SAYVILLE BAIT & TACKLE — Restaurant in Town of Islip

While in the parking lot at a restaurant across the street that we planned on having dinner at, we saw Bait & Tackle. We quickly looked at the reviews and decided to ditch our dinner plans for new dinner plans at B&T. We are avid fisherman so the name, menu and decor were highly appealing. We loved the decor, the bar was packed which is a great thing and we saw that they have specials and bands. For a bar atmosphere “happy hour” was lacking. Compared to other local restaurants, i don’t consider $1 or $2 off of Tito’s “happy hour”. Moving on to the hostess and waitress, everything was great. We were seated and a waitress took our order quickly. Moving on to the drinks and food. Drinks were good, my first drink came out with the wrong rim, but the waitress quickly corrected it. The food was so disappointing after getting off to such a good start. Everything lacked flavor. Our steak sandwich that should have been on garlic bread, came out dry and flavorless. The steak was overcooked. My crab cake, bacon and bread were extremely overcooked, flavorless and dry. I tried to eat the crab cake on its own to see if the overcooked flavor of the bread and the bacon was the problem, and that too had over grilled marks in it making it very dry and leaving it with an overcooked taste. Being in an area with amazing seafood, I have never had a crab cake that was that overcooked or over grilled in that way. The onion rings and sweet potatoe fries seemed to be all cooked in the same oils or in the same way giving everything the same overcooked taste that lack flavors. The sauces and calamari were good. The guacamole was ok, it was fresh, but also could have used some flavor. We had an array of choices and unfortunately no matter what it was, it all tasted the same. We had such high hopes based on how we loved the decor and the fact that they had different events that we would have come back for. Unfortunately, we will not be back. They seemed to have regulars so we wish the business...

Old world charm found in the warm wood interior. An ornate carved oak bar back and cabinetry recall a nautical theme. Lovely south shore long island. Our server Mel was attentive, delivering our order from the kitchen with lightning speed. Sitting at the bar, we had a clear view of giant wall mounted televisions and banks of monitors easily viewed from interior seating. The food was good. Chowder boasted a light creamy broth with many large pieces of tender clams. Studded with tiny gems of bacon and tender cubes of potatoes. This chowder was very salty, with hardly a hint of any Old Bay, a spice sorely missed. Seemed like the chef was reworking a potato soup and thought throwing clams in would make it chowder. This was a fail. Chicken wings were nicely sauced, served with blu cheese dressing, celery and carrots sticks. Generic but tasty. Guacamole featured grilled pineapple chunks, toasted pumpkin seeds and an abundance of big avocado chunks. This was tasty but almost trying too hard with the addition of pineapple. Expertly prepared cocktails and a huge selection of beer on tap. I plan to return to Sayville Bait & Tackle. If you found my review helpful,...

What a disappointment. As longtime Sayville residents, we're always looking for a new place to eat instead of our usual favorites. We decided to try Bait & Tackle tonight and will never go back. We were greeted by a very friendly hostess who made sure we got a table pretty quickly. The bartender was also friendly and helpful. The inside of the place is clean and very nicely decorated. That's where the good stuff ended. We were seated at a table on the back deck next to a very loud speaker and we could barely hear each other talking. We waited and waited and waited for someone to take our order, but no one ever came. There were only four tables on the deck, but we never saw a waiter. After a while we gave up, finished our beers and left to head to The Shed, where we were served quickly and the food was fantastic. Another problem at B&T is the parking situation. We drove through, there were no spots, so we had to park across the street (a very busy Montauk Hwy) and cross over to get the restaurant. There are so many good restaurants in Sayville, where the staff cares about their customers, so there is no reason to patronize a place where they...