Harpoon Willy's — Restaurant in Wall Township

Been here many times and gave several 5 star reviews. Not today. Party of 5, 2PM reservation on Fathers Day, was seated promptly. Placed orders for drinks, appetizers and diner. Mentioned to the server there were no napkins, plates or utensils at our table, she said she cold get us plates and napkins, but the utensils were being washed. OK, in spite of the fact that there were 4 tables (ranging from 4 - 8 seats) around us that were empty and had full place settings, I guess the "ghost customers" are more important than the paying ones. Apps came our, still no place settings, told the food runner who brought the apps, he appeared indifferent. After a few minutes and the apps getting cold, I got up and took the place settings off the unoccupied table myself. After a long wait, 2 of our 5 dinners were delivered, with no explanation about the other three. One of the missing meals was the same as one of the meals that showed up. We assumed they were coming right out, but you know what happens when you assume. After about 10 more minutes, the other 3 meals had not shown up and I asked for a manager, who apologized and went to the kitchen to see what was up. The meals showed up a minute later. I ordered the fork and knife burger, which I always get at HW's, ordered medium. It was so badly burned, it would have taken dental records to identify it. They made me another, but needless to say, by the time it came everyone else had either finished or was close to finishing their meals, They did comp it, but It was not at all enjoyable. This was a total breakdown between the back and front of the house as well as management. I get the whole short staffed thing, but the restaurant was properly staffed for the amount of patrons they had. There were many empty tables and sections. Tables should be set, meals should come out together and food should be properly cooked, always. Too many other dining choices on the Jersey Shore to deal with this. This was once my favorite, but I definitely...

I used to come here all the time before the new owners changed the menu, but haven’t been back since they ruined it. On a whim, I checked their menu and saw that a lot of the classics were back and decided to give them another try. We started with the wings and the nachos. The nachos were absolutely TERRIBLE. Mushy chips, flavorless toppings, I literally don’t think I’ve ever had a worse plate of nachos. It was also an incredibly small plate for how expensive they were. I remember their nachos used to actually be laughable how massive the portions were. The wings were ok. I used to remember liking the wings here but it’s been so long I don’t really even remember them well enough to compare. I do know they used to come on a little bed of lettuce which gave them a nice flavor, and they don’t anymore. I also feel like they used to be crispier like they were fried and now they’re baked, maybe I’m wrong here. What I do know is someone apparently decided for us without asking that we wanted ranch with our wings instead of blue cheese. After our waiter dropped these and we realized, it was about 45 minutes before he came back to check on us and we even got to ask for blue cheese. Lastly our entrees were just ok. I don’t really have much to say about my fish tacos other than that they were heavy in grease, light in flavor.

It looks like the owners brought back some of the classic dish names, but not the classic vibe and quality of Harpoon Willy’s. Unfortunately, the place was absolutely packed on a Friday night, showing that live music and alcohol will get people to turn a blind eye to mediocre food, and I see no reason why the new owners will care enough to fix the menu...

For years this has been our go to place at the shore, loved the atmosphere and food. We made reservations for 6:30 on a Monday and my wife and I were excited for a nice night out. Arrived my name was not on the list, no problem got me a table very quickly things happen. Ordered a nice bottle of wine, waiter comes by with the glasses and shortly thereafter the wine. Pour two glasses toast to a great summer and start to take a sip, both my wife and I stop short when we realized our glasses had dirty lip prints. We are both vaccinated no problem there but want clean glasses. The waitress could not have been nicer and returned with 2 clean glasses. We wanted our favorite appetizer blackened grouper bites but it was gone. We went with a new scallop appetizer and it was very good. I ordered my favorite calamari fra diavolo which was always fresh cooked calamari in a delicious sauce, nope changed it to fried calamari with sauce on the side horrible. Nowhere did it say fried calamari on the menu. They took a perfect dish that made them special and ruined it by becoming the same as everyone else. The sauce was served cold in a bowl next to fried calamari. So sad awesome dish ruined. Caesar salad again horrible, not even close to what it was like. The dressing tasted like Mayo and nothing else. The question is why would you take something that worked for years and screw with it. Even my wife’s burger was still good but this was the best burger anywhere. What the heck happen here, the place is a train wreck. Are there new chefs or owners? Hope they figure things out before the place goes south. We will come back in August and hope...