On the Waterfront

1^st time visit. we were disappointed Had a groupon thank goodness.
calamari was hard with a super crunchy coating — almost entire plate went to trash Waitress was nice but said n did nothing about it
Shrimp/​scallop scampi was okay. It had a gravy like sauce rather than the scampi sauce it was suppose to be.
Coconut shrimp — not bad. French fries were delicious. How pathetic is that.
Ohh I even had to add money to the $ 50 groupon. That hurt the most considering a lot of the food was wasted

Food was delicious n view is great. What a great place to have lunch n grab the game.

Their location is prime — obviously; and due to that, I think it’s a cool place to visit. The atmosphere of the bar area and also the restaurant definitely leaves something to be desired, as it’s a bit dive-​y looking. I stopped down after the boat parade and this place was packed out. Service was quick even though the bar was busy — Tommy the bartender was wonderful! Food was typical fried bar-​fare. Drinks were served up nice and strong — and while I was drinking liquor, I did notice a total lack of local beer options (which I found odd). I was hoping to see some GSB or Blue Points on tap here. This place has potential to be much better than it is. I think they should stick to a laid back beach-​y vibe as another reviewer mentioned, and embrace what they have.

Closed for renos then hit by sandy, they’ve seen enough struggles.
The burgers were great when I was a kid and the food is alright now. Local spot. Not much flash.
So-​so. Fine for a quick burger, late drink… older crowd but, nice… The place has declined and ain’t in it’s hay day for sure… is what it is. Nice spot just wish it were more– it could be so much more

I haven’t been here in a few years and I’ve never eaten here but a good bar to park your boat at the entrance and get wild.

First off, just for the record, I’m totally rooting for this place. Patchogue is such an up-​and-​coming city, and On the Waterfront has the potential to be a great anchor restaurant right on the shore. And that said, it has a few things going for it – a great location, some great live, local bands, and a nice laid-​back beach vibe. It has one giant negative, however — the food and prices.
My primary criticism is that the restaurant needs to decide if it is «fine dining» or «beach casual.» Sign outside says fine dining and the prices are a bit on the high side (average $ 20 entrée, $ 12 app, $ 11 for four medium-​sized coconut shrimp). However, the plastic water cups, terrible paint-​job, and «meh» food all say otherwise. Assuming the restaurant owners don’t want to sink a ton into renovations, they should just embrace the «beach casual» vibe — lower the prices to reflect it – and update the menu.
In terms of the menu, I felt like the appetizers were straight from the cookbook that came with the deep fryer. You have deep-​fried shrimp, deep-​fried cheese, deep-​fried clams, deep-​fried squid. Lose all the deep-​fried and why not just offer some raw clams/​oysters on the half-​shell, along with a cold «seafood-​tower» salad. Throw in your standard deep-​fried items (calamari, coconut shrimp) and it would be a winning apps menu. Likewise, the entrees were just plain boring — burgers, pasta w/​clams, etc. Why not some dungeness crabs (with the wooden mallet that you can use to crack open the shells — that’s always a lot of fun). The clams w/​pasta was pretty uninspired (think they used canned clams for the sauce) — at the very least, throw in a heaping serving of baby clams and mussels into the sauce to give it some excitement. In short, more fresh seafood.
My final criticism is that the restaurant does not partner enough with the Blue Point Brewing Company. Blue Point Brewing is probably the most successful local business to grow in Patchogue — offer jugs of their beer. It will make the restaurant a lot more unique than the standard offerings of Bud LIght and Corona. And it’s 100% local and 100% Patchogue. Embrace it.

Less than a star! Wow one of the worst meals I have had. Ling and clam sauce was spaghetti with butter and four clams. It took 30 minutes too! Waitress wasn’t even around to complain too. My son ordered mussels and bread. Bread never came after asking three times for it. Don’t waste your time or money!!!

Looking for the perfect meal by the water? Looking for fun? (Se nights karaōke or live DJ) Looking for great food? (Lobster mac and cheese, shrimp and scallops, lobster, burgers, soups) Looking for great ambiance? Looking for great service? (Liz is the best) Well… this places has EVERYTHING. It’s own by three brothers who recently took over this gem and they are doing a great job. Came over with some friends/​coworkers from NYC and we had a great time. Prices and portions are great too. Don’t hesitate to come, and support your locals.

Me an the girlfriend were looking for place to eat on Unilocal.Unfortunately we were duped into coming to this place. We enjoy a good burger an the one in the pictures showed a gigantic one with avocado and bacon — looked juicy and delicious. We get there only to find they had no avocado. It was very peculiar situation, I asked if I could have any and she said no, than my girlfriend asked because she didn’t hear my order an they said «yes on the side». However they came back and told us they had to run to the store to buy some after all the confusion… Both our burgers were burnt and the buns were cold. It just tasted like something your dad whips up real fast on a Sunday for the football game.
Aside from all this our waitress was very sweet and helpful but ultimately the place felt like a very worn out local bar that just had a few tables to eat… Also the view is pretty lackluster, and you’re not facing the waterfront at all. which is pretty disappointing considering it’s in the name.
One last complaint has to be given to the menu. Very small selection none of which strayed too far away from your occasional American grill restaurant. I personally would never come back, sorry.

This place was closed for over a year so going in I expected a completely remodeled interior. No. Still looks like a seaside version of the Regal Beagel from Three’s Company. The floors are all out of level and are old and dirty looking. The finishing/​chair rails on the walls looked like they were rushed and never actually finished as you can see nail holes and unpainted ends. The menu itself is small and unimpressive. The «seasonal» bluepoint beer they had was Pumpkin. PUMPKIN. In April. That means that either they got a sweet deal on that keg or it’s been sitting there since October. Who drinks pumpkin in April? I got a sandwich as did my wife because we didn’t trust the seafood (at a place on the water!). The sandwich came out and that was ok but the fries were burnt and it looked like I got the ass end of the bag of fries because they were all tiny. Table next to us said they waited forever for thier food and were not impressed either. I hope this place improves as it’s local and it would be nice to have it as an option but I really got the sense that they don’t care so much about being a restaurant as they do about being a bar. A bar that caters to people that drink pumpkin ale year round apparently.

