A-J's Dockside Restaurant — Restaurant in Tybee Island

BAD TOURIST TRAP Only putting 1 star because I can’t put less. Called over ten times to make reservations no one would answer the phone. Showed up and 3 girls were working the counter with phones steady ringing and no one answering it. Lied to us about an hour and half wait time to encourage us to move on to another location. We said we would wait at the bar and get drinks. In the meantime, multiple tables were open around the restaurant and those tables stayed open the whole night. There is limited seating at the bar and out of the 10 stools, 5 were filled with children. When they realized we weren’t leaving, they seated us after 10 minutes. Seated us in a an area behind the restaurant where you cannot even see the water even though there were multiple other tables. The area immediately behind us was filled with trash and storage. Waited about 15 minutes to get greeted. We ordered waters and the waitress took over 15 minutes to bring them and only after we went to the bar and asked for water. The bartender was the one bright spot, he was very friendly and had speedy service. After ordering, we witnessed several tables send their food back because it was burnt black and inedible. Manager seemed insecure and raised her voice repeatedly. After waiting over 45 minutes for food to arrive, we contemplated walking out. During which time, the waitress never checked on us, asked us about drinks, or gave us an update on our food. Despite 3-4 people working the front, the restaurant was obviously serenely understaffed. Once our food did arrive, some of it was incorrect, burnt (surprise) and all sides (fries, hush puppies) were ice cold. But trust that the food would be horrible regardless of errors. After receiving our food, no one checked on us. We finally had to ask another wait staff member so we could get our check. Upon receiving our clearly overpriced food, both pens they gave us were broken. The waitress couldn’t be bothered to even give us our checks. All in all, this was a completely MISERABLE DINING SERVICE.

It may seem this review is super detailed but every thing went wrong at this restaurant. They clearly do not care about food or service and will just take your money because they are betting on you being an out of towner. I cannot fathom how they have their...

We arrived on time with a reservation, Party of 5 of us. Beautiful setting and we were seated quickly and that is where the pleasant experience ends unfortunately... We waited for 20 minutes for someone/anyone to approach our table and finally I had enough and went back to the hostess desk. 10 minutes after that we FINALLY got a wait team member to take our drink order and before anyone could ask for an appetizer she was gone :-0 . 20 minutes later NOW, almost an hour after we sat down we were able to order appetizers and food. We received an explanation that "there was a mix up of whose table we were" No apology, no manager and no concern on their part! They use a modern device that sends the food order to the kitchen and food runners bring the food out so at an hour 17 minutes (yes I was counting by now) we received appetizers and soon after the mains. My husbands $42.00 Seafood Pasta Dish arrives in a warm plate cold entre and by now he was really hungry. Waitress comes and takes the plate back to the kitchen and we wait 25 minutes, I get up again and track her down- only to find out "there was another mix up and instead of remaking she Cancelled the order" STILL no apologies just a frantic attempt to run into the kitchen and away from me. To wrap this up, they did take the pasta off the bill and it took her another 20 minutes to figure out how to print out the bill without the pasta dish. After all of this debocal there was no visit to our table by any manager on duty, I am guessing there wasnt one?? But all in all no one at AJ's Dockside gave a crap that we so obviously had a calamity of errors and a terrible experience and walked away hungry and pissed and still paid a large bill. My advice based on experience, there are many places to see a beautiful sunset in Tybee Beach and If you want a good experience I would avoid this place apparently run by young people that do not know or care about customer experience! Also- we went in September on a Sunday Evening so not peak time and we watched many tables arrive, be served and leave before we even got...

I came here after endless recommendations, but unfortunately, I had a really bad experience here.

The good: the location is great (I like that it's out of the way and quiet) and the bartenders were super friendly.

The bad: pretty much everything else on our visit.

We made a reservation days in advance for 7:30pm. On a weekday. Didn't think there would be any issues. We drove all the way from Savannah just to come here. We arrived at 7:20 and were asked to wait at the bar. No problem. We ordered drinks. We saw an open table outside and assumed we would be seated soon. We weren't.

At about 7:50, I went up to ask about our table, just in case they forgot. We'd be seated soon, they said.

We went back to the bar. Another 40 minutes pass and it's now 8:30, an hour after our reservation. This place closes at 9, mind you. I don't like to be pushy, but I went back up front and let them know our reservation was an hour ago. They finally agreed to seat us.

The kicker? They sat us at that table we saw an hour ago, which had been empty the whole time. Our table was there, they were just too disorganized to realize it.

So yeah, we finally got to eat. But was now pitch dark outside and we felt rushed because they were about to close. We could barely even see our food it was so dark on the deck and we completely missed the sunset, which was the whole point of us making a reservation for 7:30.

They didn't apologize or offer to comp a drink or anything.

When we finally got food, my blackened shrimp were hilariously over-seasoned to the point of almost being inedible, and they messed up two of our orders and brought us the wrong sides. We didn't even care at that point and didn't even say anything. We just ate as fast as we could and left.

I wish I could agree with everyone else about this place, but it was an awful experience for us. Won't be...