My boyfriend and I were visiting the Poconos this past weekend for our anniversary and saw an advertisement for their Shrimp Fest. We made reservations for 6 pm on Saturday night for a table outside. A few minutes after OpenTable confirmed the reservation, I got a phone call from the restaurant's number, which I missed. I called back and spoke with a gentleman who informed me that their deck would not be open that night. I said no problem, a table inside would be fine. He said "we'll seat you in our lounge area." I said ok. He wasn't exactly rude, but his tone was very abrupt and didn't seem very welcoming. I wish I'd canceled the reservation at that point, but wanting to give the benefit of the doubt, we decided to give it a go.
We arrived about 10 minutes prior to our reservation time and checked in at the host station, where we were told it would be just a "few minutes" before our table would be ready. Since we were a few minutes early, we figured no problem. We waited until about 6:15 when we decided to get a drink at the bar. We'd almost finished our first round when we were called to the host station - of course we assumed this meant our table was ready, especially since at that point it was around 30-40 minutes past our reservation time. We were instead informed that they still didn't have a table in the dining room ready and we could either continue to wait (and they could not give us any idea of how long), or take a table in the bar area. We were annoyed but pretty hungry at this point so we opted for the bar table. We sat for a few minutes before the bartender came over with menus and to take our drink order. No mention of any of the Shrimp Fest specials, nor any separate menu for it. And the bartender was not only working the bar, but working as the server for the entire bar area. She was very nice and doing her best to be attentive, but was obviously overwhelmed. I had to go back to the front to take a photo of the specials board to see what they had for the Shrimp Fest menu. (Meanwhile, shortly after we sat down, my boyfriend watched multiple parties of 2 get seated in the dining room.)
We ordered the steamed clams and bang bang shrimp for appetizers. They were just okay, not bad, but nothing spectacular. For our entrees, my boyfriend ordered the steak & shrimp and I ordered the shrimp carbonara. We waited quite awhile longer for the entrees. On a positive note, the steak was cooked well. But for a "shrimp fest" the shrimp portion was, well...shrimpy. Just 3 shrimp with the steak. I was expecting the carbonara to have shrimp in the pasta, but instead it came with 4 shrimp just perched on the edge of the plate around the pasta. The shrimp were pretty good, but the pasta was cold and gluey. We did order an apple galette to go for dessert, which was very good. Overall the experience was pretty disappointing, especially for the price. We will be going elsewhere the next time we're in the area. read more