Steve & Cookie’s By the Bay

I have spent my weekends at Steve and Cookies. Literally. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Must haves: The Ugly Salad, Oyster vodka shooters and well of course the blueberry pie. That pie is the equivalent to a mind blowing first time experience. It will make you cry, laugh, beg for more. Its a drug.
Sundays are my favorite. Usually a little more quiet during the winter months, but not slow by any means. Give me some bread, a bottle of wine, and the «Sunday Gravy» dinner. Its a work of art and a true Italian meal from the generous portion of gemelli pasta, meatballs, sausage and pork to the handmade mozzerella and the most delicious bread ever.

I was surprised it was quite busy for off-​season, but I can see why.
The restaurant was very nice and our waiter was able to make great recommendations for our first time here. I chose the fish of the day, which was very light and filling. However, I was very jealous of what my boyfriend ordered. He had the crispy duck, which was just amazing. I will definitely order that next time. We ordered a few desserts: the chocolate peanut butter pie, a mini taste of the Margate beach pie, and the Pecorino truffle cheese. All three desserts were very tasty. But I liked the Margate beach pie the best, wishing that I had a regular size of it.
One star was docked because the wait time for our food to be served did take a long while. I would return for special occasions and when I am in no rush to go some where afterwards.

One of the best dining experiences you can have on the island. The service is impeccable and the food is fabulous. Cookie is there greeting her guests each night. I love the live jazz trio.

Steve and Cookies has been a family favorite of ours for years. The food is to die for. Not to mention the amazing desserts!
I wrote in my previous review about how the food can sometime take a long time to be served. After I posted my review one of the owners of the restaurant took the time to personally message me about addressing that issue within the restaurant. To me as a customer and person that speaks volumes. It is nice to know that there are business owners who truly value feedback.
I hope you visit steve and cookies. If not it will be a huge miss on you’re part.

I had dined here recently & think this restaurant is completely OVER-​RATED!!!
Food: Below Average (4)
Price: Too expensive (1)
Ambiance: Very Nice (8)

I love this place! A great place to dine when down the shore! This restaurant is always packed, but I have never had a bad experience with service. It can get loud here, so be prepared to have a hard time hearing the people at your table.
The Ugly Tomato Salad is so delicious! Simple yet out of this world yummy! I also had the seafood bake pan which was a special this past weekend. Again, a simpler dish of seafood and rice, but it was so good! I love when restaurants make simpler dishes really well. Some places over complicate, but Steve & Cookie’s most certainly hits the nail on the head with how well they do things!
The crab cakes are also awesome and any seafood dish is one I would highly recommend.
Blueberry pie is FANTASTIC! I have had it a few times. This past time, they didn’t have the pie since it was off season for blueberries, so we had the Boston cream special. WOW! I am not a huge fan of Boston cream, but this was so delicious!
A little pricey, but you get what you pay for… amazing quality and good service! Delicious food! The only issue here is how loud it can get, but acoustics cannot always be helped. Definitely a do-​not-​miss if you are in the Margate area!

Highly overrated restaurant. Food was good, but not great. Service was not so good. I get better attention from our «regular» server at the local diner. Lost stars for one dinner (we were party of 3). One of us ordered from the special items page and food was served not only undercooked, but cold! Took 10 minutes for server to walk by so we could almost literally grab her to take plate back to kitchen to fix. We received a new plate, and an apology from the owner, and a promise of a free dessert. She should have just taken the entrée off the bill instead! We won’t be back!

The pork chop is hands down one of the best dishes I’ve ever eaten. My boyfriend and I share it and the cold seafood platter almost every time we go. In season, end the night with blueberry or peach pie, but off season try the margate beach lemon-​lime pie… delicious!
FYI we have never been seated within 15 min of our reservation time… be prepared to sit at the bar for a while. Don’t worry — it’s worth the wait!

