Pretty good seafood would be the overall description. Not really worth driving too far out of wburg but better than many of the touristy places around. The deep or pan fried fish options are delicious and flavorful, as are the apps. The baked fish is a bit dry but some decent sauces. Desserts are huge and good.
Review Source:It was a dark and stormy night, and we were hungry after a day at Jamestown. We saw a lot of cars in the parking lot, and figured the food must be decent here, so we stopped in for dinner. Basically, The Whaling Company is like a local Red Lobster.
Service was great, and definitely the high point of our meal. Our waitress, Kia, was very quick and made sure or glasses were never empty. I was also impressed at their inexpensive wine by the glass. The decor was cute, too.
The food, however, was just OK. I suspect that most of the seafood has been frozen at some point since it just didn't have the taste of truly fresh seafood. My baked seafood platter was very greasy (how does seafood get GREASY?!) and so was another diner's stuffed flounder. My husband and I both ordered the asparagus side ($1.50 extra) and it was horribly overcooked and limp. My husband complained about this and the manager apologized and took it off our bill. We decided to play it safe and skip dessert.
Definitely not a seafood restaurant. More like a Red Lobster. Clam chowder soup wasn't bad but it was not hot when served. It was barely warm. My kids had french onion which was also luke warm. Now, how does french onion soup come out warm? Dont the have to melt the cheese on top? Main courses were swimming in oil and butter. My swordfish was sitting in a pool of oily sauce. My daughters shrimp scampi was also quite greasy and the one shrimp wasnt even cleaned properly. They get two stars because the service was good  This is the first place we ate on our arrival to Williamsburg. Hopefully the food improves.
Review Source:Bland, old, dark and slow service. My wife and I ordered clam chowder, it was watery and tasteless other than the paprika poured on top of it... we fished for clams couldn't find many pushed it to the side and waited for our entrees. I order the seafood combination, on the menu is shows "a ton of food" and my wife ordered a salad. My "ton" of seafood arrived in a small dish with a large scoop of plain bland orzo and rice with two giant heads of broccoli. My seafood consisted of some shrimp and scallops with crab meat sprinkled over top and some seasoning salt sprinkled on top. Worst meal I had in Williamsburg.
Review Source:You know that reality show where the famous chef takes over the kitchen and drives the owners nuts, well......
Calling him right NOW!
This place needs him BIG TIME!
Location is great, place looks good for a nice meal.
Food is tasteless! Â Even the coffee was tasteless.
Did not even want to try a dessert!
This place can do better!
This is the seafood place that your Grandmother probably went to years ago. My husband's fish trio arrived with the requisite sprinkling of paprika (doused in it). Â My salad (and my husband;s) arrived with a pool of dressing, drenching the greens and leaving no possibility of tasting them. Â My oyster entree was unrecognizable as oysters-- the batter was some kind of cornflake combination that was way over-cooked and impossible to break away from the oyster itself. Â The coleslaw was soggy cabbage in huge pieces, with oil that looked like it had soaked into the cabbage itself. Â I would NOT ever go back here and vote it the worst meal I've had in Willliamsburg. For outstanding seafood, go to Berrett's in Williamsburg. Â That was an incredible meal!
Review Source:Ahoy, matey! Â This do be a good restaurant. Â I love the whaling/sailing theme of the restaurant. Â The food tastes fresh and is prepared excellently. Â Based on the menu, everything is homemade on site. Â I started with a cup of clam chowder, had a stuffed flounder with redskins and broccoli for the entree, and couldn't pass up on the homemade dessert. Â Everything was excellent!
The atmosphere is laid back, but I can easily see this place being packed and boisterous when Busch Gardens is open (the park is still closed for the season), but otherwise, it's a great choice for dinner in Williamsburg!
Yuck! A group of my lady friends went for dinner. They were out of baked potatoes and a dinner choice. Our waiter messed up our orders, then said it was our mistake. The place is dirty. There were cobwebs visible on the ceiling light fixture, blinds etc.. Disappointing! I guess a lot of their business is from tourists.
Review Source:The Whaling Company is a must for any Williamsburg Destination visit. The steaks and fish are freshly cut each day and made to order. The service is fast. The food is great quality. The prices are about right for a great meal. The deserts are homemade, sweet and tart options. I tried the NY Strip with the Crab Norfolk Topping... and holy cow- the steak melted in my mouth-- and the crab/shrimp topping makes the steak so so so perfect. The seafood is good too. My dining mate had crab stuff flounder. Perfectly cook! I finished with the carmel pie with ice cream. mmmmm i need to visit soon.
