Bill's Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Westbrook

My family and I have been coming to Bill’s Seafood for 18 consecutive years on our trip to visit family in Old Saybrook, but this year’s service has guaranteed that we will never be visiting this restaurant again. Today we went to Bill’s seafood restaurant and my niece, who is 7 years old, began to throw pieces of her food to the seagulls which sat below the dock where we were eating, as she and our other relatives have done in past years without complaint. My niece then said that a staff member had come to her and told her that she could not feed the seagulls. I fully agree with the restaurant’s policy against feeding the seagulls, but I am very dissatisfied that this staff member told my 7 year old niece that she could not feed the seagulls, and not her mother and father. There were no signs detailing that my niece would not be allowed to feed the seagulls, and this staff member opted to speak to my niece when she could have easily alerted either of her parents. Not to mention that other children were feeding the seagulls as well, and the staff member did not go through the same protocol with these children. My niece feels very guilty about having fed the seagulls, and we have had to reassure her that she did nothing wrong. We discussed this with the staff member, and she did not apologize further backing up her actions, only gave various excuses. My entire family also ordered chowder, which arrived later than all of our other dishes. Our waiter made excuses as to why our food came late, instead of apologizing for what was clearly the fault of the restaurant. After this we paid for our food and left. One of our entrees was left off and our family had to wait to eat until it arrived. An apology from anyone would have gone a long way. We are all very upset by this, and would recommend that you never visit this restaurant due to the disrespect that has been shown...

This looks like a very popular seafood restaurant. It is large with plenty of indoor and outside seating. It was also pretty crowded with many tables filled. Because of this we had very high hopes for this place!

Unfortunately we were so disappointed. We ordered two meals. One was a fried Halibut platter with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. The Halibut was the only positive item. Lightly fried, it was sweet, delicious and not greasy at all. The mashed potatoes were okay. We could tell they were made with real potatoes but with no flavor at all. Maybe use Red potatoes to mash? Add some garlic or chives or some type of flavor to make the potatoes more edible. The corn on the cob was awful. Not only no flavor but overly boiled, tiny kernels, again no flavor of any kind. Yuccb. The second dish was totally disappointing. Scallops steamed with again no flavor. The menu said Lemon Pepper Scallops. I asked can they make the Scallops another way other than Lemon Pepper. The very nice server gentleman said sure, how about Butter, Garlic and White Wine? I said perfect. I got the corn on the cob too and French fries. The Scallops were served opaque white, no color. No taste. No butter, garlic or white wine was used in making the Scallops. Bland and boring. The French fries could have been hand cut using real potatoes but they were not. And then that awful corn on the cob again.

The server was pleasant, the atmosphere was nice, nothing special, but the food was subpar. I really wanted to like it. Being that the place is so popular, maybe the fried fish would have been a better choice.

We will not be back....

Today I waited 43 min in the line to be seated on a table at this place, I was by myself, after 1:30hr that I was seated manager came to me saying they needed to change me to another table in the back cause those tables where I was seating down were not tables to be seating around ( I was drinking and eating as any other people was there) so I asked why was that for, she said was their police, u can only be seated on a table for 1:30hr. I said I never knew this was a thing, never knew this was their police, no one never told me anything when I got seated. She said that she was the manager and she wouldn’t be spending 20min on each person explaining their police to, and that I had two choices, be moved to another table in the back or leave. Another guy( manager or the owner ) came over right after and said the same things and more, asking me to be understandable cause they were making a living with the business( of course, so do I at my job) and was more people waiting to be seated. Well I waited too, 43min btw, never seeing something like that, where u are asked to leave as you are still consuming in a business to give space to others to be seated on a table. That’s my first week in this city ( here for work) and I’m very uncomfortable and annoyed with this situation. I paid my bill and left ( as I was forced to do so) How you would feel if that happened with you ?? Very rude manager yelling at me she was the manager and I had two options, move or leave. Telling me I was “”taking the table”” as I’m still eating and drinking. I would go over McDonald’s before...