I have mixed feelings as I review this place. On one hand, we had two excellent experiences. On the…read moreother, our last visit was quite bad that it's making me think about whether this place should be a 5-star or not. Based on food alone, this place merits nothing less than a 5-star. The services on the other hand were borderline.
Ocean 180 is an upscale restaurant located in Point Pleasant resort. Husband was super excited to book the condo knowing that he would not have to drive around in search of a nice restaurant to bring me to for a couple of dinners during vacation. They have a brunch on Sundays which led us to our very first visit there. Nestled between tropical vegetation, the place screams peaceful dining experience and it was. We came right around the time they opened for brunch at 9am and we were immediately seated. Our view was perfect, a bit of the cool breeze and a mimosa were like icing on a cake.
The waitress came by, took drink orders and told us there is another wait staff in training who will be assisting. He took over mostly after that. I ordered the pork belly which came with 2 fried eggs, crisp smashed potatoes and a simple salad. My husband had the tropical chopped salad served with creamy mango dressing. My pork belly was delicious, the potatoes were seasoned well and even the simple salad, was worth its own recognition. Yes, this place knows how to make great food! Minor mishap, the waiter in training was addressing my husband the whole time while I was trying to pay our bill and even brought my card back to my husband when it clearly has my name on it. Made me feel a bit weird as we're in 2025, not the 1950s.
Okay. So, second visit was for dinner. I made reservations then got a call around 4pm to tell me that due to technical difficulties, they are only able to accept cash. Do I still want to keep my reservation? Yes. Fortunately, we carried some cash this vacation with the foresight of possibly needing them for local vendors and such.
Again, we got in and seated quickly. Our waitress was fabulous and checked on us. My husband had the smoked old fashioned. It came in a contraption that was smoky. Very cool. I had a cocktail - the exotic tides which was gin, ginger, muddled cucumber and basil.
I ordered the whole fish grilled and her butter basted with some ginger escabeche. Okay, this dish blew my mind. Also, I was really wanting to order a whole fish for one of my meals as I do not get to do this often anymore living in Midwest and I think I picked the best place who did this dish justice. My husband had the Morrocan braised lamb shank and he loved it! We ended our wonderful dinner with a chocolate creme brulee topped with toasted almond slivers. Absolutely delicious. We should have ended with this evening because it would not have tainted my perception.
But, we came back in on our last evening. Sadly, our experience on the last night was like day and night. We made reservations as usual, got seated quickly but took a little while for our waiter to come and take our drink orders. We sat and sat and waited then he finally emerged and spoke about the special. We eventually ordered drinks. I got a glass of wine, my husband was quite tired so he asked if they had iced tea, waiter said no. It took about 20 minutes for a glass of wine and maybe another 15 for him to come back and take our orders. We were hungry, there was a heavy storm blowing in, we got wet because it was so windy and the little cover kept flapping to the point where it was letting water in, not to mention a leak on top of our table causing water to start dripping on my head. We ordered everything all at once from appetizer to our meal once the waiter remembered to come back. We got our appetizer another 30 minutes later while we miserably sat getting wet and getting cold. When we finally got our food, I wasn't in the greatest mood. I ordered another glass of wine which surprisingly came faster than the last time. It took a very long time for my husband to get a refill on his water. Only until another guy who was running around trying to bring food to the tables, when he noticed my husband's water glass was empty, he promptly came to refill. He wasn't our waiter. We didn't see much of our waiter. I am not needy and don't generally ask for too many things but making sure people have drinks while they eat is basic like breathing. Our food came out good but I already had a sour taste in my mouth due to the horrible service.
For this visit, we started with the crudo, their fish on special that evening. It was delicious and we tried to enjoy and savor the flavor, as much as two starving people can. I had the local grouper with roasted PEI mussels. Again, delicious. We skipped dessert for fear that it would take another 30 minutes to get one and the experience had exhausted me at this point.