A group of 10 of us had a 9:45PM reservation for the Friday of Labor Day weekend. The restaurant was packed when we arrived at 9:45. The hostess told us it would be at least 30 minutes before we would be seated. Naturally, we were extremely annoyed, frustrated, and hungry. After about 15 minutes of waiting, Cookie came over to our group and apologized profusely. She bought us a round of drinks and a ton of appetizers on the house. She was so sweet and accommodating. When we did get our food it was amazing (as usually) and the service stellar. Overall great experience!

During dinner tonight, there was a point where I was so frustrated about the slow kitchen and lack of service at my table that I checked on Unilocal to see exactly what the reviews are from other Unilocalers. **I am truly, honestly horrified to see these high ratings for Steve & Cookie’s.
We had reservations at 8:30pm. We were seated within 15 minutes, perfect. The atmosphere was nice, the place was crowded, but not too loud, and everything was off to a great start.
This was suppose to be a celebratory night for a Birthday. I wanted to leave after waiting over an hour and half for our dinner. I didn’t even want to find our waitress to tell her that it was suppose to be a special night. I am not from the area, so I will never be back, and I would recommend people go else where to find a nice restaurant. This is Atlantic City filled with Casinos and great places to eat– this is not one of them.
What bothers me even more is that there were *multiple tables that were also visibly upset by the slow kitchen and service. Had this been an off night, a manager or someone should have been walking around and given some sort of compensation or discount for the off night. I get it, restaurants have off nights and servers have off nights (I use to work in the business was a waitress) but to not even rectify visibly upset customers blows my mind. Did I need to ask for compensation? Can you not take multiple cues from customer’s faces? Is this a high end restaurant?
Our waitress Colleen wasn’t even the one who refilled our drinks, and she came to our table 3 times during service and 2 of the times was to give us our food. No apology, no updates on where our food was, I had to go find her in the kitchen, and I had seen her walking around and talking to other servers. The service was terrible. I was not the one paying the bill (thank god for Colleen because as a x-​waitress, I have no pity for those in the business esp. at higher end restaurants), but we tipped too much.
I got the lamb chop app. for my entrée. It wasn’t good. It was overcooked and tasted burnt. Another person in my party got the 3 piece jumbo fried shrimp, it was so bland and not even hot. The lobster mac and cheese was standard and so was the meat and cheese platter that we got for the table to share.
You would think that with this long review I wouldn’t be lost for words… but I have never experienced something like this before.

Just had dinner here. Good not great. Had grilled romaine salad with fried oysters=excellent. Pasta with greens and beans was ok beans were totally over cooked. Peach pie was average.
Very noisy, good music.

Steve and Cookies seem to be the best and most popular restaurant in Margate. The food is always great and consistent.
You only negative about Steve and cookies is that it can be really loud.
Made a reservation and we were seated the bar area at a table of four with two other friends on a Wednesday night and couldn’t hear anybody talk.
There was some great music. However it just added to the noise. I don’t normally have a problem in restaurants, and I’m not that old but somehow they need to make it work so that people can socialize while enjoying the fabulous food.
A definite ⁴⁄₅ on the food but a definite 2 for noise in the bar area and ¾ for noise in the front dining room.

YUM!
Best food in Margate! Can’t wait to go back.
Ugly tomato salad and blueberry pie are the best.

I don’t really get the big appeal here. The scene is ok, kind of stuffy and definitely more mature (although there were kids sitting with their parents at 8pm). Salads were good — actually I loved my Ugly Tomato Salad and my hubby really liked the house salad. The entrée is where it all went wrong. Hubby HATED the Waygu beef meatloaf — as in took a few bites and didn’t bother with the rest. He even thought the mashed potato and side of lobster mac were unseasoned and just bad and I had to agree — and trust me on this one, he is not one to turn down those sides — they were just eh. I had a grilled seafood dish with a rice and it was absolutely nothing to write home about. I don’t understand why this place is packed all the time. Maybe an off night? We were so disappointed.

Our party ordered the ugly tomato salad app and the duck, lobster mac and cheese, and short rib papparadelle entrees. Everyone was happy. Note: The short rib dish is very rich. Great menu and seems to be one of the few more upscale dining options at the S Jersey beaches. Anxious to go back and try more. Modern décor… very nice.

