Back Bay Gourmet — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

My Husband & I recently brought my Mother here as part of her 70th Birthday celebration. We're local's, so we've been enjoying the food here since they first opened, but it's been a while since I wrote a review, so I thought I'd update it.

We came for dinner on a Saturday night, & as usual, everything was absolute perfection!

We were greeted & seated immediately. Jen was our server, & she was awesome! Her suggestions were excellent, & she was on top of everything all evening long!

We started with the charcuterie tray & truffle fries. The charcuterie tray was delightful, & we couldn't have been happier with our selection. We didn't finished the charcuterie & ended up taking it home & enjoying it for lunch the following day. (The truffle fries was the only thing that didn't 'wow' us.)

My Mother, the Birthday Girl, ordered the Shrimp & Scallop Pasta & said they were fabulous! She enjoyed every bite!

My Husband had the Braised Short Ribs, which was phenomenal! He shared a few bites with me & we both LOVED IT! (So much so that no matter what else we get from now on, we'll also order at least one braised short ribs entrée to share between us!)

I ordered the Crab Cake's, & they were delicious! I couldn't have been happier! (Well, maybe... If the Surf & Turf included a crab-cake & braised short rib option, but I don't want to sound greedy- lol!)

We were so full we couldn't finish our entrées & we ended up having left-overs at home the following evening. They were just as good the next night! The three of us ended up enjoying TWO excellent dinners for the price of one!

We couldn't decide on a dessert, so we ordered several to-go, (SIX, to be exact), as well as an assortment of cookies to take home & enjoy over the next few days.

Their desserts are ALL 'to-die-for' DELICIOUS! Over the years we've often ordered several desserts "to go" to enjoy back at home, later! We've never had one that wasn't absolutely scrumptious! They keep the fan-favorites, but they also rotate a selection of seasonal desserts; they're all always unique & inspired flavor's! You can't possibly make a wrong or bad decision with their desserts, which are made in-house!

We ended up 'shutting the place down', & were the last customers to leave, but not before chatting with Jen & the bartender in front of the bar for a few minutes, first. They were probably ready to go home, but they were as warm & friendly as they could be, which meant the world to us as we were chatting about our pregnant Daughter while looking at the sweet & unique baby items they have for sale in their boutique!

Thanks for being such a wonderful example of what a locally owned business is supposed to be! Your customers love you for it!

Original review: (3 years ago)

Went for lunch w/my Husband & my Mom & had a great time. There's a small shop with prepared food to take home & cook, for that semi-home-made meal, & some really cute, interesting, boutique-type gifts, including wine. The food is very good, but the desserts are even better! The cupcakes & cookies are quite literally the best I've ever had, & I've developed a bit of an addiction for them. My Husband & I have been stopping by weekly, despite this location being very out of the way for us, so I can stock up on enough cookies & a cupcake to last me until the following weekend! Everyone is always very friendly & welcoming, & their customer service...

I have never met a hostess as rude as the one my family encountered last Saturday night. She seems to really hate her job. It's hard to describe how someone can be so rude just asking for a name and number of people. She said it would be a 10-15 minute wait. We decided to take our small kids next door to Home Goods while we waited so that they wouldn't disturb anything, and came back 10 minutes later. No one else was waiting and she was standing at the front, and we still had to ask if a table was now ready. She rolled her eyes and grabbed four menus and took us to a booth. I asked if they had a highchair for our 1 year old who we had been carrying the entire time. She said in a very annoyed tone that she "didn't know we would need a high chair" like it was our fault we had not clearly informed her of this, even though she could see our kids with us both times that we walked in. She told us we couldn't sit at a booth with a highchair, so she moved us to a table and then said that they actually didn't have any highchairs because of a big party. (I only saw 1 highchair at the party). It would've been bad enough if she had just wasted our time, but she was so amazingly rude at doing a straightforward job. I have no idea how the food is, as we could not eat there.

And to the rude response I got from management, I have never written a bad review before. That's how rude she was. It is not too much to ask someone act kind and polite. I worked jobs like this when I was her age, and would never treat anyone the way she did. I do not think she was hiding high chairs, I think she did not want to put any effort into helping us. If it's her first job, then maybe someone should be there to oversee her if she can't politely and properly do it. The fact that you decide to attack me instead of apologizing for such an incredibly bad experience, shows how little you care about your customers. We will never go here again and have told multiple friends and family about our experience, who all suggested I...

The food is truly amazing. A little pricy but very good. I have eaten there several times and have always really enjoyed the food. Sweet potato biscuit sandwiches are absolutely wonderful. But... I have had several quirky customer service issues that have not made me feel welcome there and frankly my husband refuses to even try to go there anymore as a result. The first incident involved take out. We had received a gift certificate as a gift and were trying to place a take out order. They had a VERY limited selection of things you could order to go because they "could not guarantee the integrity of the meal" if it were packed. Ok. For some of the fancier entrees maybe I could have seen that but two of the items we were trying to order to go we a hamburger and a pizza. You do realize that there is a whole industry that serves take out pizza. Even fancy ones. The person on the phone was short and condescending about the take out order so we skipped it and did use the gift card another time while dining in. The most recent incident was a few weeks ago. It was a sunny weekend day and their patio was open for service so we asked if we could sit outside. The hostess asked how many and we stated 5. My husband, myself, our school aged son and twin toddler daughters. She said ok. She led us outside and proceeded to try and sit the 5 of us at a 3 top table. We asked if we could sit at the 4 top at least. It was a pretty bejeweled table with large cushioned chairs. She said they were only allowed to seat people there if they were only having drinks. I find this interesting because they have a picture of this very table with food on it on their Facebook page. Ok, so we can't sit at the fancy table. We asked to put two tables together to fit the 5 of us. The hostess said they were not allowed to put tables together. Good greif! We just left. Bottom line. The food is amazing, just be prepared for a bunch of arbitrary rules, snobbery...