for mostly ice Crab and Artichoke Dip: the chips were very salty, but the dip was terrific. My stepbrother loved it so much and wants to go back just for that. Deadliest Steam Pot: a bit dry for my taste. I’m used to better seafood boils where they don’t just sprinkle old bay on top of it, they should soak it in flavorful juices. One half of the snow crab legs was way too salty, making it inedible. The shrimp was over cooked, therefore very tough. It was...

Food & service were both very good. We sat outside on the deck with a spectacular view of the bay. Restaurant was not crowded (unusual) & we had only a very short wait for our food after we ordered. Would have given it 5 stars, but we were seated next to an open sliding window (picture-window sized) where other diners were seated inside - we had an 'audience' and they had a blocked view (we were the only ones seated outside on the deck). Still, a very enjoyable dining experience!

UPDATE - THANKSGIVING 2023: We decided to do Thanksgiving in OC because 2 of our 3 sons & their families were spending the holiday with their in-laws.

Ropewalk had a Thanksgiving dinner special for $30, so we made a 4 PM reservation for 7. NOTE: the Thanksgiving menu photo showed sliced almonds in the green beans - a concern because one of our party has a peanut-tree nut allergy. The young lady I spoke with when making the reservation was very helpful in discussing/addressing our concerns over nut-related food allergies (Ropewalk doesn't have or use nuts).

Table & Staff were ready when we got there. Dinner special was a choice of soup or salad, roast turkey (white meat), stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, dinner rolls, and pumpkin pie for dessert. Portions were generous and delicious! Only one of our party was able to finish dinner (thank Heaven for leftover boxes), and we all took our desserts home for later, too!

Our server Dustin was amazing, helpful & attentive.

We didn't have a table with a view, but with the timing we'd have been staring into the late-day sun, so no biggie.

Nice bonus: at sunset, they played Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA over the restaurant speakers.

Bottom line: Thanksgiving is a family-oriented holiday celebration, typically best observed in the home. But Ropewalk offered a nice change of pace, no cooking or cleanup (for us), and (trust me) we included Ropewalk and their staff and holiday menu in our list of things we're thankful for this year. THANK YOU, ROPEWALK! (and we'll be back for the Black Friday...