Verandah Raw Bar — Restaurant in Westerly

A beautiful setting, a fantastic hotel, and a wildly disappointing dining experience. We will not be coming back.

We have been coming to the Ocean House for about ten years, and my family has lived in the area each summer for over 50 years. This was the worst celebratory dinner out we have ever had in the area.

Westerly is getting better and better when it comes to dining options, this includes “downtown” or in Watch Hill itself. The Verandah Raw Bar is not only very expensive, but the service is non-existent, and the food is unfit for a cafeteria nevermind a $100+ per person dinner.

We had raw bar items that were warm, which was concerning to say the least, however the real let downs among the appetizers we ordered were 1) the grey, anemic bluefish pate which frankly was an incredibly gross color and 2) the tuna tartar which we had to send back because it was inedible. There is no reason to eat grey, smelly raw fish for a birthday dinner. I wouldn’t wish that tuna tartar on my worst enemy, so I obviously wouldn’t (willingly) subject my family to it.

For entrees one of the items we ordered, the catch of the day, never arrived. We confirmed that the waiter never wrote it down. The rest of the items that arrived were all completely without flavor. Fortunately that was an improvement from the first course, as we were unlikely to get food poisoning from anything that we got for our second course.

The $30 Christopher beef sandwich, was exactly as bad as a previous reviewer noted — grey, overcooked, no onions, and largely devoid of flavor. The pair of $48 cold lobster rolls we ordered, which the kitchen was kind enough to split for us, also had no flavor. I think a $48 lobster roll should include tail meat, and again a little flavor would be nice.

For sides, we kindly requested an order of French fries as that’s what our birthday boy was hoping for. The waiter flatly refused, stating those were only offered inside. I cannot fathom how a waiter wouldn’t attempt to get the kitchen inside to make an order of French fries for someone’s birthday. Instead of fries we had potato salad and coleslaw, both were literally unseasoned. Hard, undercooked potatoes and mayo, with no salt or seasoning and seemingly undressed shredded cabbage.

By the time we finished our entrees we decided it was not worth staying any longer. Despite our desire to leave, the server was kind enough to bring a comped dessert, which we didn’t ask for, and didn’t like. There is no other way to describe it, store-bought cupcakes.

$370+ later, before gratuity, and we got to leave. In and out in under an hour. Fortunately it was early enough that we could go somewhere else for better food, service, and memories.

Summary: -Beautiful view -Inedible food that could get you sick -Service that’s forgetful and not interested in trying too hard… -No...

The service was awful, the food awful and sat over priced. We ate here the day we arrived since our room was not going to be ready for 2 hours. lobster roll $45! Fishy. We found other restaurants in the area with $18 rolls that were delicious. Clam chowder barely had clams. Heriloom tomato salad for $20 nothing special. Fruit salad was some pieces of cantaloupe with sad blueberries. Crab dip too much mayo and not worth $27. I forgot i made reservations for dinner at the end of the week. I trued to cancel the night before and if you do not cancel in 24 or more hours they charge you a fee per person! Are you joking? Guess they are desperate. So we went down, had 2 salads, 3 cups chowder, a glass of wine, 4 ice teas, 1 beer and 1 mixed drink and the bill was $200!. We should have paid the cancel fee. We ordered...

Let's start by acknowledging that the view of Long Island Sound is truly remarkable. However, the overall experience leaves much to be desired. The glass of wine provided was disappointingly minuscule, akin to a dixie cup, which felt rather disrespectful considering the price. On a positive note, the food was enjoyable. Unfortunately, the wait staff was largely inattentive, frequently huddled together in a corner of the dining room engrossed in their conversations. Regrettably, I had to actively seek their attention whenever they sporadically emerged in the dining area. Were it not for the captivating view, revisiting this establishment would certainly not be...