Whispers — Restaurant in Spring Lake

I usually love this restaurant and am upset to have to post a negative review. We had two reservations for my mom’s birthday tonight (a Tuesday) and chose Whispers because our experience there the previous year For her bday had been so lovely. We had an 8:00pm reservation and arrived on time. There was a line just to speak to the hostess. We were not acknowledged until 8:20 and were told it would be a 10 minute wait. We were not sat until 9:15. We are very understanding that these are extraordinary times and delays are bound to happen. However, to not be acknowledged for 20 minutes and then again for almost another hour is unacceptable and rude. The hostess was a young girl and not to blame. A manger or the owner should have come out and apologized, offered to provide wine glasses so we could enjoy our wine while we wait, anything! But we received absolutely no hospitality until we were sat down. The service is usually impeccable. I would say they were a little understaffed this evening and there were some hiccups. I can forgive that. However, we had asked to speak to a manager or owner several times and by the end of our meal, still no one came out to speak to us. All we were told was that the party before us refused to leave. This is not an acceptable excuse to keep people waiting for over an hour without an apology from the person in charge. The food was excellent, overall and we were provided with 4 desserts on the house at the end of our meal, which was nice. Unfortunately, the complimentary dessert was not enough to mask the bitter taste in our mouths from earlier. To be quite frank, I would not have even considered posting this review if someone would have just come out to apologize to us. We always made it a pint to visit Whispers several times a year, I’m not sure we will be doing so going forward. The experience felt very unwelcoming and that is never how a guest should...

If I could give 0 stars, I would. As someone who both loves going out to eat, and who has been in the restaurant industry for 15 years, this was by far the WORST dining experience of my entire life.

To start, it took a server 15 full minutes to acknowledge us. No, not take a drink order or appetizer, I mean acknowledge our existence. We watched multiple servers walk passed us at least 20 times before even looking at us. Other patrons who were sat after us received service before us. As a previous server, I have never seen anything like it.

The food was decent, what you should expect from “fine dining”, however my boyfriend had shells in his crab cakes and his sea bass was over cooked. Didn’t appreciate pouring our own wine, which I know sounds petty, but is pretty much a standard when it comes to fine dining.

Now if you’re thinking, Okay that’s not great but does that really justify calling it the worst dining experience of your life? Well from there, the fire alarm randomly started going off and didn’t stop until we left. This was as my main course was served, a house made pasta dish with grilled shrimp, which would have been really good if I didn’t have to take it home with me to microwave because I couldn’t sit and listen to the alarms which gave me a blaring headache to the point where I had to step outside (along with many other patrons) with my wine to escape it. You would think the management would have taken this situation seriously, considering it’s a fine dining establishment where people are spending a significant amount of money for the experience. But no, he was outside cracking jokes seemingly unbothered.

I am absolutely shocked and disgusted by how this was handled. Needless to say, I will never return. I advise you do the same. Save your money and...

Whispers is an elegant byob restaurant located in the Hewitt Wellington Hotel in Spring Lake. It’s the perfect place for a romantic dinner or to celebrate a special occasion. Portions are on the small side, and that would stop me from becoming a regular. But, I’d definitely come dine here again! They start you with a fresh hot roll which was good, but I was expecting a restaurant of this caliber to have a few different kinds of bread to choose from. They also give you a complimentary tasting before your appetizer. Today’s tasting was a cucumber topped with a salmon mousse which was also good. For appetizer I had the lobster ravioli topped with a butternut squash purée which was $20. I thought it was too small of an appetizer for the price point. It was good, but I didn’t think it was excellent as it should of been. It needed more of a butternut squash flavor as it was described. My entree which was the 1.5 pound lobster over a crab cake in a wonton served over mashed potatoes was EXCELLENT! I highly recommend ordering it! For dessert I had the chocolate ganache cake which was very good, but very small! I had two rolls otherwise I would of left hungry. I don’t mind paying high prices just want to be served a bit more generous portions, and get my money’s worth. My server Taylor was wonderful! I definitely recommend dining here if your looking for that special place to celebrate a special occasion or just looking for a...