The Admiral Benbow

We ate here tonight and it was a BIG mistake! The owner is super friendly and has an obvious love for her new business. She was great to chat with but the service was slow and the food was not good. We arrived at 4:00 (late lunch/​early dinner for us as we’d been running errands all day) and although the sign on the front door says they’re open from 8am to 2pm and to enter around back (weird) they were not prepared to seat and serve us. Apparently they close for 2 hours from 3 – 5 but that was not communicated and should be posted with the hours. The owner insisted we stay even though we offered to come back at another time. We were told to sit in the back room (so people on the street wouldn’t see us and think they were open) and to order off the lunch menu, which was understandable, but by the time our food came (35 minutes later) it was just a few minutes before their dinner service. The sticky tables we were seated at should have been our final signal to leave. The meatloaf sandwich my mother-​in-​law ordered was burned and the tater tots were obviously cooked from frozen. And, tator tots??? We’re not ordering off the kids menu, which they don’t have any way. My salad had black, slimy spinach which I picked out. The homemade ranch dressing is delicious, though. My burger and the burgers my two sons ordered were good – cooked perfectly and tasty. My husband’s tuna melt, though, gave him a terrible stomach ache all night. The bathrooms were filthy. There were no towels in the men’s room and it smelled gross. The women’s bathroom wasn’t any better. We smelled cigarette smoke the entire time and noticed, on our way out, that the ash can was right next to the door. It’s clear that the focus of this place is the dive bar in the back and not the restaurant in the front. We never should have stayed when we realized they weren’t actually open and the owner never should have insisted on serving us if she wasn’t prepared to give us her best. This place has great potential but needs a lot of work and serious focus to turn it around.