fish house

rating the food  4 out of 5, only thing that was bad was the corn on the cob ~ cooked so much it was mushy......service was a 3 out of 5. our party of 3 arrived around 8pm tonight.  no one was in line waiting to be seated or in line to pay when we arrived.  when we walked in,  i asked the hostess how long was the wait for a party of 3 .... in a nasty tone of voice she responded
" as soon as i take care of this". she then proceeded to (i guess) ring up someone's bill.  it was not "what" she said, but it was "how" she said it.  she seated us afterwards and then our waiter came.  i asked him did they have a wine list, he rolled his eyes and then spouted off what wines they had. we went ahead and ordered our drinks, but it would have been nice to see a wine list with the prices.  he was not as bad as the hostess, but i did not consider him friendly either.  maybe they had a  busy night, but we did not do anything to deserve the nasty attitude from the hostess and/or the indifferent attitude from our waiter.  the waiter was friendlier as the evening progressed and the hostess was very friendly when we left.....sad that it took it being closer to  time for the bill to be paid for this to occur.foodwas good, but we will not be in any hurry to go back. this restaurant is at the blue water point marina in oak island, nc.

food looked great, tasted great, but was barely warm... service terrible, management no better. went last night, waited for about 40 minutes, very busy, order taken in a somewhat slow manner, no biggie.

food came later than others who sat down after us.

dishes looked great (stuffed flounder), and what i had tasted great, but was just barely warm.

working in restaurants for most of my youth i knew these dishes were ready long before they were served.

sent it back, and didn't want it warmed up. should have been served very soon after prepared.

and what did the waiter say? "i had a lot of tables at once". great. he apparently didn't know how to manage being a little busy. you ask for help, and you do not leave someone's readyfoodunder the heat lamps for that long.

manager came to speak, and not one utterance of apology. first and only words were "food is made to order". said it twice. what the heck does that mean in the context offoodserved barely warm? it was made to order but it was held too long.

the only apology came when received the bill.

i don't t have great expectations when going anywhere new, but this was sad. the dish looked great, tasted fine, but no way in heck was i going to pay that money for slightly warm food.

beware of the horrible manager lady!!!. we had 11 in our group. after the hour wait we were seated outside at separate tables. the old lady manager would not let us slide our tables together. she had a huge spasmodic blowup on us yelling loudly at us. the waiter was rude also and forgot our orders. thefoodtook forever but was good, even though the waiter spilled some on us. they still charged an 18% gratuity even tho they didnt seat us with our other group. beware of that blond haired mean manager. she is awful at customer service. i would go elsewhere if you want a great meal and the service for the price.

i can't believe what i am reading,if it wasn't bad enough that this table of six people , completely treated this poor bartender horribly, and made her cry!! she still tried to acomodat them! i sat there,and wanted to say something, but i didn't want to make things worse for this poor girl. ( who by the way was very sweet.) i was proud to see that management in this place stood behind their employee, by asking these rude people to leave. as they were the sole reason for her crying !! very sad some people have to be so rude, to someone just trying to make a living. p.s. yourfoodwas delicious, and my southern weekend was fabulous !!!! thank you !!!! we will be back! :)

holy terror of a manager. holy freaking crap i have never in my life been so insulted at an eating establishment. where to start... well thefoodwas really good, but it was cold. one would think that'd be a big part of a pleasurable dining experience.

1) our waitress was obviously impaired on some sort of upper that caused her to constantly rub her face and she had sores on her face as well. she was also tending to a large group of drunks that were unruly. no one enjoys that, but she was not dealing with it well. she was also all by herself and there were other employees, but they were elsewhere. this girl was solo-tending the bar and 4 tables. she made me nervous and i kept feeling she was going to freak out and begin throwing things.

2) we waited over an hour and a half before we got our food. everything took forever. that was not the waitress's fault. drinks were fair, but took way too long to get. we waited for everything else too - refills on water, bread, etc.

3) we communicated our issues and rather than apologize, they just brought ourfoodto us. thankfully it was pretty good. it was a little cold from sitting out waiting to be delivered but it was there nonetheless. the waitress again struggled to keep up with the demand. despite being inebriated, i am certain she did a better job than i ever could have when i did the same job.

4) when we complained, the manager pulled the best trick in the book in order to absolve herself from any blame. she took the waitress aside and laid into her like she had spit in ourfooduntil the waitress was on the verge of tears. we even took the time to explain that the fault was not of the waitresses, but that of the management's for not having adequate staffing.

this is a very popular device i have seen used in my own experience working at a restaurant. later, when the bill was presented and no consolation was provided as a result of their mistakes, we confronted the waitress about possibly getting a discount for the unacceptable service, wait time, and general annoyance of dealing with their terrible atmosphere. the waitress broke down into tears as expected and the manager proceeded to yell as loudly as possible at us for being the sole contributors to her crying. this caught every person in our party by surprise but me, and i am not the confrontational type or i would have called her out on it because i knew exactly what she was doing. as i have experienced, the primary aggressors in my party became fed up with the situation and walked out once she began blaming us for the waitresses obvious malfunction.

she won this round as the entire bill was paid, including gratuity. the lady that owned the place had used her employee as a pawn to get paid at the expense of her customers. this is typically a last resort for difficult customers, and we were vary patient until the manager jumped down our throats with accusations of bullying her employee.

