The Whaling Company — Restaurant in Williamsburg

TERRIBLE meal tonight at The Whaling Company. When my husband and I saw the menu online, it sounded great. But once we arrived at the hostess table, it started to go downhill from there.

The hostess had to be prompted to acknowledge us by another server. Our server was very nice, which was really the only positive part of the experience. The musty smell of the decaying decor definitely wasn't.

To begin the meal, we opted for some staple starters which had been touted on online. We got the crab dip and a half-pound of fresh steamed shrimp. We were immediately in trouble when the food arrived and we were greeted with the crab dip surrounded by a handful of cheap salt crackers. The shrimp arrived in hardly better shape. They were swimming in boat of melted water and sea broth, as they were clearly microwaved (previously frozen) salad shrimp.

A few bites in and we knew the crab dip was just canned crab in a pre-prepared sauce. It was doused in old bay spices to hide its prep.

The salad shrimp we ate more of since we were starving at this point and their taste could be hidden by the melted butter and cocktail sauce.

Unfortunately, we had ordered entrées before the apps arrived, adding to the disaster which was dinner. I ordered their highly recommended, special linguini dish "The Sonny" which was supposed to be a combo of scallops and shrimp atop a bed of sun dried tomatoes and mushrooms with linguini pasta. What I received was a plate of humungous, canned mushrooms and limp tomatoes atop linguini so overcooked it was limp spaghetti. Hidden somewhere within were 3 rubbery scallops and 3 more salad shrimp. First bite into the dish was sooooo salty I could barely take it. After stirring it, finding the seafood, and trying a second, it was officially the worst dish I have ever had at a restaurant. Back to the kitchen it went.

Oh, and don't get me started on the broccoli which had clearly been sitting out to rot for two days. Speechless.

Possible that this was a good restaurant 5 years ago? But it is definitely on its last leg now. Don't waste...

Preposterously overpriced and an extremely weird vibe. The longer we sat and waited for the food, the more concerned we were about eating it because of the vibe of the restaurant and state of the dining room. It came out to about $100 for 2 people to eat, and it was absolutely not worth it. The scallops were cooked inconsistently and seemed either not that fresh or prepared poorly; they weren't the smooth soft tender texture I expect from good scallops. They were also sitting in a thick pool of butter, which is just unnecessary. It's like the butter was trying to cover the scallops' flavor because the flavor wasn't that good, because either the freshness or the prep were subpar. I got potatoes on the side and they weren't seasoned, so they were flavorless, and one of them I couldn't eat because of an eye that spread bitterness all through the potato. When I pay $100 for a seafood dinner, I want the service and food to knock my socks off, and that's absolutely not what happened here. My partner and I were worried the food was going to make us sick. It didn't, but even having to worry about that means this establishment is WAY overpriced. I don't know how else to put this: from the seemingly year-round Christmas tree, to the tables with cracked, moisture-ridden (black/moldy) epoxy resin, to the damp/dank building, this restaurant reminded my partner and I of something you would find on Kitchen Nightmares. The service was mediocre and our server complained to another table about young employees being useless, which didn't sit right with me, especially since I was the youngest person in the dining room and was within earshot. The hostess (or owner, couldn't tell which) made a weird comment about their Christmas tree to a group who were slowly exiting, which was a super odd interaction. There were weird uncomfortable vibes all around, in addition to the food being below average. I wish I had paid about half as much for this...

What has happened???? Food was terrible.... We took our son out for his Bday, with friends, To start with the Ceasar Salad tasted like straight vinegar, we told our waiter and he took it to the kitchen and said the chef said it was a preparation problem and they were having to make new...so they gave us a different salad... Then the crab dip appetizer came out and it tasted completely fishy was not fresh at all.... My wife had the stuffed flounder and the skin was folded on the inside...who does this? Stuffed flounder should not have any skin at all! Also she said I had so much Old Bay it was burning her mouth... I had pan fried flounder with crabmeat topped witb hollandaise...it was good UNTIL I bit into something extremely bitter in the the crab...I knew what it was immediately... the meat was not clened well and part of the lung or gill was in there...AKA, DEVIL'S FINGERS!!! At the point my meal was ruined I scraped the crab off and at the rest of the flounder...to try to get the taste out of my mouth... This what it used to be at all....take heed. Our Server was great...atmosphere has changed drastically hardly no one there compared to previous vists walked through the bar area to get to our table...and smelled cigarette smoke...then again halfway through the meal....so disappointed... The bill was $200.00 for three people. We tipped our waiter, William, greatly because HE was great. Our friends said they had went a few weeks before and did like the food. They ordered fried fish and the batter was so thick it was not done on the inside and it was gooey... they agreed to go again because they thought maybe the kitchen was just having a bad night... Apparently, something has went bad wrong this place was a go-to for everything since the early 2000s they never had a bad night that we ever experienced. So...