Bay Cafe — Restaurant in Provincetown

In a word: No.

Like most tourists, I'll spend a week or less here, so my dinner choices, casual as they may be, greatly shape my experience. With five nights to enjoy, each one is important.

Let's start by acknowledging that Betty is gone, and has been for many years. This place has changed hands at least twice per their own statements in the last few years. The latest one they admit was caused by a declining reputation. Sorry to say that the new owner, while quite responsive here (or at least their management) has been giving similar responses for a year to constructive feedback. Spoiler alert - if you're giving the same "thanks we'll try to do better" answer repeatedly for a year, I no longer believe you.

The good: this location. Is direct waterfront. You could setup picnic benches on the sand and sell decent food here all day long. It is a great location, with beautiful views. This is a missed opportunity. The responder says basically "it takes time to fix things" and while this is true, you don't need nicer tables, a better deck, newer paint, or really anything structural to "fix" Betty's. You need 1) better people, and 2) better food.

The bad: I read many of their reviews to get a feeling of what other customers thought. That's what reviews are for. Several of their reviews specifically mention that the hostess is not friendly. This is absolutely correct. The review responder even agrees months ago that the hostess is not friendly. Well guess what - this can easily be fixed. But it hasn't. The hostess sets your first impression, and the entire experience /expectations are based on this. We are here in October, sliding into the off season, so it's not busy. At 7pn, there were only 4 tables occupied inside, and none outside (cold). We are a party of two, and the hostess tries to seat us ten feet away from the front desk, way far back from the prime water view tables. We ask if we can get into best available row behind the current diners. The table is a 5-top, and we are told that they usually reserve these for parties of 3 or more. Girl, this is your peak dining time, and you're not busy at all. Duing our hour there, only one other new table got seated. What the heck are you saving this "premium" table for? She begrudgingly agreed to let us sit there.

Less than a minute later she shows back up, while putting on an apron and now stating "I was the hostess but now I'm going to be your server." Oh joy.

There are two other servers working the 4 total tables, plus a bartender and maybe a manager dude chatting with the bartender. Yet we waited several minutes unattended at the hostess desk before anyone took the time to even greet us.

So, she now asks us if we wanted to order some appetizers. Drinks yes, but we haven't had but a minute to even look at the menu. She stands there waiting because they just really aren't busy enough for her to need to do anything else. I ask if the Onion Rings are made in house. She just says no, afterwards thinking to add "but they're good". I ask if the Guacamole is made here. She sys no.

Now, any person who really cares about their food should have taken these two hints that the whole experience wasn't going to get any better. Even my kids know that good Guacamole starts turning brown after a day, and any self-respecting restaurant should make it fresh daily. We stopped asking questions, glanced at each other, and just ordered the $14 cheese sticks.

The menu is not super large but it is diverse. From chicken wings, ribs, $36 lobster rolls, fried seafood, burgers, and a few Italian dishes. While this may seem like a blessing, it is your second context clue that their idea of a chef is going to be someone who can defrost the food, probably Swans or Sysco food service. This is not a joke.

Many of the other reviewers comment that the food lacks taste (lobster rolls, French onion soup) or spice. The responder dismisses these with "thousands like it".

Do not go here. I will not go back. The food probably won't kill you, but the food is...

Judith and Shalisha are the Best Of the Best of The Best in Town!

