The Schooner Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Oregon

I visited The Schooner twice within the last 6 weeks (drove in from Portland). First time, food was pretty good- maybe not world class but decent. Second time, yesterday (Sunday before Independence Day), food was the very epitome of mediocrity.

Not planning to make this a very long review but let me give examples. Ordered a full dozen of oysters ($44, which is kind of inflated, but fine considering location so close to the ocean). Oysters were great the first time, during Memorial weekend; nicely shucked, well arranged, clean, arrived fast, polite attentive service by our male server. We even got extra sauces and those mandatory small forks for the oysters. During yesterday’s fiasco, the oysters hadn’t been washed at all (dirt / sand / goo was left on our fingers after holding, and that felt careless, really unpleasant); oysters were just randomly slapped onto badly laid out wet ice, with some oysters not even horizontal and this much of their natural juices had already flowed out of the half shell… we ate first oysters, all of us started spitting sharp pieces of shell that were broken off and left on top of the oysters.. we spent some time spitting, trying to remove sharp shells out of our mouths. Took some pix to show you… Also, oysters were not as fresh as the first time, some felt like starting to develop bitter “chemically” flavor, which happens when oyster is already aging after harvesting.

Another thing I wanted to comment on is the service. We all know that service can either make or break a restaurant! The Schooner’s service is like a textbook illustration of that... I mentioned that young male server who assisted us the first time. He was really good! But.. actually, he was a substitute for a lady with ponytail, who was clearly “too busy” to help us… we waited at least 25min for her to make time for our table, and only then, the male server took over and saved the day (save their face). Well, guess what? Second visit, we again got seated at a table assigned to that same lady. And, guess what (again)? She walked by a few times, saw we were seated, and ignored us for a long while. I saw her chat with the ladies at the front, who usher people… also she had forgotten to write the wine to our order, so another colleague of here helped us to fix that.

One last thing. At least two of our water glasses had pink lipstick residue on the edges, so because of this, we ended up not drinking any water at all. I wiped all the utensils to make sure they are as clean as possible before eating…

Anyway, the whole time during our experience at The Schooner, our family felt amazed that these guys are even able to survive; perhaps what keeps them afloat is their magical location (walking distance to the beautiful Netarts landing / bay…) plus there is little to no competition in the area. So technically The Schooner doesn’t need to really try harder to maintain a great consistent experience- they are already pretty desirable and maybe most visitors will try to turn a blind eye to the screaming imperfections, and just look at the bay and enjoy the pint of beer (hopefully in a glass with no lipstick). I wasn’t even sure if I should say anything. I am far from any desire to affect a local business negatively. But then, since I paid almost $240 for bad service and a dozen oysters with sharp shell bits in them (good thing we didn’t swallow), and some other goodies that were decent)… maybe it’s good for me to mention my impressions in case if the business does actually care to read reviews from their patrons. I will be happy to remove my honest review if I receive a message from the business assuring me that they will train their servers and chefs (and the shucker who leaves sharp pieces of shell in the really dirty oysters!!!) and help them experience personal growth. Let’s raise the quality of Oregon’s restaurant scene. We are an amazing state. Let’s match the natural beauty with culinary beauty &...

Was anxious to go back in to Schooners today for the first time in a couple years, as the last time we went we didn’t have very good service. But we loved it before so we decided to go back again and give it another chance. For one lemon drop and calamari it was $31, the service was actually way worse than before unfortunately. The lady at the front seating us was nice, but the person who waited on us had an attitude off the get go so I thought maybe they didn’t have a good day. I decided to be nice and ignore the rudeness coming off this person and continue to be kind but the person continued to be rude and actually turned us off of this place for good. I asked about a flavored vodka and the waiter brought me the sprits menu where it said “wild roots flavored” under vodka. As soon as they gave me the same menu that I was already looking at, I mentioned nicely again and just asked what flavors they have and the person just stared and me and said “its on the menu” but it wasn’t. So I kindly informed the person that the vodka flavors weren’t listed and they seemed annoyed to go ask about the flavors. Then I got the drink I requested and it wasn’t as good as the drinks I previously tried there so I didn’t finish it. At this point we ordered calamari to start and the waiter made some kinda off putting comments so we decided we were just not even going to finish ordering our meals and decided on just having a drink and app then go to a different place. The atmosphere is cute but not worth it for the service and unfortunately not worth it for the prices and food. Menu is small as well, but the crab Mac and cheese I’ve had all the other times is yummy! I can say that! Other than that, It was a very uncomfortable visit, and one other couple next to our booth also got up and left after a short time and even complained to the manager about something they...

This place is getting a rave review from me....and that's hard to do for a fancy place! It's not the food either, tonight I would like to compliment something more invaluable and important, I appreciated there today.

Before I begin, please note I have recently eaten here, this summer, and the food was amazing... the tea was weird.. but never mind that.....I Digress... Tonight I am taking a moment out of my busy day of kids and caregiving, to expressing my extreme appreciation for the kindness of the wait staff and the other kind gentlemen (an employee I'm sure but unsure of postion) working last tonight. Sept 4 2023. These mannered and lovely people were absolutely unhesitating to help me dispute my inturuptive entry twice to their table area. The three I spoke were so kind and willing to help me and 2 teenagers in very rough spot with a likely solution and perfect directional wisdom. We were unlikely to have made it back to the beach house without the help of these strangers, and I would like the applaud the person responsible for their employment, as clearly that person knows great help and good people are worth their weight in gold and has caught a great team for this establishment! So thank you handsome help and helpful wait staff! I shall speak sweetly of this place in your honor, or until further notice is unfortunately noted here... if ever you could look fall from my grace, I will be forced say but I doubt it!! It's hard to find and be good people in this day and age unfortunately. Kindness is never convenient for most. Know I appreciate you and it in the service industry, and I am so grateful you have and are this way , this day, my thanks and blessings from me and mine to...