Review Source:If I could  give half a star I would and that would only because our waiter seemed like an ok dude. The food was pretty much devoid of taste. My sons shrimp with linguine tasted like it may have been mixed with the rinse water from the kitchen. My catfish which supposed to have been a cornmeal fry tasted like it was dipped in sawdust. Mussels as an appetizer was huge mistake. A stray cat would have pushed them aside. Save your money and avoid this at all cost. The Wendy's across the street would have been more gratifying!
Review Source:I've visited the Whaling Company off and on for years as a resident of Williamsburg. I've had good meals as well as poor, which is normal for any establishment, but the ratio has always leaned toward good, and that's what really matters, yeah?
Went along with family for Mother's Day and had a great time. The staff was pleasantly chatty and great, and attention wasn't limited to our waitress, which really gave the place a locally-owned feel.
And just to get this out of the way because it's worth mentioning: they make their desserts on site. Try the key lime pie! It might be one of the scarce few restaurants in the Tidewater region that doesn't serve it from the freezer.
We all jumped around the menu and tried different things, and not a single bad word was said about anything served. We talked a little about how the portions didn't look huge, but somehow left us very full. Who wants leftover seafood, anyway? If you're the kind of person who expects to enjoy microwaved fish leftovers the next day, you should really re-evaluate whether you should pick up fish tacos from your grocer's freezer instead of dropping $20 per head at a restaurant.
My dirty little secret: all the negative reviews from people with kids made me giddy! "Thank god!" I thought, "Maybe these reviews are scaring people away from bringing their kids and we'll have a good time!" And we lucked out! Not a toddler in sight.
So I've learned that indignant parents are finally useful for something: evangelizing fantastic dining experiences. I should really see if there are any other places these people are boycotting...
P.S. A little confused by the first reviewer's "and I'm not just talking about the lighting" comment. I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, the race card type, but is there any OTHER way to interpret that line? What kind of person hurts a locally owned and operated business's score because of his own personal shortcomings...? Sketchy.
When we read some of these reviews on Yelp we were a little concerned about the resturant, but figured Dan C's visit was close in date to ours, so his experience is probably closest to what we would experience. We were right.
The food was a bit pricey but there was a prix fixe menu of $50 for two. It included soup/salad, entree and dessert. As far as prix fixe menus it was pretty expansive in options and was a good deal. Â
Also , while the resturant feels a bit upscale, there were a number of families and children there in jeans and shorts, after having spent the day in Busch Gardens. As far as children, I didn't see anything like John D's experience. We did observe the wait staff go out of their ways to attend to a family who had several small cranky (read overtired) children so that they weren't stuck waiting. But no one was rude to them at all.
Also, I will note that they seemed to be doing some training of the wait staff the night we were there, but they were friendly and attentive.
Late night dinning there is not a great suggestion, as it's dark and I'm not just talking about the lighting. I went to the bar and had a crab cake appetizer with a beer, which was part good, and part bad. The crab with the peppers were good, but the rest of the bread filling wasn't as enticing. The bottled beer was okie... but all they had was bud and bud light on tap. That looses a star right there.
Undaunted, i went for the Shrimp and Scallops "fresh catch" special. The bartender said it was good, so perhaps that should have been a clue. What came on the plate was a nice fresh green bean vegetable, and something over over-cooked linguine. Mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes (The kind in a jar with olive oil, greasy), pan fried shrimp(good), Scallops (not so well prepared, possibly frozen,) a lot of garlic and grated Parmesan cheese over it all.
Well, Â I worked my way through it, but I'd never do that again. I skipped dessert because of it, although I saw someone getting a huge piece of chocolate cake for dessert. Seriously, they must not have wanted to save it another day. They also covered it with a huge amount of whipped cream. Think a dinner plate heaped 6 inches high... okie, maybe 7.
I have to think this is a good place, because they seem to get a lot of regulars at the bar. And it's not a great bar either... Â okie... but not great. I think I saw a bottle of Chavis there... but don't bet on a single malt being there too. They did have Grey Goose Vodka at least, which they seemed to go through a fair amount of.
Bottom line: I wasn't terribly impressed, and I don't think you will be either. If you want something and are there, it's fine... but I can't say I'd recommend it, or plan to eat there again.
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