Bennett's Fish Shack — Restaurant in Westport

I went to Bennett's Fish Shack a couple of months ago, and really enjoyed their tasty burger and yummy crab cakes. So we went back again, but I was disappointed this time.

We ordered crab cakes, fish & chips combo, and a salad. I would say food is OK but not as great as last time, the crab cakes were good but a bit dull, fish was overcooked to dark brown, the fried clam strips were really hard to chew, and a coupe of them also had sand inside.

However the service experience is not so good. The waitress/cashier who helped us was nice, she was eager to recommend different drinks and sauces, only after getting receipt I realized that they actually charge $0.50 for tartar sauce, which you would expect to come with the combo meal, but it's no big deal. My wife wanted some hot water, so we just had 2 cups of hot water, we didn't get that even after the food was served, I had to ask another waiter nearby to get the water for us. To make matters worse, they charged us for $5.98 as 2 cups of hot tea, even though they served 2 cups of plain water. When I asked about the charge after the meal, the waitress told me that since the hot water came from the same pot making tea, that's why she charged me the same price as hot tea!

Another thing is that they ask you to pay and tip right after ordering. This is a place where customers need to go to the cashier to order their food, go fetch their own condiments and napkins, find a table to sit down (and wipe the dirty table) themselves, it's not the same service level as a full-service restaurant. But they would ask for tip right after ordering, before customers finding out the service or the food quality. It's also interesting how they present their recommend tip amount, 1st choice is 25%, 2nd choice is 22%, and 3rd choice is 18%. I felt it's a bit sneaky and aggressive in terms of the tip amount they're asking, given the fact this is a restaurant with pretty minimal service. Given my previous experience with them, I still gave them 22% tip upfront, but after all the experience with their food and service this time, it definitely doesn't feel they deserve anywhere near that.

Congratulations Bennett's Fish Shack, you've successfully milked your customers, and also lost another...

A fresh fish feast fit for a... well if not a king at least a prince.

I ordered the Cod fish and chips with a coffee and my wife ordered the chowder and a fancy pineapple cream soda.

The cod fish and chips comes with a fair number of fries and two large pieces of cod. The portion was plenty came with both tarter and a cocktail sauce. I'm personally a cocktail sauce guy and there's has a generous hit of horse radish that I very much enjoyed. The beer batter on the cod is nice it tastes hand dipped and fresh made. The fries were good quality and their oil was very fresh.

The coffee was served with cream in a large nice glass coffee cup. Visually appealing and a nice cafe quality coffee.

The chowder had a lot of onion flavor, on the heavy side with the onion for my taste but once you get past that initial "ok that's a lot of onion" it's actually very good. Great clam taste and nice large clam pieces with that chew you're used to getting in homemade chowder. The potatoes were perfectly cooked to have that slight bite but not at all under done. The creaminess of the heavy cream sticks to your tongue and satisfies your hunger. If not for the heavy onion in the blend of aromatics this would be a pretty perfect bowl of chowder.

The soda was a Pepsi product called Stubborn Soda with a backwards b. It tastes like any of the high quality soda makers products with real cane sugar and quality flavors.

If you're in Westport you will be treated to a cozy fish house feel very comfortable place to enjoy a meal and courteous waitstaff. They are clean well dressed and look well taken care of generally.

If you're in Ocean shores the atmosphere is a bit more like a bar than a restaurant and I couldn't call it comfortable. The waitstaff are a little less courteous a little less put together and look like they enjoy their job a bit less than those who work at the westport store. Not sure why two stores so close together with basically the same menu would be so different. I was kind of caught off guard by the atmosphere at the Ocean Shores store. Definitely more of a place to grab a cocktail or ten than...

The family and I went to Aberdeen just to see what was going on. (NOT MUCH) So we decided to go to West Port. Having traveled an hour and a half we were a bit hungry. We asked a local in West Port what is the best fish and chip's place to eat. Bennett's was their answer. So off we went in search of Bennett's. We found it and there was parking right in front. There is also a lot of parking across the street too. So in we went to get our fish and chip's grub on. Not only did Bennett's have sea food but they had burgers too. The prices were very high for their menu, but, considering the pandemic circumstances I let it go. $15.00 for Cod; $22.00 for halibut- OUCH!!! LET GO OF MY LEG! For four of us it was $88.00. The drinks they had was either bottled water, or two flavored drinks. No Coke, no Pepsi. The mark up on the drinks was more than I was willing to pay for. They gave us a plastic number and told us to go find a seat. Luckily it wasn't to busy and a table just opened up. It just needed to be clean. Bennett's doesn't have very much when it comes to seating. A few tables to handle 4 or more guests. There are 4 picnic tables outside on the side and 2 out front. Bennett's looked more like a biker dive than a restaurant. They only had one bathroom that is used by Everyone. Our food arrived and our Cod looked delicious but there was only two over a bunch of French fries. (Personally I would have liked to see 3 Cods fish for the price I paid, but, it is what it is. The fish and chips were delicious. Best I have eaten in a long time. Worth the price? NO. But for a one time splurge- - - O.K. Would I go there again, probably not unless there are improvements. We were given our meal but no silverware. We had to request it. The employees were a bit stand offish and wouldn't answer a simple question. So we had to ask two more employees until we were able to get an answer to our...