VERN Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Town of Babylon

My wife and I went there on a Monday as we live down the block and have been looking forward to going and figured it would be less crowded. The location has changed hands a few times, and prior concepts left something to be desired. With the new renovations, the outside now looks cleaned up and modernized with simple yet elegant signage, so we had some higher hopes. The reviews are mixed, but the food looked promising. We walked into an empty bar scene with an apparent change in shift for the bartenders. We walk over to a sign that says, "Please wait here to be seated.", however, it's in an awkward location with no hostess, and we felt very uncomfortable. We're peering into the dining area, and patrons were scarce, and the wait staff seemed oblivious to our presence, or they simply ignored us as they were focused on whatever task they had at hand. After some puzzled looks towards the bartender who was coming off her shift, she greets us and ask if she could help us. We say, "Table for two, please!", and she directed us to choose whichever table we wanted. We chose to dine inside as it was a bit too warm and muggy to dine al fresco. As we sit, an uninviting wait person dismissively places two menus on the table and says, "Here you go." As we're patiently waiting for this person to take our drink orders, the climate in the dining room was way too warm and humid for our liking, but we continued to press on hoping the situation would improve. Then comes the incessant buzzing of a solitary horsefly in my ear that was desperately trying to escape the tent- like windows that provided an obscured view of the adjacent canal. I next witnessed my wife swatting at another horsefly that was badgering her as she attempted to pick an entree off the menu. Needless to say, our patience ran out, and we apologetically left without having an iota of food. Based on this experience, I'm giving the food two stars as some of the dishes being sent out looked OK however, the overall service and ambience was extremely underwhelming and left us with a very bad taste in our mouths. I'm not sure if we're willing to give this establishment another shot as they need to work on some of the basic operations of owning and running a legitimate restaurant, especially if your charging a bit more than average prices. We really wanted this place to be our go-to due to its close proximity, but it's going to take some convincing before we step foot in...

Updated (original review from June 2024 below the update):

This trip (our third) was much better than the previous two. It looks like the full menu is available now even during lunch hours. The hot lobster roll remains the only one on the menu, but it is good. Oyster raw bar was good. Burger was good, cooked to the preferred temp. Still no fruit in the sangria (ordered the special pumpkin sangria) but there was ice! No live music (late season in October), but they had music playing at a reasonable level.

We'd continue to come back.

Original Review (1 Star service, 1 star atmosphere (due to music), 2 star food): DJ brunch I guess. Music was looouuud and a crappy selection, but when we got there, seemed like the crowd was two decades older.

Anyway, before heading there I called to make sure of two things:

They still had transient slips as we were coming by boat They had a cold Maine lobster roll as my wife had been craving one for weeks.

The answer to both was yes.

We tie up and get seated, about 1:40pm. Probably close to 10 minutes before anyone comes over to take drink orders. 2:13pm, still no drinks but Amanda comes to take our food orders, which we put in for baked clams and two lobster rolls. She asks if it's OK to put it in at the same time because it might all come out at the same time. Really? We said no.

2:24pm drinks arrive.

Sangria looks like red wine, no ice. No fruit. Apparently you have to ask for that. Bloody wasn't very good. Seemed like alcohol plus watered down tomato juice and horse radish.

2:26pm app comes out. Six of the smallest baked clams I've ever seen ($19). So 44 minutes before drinks, 46 minutes for app.

Lobster rolls arrive 15 minutes later. They were hot lobster rolls. What a disappointment.

Amanda never showed up after taking the food orders. She came when we were done with the rolls. Asked for the check, paid and left.

The old Seagull was nothing spectacular, but after this experience, it...

Our recent visit to Vern was, unfortunately, one of the most disappointing dining experiences we’ve ever had - enough to write my first Google Review. The service was astonishingly slow and poorly managed. This was our second visit here as we wanted to give it a second chance since the first experience was around grand opening.

After placing our food orders, we waited nearly 50 minutes before being informed that items we selected were not available. We understand food items run out, but the lack of basic communication and consideration for our time was frustrating and unprofessional.

When food finally began to arrive, it was served at completely different times—with over 15-minute gaps between some of our main dishes. Although I will say, the food was good when it did come.

Adding to the poor experience, our drink glasses sat empty for 45 minutes, with no offer of refills or acknowledgment from the staff. The staff sat and mingled along with the owner only a few feet from us the entire night. When we finally spoke up about the service (because at this point it seemed like we were getting pranked), we were told the bartender was “busy”—yet we were quite literally the only guests remaining in the dining room apart from the performing band. This explanation was both baffling and insulting.

We are always supporting our local businesses and want to see the neighborhood flourish. I hope the team takes this feedback seriously and makes significant improvements. The place has potential, but we will not be returning. Knowing we were frustrated and clearly given a poor experience on their behalf, they could have at least thrown a drink...