Rod N Reel - CHESAPEAKE BEACH

Overbooked reservations that took us another 40 minutes before we were seated. They ran out of tonic water water at the bar which clearly tells us they didn’t prepare for a holiday dinner. The food was cold, and we literally waited hours for it. We were there for four hours for the dinner. Our waitress and hostess, however, were very good, and I felt sorry for them for having to work at such a poor managed restaurant. They need a new chef.

Thanksgiving dinner was overpriced for lukewarm, reheated, Sysco food. Nothing was hot. Dinner rolls and cranberry sauce never made an appearance. Wait staff was overworked. Food delivery timing was way off. Nice waitress. Five stars to the waitress. Will never again be relying on Rod N Reel for a thanksgiving family dinner. In no way do I feel I received a meal worth $45.

It was 2 of us, we both ordered the mariners platter, salad and crab dip. The crab dip was mainly cream cheese based, blah and the seafood platter was kinda bland. The Mac n cheese and collard greens were great. Our waitress was outstanding with service. Last year we did your turkey dinner special and it was ok, so this year we decided to do something different. I do thank you and staff for the hard work and being open.

Great lunch was surprised the restaurant was not busy. With the excellent service an delicious food. There was no wedding today so maybe that was the reason cause this place is wonderful.

We had made our reservations almost 2 months in advance for a special occasion. When we were seated, we were told they were short staffed and that there might be a delay. There was a significant delay. We never received our appetizers but observed them delivered to other tables. (a server later acknowledged). Our entrees were brought out along with another table's food and the server tried to give our food to another table. When I got the server's attention to explain, they tried to leave the food on a nearby table and go get a manager. I told the server and the manager we wanted our appetizers and I wanted the food to be remade because we did not want to eat or pay for expensive seafood that sat under a heat lamp while we got appetizers. 2 hours into the visit a manager came and served our entrees (still never got appetizers) and I am certain the food was not remade fresh, although we were told it was. This is too expensive of a restaurant to not staff properly. While everyone understands that there are staffing issues in a lot of businesses, it was clear that they just didn't schedule staff based on the expected (reserved) occupancy of the restaurant. At one point I got up and got a water pitcher to refill our glasses because no servers were on the floor for a long period of time. There were 2 large (loud) parties that each had their own designated servers. The rest of the restaurant had only 2 servers. I observed 2 people that appeared to be off duty staff come in and hang around in the bussing station and talk to a server in a social way for several minutes and then leave. Clearly they have staff available and chose to schedule as few staff as possible. This is very short sighted because I am certain we are not the only customers who were there that night who will not return. It really spoiled what was supposed to be a nice visit for us with family from out of town.