"Have you ever been to a restaurant where neither staff nor management seems to care about anything? Would you want to go to a restaurant like that? If you would, then the Port House is for you. Picture this: their web site and sign outside the restaurant says they open at 11 AM. So we arrived for lunch at 11:30, but we couldn 't get to the front door because someone was power washing the sidewalk and had the entrance blocked off. So I walked around to the back of the restaurant and looked in the window. The restaurant was dark, and no one was inside, or at least not visible in front of house. Wondering what was going on, we waited until the power washing guy left. I then walked up to the door and saw a small piece of paper saying they had been closed on July 4th (this was the 5th), and that their new hours were 12 noon to 9 PM. Oh? How come your web site didn 't say that and why does the big sign in front of your restaurant still say that you open at 11? So we decide to hang around until noon. 12 o 'clock comes, and the restaurant is still dark. Not sure what was going on, so at around 12:05 I walked up to the door and tried it. Lo and behold, it was open! So we went inside. Restaurant was still dark; no hostess or server present, but we thought we could hear someone in the kitchen. So I called out, Hello! Anyone here? No response. Now it 's about 12:10, and we are about to leave. Then we see a young woman dressed in khaki trousers and a dark top walking toward the front door. She sees us (the doors are glass), and sort of shakes her hands at us like, what are you doing there? She came in the front door, and I ask, Are you open today? She says, the restaurant isn 't open yet. That 's why the door was closed. I replied, The door was unlocked, so we came in, because you 're supposed to open at noon. This apparently upset her, because she said in a very off putting tone, I 'm the server, and the restaurant isn 't open yet. Here this woman was at least a half hour late for her shift, and she 's acting like we 're somehow in the wrong for expecting the restaurant to be open on time. Moreover, if she 's the server, where the heck is the hostess? Who 's managing the front of house? At this point, I 'd had it.So I turned to my wife and said, Let 's get out of here. We stood up and started walking out the front door. At this point, the server may have realized her mistake, perhaps anticipating what kind of review her attitude was going to get the restaurant, and said in a much nicer tone, If you can come back in about ten minutes (that would put it at about 12:30), I can seat you. I replied, Don 't hold your breath. And we left, never to return. IMHO, this is what happens when a restaurant 's management doesn 't manage day to day operations. When no one manages, the staff picks up on that and figures since management doesn 't care, why should they? So they end up showing up when they feel like it, and blaming the customer when they 're called out for their poor attitude. This is not rocket science. It 's 'Restaurant 101. ' Somebody needs to manage the staff. The staff needs to be held accountable for both their attitude and for showing up on time. The web site and signage needs to be accurate. I have noticed the many one star reviews on TripAdvisor for the Port House. IMHO, they 're all being generous. This is one restaurant I would not go back to even if they comped all my meals."
