Had a lovely quiet visit to Center Island Beach, Oyster bay, Long Island, NY last Thursday. As you can see we had the beach almost to ourselves. We ate lunch at what is supposed to be a high end restaurant, Ocean – restaurant | bar | lounge | on the long island sound in Bayville. The food was terrible. Paula’s burger was well-done instead of rare. The replacement wasn’t good meat. My soggy crabcake had no greens or embellishments, just a ton of French fries and a bun, which I did not eat. And Marc’s fish special was so so. The meal cost $170 for 3. I do not understand how they can get away with serving such crap. The one good thing was the ambience.
They probably don’t care whether people come back or not
So true.
Beautiful place, what a pity about the restaurant.
Sometimes we are lucky, and we find a good one. Google reviews are usually reliable – but not in this case.
Looks a great scene,but bad news about the food
Bad food is common at seaside places. That was only a small part of the day. The rest was lovely.
Center Island is a beautiful place but it’s unfortunate that the restaurant you visited had such bad food. When I am in the Oyster Bay area I find that a small little restaurant called Wild Honey has the best food. It’s on Main Street in Oyster bay and it is in a historic old building that Teddy Roosevelt actually used as his summer office commuting from his home at Sagamore Hill. Oyster Bay Brewing company is a good place to get a cold beer while in town and Billy Joel’s motorcycle shop is also in town. Sometimes you can even catch Billy hanging out at the shop.
Thanks for the tip, Joe. I bookmarked Wild Honey for the next time we are out that way. It seems that large fancy beach side places often serve crap food, especially ones that cater to tourists. Here’s one we like: Home | Harbormist (harbormistrestaurantli.com), in Cold Springs. There is a plaque to Billy Joel in the park across the street which you probably know about.
Most of the beaches along the north shore are residents only. They were empty.
I agree large beachside restaurants are usually rip offs and their food is nothing special. I’ll check out Harbormist because we are in Cold Spring Harbor quite frequently. Next time in Cold Spring Harbor check out a small coffee shop/bakery called Sweetie Pie’s. It’s all the way at the end of the village (you will probably have to park in the municipal parking lot and walk). There is never any parking right in front of Sweetie Pie’s. You can’t miss the place because there is a large Grandma kind of statue holding a serving tray. I am very familiar to the Billy Joel plaque in that park. I do wish the town of Huntington would repair the corner of that plaque though 😊
Thanks Joe. Another good link for me to save. I will check it out.
It looks a lovely place, a shame about the not-so-lovely food – I hope you demanded a refund 😉
I think the 3 bad reviews I gave is good enough. I did enjoy sitting there.