The Wayward Kitchen & Cocktails — Restaurant in Town of Islip

After reading online reviews, I chose The Wayward for Sunday Brunch with my sister this past weekend. We were extremely underwhelmed with our experience. The first disappointing and frankly odd thing was when we requested half & half or cream for our coffee; our waitress said that there was none. A breakfast/brunch restaurant with no half and half?? We received what was probably 2% milk, which turned our coffee a drab gray rather than deliciously creamy beige. Our orders were simple - custom omelets, which came with breakfast potatoes and toast, and one side of bacon. I asked what bread choices there were for the toast; the waitress responded, "Only white bread." Another surprise for a morning eatery. It didn't take too long for our omelets to arrive, with their handful of cool potatoes, and one piece each of unbuttered, burned white toast. We told the food runner that there was also a side of bacon due us, to which she replied "OK" but never returned with it. We proceeded to eat our omelets and after a few minutes with no bacon arriving, flagged down another food runner with our request (our waitress had not returned to check on us). He left us in pursuit of the missing bacon, or so we thought; he never returned. Eventually our waitress materialized to deliver a second round of mimosas to the table next to us and we told her we had not received the bacon. She apologized and headed toward the kitchen and disappeared for another 10 minutes. By the time she returned, we had finished our omelets; she dropped a grease-filled dish with 4 slices of limp, undercooked bacon on the table and walked away. We were able to flag her down and asked her to remove it from the table as well as the check, after which my sister said to me, "Well, this place is a 'one and done'." For $17 each for an omelet, I'd rather eat at a diner where I know I can get what I like.

The Wayward certainly lived up to the meaning of it's name - "difficult to predict because of unusual behavior," at least for...

Nice decor, but lousy food. My wife & I thought we would try it, we like to support local restaurants. We also know the difference between excellent to lousy food and everything in between. Went there for a late lunch early October. They have obviously put a lot of money & effort into this place (used to be Crickets). Looks great, good music, very good wait staff, but VERY POOR performing kitchen. Place was not crowded when we were there, so the kitchen was not very busy. Overheard the couple at the table next to us complaining to the waiter about their food... I had hoped that was an isolated incident, but it was NOT. The couple had received a raw hamburger and burnt fries. The kitchen did serve us one decent dish, which was the Octopus appetizer... food went downhill after that. I ordered the steak sandwich - medium rare with fries. It arrived noticeably overcooked - medium well, and the fries were... burnt which you could immediately see when the plate arrived. I saw this when the waiter set the plate down, told him how bad they looked, and asked for new fries before I bit into the overcooked steak. The waiter brought me an equally bad overcooked burnt bowl of fries as a replacement!! He should have noticed that, and the kitchen sure as hell should have too. It makes NO sense as to why they were continuing to serve BURNT fries!! I sent the steak sandwich & 2nd fries back, and just ordered the chicken wings - dry rub.... They certainly were DRY. Overcooked again. Zero moisture. My wife had the veg. "Cauliflower Steak" entree, which was sort of ok, but not great, and definitely overpriced ($24.00) for what they served. Total spent incl two glasses of wine was $87. + tax + tip. I know the restaurant business is especially difficult these days, but there is simply NO excuse for the problems we had. They need to hire a real chef, and better cooking staff, and teach the wait staff to look at the food they are serving! Sorry to say, but we will NOT...

One of the things that we had ordered were the popovers. They're served with a "house made" butter, but the butter was very sweet and didn't compliment the popover. I asked the busser (our server was nowhere in sight for quite some time) for a small ramekin of gravy. She told me that she was unable to do so. I told her that the popovers really were not tasting very well with the sweet butter, which almost had a rancid flavor. She then pretended to go into the kitchen but instead stood in the doorway, came back to our table and then reiterated that she could not get the small amount of gravy we were asking for.

This struck me as surprising. Especially since one of the other dishes we had ordered was the braised short ribs, which hadn't made it to our table yet. Surely somebody could go in the kitchen and take a little bit of that gravy, no?

I've been in the industry pretty much my whole life and I come from a family who has had successful restaurants throughout Long Island and the city. Never in my life did I hear such a ridiculous response. Our server was pretty much at the table two times.

The short ribs were ok but nothing to really write home about. Quite frankly, it reminded me of a frozen dish that can be ordered through fresh (slow roasted beef and mashed potatoes) only a bit more bland.

The other dishes were really not even worth noting because they really didn't leave a strong impression.

Though the atmosphere was somewhat clean and inviting, it was nothing unique and really did not have any character of its own. It was just pretty basic. Aside from a photo booth in the back by the bar. The lighting was very dim. There were small lanterns on each table which almost created a romantic ambience aside from the flickering ceiling lights that would not stop.

If I'm in town and it's the only place open, I'd probably go back. Would it be my first choice? Absolutely not. Most of these things could have been compensated had service...