Nautilus Diner — Restaurant in Town of Oyster Bay

I feel guilty giving a bad review. I grew up on Nautilus, and was so happy to hear it reopened. My dinner was decidedly sub-par, though. The $30 Romanian Steak was tough, and had no marinade at all (requiring copius amounts of salt and pepper). It came with a soup, and the waiter wouldn't up-charge to French Onion, which was weird for a diner in Long Island (most are completely accommodating with order modifications short of barbecuing a shoe). I gave it 3 instead of 2 stars because everyone else's meal looked pretty good. I'll definitely give it another shot, though. I'll modify my review if my experience is a little better next time (promise). SECOND VISIT today (about a year later) was just as bad (maybe worse). Downgrading to 2 stars. Waiter was rude and impatient. Still charging full price for French Onion Soup - they won't up charge, so if soup comes with your meal and you really want French Onion, prepare to have to eat two soups. Ordered the duck. Huge half a duck where slices would have been better. Barely any marinade or seasoning, and the citrus sauce that came with it was pasty and lacked the strong, sweet and pungent orange flavor one would expect with this pairing. Mashed potatoes had no gravy (which would have been fine if they were garlic mash, but they weren't). Prices way too high for a diner. My guess is prices were high because of the large quantities, but the logic seems to be that, since you get a lot of it, it must be good. Bad logic. I won't be going back, unless I have to for a post-event dinner someone else planned for some reason. I miss the Nautilus I knew as a kid. Food was great, it was charming, people were friendly. Now it looks like a nightclub, the food sucks, and the wait staff seems to think wearing a bow tie makes them more...

I NEVER take the time to do this but I was so utterly disgusted with the whole experience. First, the staff did not seem happy to see us as they close at 1am and we arrived at 12am. I've been a waitress for a long time and I understand the staff wants to go home, but it wasn't ten minutes before you close, it was an HOUR! And we were ordering to take out, so it's not as if we were going to hold them back from finishing up and getting out on time. The waiter rushed us the whole time and yet, this still would not have pushed me to write this. We ordered an appetizer of calamari and I'm honestly not even sure what I received constitutes as calamari. The breading just fell off (like GROSS not even cooked, just mushed and peeled off) and when it did fall off I was mortified at what was underneath. NOTHING resembles what calamari should look like. It's like they used the extra flesh of the squid instead of the rings and legs. Since it's seafood, I couldn't even get past one or two pieces because it tasted terrible and I was honestly afraid to get sick because I know bad seafood can be a nightmare to your health. I posted a picture of a piece of this "calamari" under google pictures for the diner but most of all I just want others to be wary when ordering and reconsider going at all. I would never give them my business again and now I can understand why they were closed for so long and always...

I used to like this diner, but now i'm not sure what happened. Service used to be prompt and you wouldnt have to wait forever to see your waiter/waitress again. On two seperate occassions we were sat in the same section with the same waitress. Needless to say you see her on ordering and again when you get the food. I dont know if they have her covering multiple sections all over the diner but it would seem that they are short handed. That is rather unfortunate for a diner because diners tend to be the go to for a quick bite since the food can be prepared in a matter of minutes. Let's be real, people go to diners mostly for breakfast foods.

Also while trying to pay, some guy also had a bad experience, stating his food was stale. He also told them that the quality had gone down and if they were unsure of whatever was served to him, that they shouldnt have offered it to customers.

Dear, Nautilus, please bring back the waitress thay new everyone and didnt even need a notepad to take your order. She was the best part of that place. As for the food, I didn't have that man's experience but perhaps be mindful. Oh and get more people on staff. It sucks to run out of water and then have to look around for the absentee waitress to maybe get a refill. That's really poor...