Riley's by The Seawa;; — Restaurant in Stratford

I have never experienced a ruder individual than I have today. I will NEVER return to Riley’s. The owner was extremely rude and disrespectful. Take your business elsewhere.

I would like to address this complete defamation of my character and my colleagues. We were looking forward to a fun way to celebrate the start to our break, and we had a few tables of teachers that paid a deposit to come to Riley’s yesterday. More of our colleagues reached out and asked if they could join which I stated, of course they can come to sit at the bar and SPEND THEIR MONEY on a business. When we first arrived, only one our tables was ready, so 5 of our staff sat while we waited for the other two tables to be ready. One had a group that was over their time limit, but we didn’t complain, we just ordered drinks from the bar, again, SPENDING OUR MONEY. As we were waiting, we saw many other colleagues that also work and teach in Stratford, so we did as teachers do, and that was mingle and hang out. As I was at the bar, the owner then came up to me and said “you can’t have all these people standing around, and make this a party.” He was referring to two colleagues that were standing in the back corner NEXT to our table of 5 guests. There was a wall so there were no other guests beside them. I then replied, okay, you can tell them they have to go to the bar. Once we got seated, which was not until 1:45, our reservation was for 1:15… we ordered drinks, our other colleagues went to the bar, but two of our colleagues actually left because the Owner was rude to them when they tried to sit at the bar and order food. We were all sitting in our chairs, the waitress kept apologizing to us, and we apologized to her because we said we would not be ordering food, just spend our deposit and leave. When one of our friends was ready to leave, she came over to say bye and that is when the owner came over to us and told us we were being rude, people are complaining, etc etc. He told us to leave, he would “pay the tab”, which is funny because we already paid for the table, and he said we were losing him money because most people spend $50 pp and we weren’t going to do that… this is when we did get a little loud, because how dare you assume that we aren’t going to spend that much. We were ALL planning on eating lunch and drinking, and even going to the bar area after like we did last year. He then THREATENED us, “I’ll get all your names, I’ll tell your school, etc etc” It was very obvious the owner only cares about how much money he can profit, he wants quick turnaround on tables, he wants people in and out, and he wants to flex his “power” to show us teachers what he can do. Email whoever you want, like you said, we had 22 people in there that had a very different experience than what you’re putting out there on your reviews. We had another 10 colleagues that saw the whole interaction that were appalled you talked to us that way. And to clarify, we did ABSOLUTELY TIP our waitress, because we have manners and we are not...

The atmospheres and decorations were lovely. A lot of Christmas spirit and families with children. The food was good and drinks delicious. The wait staff and manager were excellent. It was heart breaking though to see the manager trying so hard to keep a group of unruly employees from a Stratford school, who had several tables, under control and not disturb the other diners. Several times had to address the noise that they were making and to ask them to stay seated in the dining room. They even told him they were going to give the restaurant a bad review. I would mention the school they are from but will refrain. Please try this restaurant and you won’t be disappointed. This review isn’t about the noise level created by the disrespectful patrons but is to say that my group thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend. Edit: The school employees that absolutely ruined what was supposed to be a wonderful holiday experience, who were so rude and loud and horribly mean to the owner/manager were from Franklin School. He had to asked them to leave and they would not and threatened bad reviews. They didn’t tip a waitstaff. They were in the dining area banging into others chairs, screaming across the dining room. If they don’t recognize this as horribly bad behavior than I wonder what the superintendent would think. I will have to reach out. Be happy if your children are lucky enough and...

Review of Riley’s by the Sea

Our family has visited Riley’s by the Sea for the past four years as part of our holiday tradition, but unfortunately, this will be our last. While the decorations remain beautiful and festive, the food quality has become unacceptable, especially for the price.

The seafood pasta was nothing more than a bowl of plain pasta with water pooling at the bottom—no velvety cream sauce as one would expect. The salmon was bland, served with a plain side of rice, and lacked any sauce or seasoning. The stuffed chicken appeared frozen rather than homemade, and the Swedish meatball appetizer, which was brought out at the same time as our entrées, was drenched in a gelatinous brown, gooey sauce that was unappetizing.

To make matters worse, our server was unresponsive when we expressed our disappointment, adding to the overall poor experience.

It’s disheartening to see what seems like a complete lack of care for the quality of the food. Management should consider tasting the dishes themselves and reassessing the quality, especially given the high prices. It feels as though Riley’s is relying on its festive décor and fancy Miracle cocktails to draw customers, while neglecting the dining experience.

Sadly, we won’t be returning next year, nor can we recommend Riley’s by the Sea to others. We hope the restaurant takes this feedback seriously to improve for...