if my bank of america business card were here, i would have used it to pay, then debited the total back to my account. this was an awful experience the likes of which is beyond appalling and unacceptable. if there were enough restaurants on this island to serve the tourist population, this would not fly and this lady would have lost her business a long time ago. she is lucky thefoodwas good or else i would not have let them leave, especially with a 320 dollar bill. i still probably shouldn't have. i will not forget being called names and asked to leave while being disrespected like this.

greatfood& great atmosphere. just ate at the fish house and enjoyed a delightful evening working on a huge plate of fried shrimp and fries. great value and terrific taste----brought home enough for lunch tomorrow. other diners in the lounge were friendly and the bartender did a great job of keeping everybody happy and well taken care of. this place is high on our list and is so much better than other oak island restaurants. we plan to return tomorrow for the seafood chowder!!

dot schuck. i just discovered this website through a mutual friend. i absolutely cannot believe the negative remarks about the food, staff and owners. having travelled in many areas and eaten in many restaurants, this one is by far the best ever. thefoodis nicely prepared and you get enough for a take home plate for the next day. i know the owners personally, and can assure you that you are mistaken in your opinion of them. they deal with a lot of people, and sometimes folks here on vacation can get a bit of an attitude also. all i can say is keep up the good work and wonderful food". my only complaint is that the restaurant is closed sometimes during the winter, but know they need a break. i have never had anyone complain about thefoodin this restaurant and know folks that drive here from away just to eat at the fish house.

great place. i have been going to this restaurant for about 15 years, thefoodis awesome and so is the staff and owners. view is fantastic. i always bring my out of town family and friends here and they feel the same. come here and experience oak islands best!!

payin the piper. the bottom like with these guys is that thefoodis very good, but somewhat overpriced. i imagine they can get away with it because they have literally, no competition. but $24.95 for a smallish piece of blackened mahi mahi is a bit of a stretch. even if it was delicious. the stuffed flounder was easily the highlight of the meal, though again, a bit of a stretch at $22. our 1/2 pound of shrimp, flavor wise was quite good, but they were slightly overcooked. for the money, the steamed clams should come with some kind of sauce or broth, not just a small bowl of melted butter. kinda lame. we sat on the patio and service was just fine, glad we were sitting outside because inside looked to be somewhat of a madhouse. so yes, we were pleased with our meal but felt like they put a little bit of a squeeze on us. i'll get over it.
btw. a line began forming out front about a half hour before they opened and there were people sitting outside waiting for tables most of the night, and this was on a weekday. so be prepared..
grade: b-

fantastic dining!. excellentfoodand service! waitress was on top of things even though the place was packed. my drink never went below 1/2 glass. the waitress was constantly making sure everything was good for us. every table stayed occupied, when someone left, the table was cleaned and readied for the next group in seconds. superb bus staff, waitress staff, cook staff, and hostess. the only complaint i could think of was the place was rather noisey due to the small size and volume of customers.

our service was mediocre, but thefoodwas good. after being ignored by the waitress for most of the meal, they proceeded to mix up our credit cards. we were so frustrated by then that we didn't leave a tip. the waitress actually followed us outside demanding why we didn't leave a tip. as i felt this was highly unprofessional i decided to call up there and speak with the manager. i proceeded to tell her how unprofessional i felt the waitress was when she told me that i was rude for not leaving a tip. she then told me that my service was excellent and that in future we should choose somewhere else, then she hung up on me. i fully intend not to go there again which is a shame because thefoodwas really good.

ridiculous!!!. how long is this restaurant going to keep the same staff there? you know..... the ones that never smile or even acknowledge your existence? especially when you've been a loyal patron for years. good luck selling those $30 to $50 entrees in this economy! doesn't really help your business.when you walk in you can feel the tension, even though k*****ly is no longer there (thought that would help a lot, guess not. use some of that money and add on to your 'bar", which is a joke, your bar stools are literally 2 to 3 feet apart from tables where 2 year olds are dining with mommy and daddy. if you don't want locals to come in and talk about their fishing and golfing and getting a little loud then don't advertise as 'local friendly"!!!!!!! me and wifey and a lot of others will be going to island way(betterfoodand prices! come on up oak island and see a real restaurant in action.

excellent dinning. every year we vacation at oak island, nc, we make it a point to dine at the fish house. the service is always prompt and friendly. thefoodis hot, delicious and plentiful. this year we had sierra as our waitress, and she was excellent. the dining room overlooks the marsh and provides a beautiful atmosphere. we highly recommend this place for superb seafood!

greatfoodand service. i recommend the fish stew and tuna bites, but everything is great. if you don't like fish, try the pulled chicken nachos. you can't go wrong!

don't like. this restaurant has the worst customer service i have ever encountered. it is such a shame too, because thefoodis good and they have a captive audience as they are the only restaurant on the west end of oak island. we have had a rental home about a mile from there for several years. we go there whenever we visit our home and have recommended the restaurant to our renters, even leave a menu in the house for renters to see.we've encountered some attitude from the staff before but nothing like this weekend. the menu will be removed after our last visit there, as we won't go back and i certainly will not advise our renters or anyone else to go. our waiter was rude, arrogant and argumentative. when we asked to speak to the manager, he pointed to the hostess and said she was the owner.an owner would not have acted as she did i think she was his mother as they favored each other and certainly acted the same. she was just as rude and insulting, accused us of being rude first because we had questioned the 18% gratuity for the 4 of us they put on our bill. it's well worth driving up the beach to go to other restaurants. there are some other excellent restaurants in the area with class and know how to treat their customers.