Rock Harbor Grill — Restaurant in Orleans

A friend had dined here on previous vacations and had since heard from others that the pizza was great, so we went last night to see if it measured up to the hype. It did, one-hundred percent!

We were sat almost immediately...there is indoor seating and outdoor screened-in seating. We ended up with a fabulous server, Jayde S. She was so personable, friendly, and attentive, and she was great at giving recommendations.

They have a nice variety of specialty cocktails to choose from. Two of us had the Orchard Grog: Twenty Boat Spiced Rum, Orchard Pear Liquor, and apple cider; It was super-tasty and warmed us up after being outside in the chilly evening air. The third had the Cape Cod Red from the tap.

Our server asked if we wanted the complimentary pretzel bread sticks...which come with whipped mustard butter...and we were glad we'd said yes. They're warm and fluffy inside, with a smooth pretzel-like finish on the outside. Combined with the tasty, subtle mustard butter, they were a great little starter before dinner.

One of us got a side salad, which had a nice variety of fresh salad veggies atop the greens, and I got a side of their fresh broccoli slaw. The slaw was crunchy and flavorful. I'd absolutely order it again! (Fyi...contains cilantro; I'm not sure if they can serve it without for those whose taste buds aren't cilantro friendly.)

Our three choices for pizzas were: Wild Mushroom pizza, a Traditional Pizza customized with added carmelized onion, and a Traditional Pizza customized with goat cheese and pepperoni. All three got big thumbs up! The crust is nice and thin and had a perfect crispiness to it. The edge crust was crispy, while the inside stayed soft and airy, so we all gobbled every bit of each slice we'd had right up. We noted that on each pizza, the toppings were generously portioned out at a ratio that resulted in every piece having a good amount of toppings.

For dessert, one of us ordered the Sticky Toffee Cake. Jayde brought us three spoons, and we were all very happy she did. That toffee cake was amazing! The cake was dense and moist, and the toffee syrup was smooth and absolutely mouth-wateringly delicious! There were little flakes of toffee crisp here and there in the sauce. We did order it a lá mode, so it came with a small square bowl of vanilla with a generous drizzle of more toffee syrup. This dessert is HEAVENLY! (My photo shows it with a spoonful taken out of it because I couldn't wait to dig in! 😉) We will absolutely come back here...

What a disappointment after reading glowing review in Cape Cod Magazine of Jan. 2014. To think that we waited 30 min for this dining "experience." Why on earth would a mussel broth dish come accompanied by french fries, especially fries that must have come from U.S. Foods or Sysco truck! Most of the PEI mussels were no longer in their shells. One shell was unopened. The quality of the mussels was mediocre at best. The broth contained many, many crudely sliced, large pieces of garlic. It overwhelmed all other taste sensation. This dish was broth thrown together not delicately prepared. My wife ordered pizza magherita. What a sorry excuse for pizza. The "wood oven" baked dough was not crisp but soggy. Rather than cook a sauce with high quality plum tomatoes, there were slices of tasteless tomatoes as you would buy at a big grocery store. Pizza magherita is supposed to be served with a topping of torn basil leaves. None was present. The mozzarella and tomato slices slid off the pieces of pizza as you picked it up. Totally horrible. I cannot believe this chef worked for Wolgang Puck before coming here. The review talked of top quality ingredients. No way. The dining room was terribly noisy. Cannot believe such a positive review or is it simply that people who go out to eat at such places , including the reviewer, do not prepare good food at home so are not discerning when they...

Awful experience top to bottom. Called to place an order for pick-up. Called a few times and got busy signal. Called again and finally got through, and was told to call back later because they were too busy to take takeout orders. Called back several times after waiting a while and got voicemail or nothing at all. FINALLY got through, and the person on the phone didn't seem to even know their own menu -- was confused by the names of every dish we ordered. We asked how long before it was ready and were told an hour -- which we used to plan when to leave for our 20 minute drive to pick up. But then, it was ready 30 minutes earlier than they told us. Food was soggy by the time we got there, since our attempt to time it was so off. They also messed up 2 of the orders, including slightly overcharging us because we didn't get everything we ordered.

I am giving 2 stars instead of 1 star only because I feel bad, I know a lot of restaurants are still struggling due to COVID which is largely not their fault. But regardless, things like getting an order right when it's repeated again and again, knowing your own employer's menu, and at least giving a close to accurate time estimate are kind of baseline expectations for a...