Saltwater Grille — Restaurant in South Portland

Trust me – you want to read this before you go here. Sloppy drunks, extremely long wait times, and attempted theft by staff. I made a reservation here for 8 people at 7:15. We were running about 15 minutes late so I called to let them know and was told, no worries, we will see you whenever you get here. We arrive at 7:30 and check in, the hostess acknowledged that we had a reservation and asked if we wanted to sit inside or outside, she said outside will be about 20 minutes and the wait is totally worth it, if we want to sit inside there’s a few tables “finishing up.” I thought the point of a reservation is that a table will be ready for you when you arrive, but I guess that’s not how it works at the Saltwater Grille. We decide to wait the “20 minutes” for a table outside. 45 minutes later we were still waiting while many other walk ins got sat outside quickly. Another server noticed us standing around still waiting and brought it to the attention of a manager, had he not done that, I think we would still be waiting for our table as I write this review. After a painful 30 additional minutes, they seat us for our “reservation” at a patio table clearly only meant for 6 people, but they squished us there anyway. Our waitress, Chloe, was the only saving grace in this story, she was stellar. Chloe serviced us as quickly as she could, and the drinks were tasty. We ordered our food and were disappointed from the get-go, the steamers were so full of sand they were nearly inedible. After an hour long wait for the entrees, we were served risotto that was severely undercooked and crunchy, a Caesar salad that had no dressing and just 2 measly croutons on top, and a lobster roll that tasted like it had sat under a heat lamp for an hour. For an average place, I would say it was alright, but for this price point the quality was truly abysmal. In the meantime, when using the bathroom, I had the lovely experience of being greeted by a man entering the woman’s bathroom covered in vomit and barely able to stand upright, followed by another patron completely passed out on the bar top while the bartender was carrying on, shortly after this man fell on the floor of the bar causing quite the commotion. After our meals were finally finished, we gave the waitress our feedback on the food and she got 50% of our food bill discounted and gave us all a free glass of champagne which was lovely and made up for our experience which inclined me to give this place 3 stars instead of 1 until this next part where it really takes the cake. Immediately after we left the restaurant, we noticed we had left a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses and a digital camera at the table. We called the restaurant and they claimed they didn’t see anything at the table. We called our Uber driver and confirmed that he did not have the items. All 8 of us were 100% certain that we had left them on the table. The next day, as soon as the place opened, we called again and were told they checked 3 times and did not find the items. We were very upset about this and decided to come to the restaurant before leaving Portland, the hostess insisted again that they did not have it, we reiterated that they must have them, and she rummaged around the host stand before finally pulling out our camera that they were adamant that they “never saw.” The same went for the sunglasses, which we still never got back, even though both items were together on the table and we were one of the very last tables to leave at 10:30 pm. We spent 3 hours at this place and were just in awe of the horrendous experience. We will certainly never return and if you are reading this and thinking of going, make sure you leave your valuables at home and don’t bother making a...

As it seems the only web contact info on the website is for booking events and the FB site does not appear to permit DM's, I am writing here... Last night (Monday) my husband and I had reservations booked for 6:15 for our anniversary dinner. We asked for window seats. We dressed up and arrived just a few minutes early. The hostesses seemed confused about our reservation and we were told there were no window seats available. I said, "Oh? I specifically requested one with my reservation." They whispered together, and then one of them suddenly just "found" a window seat. After a little wait, a waitress took our drink order. When she came back, she took our dinner order, and at that time my phone notified me that my reservation was canceled for not showing up, which I found odd. I brushed it off because I was there and extremely excited for calamari. I am gluten free and it is THE BEST gf calamari! My husband ordered the haddock and fries, and after another wait, our food was quickly dropped at our table but the dishes were swapped, which we corrected. There was no asking if we needed anything. While my calamari did not let me down (it was DELICIOUS!) my husband's fries were ice cold. We would have loved to have them heated... or get drinks refilled... or get more sauce... or get dessert, but our waitress never returned to our table! We tried to get her attention when we saw her but she never responded. My husband put his plate full of fries on the edge of the table to draw attention, but she ignored it. Eventually, both our empty drink glasses, my empty plate, and then our credit card all lined the edge of the table, yet still she never came over! Fed up, we finally got up and went to the hostess desk. We told her our dilemma and asked her if we could just pay there. She went and got our waitress who just handed us the bill then immediately walked away. In exasperation, I told the hostess that we had been looking forward to dining there all week and how confusing it was that our waitress seemed to not care about us and left us with such a frustrating experience. The hostess told us she'd "let the manager know." We weren't difficult, were polite, quiet and happy, and had very brief interaction with our waitress, so had no idea why she provided us with such blatant poor customer service. We eat at SWG monthly, love the food, and have never had any issues before, so were just dumbfounded and disappointed at this day's experience! There seemed to be a disconnect with the online booking system, we were denied the chance to relax over a few drinks, my husband's food was subpar, and we were not even given an option to have desserts. Our celebratory evening...

Thanksgiving Dinner…..what a disappointment. We decided for the 1st time ever that we’d have Thanksgiving Dinner at a restaurant. Spent close to $300 for 3 of us (this included 3 cocktails and 1 coke in addition to the 3 course meal for $50-$60 each, depending on your choice of entree). The most troubling thing for us was that the food was barely tepid, nothing was especially warm and certainly not hot. The Clam Chowder would have been amazing….if it had been hot. I sent it back to be heated up but the waitress came back with some explanation of there not being a burner to heat it on (????). I asked if they could just put it in the microwave but for some reason they couldn’t do that either. The mashed potatoes, squash and sweet potatoes were presented on the plate from an ice-cream scoop….like hot lunch at school when I was a kid, just not very appealing. The peas. I don’t know if they were canned or just over cooked but they were that pale green limp color and very few of them. The salad was okay. The hot rolls were to die for….delicious. The setting was elegant with white tablecloths and a nice view for most patrons. Unfortunately we were seated at a table near the exit and footpath to the kitchen/stairway which also gave me a great view of the inside of the men’s room every time someone entered or exited it…..which, of course, was often throughout our meal. The service was okay, nothing exceptional but nothing to really complain about, very sweet and pleasant young lady. We did not feel rushed which was nice but over-all, a very big disappointment for a holiday dinner out. It explains the trepidatious, “It was good” when we asked patrons leaving the restaurant how their dinner was as we entered the restaurant. We knew how they felt as we walked out the door wishing we’d cooked our meal at home. Interestingly, when I mentioned where we were going for our Thanksgiving Dinner, someone at work said they had gone there a couple of years before for Thanksgiving. That year it was served Buffet style and they said it was amazing. She said they went the next year and patrons were served the meals individually at their tables and it wasn’t very good…..primarily because nothing was hot, so they decided not to go back. I took her experience into account and hoped that wouldn’t be the case for our dinner but as you can see, more of the same. I really dislike having to write such a review but it’s honest. The Saltwater Grille is so lovely and it was our 1st experience eating there, so we will give it another try and hope dinner on an ordinary day will bring a...