Coquina fishbar — Restaurant in Wilmington

My partner and I moved to Wilmington in early June and over the past month have been looking for new restaurants to go to for dinner. We have been to Coquina three times already over the past month. Twice for brunch on Sundays and once last night, last night's experience being the main reason for writing this review. Both brunches were absolutely perfect. Their chicken and waffles plate is perfect. Both times our waitresses were very attentive to all of their tables and their service was so good. For dinner last night we again were warmly greeted and promptly shown our table. I got a cocktail from the bar, I can't remember the name but it had pineapple infused whiskey and was VERY good and well made. The restaurant was VERY busy with 3 very big parties also dining while we were there. My partner and I made our dinner orders and got to talking and passing the time. We were approached by our waitress several times apologizing for the wait on our food, the kitchen was hit hard by the 3 large parties that had come in. We did not mind, we were in no rush and didn't mind sitting and having a long conversation. Eventually it did seems as if some time had passed, that is when the manager himself came over to apologize for the wait and offered us an appetizer on the house. We had no problems with the wait and initially tried to turn the manager down on his offer because we knew the food would eventually come. The manager would kindly not take no for an answer, he truly wanted to make up for the fact that we waited longer than he liked. My partner and I eventually settled on two ceasar salads, which were very fresh and very good. Our food came out not long after the manager apologized for the wait. The food was so worth the wait. I got the Catch OTM, wahoo that was probably one of the best seafood dishes I have ever had. My partner got the half chicken, very well cooked and seasoned perfectly. This is a very good restaurant. The food, staff, and ambience are well worth the trip, and yes sometimes the...

Came to this restaurant with my wife and daughter on a friday evening maybe around 5 pm. The service was phenomenal. Host, servers, bartender, even the manager who stopped at the table and interacted with my daughter was very sweet. We felt very welcomed here. The atmospherehe was nice for the most part. The tile work on the floor seemed unfinished, as if they didnt have enough materials to have one complete theme for the floor so it seemed inconsistent with the rest of the establishment. But we're here for the food. And this is where i cant recommended this restaurant. We got a appetizer of 1 pound of steamed mussels. They took longer than expected, the waiter apologized to us twice. Thats fine, i appreciate the open communication and i understand waiting. When we got the mussels, they looked bulbous with pockets of salt water that popped like a balloon in my mouth. Ive only experienced mussels once before so i didnt have to much comparison to base it of off. I trusted the cooks to sell us quality food so we ate them all. I regret it. Later that night once we got home, me, my wife and my daughter were all in pain. Multiple trips to the bathroom, daughter screaming with belly pain, my wife on all fours about to hurl. I did further research on mussels and now know what we received were not good. They shouldn't have been sold. But for dinner I ordered the blackened seafood pasta. It was delicious, but the mussels in my pasta were still the same questionable quality as my app. My wife ordered the fisherman's cobb and she enjoyed it. Great presentation and hearty portions. During the meal the server asked of my wife would like another soda. She didnt tell us that it wasn't free refills so once we got the bill, we were charged $7 for 2 ginger ales. Overall, the service was great. But for the health of my family, if i cant trust the quality of a seafood restaurants seafood, i unfortunately dont think ill be...

It's not common that I feel a need to comment negatively, but I need to let this go. So, here it is: We came to this restaurant yesterday to get out of the heat and commuter traffic and to enjoy some live music and happy hour specials. They rate only two stars: one for our competent server who had good social skills and then the bartender who knew how to mix a proper old fashioned. But, without going on about it, the appetizers were just so-so, and we also left two oysters on the platter. Now, it's not the first time I've walked away from an oyster, and I didn't feel like a complaint would make me feel any better, after all, ten out of twelve were passable. But when the check came we didn't get the happy hour discount on the so-so appetizers, so I asked to have that fixed. The reason, I was told, was that I wasn't sitting in the tall chairs or at the bar... where the band should have been playing. I protested, mildly, because we had told the host we were going to order happy hour food before we were seated and hadn't been informed of that detail. So our server said she would talk to the owner. After some time, she returned with a message from the owner that amounted to: His mistake, his problem.

There's my beef.

The owner of this near empty dining room couldn't even come out and tell me to my face that they wouldn't accept any responsibility, at all, for a $15 mistake on a $100 tab. I was uncomfortable, the poor server was on the spot and my wife began apologizing to her because we hadn't read the fine print. It was a pretty disappointing experience. Now, I could tell you how I might have done things differently so you could learn from my mistake, but what I would recommend for happy hour is this: Find a cool place with a good drink special and get a plate of...