Driving up «I was like great another dive» once I walked in the décor was nice waitress was nice bartenders are friendly … We ordered wings. N sliders… every was tasty drinks were good no complaints… I’ll def come back

What an awesome experience! I had been to On The Waterfront years ago and was excited to hear that they had recently reopened under new management. I love how the new owners opened up the layout making the atmosphere brighter and drawing attention to the beautiful waterfront views.
I took my 10 year old for dinner, the staff was warm and inviting and the food was great. I highly recommend the linguini and clam sauce and the seafood bisque.

Great night out with family and friends the food was awesome the service was on point

Me and my gf went there for lunch on Sunday and ordered the steak and chicken marshal and both were very good. It was a great night. Good food. Good drinks friendly people. I would recommend this place for anyone looking to have a good meal and a nice time.

I’ve been stopping here for a drink on my way to the beach for ages. It’s the type of bar the same people go to often, and the staff is very familiar with the locals and welcoming of strangers. The clientele also tends to be talkative, easy to strike up a conversation. I’ve been told the cocktails are good, but this is a beer place for me… always cold and served with a smile, though. Really, though, it’s the good local bar atmosphere that makes me like wandering in here as an out-​of-​towner, I like to meet people and hear some good fishing stories while I pass the time between my train getting in and my ferry ride out.
Big perk, as they’re basically on the grounds of the ferry terminal, they serve drinks in to-​go cups on request — so grab an extra beer for the boat ride (yes, it’s allowed) and you’ll be happy.

My wife and I were very excited to try this place as the location cant be beat. Sadly that is the only thing it has going for it. I got a cup of lobster bisque soup and it looked like it was covered with plastic wrap and microwaved. More importantly it tasted exactly like it looked. For a meal I got the tuna. It was so poor I could not finish it.
If you want a location to have a glass of wine or a beer looking at the water or while waiting for the Fire Island Ferry On the Waterfront would be great. Just don’t eat the food…

For the prices I expected a little more in the portion dept. The food was good, but the obeisance wasn’t up to par at all. The place had a funny smell too. The waitress was friendly, but there was no hostess waiting to sit you when you walked in. A lady behind the bar stared at us for a few minutes before telling us to just sit anywhere. This was funny considering we called earlier to make reservations for a table. If they didn’t ask for the reservation when we got them, why take it over the phone. Then we sat down, it took 10 minutes before any came over to welcome us and give us menus etc.
This place was mediocre and I wouldn’t go back. The only thing this restaurant had that was exceptional was a beautiful view outside.

How this place has 5 stars is beyond me. We sat for over an hour before getting our appetizers (raw clams and raw tuna). We then waited another 20 for our lobster bakes and shrimp scampi which were mediocre at best. My lobster bake came out with 1 edible clam out of 3 the others were closed and 4 mussels two of which had nothing in them. My moms lobster bake came out with 7 mussels and 4 clams (why would you plate the exact same dish at the same table differently.). When we asked about the clams and getting two replacements we were told oh we just won’t charge you for them. Um no sweetie I’m actually hungry and would like my clams. Over all I was completely underwhelmed and still hungry. Not how I want to leave a dinner.
Not a fan, Won’t Likely Return.

This is a great place to stroll up to after you get off the ferry or your boat. The one time we actually went there, we drove to it looking for a seafood lunch. Nothing crazy about the design on the inside but they do have a water front view and outside seating and music on the weekends. My fiancé got the flounder sandwich and he loved it. Lots of fish in that sandwich. Beer was 6 bucks from tap and I got a regular margarita and that was 10 bucks. I got the crabcake sandwich, which was fresh and very good. Best sweet potatoe fries I have ever had. Really good stuff. Then you can take a walk around the pier and parks. Nice spot

On the Long Island of my fantasies places like this are a dime a dozen. Places where you can get a super fresh Bluepoint Summer, a few blocks from the brewery, step outside and leisurely walk across the parking lot, and bring it over to the perfect little outdoor deck LITERALLY RIGHT ON THE BAY. These places would all have this brilliantly simply prepared fresh raw and fried seafood, way better than average but made thousands of times better by the addition of the fresh salty summer seaside air which makes it taste as good as any dream, or childhood summer memory &/​or hybrid of the two. The places would all be frequented by such an awesome, diverse clientele, who represent everything that makes Patchogue great, fun loving, down to earth and in love with summer, South Shore style. You could bring your family or drinking buddies and no one will complain. They would also all have owners as amazing as the one here, a fit and sharp salty dog, a retired detective who once collared John Gotti, and now keeps his boat docked at his perfect seaside bar, which shares its name with the classic film he no doubt loves.
Alas, it is only on the LI of fantasy that these places are common, and the fact of the matter is this treasure is one of a kind. Ive said in previous reviews that Patchouge is the Islands best drinking town currently, and I stand by that. I also however said that Bluepoint Brewery is the jewel in its crown. I was neglecting to take this place into account when drafting that statement. True, Bluepoint rocks it all year long while this place is strictly a summer thing, but damn, it just is summer… PERIOD. I love this place. You will too. I can’t state it enough, it is pure & simple Long Island summer perfection. Its right at a FI ferry and if sitting with drinks and seafood on that deck and watching those boats come and go doesn’t make you happy, perhaps nothing else will.