Crooked Shoreline — Restaurant in Virginia

We had been looking forward to trying this place, but our experience was a mixed bag. We ordered coconut shrimp as an appetizer, we each ordered a side salad (husband got house with ginger soy dressing; I got a side Caesar), and we ordered the bacon jam burger and fish & chips for our entrees.

Service: Hit or miss. Our server was very friendly and did a good job with refilling our drinks throughout. But she brought my husband’s salad almost immediately after we ordered & didn’t say anything about mine. A couple minutes later, my husband asked about it, and she said they were making mine. The shrimp app came out (still no Caesar salad for me). Finally, after we had eaten the appetizer & his salad was finished, my husband asked another person who walked by about my salad, and within 30 seconds, she brought it to me. Our server checked on us quite a few times throughout the meal, but she disappeared after bringing our check, about which we had several questions.

Food: The shrimp was really good! The breading is pretty thick, but the coconut is very present, which we loved. The side salads are VERY small, especially for a $6 add-on in this area. But both of us enjoyed the salads; they were very tasty. My husband enjoyed his burger but wasn’t wowed by it. My fish & chips were good also; the breading was softer than it looked but did have some nice crisp on the edges.

Value for the price: Undecided. We don’t mind paying higher prices for higher end meals, but this restaurant again is a mixed bag. $15 for a burger isn’t bad. But the crab cake entree would’ve been $30. The salads weren’t $6 salads in our opinion.

The weirdest part: The check.

The menu listed whole dollar amounts for every item. Our check came, and every item was more than the menu stated (example: $12.48 for an item listed as $12). After asking (someone who wasn’t our server, because our server had disappeared), we were told that the taxes were included in the list price on the receipt. This was also confusing, because underneath the subtotal of the list prices, two more lines of taxes were listed with another total beyond that. THEN, there was yet ANOTHER total, because as it turns out, there are DIFFERENT PRICES depending on whether you pay with cash or with card. You don’t get a discount for cash; you get an upcharge for card.

I have problems with this. Whenever an establishment starts tacking on processing fees for cards, it feels like you’re nickeling & diming your customers. I would much rather you inflate your menu prices to absorb that cost of business for yourself than to surprise the customer with it at the end. There was nowhere on the menu or in the restaurant that advised us of the upcharge for using credit card. We had visited the website several times in anticipation of coming here; nothing was stated there, either. The server we asked about it insisted that we let a manager come explain things to us (we weren’t going to ask to speak with a manager), and she plainly told us it isn’t posted anywhere.

What a bizarre and confusing way to end our meal together. To me, it’s not about the dollar amount; it’s the courtesy (or lack thereof) to the customer by surprising us with confusing tickets and unexpected upcharges.

Honestly, it’s unlikely we will come back, simply because there was nothing that...

We had a great start to our dining experience, our waitress was great, very friendly and attentive, and the food was delicious. We especially enjoyed the buffalo chicken dip appetizer, though it came with very few pita chips. We asked for some extra chips to take home with the leftover dip and were told there would be a $3 charge, which we were fine with, even though the original portion felt a bit skimpy.

However, the experience took a disappointing turn at the end. When we received the box of chips to-go, no one mentioned that they had substituted tortilla chips for pita chips. We only realized the switch after opening the box ourselves, and had we not checked, we wouldn’t have known until we got home. When we asked about it, we were told they were out of pita chips but were still going to charge us the $3 for the substitute. The tortilla chips weren’t nearly as good, so we declined.

What really left a sour taste was the manager’s response. Rather than offering the substitute chips as a courtesy & simply waiving the charge, they chose to take the box back and throw it away. It wasn’t about the $3, it was the principle. Tossing them out instead of offering a small gesture of goodwill felt unnecessary and unprofessional, especially considering we were happy customers up until that point.

Edit to add: My original review was 3 stars, but after the owner’s response, which contains several inaccuracies, I’ve updated it to 1 star.

To be clear, we were not informed that you were out of pita chips or that they would be replaced with tortilla chips. If that had been communicated, we would have declined the $3 order altogether. We only realized the substitution after opening the to-go box ourselves. Had we not checked, we wouldn’t have known until we got home. If this information came from Sam, then she was not being honest. However, considering how pleasant she was throughout the meal, I believe it is more likely it is the unkind manager who is misrepresenting the situation.

Also worth mentioning, we tipped generously and had no issue paying the $3 for pita chips had they actually been provided. This was never about the money. It was about the lack of transparency and how poorly it was handled. Instead of taking responsibility and offering the substitute chips as a courtesy, they were taken back and thrown away. A well-managed restaurant would have simply acknowledged the miscommunication and made it right.

We will not be giving this place another try, and unfortunately, they’ve lost four local and loyal customers over how this...

My wife and I had never been to this new(ish) restaurant in Daleville VA, The Crooked Shoreline, so we went for dinner on Sunday 1/19/2025 at 6:30PM. As soon as we entered the restaurant we were greeted by a lovely young lady who walked us through the new building and showed us the two main dining areas - the first one was a large dining area with booths and tables that might accommodate perhaps 70 patrons. Farther back was a somewhat smaller dining area that featured a bartender taking care of a nicely stocked bar with many bar chairs and maybe 6 or so hightop tables for four. This area had several large flat screen TVs with volumes set to medium-low. You could actually hold a conversation in there without screaming. We took a booth in the main dining area and were immediately given dinner menus and a beverage & cocktails menu. We ordered our drinks. After a few moments looking at the menu, the waitress returned with our drinks and took our order. The menu was of moderately size but the dinner selections all sounded great. My wife ordered a tossed salad and a small Margarita pizza and I ordered a Caesar salad and the house specialty blackened Crab Cakes with rice. The salads were brought first and they were both surprisingly delicious. The greens were super fresh. Right after we finished our salads, the main courses were served piping hot. My favorite seafood is crab and for 60 years I have eaten it in many forms all over the eastern seaboard from New York to Florida and I found these crab cakes to be sensational, 'off-the-hook'. The moist (medium-sized) lumps of crab meat were seasoned perfectly and just melted in my mouth. The blackening was light as it should be on this dish, as fresh crab has such a subtle flavor. Clearly a real seafood gourmet chef made these - a real chef. My wife's pizza looked fantastic with warm 4" - 5"cheese strings as she pulled out the first piece! She ate the entire pizza but reported that she could taste a touch of sweetness in each bite that was unusual for a Margarita. Our bill less tax came to only about $44 which is very reasonable for a fine restaurant. We both agreed that we would...