Waterman's Surfside Grille — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

This place has piss poor customer service. The blonde haired- not natural- short manager definitely has a terrible attitude. I probably should have picked a different place for my group when the young lady I spoke with from special events couldn't answer any basic questions. Then when I called the restaurant after we were disconnected to make sure the reservation went thru- the young lady said it said for 2 people instead of 28 and had my name and email wrong. Once the restaurant was announced to our group- the rsvp changed from 28 to 38 🥴 When I called the restaurant to see if I would be able to change the reservation- I was told that I couldn't because they were booked up and that my additional could come but they wouldn't be seated with my party and they would have to wait. I had no problem with that . Told them they could sit at bar or a different section, I didn't care but that I would still be taking care of their bill. I was told I needed to pay a deposit and that the deposit would go towards the bill- however, I didn't have access to the card that was going to pay for the meal so I asked if I could switch payments the day of and have the deposit returned to original card and I got a "I'm not sure". Well that's not sufficient when you are talking Abt almost $500. So the person with the card was supposed to pay the deposit so we didn't have to tussle Abt getting the money returned and unbeknownst to me, didn't. I found out when my guest started arriving. We left an athlete behind so that we could make sure 75% of our party was there so they wouldn't cancel our reservation. He was the only athlete that competed that didn't have his teammates cheering for him. Upon getting there, the managers attitudes were rude. They refused to accept our tax-exempted paperwork.. (I had called in Feb and spoken with Mr. Lee in the VA tax and revenue office to see what was required to get reciprocity and he told me to just show my Federal and Md at the places I bought stuff-) anywho the male manager stated that their accountant said we couldn't use it. So we didn't. The lady manager was like we cxl'd your reservations because you didn't pay the deposit- I called the card holder and they indeed had forgotten to pay the deposit. 😩 The manager said she could seat us but we wouldn't be together as a group and there would be some wait in-between. Ok. So that should have been the end of it- but she was nasty Abt everything- our driver ordered take-out and his food was improperly packaged so his sauce leaked out and she didn't want to replace his sauce. Told him well maybe the way they packaged it and YOU handled it caused the sauce to come out. He had to repeatedly ask for sauce before she relented to replace his sauce. She was mad that I used a mobility device 😆 but they are allegedly handicap accessible. We weren't seated as a group but they surely CHARGED A GROUP GRATUITY. Told me I couldn't have one check because we had over 6 tables but they figured out how to put it on three to make it seem like we had a large group. Except, it was really only 4 people at most tables. I didn't eat, I refused to give them any more money than I had to .. But for me having to feed 20 minors who had to get back to competing- I would have moved the entire party to another venue. We paid over $1000 for all of the meals. Another place would have gladly accepted that without all the nastiness. If Waterman didn't want to accommodate us- they should've said we can't accommodate you so we could have gone elsewhere without wasting time. They could've called and said they hadn't received the deposit so they are about to cxl the reservation. To be fair- I heard that most of the servers were nice and that the cajun pasta was good . The rest of the food was just ok. Said Bravo's pasta was better than pasta here and it's cheaper. When we travel back for other competitions we definitely won't be using this venue to feed our athletes. ANNA MUST BE THE MANAGER EVERYONE's TALKING ABT . Not a...

I'll try and make this short and to the point. I've been here several times and was extremely disappointed with this last visit. I had a reservation for dinner this past Sunday. The reservation was for 5, and it seemed as if they were not prepared for my party. We were sat at a cramped table for 4 with a chair on the end in the middle of the walkway. The atmosphere hasn't changed, but the service sure has. Our server was Cheryl C. Cheryl was very inattentive to our needs and it was a challenge to get her to come back to our table. Maybe I'm spoiled or expecting too much, but I've been to several restaurants where I could place an entire order and have my food come out at the appropriate times. We ordered drinks, appetizers, and main dishes. Received the drinks, then got apps10 minutes later. The problem was that this young kid came over after 5 minutes of getting our apps, and brought over our main dishes. I looked at him and told him that we were not ready for that yet. He just shrugged his shoulders and left the food at the table. I literally had to stop eating my soup, leave my crab dip alone, and start eating my main dish. If I hadn't, then I would have been left with a cold meal. This isn't rocket science, yet I find it necessary to have to teach people the correct way of doing things. A professional server would make sure to time everything accordingly...maybe even make sure we weren't rushed to get our food. The place wasn't even packed yet. There was no need to rush it out. I feel like we just wasted money on things we couldn't enjoy at the proper temperatures. I saw another review regarding the tipping, and I couldn't agree more. Tips are EARNED and Cheryl definitely didn't earn or deserve the tip that I left. I hate that they stick that little machine in your face with a tip already prepopulated. I desperately looked for 5% as she seemed annoyed that I was taking too long. Oh, I forgot...3 different checks that all came out at different times. I had to flag another server down just to get my bill. Lastly, the young man that brings the food out... I suggest giving him a tray or some extra help. Several times I watched as his fingers would touch the food he was bringing...if not his fingers, then his shirt. It's really disgusting. I'm sure that the other guests wouldn't have wanted their meals had they saw what I saw. I really hope management sees this and makes some changes. I'd be more than happy to act as a consultant to help address the issues I mentioned and the ones I did not. I saw so much that could've been better and would definitely benefit everyone. I hate that I now have to add Waterman's to my list of questionable places. There are SEVERAL other seafood restaurants in the area that will impress you and make you want to come back. After Sunday's experience, this one...

Absolutely predatory tipping behavior here.

Any group of 6 requires a mandatory 20% gratuity. So if you're a couple with 4 children who are old enough to not make noise or a mess you're still paying 20%. Now I don't have a problem with that, if you don't want to do that, patronize elsewhere.

However here is my issue. I was a party of 6, two checks for 3 and 3. When I got my check I realized it was balanced in text format according to basic accounting principles.

Subtotal xx.xx Mandatory 20% gratuity xx.xx Tax xx.xx Total xx.xx

However, what was incorrect according to basic accounting and financing is the 20% was not actually 20% of the subtotal, it was 20% of the total. Which means the amount in its list format is incorrect, and more importantly, it's unlawful. A bill breakdown has to be accurate. If you want 20% gratuity to include tipping on tax, it has to be listed underneath the tax line. That's the law.

Now more importantly I'm pretty familiar with tipping etiquette, and you don't tip on tax. Infact I highly doubt somebody sold them a point of sale system that out of the box charges customers a tip percent on sales tax.

I didn't have a problem with tipping, I had a problem with the fact it's unlawfully listed, and I'm being demanded I tip on tax.

The waitress, didn't even want to hear my argument. Finally she got a manager, who insisted the amount was NOT encompassing tip, I had to genuinely explain basic tipping etiquette, basic financing/accounting, and most important, a violation of law. I finally had to do the MATH for him on a calculator.

The manager insisted "he can't change this" my check listed a party of 3.....so you had to have added it yourself...so you can alter it. Finally he agreed, snarkily.

More than 10 minutes later the waitress came back with my new bill. This one was LITERALLY HIGHER. And she tried to argue it was correct. She finally came back another nearly 10 minutes later after going to 3 tables with my correct bill, she was rude, and the manager never did come back. But this bill, I was not being demanded to give a higher tip on tax. After that, nobody got anywhere near 20%

Im not saying don't tip your service, what I am saying is, watch out for predatory practices. I wonder how many thousands of dollars in additional tips and revenue patrons pay that they would not ordinarily leave because they don't do the math themselves. And this isn't the only restaurant owned by the same company at the...