I love this place.
I really really do. Thank you for the 3 lbs I put on the last time I was here.
We were here on a Tuesday night which is now «Ros’e Night»
We started off with a bottle of Château Sulaze Pompenette … perfectly delish.
Ugly tomato salad — are you kidding me with this thing? Amazingly good. I could eat this for breakfast lunch and dinner.
Grilled lamb lolichops — OMFG. I could have eaten 20 of these.
Grilled shrimp over garlic avocado. Shrimp were perfectly cooked and seasoned just right.
Ended it with a slice of blueberry pie. I now know why they sell it for $ 40 per pie.
Can’t wait to go back!

The food, atmosphere, and attention of staff was all excellent.

I’m from the area and heard great things about Steve & Cookies and wanted to give it a try. If you’re looking for a transformative or risky food experience you’ll be disappointed. If you’re looking for unpretentious, fresh food with a level of flair, you’ll love it here.
Food-​wise, the seafood is a particular highlight. I had a Branzino special which was really fantastic, and others at the table raved about their fish as well. Although the dishes are pricey, the portions are generous and you get what you pay for in terms of quality.
The room is light and airy with a slightly nautical vibe. The service was accommodating, even adjusting the fan over the table when one of our party was chilly.
I wouldn’t say Steve and Cookies provides an individually memorable meal — but I think that’s the point. They’re going for tasty, well executed fare that you could enjoy for any occasion, multiple times a year. And in the food desert that is South Jersey (especially in the upscale range), that’s worth 5 stars.

So am I suppose to get cookies here or what?
Jokes aside, they actually don’t sell cookies here at all.
After I got to Atlantic City I wanted to grab some grub outside the casino, I’m not a huge fan of Caesar’s or Harrah’s buffet so it looked like Steve’s was my best bet.
The atmosphere is somewhat elegant so I do recommend coming here with nice clothes on. (Basically no sweatpants or hoodies.)
Seeing that they had Lobster Mac & Cheese I couldn’t pass up on it. It was delicious, even though it looks like a small plate when it was served, the food felt like it was never ending, I kept eating and eating and there was still tons of food buried underneath. The lobster portions were pretty big chunks too.
The Grilled Lamb Lolichops was succulent and tender. I even ate right off the bone because they were that good.
My partner opted for the Wagyu beef meatloaf to which I was hesitant about. I never liked meatloaf but surprisingly it was pretty good here especially with the mashed potatoes. My partner liked it so much he asked me to make the dish for him when we get back home. It was his first time having meatloaf and he fell in love with it.
To end the night off, we got a mini assortment for dessert. It was a great way to sample their popular desserts. I wasn’t too fond of it due to its sweetness. Nearly all the pieces had chocolate or caramel or nuts in it.
The service was pretty good here, various people kept checking up on us. About 4 different people came up to us throughout the night asking us if the food was okay. Two of them were servers and the other two might’ve been the managers? I’m not too sure but I appreciate the attentiveness.
I highly recommend coming here if you’re celebrating a special anniversary or a birthday. Be sure to grab a chocolate mint from the little candy dispenser at the front desk before you leave. It’s so cute how its served.

This was one of the greatest dining experiences ever. We arrived early for our reservation during restaurant week, but were seated promptly. Our waitress was extremely kind and made the experience excellent. The busboys were attentive and courteous, as well.
As for food, the lobster Mac and cheese was the greatest treat ever: you could even take the bread crumbs and delicious bacon in it. Soooo yummy! I had the steak, which was cooked wonderfully and had a delicious sauce and mashed potatoes with it. My mom’s stuffed flounder was beyond good, too! As for dessert, we tried each that was offered and I can’t even decide which was best. Peanut butter pie was perfect, apple cake was perfect, beach pie (key lime) was also perfect!
Seriously this place is amazing and totally worth the price, but it’s an especially good deal for restaurant week. It ended up about $ 150 for 3 people including tip, which is so worth the dinner. I highly recommend, even not on restaurant week if you’re willing to splurge!