Nautilus Cafe — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

My girlfriend took me here to celebrate my recent promotion. From the outside there's nothing special really or extravagant to look at and the inside is nothing spectacular either. We sat and watched the nautic mile which consisted of a whole lot of people dining walking socializing drinking and just having a good time in the beautiful weather. I Will Wait her was named Chuck. He was also the bartender. After being seated it didn't take but a few seconds before he came and gave us a menu asked about our day and seemed very happy to have us there. He managed to multitask and did it very well between serving at the bar and serving us. I gather that's the reason why we left him such a Hardy tip. Let's talk about the food I ordered the salmon with garlic mashed potatoes my girlfriend ordered these spinach and halibut. When our entrees came we had not completed our appetizers but we were ready to dig in. For an appetizer she had coconut shrimps and I was surprised that they only served too. I think price was a little bit too much just for two. I however had the lobster bisque which was absolutely wonderful I mean scrumptious I mean delicious I mean fantastically prepared. Creamy. I don't recall seeing very much meat in it but that's okay because the flavor was so good. The bread that was served was just perfect the rules were nice and served in a little small basket with assortment of crackers or breadsticks depending on where you're from. Also a piece of sweet bread I call it I believe it was banana bread I'm not sure nonetheless the butter complimented it. The salmon was prepared perfectly not overcooked not undercoat you can actually taste the freshness of this slice of salmon and was just enough. The creamy mashed potatoes you can taste garlic and it was not heavily salted like I've experienced somewhere else which I will not say. She said that her halibut was delicious and I took a piece and she was correct. I go fishing on a regular I fish for flounder and they taste good I've never had a halibut but now that I've tasted watch out Canada Oswego New York and any place else which these fish can be found I'm coming for you. A very white delicious textured fish that melted in our mouth didn't need to chew it very much. I don't know about anybody else but I certainly will be back here again. The prices are a little steep but I didn't mind because the food was delicious. We didn't do desserts instead we went to a pastry shop but the dessert menu wasn't much to desire at least not for our taste buds. I have to give this a four-star because as you guys know if you give five stars it means nothing needs to be improved upon. So a four-star will do for now only because the decor needed to be updated the bathroom was a little messy it had a scent of urine. Parking attendant was absolutely wonderful he was personable and actually he was kind of funny as he didn't know it maybe found him to be comical. When you're in the neighborhood check this place out he won't regret it until then let your mouth water all the meals we had...

Am I getting soft? Another (nearly) 5 star reviews. I think of myself as a pretty tough reviewer ... I mean why write a review that doesn't outline the good and the less than good? But for the second time in as many weeks, I'm finding a restaurant on Long Island that from a price/service/food stacks up really well. Would have been 5 stars except (1) when we made some changes to our meal (ordering an main course served as an appetizer & ordering from the dessert menu rather than from the desserts verbally told to us by our server) they failed to inform us of a considerable up charge; and, (2) almost every fish on the menu was from a non-sustainable source. And restaurants that want to stay in business for the long-term need to start thinking about long-term sources of food. Those two issues aside ... food was perfectly prepared, well seasoned, arrived at the right moment and was piping hot (except the cold stuff which was cold). Our server, guided us expertly through a 5 course meal. Making suggestions, engaging with us to make us feel "at home" but not being overly present. Water glasses always stayed topped off. And the wine list albeit at 3.5-4x was a bit pricey, still had a few hidden gems and a nice selection of wines by the glass. The view isn't as great as those across the street, but you can still watch some boats come by and have the sense of being "on the shore". ...

I can't even begin to describe how awful my experience was here tonight. Prior to arriving at the restaurant, I had made a reservation hours beforehand for 6:30pm.. We had arrived a little early for our reservation and decided to get in and possibly get settled. Two things that were of concern.. The fella who opened the door, without even a simple greeting proceeded to say in the most condescending tone of voice! "Do you have reservations?" Yes pal! Yes I do have bloody reservations.. matters only got worse with the hostess Laura. Like I said I had arrived early, (10 mins to be exact).. and was told it would be a few mins. That's fine. I didn't have an issue with that. Until Laura, decided that three different parties who had 6:30 reservations were to be seated before me and my companion. One by one these parties came in and Laura graciously seated them right before my eyes... a party of 5, party of 3 and a party of 2. So I find it a little irritating that she wasn't able to seat my party of 2. Now I am not one for throwing racial comments out there, but perhaps Miss Laura had an issue seating brown folks. If that doesn't scream racist.. I don't know what does! So I'm going to be frank, especially for the colored folks who are reading this. If you are not white, watch out, you will not be given the time of day in this...