Smuggler's Cove — Restaurant in Pocono Township

I ate here with my boyfriend for valentine’s day lunch because he works in the evening so we couldn’t do a valentine’s day dinner, we both got specials and the waitress rushed us ordering when she realized we were ordering specials, we were the only younger people eating in the entire restaurant which is normal to me because i work in food service so i know that a large amount of people in lunch crowds at restaurants usually are an older demographic, but slowly we started to realize the waitress was being rude to us because of the fact we are young (early 20s). i think she assumed we wouldn’t tip the same way older crowds do (this is what i assume from my personal experience knowing how certain waitresses may think in the food service industry) and we began to realize this is probably why she was not being attentive to us at all, compared to how she was interacting and checking on her other tables of older folks. she didn’t even ask to refill our drinks for the entire duration of us eating there, and the one time she did check on us she just asked if the food came out okay (because someone else brought it not her which is normal) and as soon as we started to say yes the food is good she took off. we started to realize more and more that we actually really didn’t matter to her. this sucked because we made it a point to get lunch because like i said my boyfriend works evenings and he still wanted to have a special valentine’s day meal with me. my boyfriend wanted to treat me to whatever i wanted and i saw they had eggplant parm on their menu the day before so i asked him if we could go there and of course he said yes, as i am also pregnant. We got dressed nicely to go and he brought me flowers to lunch but the entire experience was very underwhelming and felt rude so it kind of ruined both of our afternoon out together for valentine’s day. With that being said if the waitress wasn’t so obviously prejudice against us we would of tipped her well considering we have money, but because of this experience we just left her $5 on a $50 bill and honestly even tho i work in food service, i never had an experience like that anywhere else so i didn’t even feel like she deserved our $5 after how she made us feel, but we didn’t want to just leave her nothing even though she treated us like nothing. I wish we would of just gone to sarah street or somewhere else instead, but se always go to sarah street so we wanted to try something new for both of us so that our lunch felt even more special. we both agreed after going, that it was valentine’s day, and we were obviously a couple out celebrating the day, so we were shocked at how we were treated. nonetheless i’m a local and so is he and we won’t be coming back or ever recommending this place to anyone. i came here years and years ago with my mom and grandma and had a great experience so i thought it would be nice but obviously the place did not live up to how i remember it being and has fell off. still sucks we even came here but we’ll try again next year to have a nice...

Made a reservation here for a birthday about two months in advance. Called several times the week of to make sure all was good. We had a large party of 18 and two infants, which we understood was difficult to accommodate and I made sure a few times that they could accommodate a party our size.

When we came in, the first thing they told us was that they had to seat us at two different tables. I assumed this meant two connected tables, but it didn’t, the tables were next to each other vertically so that everyone at table 1 had their backs to table 2. I spoke to the manager and I explained this would be difficult, we have a big family, everyone wants to communicate with the birthday kids, this would basically make it so we had two separate tables of 10 and unless we all turned our backs or walked around the tables the whole time, we would not be able to really interact. I asked if they could move us, they said no, this is the only space they were willing to offer us (there were plenty of other ways it could have worked in the restaurant). I asked why they didn’t tell us about this arrangement prior, they said it was because “we didn’t tell them when we made the reservation that we wanted to sit together”. I’ve never had to explicitly mention while making a reservation that I wanted to sit with my party. This manager then said she wanted to get the manager above her so she walked away but then came back and told us the manager was busy and didn’t have time to speak to us, and we can either stay or go if we wanted. At this point we weren’t going to waste more time trying to go elsewhere, considering finding someone to accommodate that many people last minute wasn’t happening. Eventually the other manager Michelle came over a half hour later after we had gotten our drinks and app, she was much kinder and told us there were many ways we could’ve been accommodated and she doesn’t know why we weren’t at the time. She also said the reason they don’t mention it on the phone during reservations is most people know the lay out of the restaurant, which I thought was ridiculous. She also said for a party our size there is a private room for a fee that they could have offered me when I made the reservation, which we would’ve been happy to pay if someone told us that on the phone or at least before a half hour into our meal.

The food was okay. My sister in law found a produce sticker still stuck to her tomatoes. Honestly, the only saving grace for us and the only reason they’re getting 2 stars and not 1 is our waitress was great. She was kind, attentive, and helpful. For a party our size (and with the amount of staff they had) I feel like they should’ve had more than one server but oh well.

Overall, Terrible experience, wouldn’t...

My sister and my mom have been here now quite a few times. My husband and I were visiting from Oklahoma, we just wanted to go out for a nice evening. When we arrived we were seated a few minutes after they let us know there would be a wait for our silverware. Once we were seated we placed our food order about 10 mins into waiting. We arrived just before 7pm. After sitting there for quite sometime about 30 mins after ordering I have not received my house salad, we did not order any appetizers. Not to mention my mom asked for silverware when we were given some bread for the table, still no silverware when the bread was gone. We were all so hungry. When our waitress came back to the table she let us know that our “food was in the window”. So after about 20 mins my mom asked if we all wanted to go and I said yeah let’s leave, I found the manager and said can we just leave? Because we have been waiting for dinner for over an hour. I explained our situation and he came back to the table after my small house salad was dropped off for over an hour or waiting. The manager asked again if we have had apps? And I said no. And that we were just going to get a frozen pizza because the service has been so slow and our service was awful. There was silverware on empty clean tables. And at the bar. Why did we have to wait? Why did our server roll her eyes at us? We asked nicely. No need to be so rude. You want this to be an upscale experience? Especially the prices. But you need to work with your restaurant staff from the back to the front. The only helpful girl was the hostess who acted like she wanted to be there. We appreciate you comping our meal for our family but it really other bothered my sister and I because my mom’s blood sugar could have dropped real low. Not the mentioned the experience was not up to par on other times my family has eaten here. I have never managed a restaurant but I have in other aspects in life. Work with your team and if they know you want to work they will want to work. With also listening to the other patrons as well. There was another table who was angry as well, Not to mention once there drinks from the bar as they came up they grabbed them there selves. It was a Tuesday evening it was n not very busy. Even on my way to the bathroom it was so empty and there was a larger group towards the back and they seemed ok. From the get go we had high hopes. But it was just not great. Our food was good once it was boxed up and sent home but we were informed that apparently our ticket was only sent back 20 mins ago…. And I was like no it’s been over an hour. Thank you again for comping our dinner but I do not and I mean I do not recommend...