Let me just tell You now, Chances are when you call, You’ll get the fabulous Judith, who also walked us to Our seat every time we entered the door, We we’re only Here a Week and came back several times as you can tell!, but back to Judith for a moment, This fabulous soul could not have been kinder!, the same goes for Shalisha (I hope I’m spelling Her name correctly even though I fear I may not be) let me tell you, in Provincetown, You’ll find customer service isn’t always a strong suit most places (it’s pretty bad when Even the town gas station, grocery store, and ice cream shop on the corner have historically bad reviews for Sub-par / downright rude customer service) But The Service, the View, even from inside, the Food Quality (I’m an award winning executive chef, so believe me I know and can speak to excellence in food Preparation!) All could not have been better, I hate to say it, But I made the mistake of Going to places like the Red Inn, that everyone is tricked into thinking just because it’s expensive it’s “better” ….But it was nowhere near As good as Bayside Betsy’s, The Kind Staff, Like Judith and Shalisha cannot be found anywhere else let me tell you that now, they should both be so exceptionally proud from selves and keep their Heads Held High, because they were the two kindest people we’ve met in town and will be hoping they’ll both be back there next year when we return from Lancaster County, PA, please, management, applaud these two employees for a job very well done, print this review off for their Keepsake, and put a copy in their Employee file, because I’ll tell You, if there were any two ladies who I would recommend You even promote and Hire out to consult with every other business in town for the lessons they could use in Kindness, and customer service, it would Be Shalisha, and Judith, they could not have been better or more exceptional, they welcomed us Graciously, warmly with smiles, Walked us back to our seat, asking about Ourselves and Our Travels, They kept the table clean, drinks filled, and paced the meal smoothly, these two ladies are the kindest, most outstanding faces of customer service I’ve seen in all of My years worth, and combine trips to Provincetown combined, I would also hire them both as FOH (Front of the House) managers if they aren’t already, As Judith could train Any host or hostess, and Shalisha could be your server trainer with as good as she is, You should be sooooooooo proud of Having such exceptional staff, food, views, it really doesn’t get any better anywhere else in town! There are places that will cost you four times as much and won’t have 1/4 the view, or the Super Attentive, Unforgettably Friendly Staff, You are THE Hidden Gem EVERYONE Should be Talking about! Loved every moment spent at Bayside Betsy’s, Thank You, And again, if you’re a possible customer and are torn between Bayside Betsy’s and some place else, Take my advice and go to Bayside Betsy’s, You could not find a better, more affordable, more delicious, or Enjoyable time spent among the kindest staff imaginable, you’ll ONLY Find that at Bayside Betsy’s!

-Chef Dan

P.S. I always get their Buffalo chicken salad on a Caesar salad, I’ve never had a better Buffalo chicken in all my life, so crispy, and the Caesar Salad is divine!!!! The Hummus platter is delicious and I Heard a Table of approximately Half a Dozen People where everyone ordered the Portuguese Kale soup Saying it was the best...

TL;DR - With so many options in P-town, don't waste time or money here... it was an embarrassing horror show that isn't worth spending a dollar to see. Complete amateur hour with horrible food and worse drinks. It was surreal, like being on that old TV show "Boiling Point" except we lost money instead of winning it.

-On Service- We made a reservation for eight (an unnecessary formality we learned on arrival), and when we arrived, the woman who sat us seemed to have never used the system before. She then told us the largest table they had only sat six and made two of our party sit at an adjacent table five feet away. Why let us make a reservation for that size?! When we sat, it was clear that we could fit eight chairs at the table, and after awkwardly wondering, "Should we?" we did it and it was fine.

When we arrived there was no one there, and in about 20 minutes every table was full and the staff seemed completely overwhelmed. The poor girl behind the bar couldn't make those horrible drinks fast enough, and there was another girl bringing out three tables' drinks at a time. Everything took forever and the chaos was distracting.

Once nightfall came, the LED lights under our umbrella made it feel like we were eating in a parking lot.

-On Food and Drink- We ordered cocktails, a few vodka martinis and some margaritas... Not one of the dirty martinis had olive juice so we ordered some. The margaritas were made with neon-colored sour mix and undrinkable, if they had tequila at all. A young lady came to fill our waters. In doing so, she DUMPED (not exaggerating) water all over the table... and LEFT IT THERE! We had to ask for napkins.

The food... wow. Not one dish arrived hot, and from what I could see, this was a theme as food passed by our table. My nearly $20 chicken caesar arrived to the table with a packet of Ken's dressing, as if I'd ordered it from an airport grab-n-go fridge. I mean, the least they could do was toss it in the back. The only good thing about that was it became a running joke for the remainder of the trip. I guess the shrimp...