Seafood & Spaghetti Works — Restaurant in Port Aransas

I would give this place more stars if they would get rid of the rude lady that greets you (well is supposed to greet you) when you walk in the door. She is so rude and unprofessional. We have gone here the past 3 maybe 4 years while vacationing in Port Aransas for Mother's Day. Every time we go we have a bad experience with this host. The waitresses and the bartenders are professional and polite. No problems there. But this woman who is the 1st person people see and talk to when they walk into this establishment needs to go. I do not understand why she is still working here. She must be the owner's wife's mom or some relative. Because there is no other reason a business would be OK with this type of behavior from an employee or so many complaints about 1 certain employee. I know she has had many complaints because the staff has told us. My family and I have also spoken to other customers that are waiting to be seated who have stated how rude she is. We usually have a 10 plus people in our group every time we come in. We are not loud or drunk or making outrageous demands when we come for dinner. We tell the host we are fine sitting together or if that's not possible because our party is too big then we will sit at separate tables. We have no issue with that. We also understand it's going to take a while to get seated. But when you simply ask the host for a crayon and paper to keep a 3 yr occupied after already waiting 30 mins for a table and the host replies you'll get one when you're seated is RUDE. But then when you say ma'am I would just like to give her something to do while we wait and the host snaps back and says "Did you not hear me? You will get that when you're seated". Doesn't sit well with me. She is very unprofessional and she should not be the face of your business. Another customer even heard how rude she was and spoke up and offered a piece of paper and one of her childs crayons. Thats horrible.

This is just our last experience this past Mother's Day with this woman. But it's every year we go. We have to deal with this woman being short and rude to at least 2 people in our group. So our family has decided to just stop going here anymore. Usually, you stop going to a restaurant because their food is bad not because of 1 employee. But we aren't going to allow some lady who is supposed to greet you with a smile and help you get a table to speak to anyone in our family like she did this last trip. We have let it slide and have spoken to our waitress and even management before about this host and again she must be related to the owners because they are not taking our concerns seriously or anyone else who has complained about this employee. I have read other reviews that have mentioned this same employee and the bad experience they have had with her. I guess they would rather lose business than fix...

This place is always insanely popular so I doubt my review/experience will change many minds, but here goes.

I joined the wait-list via Yelp and was advised to check-in when arriving at the restaurant. The kiosk in front of the host stand showed my spot in line but when inquiring on if I needed to check in with the hostess, I was abruptly told "one moment". At which point the hostess sat a large table, came back, looked at whatever she had on the stand, chit chatted with another person who came up and asked a question, then proceeded to go talk to another group that was waiting. Only after this did she come back and offer a "so, how can I help you?" When I asked about the check-in process again, she very empathically suggested sitting at the bar. Sure, we can do that. First experience (w/ hostess)? Strike one.

We sat at the bar and we're eventually greeted by a very nice woman who gave us menus and offered us waters while we started to peruse. We ordered a bottle of wine which came fairly quickly despite her also working service bar. We asked for a recommendation that wasn't seafood (my friend doesn't eat seafood) to which she replied, "the mussels". We laughed it off thinking she didn't hear us correctly - no biggie. She then recommended pasta which is eventually what we ordered., a long with a shrimp cocktail appetizer.

The food took a little while to come out but no biggie as again, was very busy. While we waited, we watched as the "bartender" made drinks incorrectly - hope the table that ordered the sea breeze (which she had to look up) wasn't allergic to pineapple and/or orange juice.

The food was good and definitely would recommend the pasta to other patrons. However, after watching the bartender wipe her face with a paper towel and then use the same paper towel to wipe down a beer cooler, and the unfortunate interaction with the restaurant's hostess, just not the...

We visited for a late lunch/early dinner on New Year’s Day. It was fairly empty, as one would expect at this time of day. Our waitress was kind and helpful, but the service was average, nothing to get excited about. I’m probably being generous with three stars for atmosphere, but I do appreciate the historic kitsch. I know people have loved this place for years. It reminded me of a Wisconsin Supper Club. Finally, good food outranks both of the other categories. Sadly, it was okay, not average, not good, but okay. Again, this may be due to tradition and the desire not to change 50 year old recipes. We ordered four appetizers and a side salad for three people. First, the rave… we loved the crab-stuffed avocado. It was delicious. The calamari was okay. It tasted like most calamari served anywhere else. The dipping sauce was just marinara and it was okay. Kind of a theme developing (just looked at the menu and realized we were supposed to get lemon aioli. We did not. Everything arrived at once and all we received was tartar sauce and marinara sauce). The parmesan truffle scallops were a little better than okay, but would have been much better if served warm as intended. They were room temperature when they arrived at our table. The arugula was tasty, but the scallops didn’t have any Parmesan or truffle flavor, which seemed odd since the plate was swimming in oil. We also ordered Crab-stuffed mushrooms. In our wildest dreams, we did not expect to be served heavily-breaded fried mushrooms with cream cheese filling. Maybe there was some crab, but it wasn’t obvious.

So… if you have memories of this place, don’t let my negativity deter you. If you are trying to decide between this place and another, I suggest you choose the other. It was definitely not worth the...