Blue Pete's Restaurant — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

Last week we celebrated my sons high school graduation. We had grandparents and extended family fly in from three different states to attend. We were excited to take them to one of our favorite local restaurants to celebrate that evening. We got to Blue Pete’s at 5pm. At 6pm I came in to see where our name was on the list and we were given 4 bar height tables in the outdoor bar. After 30 minutes of being seated we still hadn’t been greeted by a server. We were all extremely hungry and thirsty and I think I stopped at least five staff members asking/begging them to bring us at least water while we waited for our server. Everyone said they would find out server but nobody came. I finally walked to the bar and got a cup of water to pass around in the meantime. The server came and took our order. We were paying on two separate checks. 40 minutes later our food comes but we only have food for one of the orders (10 of us). We start to eat because we had now been there for over two hours and were hungry. We asked the server where the rest of our parties food was and she said “another table claimed it” apparently another server brought it to the wrong table and they took our food. No big deal, this happens. An apology would have been appreciated but there was no apology or sense of urgency to bring the food out. Another hour passes. Everyone who had their food had now finished and half our party still had not received their food. The manager Jordan came out and said what the server had said. “Another table claimed your food”. No apology. I was confused why the rest of our food wasn’t rushed and why they still didn’t have it. It is now 8:10 PM we had been there for over three hours and I had two other young children I had to get home as they had school the next day. Thankfully we had driven multiple cars so I asked to pay our check so I could get the little ones home while the rest of our family/party waited for their food. The server told me the steak (that still hadn’t arrived)was being comped off my check. This is normal and felt this is the least they could do since we had been waiting for hours for this meal and the restaurant messed up by giving our food away to another table. I thanked her. I could see the server was flustered and having been in the hospitality and service industry for years myself, know it is completely out of her hands. I left her a great tip thanked her for comping the meal and started walking to my car. I looked at my receipt and realized they had only comped me for half the price of the steak. The steak we had been waiting HOURS for and still did not have. I walked inside to talk to the manager Jordan and ask her to please remove the steak from the check completely as I was told it would be comped. She went to “see what was going on” and I waited for 10 minutes before walking through the restaurant to find her. I explained my frustration and told her the server told us it would be comped and I expected the entire price of the steak to be taken off the check. She finally apologized for the first time and took the steak off the check. $42 I walk to my car and as I’m driving away my son calls from the restaurant and says that the manager canceled our steak order completely and was not bringing my father-in-law his dinner. I was mortified. Comping a meal does not mean you don’t cook it and bring it out. We still had not received 4 meals we had ordered at 6:30 and it was now 8:15 I know the server was doing the best she could but I expected more from the restaurant manager. Here we are bringing 14 people to the restaurant spending hundreds of dollars celebrating my son with family and it was the worst experience. We all left grumpy and it completely ruined our night. The manager Jordan could have handled it completely differently. Not once did she try to fix the situation or assure us she was on top of it. I don’t know if and when we will ever go back to Blue Pete’s which is unfortunate because it was one of our favorite places to go. I can’t support a place that treats its...

Blue Pete's Restaurant is located along N. Muddy Creek Rd. in the Pungo section of Virginia Beach. The road is definitely a typical back road with deep ditches, so watch your driving to and from here. The place is not hard to find from the road. There is ample parking here, but it is not paved, so you'll be parking on dirt or mud, depending on the weather. My most recent visit here was on February 5, 2021 during the 2021 Virginia Beach Restaurant Week.

I have heard about this place for quite a bit over the years. It wasn't until the 2021 Virginia Beach Restaurant Week that it got me to come in and try the place. The menu for the restaurant week looked good, and that was what ultimately got me to go in and try them out.

Once we came inside, we were immediately greeted. They asked first if we had a reservation, which we did not, but was no issue since we were there before the "rush", so we were immediately seated. Also, Covid-19 protocols were in full effect as well. Tables were spaced out in such a way so that they complied with the CDC guidance and masks were required to be on when not at your table.

The first visit was on February 2, 2021, which was also during the 2021 Restaurant Week. After being seated, we were greeted by our server and asked us what we wanted to drink. After getting the drinks, it was time to order. We took full advantage of the restaurant week menu on this visit. For the appetizer, I went with the Coconut Shrimp. Since it was a shrimp of a night, I went with the Fried Shrimp as the entrée with mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese as the sides. My mom had the same entrée, but had some different sides.

The appetizers came out within a few minutes of ordering. The coconut shrimp were amazingly good. They weren't overly breaded and a good size shrimp with each one. I'm not a fan of raspberry, so I asked for cocktail sauce instead for the coconut shrimp, which they were able to do.

After about 10 minutes or so, it was time for the entrées to come out. The timing was perfect as it was shortly after finishing the appetizer. The food looked extremely appealing and it was time to devour the shrimp. The food came out piping hot, so we gave it a minute or two to start, but that's how I like food coming out. In the end, the shrimp and sides (mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese) were great too.

The last part of the meal on the restaurant week menu was dessert. We would end up going with the brownie, but took it home to have later since the meal was a good size already. Later that evening we each had our brownies and they were really good. They were nice and soft.

Overall, the food and service were on point here. It was so good that first time that we did come back a second time that week, still during restaurant week, on February 5th. With great food and great service, this really is a great hidden gem in the Pungo area of Virginia Beach. If you are looking for a seafood place, this place is definitely worth...

We ordered take out for our family group of 12 people. It was a large order, but the person on the phone who read back the order read everything correctly. However, upon arriving at the restaurant at our specified time (1.25 hrs after we called in the order) it still wasn't ready, and we had to wait 20 more minutes for the food to be ready. Then, once we got back to our house, we realized that one of the entrees was wrong, and they didn't even include two of the kid's meals (which we were charged for), and all the food was cold. Now we have hungry, cranky kids who are crying because they don't have food, we called back to let them know the problems, and had to drive back to get the missing and corrected food, which wasn't ready on time again. And even then the remade entree was messed up again as they gave the wrong side dish! Poor management, poor execution, poor quality control, and abysmal customer service. All they would do for our troubles was give us a free dessert, which we didn't need since we had already ordered several desserts as part of our large family order.

As far as the food goes, the blackened tuna bites and the brussels sprouts were good. The she crab soup was tasty but too salty, and cold. Also it came served in large plastic containers meant for cold items, and was only about 1/4 full. The calamari was decent, the oysters rock was cold and congealed. The mango mahi was too salty and the salsa was mostly just diced mango without any flavor. The kids meals were also disappointing as the pasta marinara was spicy, and the mac n cheese portion was tiny (and again, everything was cold.) The Key lime pie was good, but the sweet potato bread pudding was dry and tasteless, and the carrot cake was ok.

Overall, I cannot recommend Blue Pete's for their food or their service. Perhaps they are better in person, but we will never go back to find out, especially since we spent quite a lot of money there and were thoroughly disappointed, and felt like the management didn't even care. We got the feeling that they don't care if they lose customers since they get a lot of vacationers and a messed up order here or there doesn't seem matter to them. I hope that they can resolve these issues for...