The Lobster Shanty — Restaurant in Point Pleasant Beach

As a Jersey Shore Native, I took my "out of town" company to the Lobster Shanty for an elegant dinner experience at the shore. I've been there on a number of occasions in the past couple of years. Yes - we didn't make reservations on a weekend in the summer - but were willing to accept the 45 minute wait and went to the bar. The bartender was wonderful and the drinks amazing..... however - our 45 minute wait turned out to be 1.5 hours. We should have just left at that point.... but we were all so hungry that we just stuck it out. When we were seated, we had to wait another 15 minutes before the waiter appeared. Our appetizers arrived cold..... and then we had to wait another 20 minutes after we were finished with the appetizers to get our dinners...... again cold. I realize that it was a weekend night at the shore - but really - if you can't accommodate people - then please - just don't accept them at the door. As we were getting up to walk out just prior to our dinners arriving - the manager showed up at our table. First reaction she had was to blame the wait staff. But it was definitely the management's fault for their inability to manage the scheduling in the dining room. Never again will I recommend anyone to show up there. It was truly embarrassing for me as a hostess particularly when there are so many other venues that would have produced a different and more positive...

The Lobster Shanty in Point Pleasant was recommended to me by a Jersey native who is a friend of mine, It is always wonderful to spend time at the shore and this year especially to celebrate my 50th birthday with a few days at the beach and have dinner with my family who traveled from Upstate NY for this occasion. The setting at the restaurant is lovely. That is the most I can really say. The food was average at best, and the service was poor. I had mentioned when I made the reservation it was a big day for me, and again when we were seated we had mentioned the celebration (turning 50 is a quite a big deal). No special treatment whatsoever, no offer for a complimentary desert for me, not one extra special effort to make it feel like a celebration. There was also nothing offered (for the inconvenience) to one member of my party whose dinner they "forgot" & arrived 10 minutes after we all started to eat. No manager to apologize. No courtesy whatsoever. Oh and to split the checks you would think it was an act of congress. Ridiculous. Again for such an "upscale" restaurant, you would think that splitting checks and getting orders right for a party of 13 would be second nature, not the case. I will never go there again, and will hope to get a better recommendation to eat out the next time I visit...

The ambiance is decent with a few of the water. New waiter he got a little grace. After a good start problems started piling up.

Drinks are pretty good, took wayyy too long for them to come out, which is a reoccurring there. SLOW. If you have any plans after, you will probably be late because this place moves at an insanely slow pace.

Ordered coconut shrimp and fish and chips for our main courses. Took over an hour after our oysters had already come out. Our food was soggy, poorly made and tasted bad.

The oysters were decent. Only issue is their bait-and-switch tactic as far as advertising “happy hour”. They do not honor any happy hour deal promotion on their website. Was told “need to be at the bar” in order to pay happy hour prices. Crazy tactic from a subpar establishment. This tactic makes their pre fixe menu have absolutely no value when you realize the quality is subpar.

Worst of all is the manager. Since our waiter was newer you’d figure the manager would assist and ensure patrons’ experience was up to standard. NO! She watched him struggle in communicating and then stood on their scammy policy. She wouldn’t even switch out the dessert in the pre fixe menu for a espresso (which was half the price of their desserts)

TLDR: FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE TO DINE IN...