Surf Rider Grill — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

Sat for 20 minutes watching the waiter go to every table around us... he came to our table finally and got confused by a request to substitute the cheaper hush puppies for french fries for one of the kids. Said he had to go find the manager. He never came back... no manager came. We watched the waiter go to every table around us, including those that had arrived well after us, while the 4 small children at our table were getting hungrier and thirstier. We couldn't even get water for the kids!!! My friend went to find the manager, he said he'd be by later... didn't happen. About 10 minutes after that I went to a bartender who looked free and asked if we could get some service at our table. Five minutes after that, went to the hostess stand, since I didn't want to bother any of the servers or waiters who looked busy. I asked if we could get a server at our table. At this point, the waiter who was supposed to be serving us approached me. I said, "Not you, any waiter but you. You had your chance and chose to ignore us." He started following me, I told him I did not want to talk to him, he continued to follow me to the bathroom, making excuses, ignoring my requests that he leave me alone until I finally lost my temper and yelled at him. When I returned to my table a couple of minutes later, the head bartender (I believe, no one introduced themselves) came up and told us our meal was free, and she would be handling us. We put our order in. A few minutes after that, a random waitress approached us and said, "I know that the owner said your meal was free, but you yelled at a waiter, and I want you out of here now." I have no clue who the owner was, but this waitress did state that the owner had said our meal was free, and then kicked us out. At this point, we were done with dealing with the attitudes and mistreatment and just left. It's really funny because my friend had been so excited to take us there...since he'd been going there for well over 20 years. Neither he nor any of us will be going back. This was by far the worst service I have ever experienced or seen in a restaurant in my life. I cannot imagine any employee at any restaurant I ever worked at in my life, acting like those servers and not being fired. Gave one star only because it's impossible...

The location in va beach off Wesleyan has moved to Providence Square and the location is nice and the food is still good. However, I have never paid $20 for 1 crab cake. I ordered the shrimp dinner but wanted a crab cake and I figured it would be an up charge but I definitely didn't think it would be that much. The crab cake dinner which comes with 2 sides is $21.99 and the crab cake by itself is 19.49. To me that feels like a rip off. How is the dinner just $2 more than the crab cake? I will take the blame on this because I should have looked at the menu prior to asking for the add-on but I would've never thought $20 for one. The waiter was polite when I asked her about it but I could definitely tell she really didn't want to entertain my questions she answered but it definitely wasn't the level of service and attentiveness I am accustomed to. I understand you are busy but its about how a customer walks away feeling. It would have taken her all of less than 1 minute to stop and answer my questions. I also think that it would have been helpful if she let me know when I inquired about the crab cake that the dinner was just $2 more but again, the food was good. I will absolutely stick with my normal waiter if I return. Also, I wasn't told what the $5 charge was for but after my waiter didn't stop to speak with me regarding my intitial questions, I didn't want to anger myself so I just let it go and chalked it up. I rate a 3 star for the pricing and lack in customer service. I've been to this restaurant for years and have never walked away feeling like...

Where to begin.... I bought the salmon dinner, salmon tasted like salmon, nothing special, but twas a $20 piece, sides are mediocre and scarce. The Surf Rider dinner is over $22, scallops were chewy and hard, crabmeat cold, shrimp was firm but not sweet and had no taste. She Crab soup was terrible. Tasted only of butter and the hydrogenated oil they use. Crab was nowhere to be found in soup. Calamari was too chewy as well.

Location and decor: Nice because it's right on the marina, though I feel they use that as a crutch to warrant the declining value and taste of food and standards. No decor, though I don't mind simple.

Worst part of my dining experience was the service. No introduction was given so nobody knew our waitress' name, no words about specials, she forgot to take a few people's appetizer order and had attitude when they told her. Bill came up to around $192 and so a 20% tip would have been around $37 and I have no problem tipping good, though a tip should reflect service and it did with a $22 tip. She was picking up the receipt with tip written on and asked if I was just giving her that 11% tip and mentioned it a few times until I asked her if my math was wrong between the total and tip. She stormed off and that's when I spoke with the manager and not much came out of that. In retrospect, should have took the receipt back after she mentioned the 11% and ripped it up. Will never go again. Oh, ner name is Jessica, short blonde, real nasty demeanor.. Avoid her...