Dockside Restaurant — Restaurant in Wilmington

We have been coming to this restaurant for 10 years now and over the years we have noticed a decline in the food quality. A time or two ago, we swore that we would never come back but we always get sucked back in because it's on the water and after a few hours of kayaking we are usually hungry and just want a cold beer and some shrimp. The peel and eat shrimp use to be good but lately they have been just ok. The beer is no longer served in bottles but now is in cans only. They use to have beer on tap but no longer have that either. Today we stopped in after kayaking, knowing that it was going to be hit or miss. Well today was the final straw. We were seated immediately and then waited about 20 minutes before somebody came to take our drink order. It was a female waitress who did not introduce herself and we asked about the beer hoping that maybe something had changed, but no. We don't like beer in cans, so my friend ordered a coke and I ordered a cocktail, a Spicy Paloma which I have had before at other restaurants. We waited another 20 minutes for our drinks to come and mine seemed like it had been sitting a while because the ice was mostly melted and the drink was very watered down. My friends coke was watered down also. We should have sent them back and left at that point. Once I found a straw and stirred my drink it was a little better. However a Paloma is usually a little fizzy and this was not. It was just not good. The Tajin was all over the outside of the plastic "glass" instead of on the rim. We finally placed our food order and waited another 20 minutes until our food came. We both ordered the fiesta bowl. Mine was with chicken and my friends was with shrimp. We had never had this before and will never again. The shrimp were tiny and looked like they had been frozen. My bowl with the chicken was a little better. The bowls were mostly rice and it was very dry. Of course when we realized this our missing in action waitress was nowhere to be seen. We asked another male waiter for ranch dressing and he went and got her. So we asked her for ranch dressing and she brought us 2. This made the bowls a little bit better but just ok. The other food item that we ordered was the homemade potato chips which are always good. When the waitress brought our ranch dressing we went ahead and requested the check because by now we had been there over an hour. Of course she brought the check immediately. I put my credit card with the check to let her know that she could take the check but she never came back. When we waited as long as we were willing to wait, we got up and went to the hostess station like we had seen the couple at the table next to us do. The hostess asked who our waitress was and we told her that we had no idea as she had not introduced herself. The hostess then asked us what she looked like - at this point we were really annoyed and showed her which table we were seated at. She went off to find our waitress and left us standing there waiting. Our waitress finally appeared and took our payment and we left. We were there for 1 hour and 20 minutes....for lunch, not by our choosing. As we walked out we once again said.. ..never again. I'm not sure who is managing the staff but they should be fired. It appears that there is very little training or...

My friends and I decided to get out on this gorgeous day and enjoy some sunny weather. We went to Dockside during a lunch rush so we assumed it would take a little bit longer to get our food. We NEVER expected the complete lack of professionalism and service that we received. First, one of my friends was on her lunch break and we asked the waitress could she just go ahead and have her food made to go so she could leave because we had already waited there 30 minutes and not received anything but a basket of hush puppies. The manager came out and told us no he couldn't do that because she had a order that took a while (a grilled chicken pita with chips mind you) and she could either order something faster or we could take it off the bill. Well, she was on the phone so we told him we'd get back to him. He TOOK IT UPON HIMSELF to take her food off of our tab and delete her order. We were informed this when we told the waitress we would take it to go. The whole time being told that the reason it was taking so long was because the kitchen and grill were slammed and we had orders that would take a while..

...We watched 3 tables receive their food that came in after us..and 2 tables left before we ever got our food...all the while we are being told this is because their orders are faster...sooooo....you can cook an entire table of 4 lunch but can't make my friend's food to go? That's ridiculous.

FINALLY 1.5 hours later our food arrives....STONE COLD..We got grilled shrimp tacos, fried shrimp plate with fries, and a grilled chicken caesar salad...STONE.COLD. We were told our orders were being made right then...soooooo..did you flash freeze them before quickly taking them to our table?

The waitress had the nerve to continuously feed us the absurd story about the kitchen really being backed up and our food just taking longer. Thanks honey, for serving us stone cold food that was apparently just made. Real cute.

When you make a mistake, own up to it. You definitely lost 3 customers today that will...

Bad from the moment we arrived. We were seated outside, close to the bldg, and somehow we were unseen and ignored. After 5 to 7 minutes without anyone acknowledging us I went back to the hostess stand and spoke to the group of staff standing, doing nothing. One server then said, "oh, that is my table, but I'm training someone so I was focused on them and didn't see you. I'll be there in a minute." 5 minutes later she was there. Eventually we were able to order our food. After ordering we walked on the dock to see the boats and the waterway. When we returned to our table our food was casually strewn on the table. We needed condiments, additional napkins, refills, and couldn't really begin eating until we had those items. We waited several minutes, again, before she came back and we were able to ask for the items. Waited several minutes for her return. During the meal we needed salt, as there were no condiments on the table. She returned with the shaker, however, it would not dispense salt as the salt was a blob in the shaker. I took the top off the shaker and found the metal top dirty and rusting. Asked for another shaker and had the same problem. My companion ordered the nachos with chicken added. After several bites she said I don't think this is chicken, I think it's fish. I tried it, and it was of an unrecognizable texture and taste. We told the server and she said it was chicken as they don't put fish in nachos so it couldn't be fish. Yet that was one of the items that could have been added. Took forever to get and pay the check. Overall a regrettable dining experience, from the server, the service, to the food. We live in Wilmington and will share this experience with others when people ask for a good place to eat or about our dinner out. We will not return to...