North Beacon Oyster — Restaurant in Rockland

As you enter the restaurant there is no hostess to greet you or a sign saying where to go, you are just standing in the way of everyone and everything. A server pointed towards a counter so we walk there and are greeted by a man who after hearing we don’t have a reservation tells us it will be about 1.5 hour wait but we are more than welcomed to wait for a bar seat that looked like it would be coming up fairly quickly. We agreed to wait and awkwardly stood by the front door for 10 mins until we realized the group at the end of the bar just grabbed another round. We felt weird about just standing in the way so we decided to take a stroll and come back hoping the seats would open up. We come back and 2 of the people have left so we take the seats and it was instantly clear that this was going to be an interesting meal. The gentleman next to us who I thought was a part of the group when we left 30 mins prior was highly intoxicated and falling asleep at the bar with a drink in his hand and a full one waiting next to him. The bartender Kim asked us something and it was hard to hear her so I asked my daughter what she said but she didn’t know either by the time I went to ask the bartender she had moved on to yelling at the gentleman next to us that he needed to stay awake. Then another server comes out with food for this gentleman and she is pressuring him to keep his eyes open. Finally the bartender comes back and asks what we want and we put in a lobster roll with fries, steak frites with brown sugared glaze carrots and a warm biscuit with honey butter. 35 mins go by and it’s obvious that Kim is avoiding our corner due to her lapse in judgment on over serving the gentleman which means we don’t get the stellar service she is providing to the other patrons that come in after us. Finally she sees we don’t have our food and comes over and tells me the steak frittes takes 25 mins to which I chuckle and say ok bc it’s been almost 40 mins at this point plus you can see the kitchen and they are not backed up. She then proceeded to go and speak to another server who is looking at us the whole time for some odd reason and then she approaches the gentleman who greeted us who appears to be the manager and he looks over at us. At this point it’s obvious that Kim forgot to place our order and instead of her or even the manager owning it they just avoid. The situation next to us with the gentleman escalates due to the man’s card not working and the manager comes over loudly in regards to it making this a confusing experience of is this a nice restaurant or a dive bar? Naturally someone that intoxicated is unable to comprehend what is going on and once that manager turns his back the man leaves. Finally our food comes out in a frenzy and given to the wrong person without even asking just tossed at us almost 50 mins in. I am not sure what exactly I was served but it was not Steak Frities it was unseasoned steak with burnt shallots and black bits of garlic, luke warm carrots and a cold biscuit. I ate the biscuit because I was starving and some of the carrots and both were good but I’m sure they would of be amazing had they been handled correctly as for the steak frittes I took one bite and said nope it was horrible and any chef should be ashamed to have sent that out! It was to no shock that Kim didn't return to ask us how our meal was she had just given up on us at that point and truly wanted us out of the restaurant to which I obliged and asked for the check. I struggled with even tipping but as someone who has been in the industry for most of my life with family owned restaurants to my long history of serving and bartending in a busy tourist city in Florida to now helping others find a good spot to go I just couldn’t write a 0 to match the service I received. I see how Eric responds to criticism so I don’t expect much there either but I look forward to sharing this experience with many people to spare them the same fate. Best of luck to you Kim and your career...

We’ve never had such an awful dining experience and it was terribly upsetting. The owner is RUDE and ARROGANT. We were both looking forward to eating here and would’ve never expected such a horrid experience. We got there early but owner said he’s running on schedule so come back. So we left and walked around the area. When he said this we felt he was a bit curt. Okay, we figured he’s busy so he flustered. We returned exactly 2 minutes before our reserved time & he seated us. Our waitress took our order promptly. She was a sweetheart but very flustered from a large table she had. My husband ordered a cup of soup and I ordered 1/2 dozen oysters. My oysters came fast, but no soup. We waited a total of 20 minutes for a basic cup of soup. My oysters were okay but the chowder tasted like dishwater. Our main course Cioppino and Fish and Chips was taking forever so we said something the our server who went to check. It was now almost a full hour and we told our waitress again….. That’s when she said that the owner was coming over. When he came over we said to him it’s an hour we’ve been here and no food. He was curt and said the food will be coming. Finally our food came and it was absolutely horrible. The fish and chips tasted like iodine and sour. The breading was flavorless and fries cold and soggy. I couldn’t eat it. My husband’s Cioppino tasted like someone poured bad tomato juice and threw pepper in it. It was awful. We informed our waitress about this and she said the owner will come and talk to you..again! He asked what was wrong with our food and we told him in detail. I also said we waited and hour…. He said “but you got your food”. That was wrong to say. I said to him bring us our check so we can leave. I said this several times to the waitress as well. He finally said dinners on him. I said I’ll pay for what we ate and he said no he’s covering the dinner and we could leave. But he was curt and horribly rude to us. We’ve never been spoken to like this before with such attitude from an owner. We were starving by now at 8:45pm. That’s 2 hours we dealt with this. Horrible place and not worth the hype. We did tip the waitress since it was not her fault. The restaurant is extremely small and...

This is an unfortunate review to write. The first time dining here, a few months ago, my girlfriend and I came up from Brooklyn to visit (my family has had a house in the area for many years). It was great, everything was delicious and we looked forward to going again.

Now, I came back with my family but was greeted with some really bad service. First, I popped in and was told there was a wait, so the woman working there made a reservation for 6:45 for us. Fast forward to 6:45, we come back but our table wasn’t ready. No big deal. We’re standing by the door, minding our business, standing next to an empty table—there was plenty of room to stand. She asks if we wanted to sit at the bench by the bathrooms but we’re fine standing where we are. It’s now 7:05, 20 minutes past our reservation and our table still isn’t ready. Still, no big deal, but it’s not like anyone offered us water or anything. Standing for 20 minutes isn’t what we signed up for, especially on a Wednesday, but it would have been fine until:

She then approached us, hurriedly walking over and then brusquely and rudely snapped at us to wait at the bench because they’re trying to clear the tables near us. She was loud and many patrons turned around. No “excuse me”, nothing. It was so out of left field, the tone of it and everything. We walked out the door and left.

It’s so disappointing given that I was looking forward to showing my family what I thought was the best local restaurant, but I appear to have...