Libby's Beach Shack Asbury Park

Cliff notes: absolutely no away Service Terrible We had Stephen and he is one of the two worst waiters I have encountered. He didn 't even perform his MINIMUM duties. He brought us water and good and that was it. He didn 't bother asking how anything was, if we needed anything else, refill out water, etc. The place was also empty which should have been our red flag, but the lobster chowder sounded so good. Food foul, disappointing, misleading So this lobster chowder is one of the most , if not most disappointing items I have ever ordered. The best way to describe it is shitty 'manhattan clam chowder ' made with cheap low quality vegetable stock with a single lobster claw chucked in. You would expect something of a smooth, creamy, chunky consistency with diced lobster. Nope. This was watered down vegetable stock with a lobster claw. So you pretty much pay $6 for a lobster claw. You 're better off going to Capitol Grille and paying $17 for their lobster Mac and cheese (generous lobster bits possibly a whole small lobster with real cheeses and baked to perfection topped with crispy bread crumbs). AND WE HAVE THE STEAMERS. More like Cleveland steamers. There was a lot for $10, but there are a lot of smack talk. The anatomy of a clam is interesting. You have a tube like structure called the siphon that the clam uses for respiration, excretion of fecal pellets, etc., but we like to call it the penis with foreskin that looks decayed and severely decomposed. Perhaps it 's just algal growth crusted in it, but whatever it was, these steamers were not only in presentable, they were tasteless and served with melted butter. I have never had clams that looked like this. I had to peel this 'foreskin ' off it was so gross looking and I 'm not sure what it was. All I know is that the steamers and clams I have had at other places had a clean siphon. I was pretty much swallowing those steamers like pills.

I made a mistake. I went to Libby's for a bite to eat. Don't repeat my mistake... keep walking! After seating ourselves, we got our first hint that we might be in the wrong place when our waiter decided he wasn't interested in helping us out. We ordered the lobster chowder and a bucket of steamers. The lobster chowder was nothing more than some watered down vegetable soup with a bit of lobster. I'll give it was a decent amount of lobster, but far from a chowder. The steamers weren't a bucket, not that you'd want more after getting the dirty pile they call fresh. Bottom line, unless you are just looking for a drink, your best move is to keep walking.

Yeah, so this place wasn't good at all. I'm in between 1 and 2 stars. I usually reserve 1 star for inedible food, and the steamers were definitely inedible. But the fries were good, so I'm rounding up. Nice outside tables too on the boardwalk, so it's definitely good for people watching. The steamers were really horrible. I sent them back, which is something I never do. I don't know what type of clams they are buying, but they need to change their supplier or something. The fries were standard and served with their homemade ketchup which was a little sweet and tangy, definitely the highlight of the meal.

I just don't get it. The places on either side are owned by the same person, but this is just a mess. I've been a couple of times now and: staff never seem to notice you until you snap off a flare. they never have the menu, always seem to be running out of everything. What's worse the staff never know they've run out of everything and you have to Order three times. even when you flag the staff down, they seem so underwater they can't get the Order right. But it's not the staff's fault, it's the management. They seem To staff their other restaurants well, but this is a joke. I want this to work because it's the only place serving lobster on the boardwalk, but it's a Shambles.

Had I read the reviews here first I wouldn't have wasted my time or money here. The service was good but that's it. The $7 salad was nothing more than a giant chunk of lettuce with slices of tomato and chips of bacon on a plate. The lobster soup was just vegetable soup with a couple of chunks of lobster thrown in. And if you're thinking about dropping $16 on the lobster roll lobster sandwich), don't bother. What you'll be getting is a dinner roll stuffed with lettuce, diced celery and onions, and about 2 tablespoons of lobster coleslaw and a handful of potato chips).