Jimmies of Savin Rock — Restaurant in West Haven

I'm not certain why this restaurant is a staple in the area. When my wife and I arrived, we were greeted by a parking lot that had grass growing in the cracks, some potholes, and gravel strewn about. That should have been my first clue but, since the restaurant carried so much notoriety we pressed on.

Walking in the front door, we were greeted by a very sweet and kind hostess. She had seen that my wife was legally blind and when we asked to use their restroom, my wife had asked for assistance and the hostess said, "It's ok, you can go and help. I'll watch the door. Nobody's going to come in." That was HUGELY kind and very helpful to my wife and we both greately appreciative of the kind gesture.

Again, this wonderful hostess let my wife choose which table she would be comfortable at so that she could see to enjoy her meal. Another act of kindness that needs to get credit for the hostess. Sadly, that's where our pleasant experience ended.

Let's start with the atmosphere. Now if you want a panoramic view of long island sound with no obstruction, it's a great spot. The windows are HUGE and you can see everything. That was a nice feature.

The lighting however was VERY dark and many of the fixtures had chipped paint on the interior. (Which could fall into your plate from overhead) The valance above the window and it's curtain on the left wall had a 3 foot water stain that had never been cleaned. I would assume there was a roofing issue at some point that contributed to the stain. Kind of an eyesore while you're eating.

Waitstaff: Although courteous, it was clear that they really were not enthused about being there. The restaurant probably had about 10 tables (Out of the 50) filled for lunch. With so few patrons, it would be in the best interest of the wait staff to put more effort into the dining experience to earn more tips.

The Food: Our appetizers arrived about 15 minutes after ordering and came hot. My wife ordered a crabcake and I ordered fried zucchini & mushrooms. According to my wife, the crabcake was soggy and flavorless. My appetizer was 'ok'.

Following the appetizers, my salad came in a wafer thin patterned wooden bowl that was reminiscent of my childhood in the 80's. The lettuce tasted as if it were bagged lettuce from the grocery store with a few pieces of julienned carrot and cabbage mixed in for color and 2 grape tomatoes. 4 bagged croutons were atop the pile of lettuce.

30 minutes later after the appetizers were cleared, our entrées arrived. My wife had ordered a lobster roll and coleslaw. Her lobster tasted burnt and the roll was very soggy. The coleslaw, much like the salad, tasted like bagged coleslaw.

I had ordered chicken alfredo with linguini. When my large bowl of pasta arrived, the sauce looked "off". Instead of a savory, cheesy, and earthy alfredo, I believe the chef made a roux from corn starch, flour, and a tablespoon of condensed milk. The pieces of chicken that topped the pasta were clearly par boiled before being plated. The rubbery and tasteless chicken was not trimmed and when cut with a steak knife, was a challenge to cut through. The pasta was overcooked and mushy. Needless to say, I had one bite of the chicken and 2 forkfuls of pasta and I was done.

When the check arrived for $88.16, I began to question my life choices.

To the hostess that greeted us, you are a gem and deserve to work in a place who's cuisine matches your dedication to service. I thank you for a wonderful experience.

To the owner of Jimmies, your website looks beautiful and you are sitting on a...

The first two words that come to mind after eating here are “tourist trap”. The service was mediocre, the food was subpar, and their policies were unfriendly. Our first warning should have been when there was a wait for a table and yet half of the tables in the restaurant were empty.

While I generally understand the reasoning behind included gratuity for large groups, I’ve never seen 15% automatically added for groups of 4 or more (10 or more and it rises to 18%!). The included gratuity seemed to make the waitstaff here not put forth more than the minimum effort.

Let’s start with our drink order. I ordered a seltzer with lime, which was served without the lime. Another in our party ordered a Jameson and was served a whiskey that was definitely well-grade. We ordered a milk for our son and the server made sure we knew that it wasn’t included with the kids meal (which is fine except soda or juice are, and the menu price difference is negligible). It took approximately 20 minutes for our drink order to be served, and another 20 minutes when some ordered a second round. Sodas, coffee, and similar drinks that might usually be considered ‘bottomless’ were instead clearly marked as including a single refill. That comes across as being incredibly stingy, especially given the cost of providing those beverages.

Dinner was a similarly disappointing experience. Roughly half of the menu is marked “market price”. While I can understand doing that for a few seafood items across a larger menu, when you’re a seafood restaurant on the beach, it’s unacceptable IMHO. The menu has a lot of choices listed, but none had any information on how they were prepared. That’s fine for fried seafood platters, but it is less so when the menu says “Boston Scrod”. When our server was asked how it was prepared, “broiled” was the response.

The “famous” fried seafood was no more than a notch above diner quality, and was definitely not deserving of its “market price” designation. The portions seemed generous at first glance, until you realized that more than half of the plate was filled with toasted white bread and mediocre, short french fries. The seafood pot pie looked incredible and generously portioned at first glance, but in the end was mostly filled with huge chunks of carrot and way too much pastry. The members of our party that ordered pasta dishes and the “famous” hot dog platter seemed to like their meals.

Some meals were served with the odd choice of soup, salad, or coleslaw. Of course, the soups offered by the server didn’t include clam chowder (likely the most popular choice) despite it being priced the same as the soups that were offered. Overall service was quite slow, we were there for 2 hours and the restaurant was no more than half full.

All in all, I felt that this was an establishment which has become far too comfortable with their place in history. They know people will keep walking through the door based solely on their reputation from decades past. At this point, their reputation is pretty much shot, and there are far better choices in the area. It isn’t a restaurant that I have any desire to...

Awful experience with waiter, manager and random "bar back" who looked dirty. Found bug/particle in glass of water. Informed waiter who lacked a personality. Initially informed waiter with no expectations. Just thought he should know.

Than over heard him speaking loudly about it near cash register to other staff. The waiter returned with the glass to inform us there was no bug. Since he was so condescending we asked for mngr.

Manager reported he sent waiter back per policy. We informed him we had no expectations, just thought they should know. At no point did we receive a simple apology. The mngr appeared more interested proving there was no bug. We than said fine, we would call it a particular in the water.

Finally we just asked for bill. When we went to counter to pay the conversation continued. Apparently the bar back felt the need to join in and add his opinion. I asked the mngr several times to ask the bar back to stop.

The bar back escalated a fight but, decided he would run his mouth from behind the bar. He ridiculously stated he made more money than us. Than made a hand jester to his private parts. Very creepy. In my line of work that makes him a sex offender. But, whatever!

The whole thing was such a disappointment as we have been going to Jimmies for over 20 years. In the past we shared stories about twins with the owners. They shared great advice and had been very kind.

Will not return to Jimmies and will share this event with our family and friends on Facebook.

This is the first review I've ever done. Just wanted people to understand the magnitude of disrespect we received. We spent about $200.00 on meals and deserved much better treatment. It is sad that restaurants can get away with treating people this way. We brought out off town family members to our so called favorite resturant.

Never again Jimmies this is...