Dog Watch Cafe — Restaurant in Stonington

I had dinner last night at Dog Watch Cafe. We arrived at 6:30 so we were already after the initial rush for the night and we were told there would be about a 45 minute wait. (peak season on a Saturday night) They have very hi-tech log in system that keeps track of who is next to sit down and what kind of seating you prefer. We hat a table of 5 with one being a younger child. There was out door seating and they started a fire in a covered fire pit that allowed us to stay comfortable while we waited. Other customers all waited in the Adirondack chairs and ordered a round of drinks to get comfortable. The wait did not seem to be nearly that long and it was comfortable so it seemed to go by very quickly. They had taken our phone number so we were contacted by our phone saying that our table was ready.

Even with a full restaurant the seating was casual but comfortable. We were dressed in nice jeans and button down shirt. We felt right a home and there were people dressed more formal and slightly less formal as if they had just come in from a day out on the boat.

We were able to order our appetizers and food for our younger guest so that everyone had something to eat. We ordered the guacamole with chips and our guests ordered clams and chicken fingers for their son. Although I did not have any of their food they said they enjoyed it. We enjoyed our guacamole and only needed to add a little pepper to the plate. We like pepper so we didn't think it was cooked wrong, just seasoning it to taste.

For our entrees I ordered the scallops, my wife the surf and turf and our guests ordered the swordfish and Bouillabaisse. The scallops were nice and juicy, absolutely not over cooked so I enjoyed them a lot. The Swordfish was light and flaky but again, not over cooked. The only complaint on the table was that the steak was very slightly over cooked but not enough to return it for a new one.

The waitstaff was pleasant and responsive to all our needs. My guests and I really enjoyed our night out with good company, good atmosphere and good food. We look forward to returning again.

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We arrived without a reservation so we were quoted an hour wait. Not a problem, we were glad to wait! However, we got texted for our table and walked up to the host stand to be asked if we were a party of 2 ( we were a party of 4 and I could see on the link that the text message took me to and it also said left waitlist so this was a mistake on the host) we waiting another 5 minutes and we were sat thankfully. Once seated, we weren’t even greeted for nearly 15 minutes and once we were greeted, it was not the most welcoming experience. After waiting an hour, youd think we’d at least be greeted and treated with kindness and not made to wait any longer or made to feel like we were an inconvenience to her. The servers demeanor was just off, and you could hear her speaking a lot kinder to the tables around us so I’m not sure what the weird attitude was for. I couldn’t even tell you her name because clearly that wasn’t an important thing to tell your table. I ended up getting fish tacos, and they were okay at best. They were small pieces of fish, with a massive amount of coleslaw, and what seemed to be Mayo and not the spicy chipotle sauce that was advertised. At this point, I wasn’t even going to send anything back because I was starving. I also got a French onion soup that looked like the cheese melted around the bowl and there was maybe a dollop of cheese in the actual soup. We then asked for the bill because it was nearly impossible to get her to come to our table which followed up with her question of “ why would you want the bill if your still eating?” There was one person who had food in front of them and was waiting for a box. Not sure why it was even a necessary question, what if we had to be somewhere ? Just all around weird experience and felt like we were unwanted. I work in this industry and I was just utterly disappointed with this whole experience if I’m being completely honest. I’ve heard great things about this place, and I really don’t know if...

My boyfriend and I go to Dog Watch in Stonington quite frequently. We love the food and atmosphere. Normally every time we go we have great service and food comes out very quickly. I’m sad to report that that was not the case this time. From start to finish it seemed like we were a burden to the server taking care of us, a young blonde, whose name I can’t even tell you because she never told us. She seemed like she was in a rush the entire time and couldn’t give us the time of day. Never offered us bread or asked if we needed more drinks. At one point, we had to shout our order as she walked by to another table when we wanted another drink. We got the mussels to start out with along with some other apps, food as always so very yummy! The sad part was that NO ONE at any point cleared our table or took anything away. We had the shells from our mussels on our table our entire meal! When she brought another beer to us she didn’t take the old used glass away from the previous drink! I got the Ribeye special and asked for it to be rare; came out more medium well which the server wouldn’t have known because she did not check on us ONCE. I’m not someone to send back food so I ate it. it seemed like when she was done taking our order she completely ignored/forgot about us. They did give us a key lime pie for bday dessert which was nice but idk if it made up for the lack of service and attentiveness that we received. Our bill was 257, for 4 people that’s almost 65 dollars a person so it’s not like we weren’t spending money, no reason for us to be treated like people just taking up a table? When the server dropped the check she made a comment that another reservation was coming in soon, as if we needed to rush to pay to give up the table! Very disappointed because of how much I really normally enjoy...