The Lobster Pot — Restaurant in Willoughby Hills

This was our first visit to The Lobster Pot, and my first impression is that the food is pretty good (although it's rather pricey) but the service leaves much to be desired. This was the first time in ages that I did not tip. Let me explain. I'm not sure if our server was having an off day or she may be in the wrong career path, but the service was not what I expected out from a venue of this type. Our drinks and appetizer orders arrived in a reasonable amount of time, but we began to notice that guests at several other tables who had arrived after us were being served their meals before us. It may have been that they called in, so we didn't say anything. But did you ever get the feeling that something was wrong? When we did get our meals my wife's salad that was included with her meal wasn't provided and we had two fish frys that were missing coleslaw. My wife declined the salad at that point and asked that it be removed from our bill, the server acknowledged the request and went to get the missing coleslaws. The server told us that the kitchen was behind because they were so busy preparing take-out orders. It didn't sit well with me because plenty of other dine-in guests already had their dinners, but I rolled with it. When the bill was presented the salad had not been removed. I informed the server about the error and her response was that she can't take anything off because it was included with the meal cost, not ordered as a side. I told her that I'm not paying for something that I didn't get, and she stormed off in a huff after uttering something like "You didn't pay for it anyways, it was included with the meal, but this is my bad and I'll take 2 off". How she thought that the salad wasn't paid for in the meal price is beyond me, especially when a side salad is on the menu for $5.00. Are salads free with meals I wonder? I was trying hard to look beyond the numerous issues with our dining experience but after her rude behavior her tip was sealed. When she returned with the revised bill, there was a $2.00 credit for the missing salad, and when I paid the bill, she wound up paying for a significant part of our dinner with the generous tip that she would have gotten before her attitude attack prevailed. I'm over the COVID excuses for strained businesses, I believe that it's being used way too much to cover other issues. It's been over a year and they have had plenty of time to ready themselves for the return of a busy Friday at a seafood restaurant during Lent. We like to take the time to enjoy our meals and the conversation when we dine out, we are not usually on a clock. When we arrived at 5:00pm the place was almost 50% full. When we left it was packed almost to capacity. With that being said I'm also generally quite tolerant of mistakes in restaurants when they do happen as long as they are corrected, without the drama side show. If something goes wrong than we roll with it, it's not that big of a deal. I'm leaving the server's name out of this intentionally. I don't want to brand her if she was having a bad day, that's not fair for a single instance. If she reads this, I hope that she recalls the experience and takes it to heart. I've made a note of her name and we'll request her again if she's working when we return. It just as important that everyone (almost) deserves a break, yet feedback is...

This was our birthday Club SECOND luncheon. The first time was at the end of October. That time the service was poor. The food was below average. BUT one of the members booked it anyway.

Today was awful. Most of the group orders were either wrong, VERY slow to come out (and sides not until the end of 3 HOURS), or the serve staff didn't bring at all.

They seemed to truly not care about our party. There was ONE table other than ours and they both spent time standing still, listening, and attending to their needs.

We had to LITERALLY ask the wait staff to stop walking so that they could even HEAR our orders!

We suffered through because the Birthday person was mourning at the death of a family member but did not want to leave us hanging as many members had to drive in inclement weather and from far distances.

She had to inquire several times about her meal, although she was one of the first to order AND she asked about timing because she had to leave to attend the Memorial service.

When she was finally served, it was the WRONG order. She nearly cried and we had to ask her if we could at least read her well wishes because she got up to simply leave without having been served ANYTHING.

She left. We tried to make the best of it. We sat and we sat. And we sat. When we had to flag down one waiter who FINALLY appeared ON HER WAY TO THE OTHER TABLE, we asked for checks.

She was surprised! Obviously, they had decided that they were done.

We were held hostage when all we wanted to do was pay our checks and go home.

Even the most reserved and tolerant within our birthday club was exasperated saying: NEVER AGAIN.

Oh! And did I mention the actual food that made it to our table was completely subpar?

This restaurant needs to assess their customer service and the quality of the food. To sum it all up... It...

Now this place right here oh my goodness... First of all is next door to my girlfriend's place where they sell soap and different items and her places phenomenal so as I was waiting to be seated I was perusing the area and saw her store didn't know it was there go figure right 😂

So we were walk-ins.... and some people were standing next to us already reservations however they were waiting a long time as well....

so it was just a busy evening which is great for a restaurant....so we were just talking and enjoying the surroundings and the busyness of everything🤩

We had about 4 different people that came and said we'll be with you shortly😊 and it was a looooong (will be calling reservations in next time LOL) wait, however once we sat down we ordered appetizers the lady server ( Mexican descent I think🤨) was Phenomenal!!!!👏👏👏🤩

She kept trying to get me to get tequila LOL 😂... She wanted me to have a great night eh😭😂however seriously the service was Absolutely Beautiful ❤️😊 the food was 👌 Excellent.... we ordered the Alfredo shrimp and my husband ordered a shrimp platter the shrimp were huge and delicious the appetizer was some type of shrimp appetizer it tasted so much like a dish I had years ago when I was a flight attendant back in the '90s I never found that dish again this taste is so much like it👐 so I really enjoyed that appetizer✅

I'll probably order that next time 3 of those😆 place is clean it's beautiful surroundings people having a great time the service is absolutely 😍 and this definitely is our go to place we live in the area oftentimes we go out of our area because we can't find places that have good seafood so this definitely is on our list as a favorite thank you for being a Phenomenal...