Dogfish Head Chesapeake & Maine — Restaurant in Rehoboth Beach

I hate to give restaurants and businesses a 1 Star, but the experience my family and I had on June 21st was absolutely unacceptable and it needs to be heard. The four of us had a reservation for 8:30pm, we got there a little early around 8 o clock and the restaurant was probably 50% capacity. Noticing this, we kindly asked the hostess if there was any chance we could be seated sooner. The hostess replied very short and curt, "we will seat you at 8:30". No explanation - I guess that's how they are told to speak to their guests. A little thrown back and confused we didn't make a fuss (even though there were 4 tops all around the bar open and available) and proceeded to sit at the bar and grab appetizers and drinks. Solid experience at the bar and good drinks. It is now 8:35 and the restaurant is at maybe 25% capacity and neither the manager on duty nor hostess who told us to wait has come to the bar to let us know our table is ready and we can be seated. Instead, we have to go up and awkwardly ask if we can now be seated for our reservation. They proceed to seat us in a room that has 2 parties of 10-12 and is extremely loud and disruptive for a 4 piece trying to have a nice & relaxing dining experience (read the room people). Our party (as well as another two person party in the same room) promptly ask to be seated elsewhere due to the noise. The manager on duty then sits us down at the bar where tables have been empty since we walked in at 8PM. I expressed how frustrating this is considering they insisted we could not sit until 8:30PM only to be seated at the exact table that have been vacant while we were standing and eating and drinking at the bar. The Manager stated it was due to people cancelling, but that is absolutely unacceptable and they clearly did not know how to run the restaurant in the event of cancellations. We wait another 15 minutes and our server finally comes to the table, we order drinks and at this point there are maybe 20 people in the restaurant. It is now 9:15 pm and we get our first round of drinks and no food in sight. 45 minutes to get a single round with a restaurant maybe at 10% capacity. Idle hands makes the devil's work I guess? We at this point are STARVING and very frustrated. We then complain to our server asking where our food is and she clearly had no idea. There was no accommodations, apologies, or acknowledgement by the staff (waitress or manager) regarding the horrid and uncomfortable experience they put us through as they completely botch our dining experience. The icing on the cake was that at 9:45PM when we still had not gotten our entrees, the manager and various staff on duty began shutting the lights off in the vacant rooms of the restaurants while we sat at our high top at the bar waiting to eat. This place clearly could not give a damn about their guests. Again, no one apologized, asked to take drinks off the bill or anything. Maybe it was a bad night for the restaurant, we've all been there, but this was so inexcusable and I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone who is visiting the area. You can be treated like an actual guest at hundreds of other restaurant...

Anytime I write a review of a restaurant, I try to be as fair as possible because I know a place can have an off night. Having said that, I will say, never have I been to a restaurant that took such an epic nosedive after the appetizers like this one! The meal started lovely with a delicious crab dip accompanied by bagel chips, we also got the monk fish Buffalo bites and crab chowder. All very good, but unfortunately for me, I didn't leave after the appetizers. We ordered several dishes, which included the salmon mai tai risotto, the seafood bouillabaisse, the flat iron steak, the poke bowl, and the gnocchi. The risotto was so sweet it was almost inedible, the sauce in the bouillabaisse tasted like watered down tomato paste, the poke bowl might as well have been name rice bowl because there was very little fish, all the portions were very small, but worst of all, the steak was grizzely, and the potatoes that came with the steak were raw! I mean raw. When we told our waitress that the potatoes were raw, her solution was to put my steak on a butter dish (thats how small of a steak it was) while they finished cooking my potatoes. After 10 minutes, she came back and said they would not be giving my potatoes back, and they had no other potatoes to give me. She offered me coleslaw, which wasn't very good, and left it at that, even after I expressed my displeasure with the choice of side she gave me. There was no manager to be found, and they didn't even adjust the bill after I said I wasn't going to eat any of it. Now, to be fair, this place puts out decent beer and I am not saying there is no place for this type of food. I am sure somewhere in a trash filled alley there is some starving ferrell cat or perhaps a NYC rat that would be willing to eat some of this food, but I guarantee you even those creatures would walk away from the potatoes this place tried to feed me. I took the high road and paid the whole bill and even tipped the waitress, which, looking back, I don't think deserved a tip. Here is what i wish happens after I post this review, perhaps someone from this establishment reads this and gives the chef a refresher course on cooking and may be even try to feed him the slop he put out for me that night and while they are at it maybe remind the waitress what customer...

Overall, my mother and I enjoyed our time here and we would most likely go back!

Atmosphere: We went on a Wednesday evening and were seated immediately. There was a relaxed atmosphere and it was not too noisy since they were not busy. I also was jamming to the playlist. 4/5 stars because we were seated at a high top, but now I'm just being picky.

Service: Our waitress Sophia was kind and quick so 5/5 stars for her. She made sure our drinks were full and checked on us enough that we had what we needed, but not too much that it was annoying. The food runner cleared our plates in between courses.

Food: It's a 3 for me. For starters, we shared the crab dip paired with bagel crisps. It needed some pepper and Old Bay (maybe that's just the Marylander in me), but otherwise, it was hot and tasty. For a second starter, I ordered three different types of raw oysters and enjoyed those with some cocktail, fresh lemon and horseradish. For entrees, I ordered the Fresh Catch of the day which was Salmon paired with Kale, Bacon Pieces, and Sliced Potatoes. The salmon was cooked well but not seasoned, the kale was steamed properly but the bacon's grease soaked into the kale and the potatoes which made it all a bit too oily for my liking and took away from the lightness of a salmon-kale dish. Overall it lacked flavor, but minor adjustments (more flavor to the salmon, less bacon grease, S&P on taters) would make this an exceptional dish for a salmon lover. My mother ordered the Whole Maine Lobster which she enjoyed with butter. This dish came with a House Salad and a side of her choosing: a heaping portion of Garlic Mashed Potatoes; No complaints there on taste although the portion was...