08.08.24
My wife and I eat out often and have driven past…read moreWharf 38 a lot, so we decided to finally give it a try.
It was 4 PM when we arrived, wasn't very busy, so we decided to sit outside on the deck rather than inside. Each table has its own umbrella, which was nice because it did drizzle a little while we were eating.
Our waitress was very nice and greeted us shortly after we sat down. She took our drink order. My wife had an iced tea, and I ordered the Upside Down Mule, a refreshing mix of Tito's, pineapple purée, and ginger beer. The drink was okay, but even though it was described as having pineapple purée, I really couldn't taste any pineapple. The funny thing was when I went to pick up the mug by the handle, the handle came right off! I mentioned it to our waitress, and she offered to get me a new cup, but I was fine using the cup without the handle.
For dinner, my wife ordered the 1/2-pound shrimp, Baltimore style--onions, potatoes, Old Bay and butter, with an extra $3 charge. I ordered the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake for $44, described as a fresh, no-filler jumbo lump crab cake. It came with fried Brussels sprouts and an additional side, which I chose as the Sweet Corn Summer Salad--charred sweet corn, confit tomato, fried black beans, roasted red pepper and cilantro over romaine lettuce, cotija cheese, creamy lime dressing and fried tortilla strips.
I noticed that my salad had green peppers instead of red peppers. Since I cannot eat green peppers, I asked our waitress about it. She told me that was how it comes. However, the menu specifically says roasted red pepper, not green pepper. This is something the restaurant really needs to correct, either on the menu or with the kitchen, so someone doesn't order the dish expecting red peppers and end up with something they cannot eat. I caught it dyer my first bite eating.
Then came another issue. My wife's dinner came out, but my meal wasn't ready. She waited for me, and I finally told her to go ahead and eat before her food got cold. About 10 minutes later, my meal finally came out.
I don't understand why both meals didn't come out together. We weren't ordering crabs or something that would obviously come out when ready. We were ordering two regular dinner entrées, and the restaurant wasn't busy. Ten minutes is a long time between two meals, especially when one person is sitting there waiting while the other is eating.
When my meal finally arrived, everything looked good, but I was disappointed with the size of the crab cake. For $44, and being listed as a dinner entrée rather than a sandwich, I expected a much larger crab cake.
What makes this even more disappointing is that a picture of the dinner on their website shows two crab cakes, while the crab cake sandwiches pictured on the website were actually larger than the single crab cake I received with my dinner. I understand pictures can sometimes be for presentation purposes, but there was a pretty big difference between what I saw online and what was actually served.
More importantly, the crab cake needed to be cooked a little longer. It should have had more browning on the outside not just shack some old bay on it, and the food needed to be hot. The crab cake was only warm, and even the Brussels sprouts were just lukewarm.
The food itself had good flavor, but there were several things that need some cleaning up. $44 is a lot for a 4-ounce crab cake, especially when it isn't served hot and the Brussels sprouts are lukewarm.
Overall, the meal was ok, but we expected more for the prices, we eat out a lot and don't mind paying for good food! The service was friendly, but the timing of the meals, the temperature of the food, the size of the crab cake, and the issue with the peppers are things the restaurant should address. And then charge 3% for a credit card fee and not even tell us. Would have been 4-5 stars without issues.
