Water Street Bar & Grille — Restaurant in Toms River

We waited about 15 minutes before we were even greeted. The waiter came over and immediately asked what entrees we wanted, which leads me to believe he completely forgot to even say hello or ask what we’d like to drink. We had to remind him that he hadn’t even taken our drink order yet. When the drinks finally did arrive, they came out at two different times — and all we ordered were waters and Cokes. I’m not sure why that was so difficult to bring out at once, but that already set the tone for what was clearly going to be terrible service.

After we were finally able to order our appetizers, it took exactly 55 minutes for them to come out. The waiter apologized maybe twice during that entire wait and blamed it on the kitchen being busy — even though a group of six seated next to us (who came in after us) received everything promptly without issue. That makes me think our server either completely forgot about us multiple times or failed to even put the order in correctly. We nearly got up to leave, but the food finally arrived.

Granted, the food itself was decent. I won’t complain about that. But the service was beyond unacceptable — which is sad, considering this used to be my family’s go-to spot for a nice dinner on the water.

About 10 minutes after our appetizers finally arrived, our entrees came out — leaving us with a cluttered table and no time to enjoy what we had just waited an hour for. The waiter never cleared a single plate, and our drinks sat empty with zero acknowledgment. On top of that, my fiancé ordered a beer and a water — yet for some reason, was brought two beers and no water. Completely unprofessional and confusing.

As someone who works in food service, I can confidently say I would never let this level of carelessness fly. We are taught to accommodate and take care of our guests, not ignore and confuse them.

Once the entrees came, my brother’s nachos were cold and soggy — and keep in mind we asked for no mango. The manager came over and offered to bring out a new order, which we politely declined because by then, we were desperate to leave. She went ahead and brought out new nachos anyway — with mango again.

The manager was absolutely no help. She gave us every excuse in the book as to why our experience was “normal” and claimed it was happening to everyone else (which it clearly wasn’t). She offered to take off the appetizers, but after ruining what was supposed to be a celebratory birthday dinner for our family, that was the bare minimum. I have never encountered such a useless manager who clearly had no interest in making the situation right.

When we received the bill, nothing was taken off — so not only did she fail to resolve the issue, she didn’t even follow through on the one thing she offered. I wasn’t about to hand over full payment after such blatantly rude and careless treatment. We went up to the front desk and explained what happened. The host told us to sit down, and 20 minutes later, someone finally came back and removed the appetizers and a drink — no apology, no explanation, no accountability. She knew exactly what she was doing, and it was clear she didn’t care.

This place is in desperate need of a real manager and proper staff training. Until that happens, this restaurant will continue to go downhill. Unfortunately, we will never be back — and I would not recommend...

Personally, I'm not a fan of verywh*te restaurants, and nearly everything along the water here in Toms River is a conservative stronghold. So it's got that against it for me, yet I STILL gave it four stars. ESPECIALLY with the sign at the entrance EXPRESSLY forbidding smoking of a completely legal substance, a natural substance, which only underscores the attitudes of the owners.

So, I gave it four stars, and I NEVER hesitate to grade on how I feel at a restaurant. I don't ever shy away from one-star reviews, I'd be stoked if they started allowing us to rank negative stars, personally. But I am one thing if nothing else, completely prejudiced TOWARDS local joints. Chains suck the money from a community. They don't spend the money locally, they pay poor wages and they use food-services like Cisco (sp?) for low-grade food-service ingredients. People who eat at TGI Chili O'Fridays get a negative five star review from me, I've no use for soft-brained consumers so if that's you.... well you probably don't care what I think anyway so either read on or move on. Your choice.

The food is good, not a standout but lately I've come to judge "good" as pretty much the best I'm going to get. Asbury used to have great food, but as places gentrify, the quality lags behind... and Toms River was never known for it's exemplary cuisine (the holdout being Stonefire Grill in Beachwood, look them up for my review). But I'll tell you, the chowdah was delicious and so was the flounder sandwich.

Drinks were excellent first round, but I have to say (and I'm NOT complaining) the bartender must have seen and liked our table, because my second and third mohitos were rum-on-ice. Lovely and strong, a little lacking on the 'hito, but they did the trick. Or maybe it was Drew's influence on them....

The real standout here was the service. We had Drew, a young man who was literally the perfect waiter. Perfect timing, perfect attitude, perfect service. Could NOT have asked for a better waiter, did not expect that kind of service in an establishment staffed with mostly summer kids, and was altogether pleasantly surprised. I sincerely hope the owners read reviews and while I don't expect them to care about my politics, I do sincerely hope they consider Drew to be a gem in their joint!!!!!

All-in-all, saddened by the anti-weed policy, that's really not necessary. Crowd is NOT my crowd at all, I'm an old biker-hippie-weirdo though, so there really isn't anywhere in NJ WITH my crowd :). Food was definitely good. Delicious and good quality. Certainly not incredibly creative or over-the-top well crafted, but worth the money.

The real test though, will I be back on a breezy, sunny sunday to spend $250 on rum buckets and basically-decent...

So I am not someone who writes reviews unless I have a great experience, but I feel compelled to leave this review here. I’ve been to Water Street many times as I live right up the road & each visit has gone progressively downhill. Yesterday my husband and I went for drinks & dinner. I asked the bartender very specifically for “Pineapple, Club & Mint with NO ALCOHOL”— I even went as far as to make a physical NO gesture with my hand when I said no alcohol since it was loud. We got out drinks and I thought it tasted odd. My husband tasted it and said he didn’t taste any vodka. Halfway through the drink I felt a little buzz. I stopped drinking it immediately. When my husband ordered the same thing with a different bartender, she asked if I wanted vodka because the first drink was showing it had vodka in it. I am thankfully electively sober, but I can’t imagine if I were pregnant or an alcoholic. Serving someone alcohol when they very specifically ask for no alcohol is unacceptable. That said, I do love that they don’t charge for mocktails at the bar which is really wonderful. On to dinner… service was horrible. It wasn’t crazy busy. My husband ordered an 8oz fillet, medium and it was more like a 4oz filet that was charred and dry as the Sahara. I ordered a new dish with steak and shrimp kabobs and garlic butter. It was absolutely terrible. There was no seasoning or butter. I never complain about food and didn’t opt to send it back, but I did tell the waitress as it was a new menu item. I brought leftovers home to try to make it decent to eat and had other people taste it and they said it wasn’t seasoned at all. When you’re paying $45 for a steak & $32 for a meal, you would expect it to be at least decent. Long story long, if you want some drinks & a good atmosphere, this isn’t a bad spot. If you want decent food, eat...