Oceana At the Marriott Long   

This was my first time dinning at Oceana and I was amazed. The room was beautiful and view has to be the best view in the city. I started with a jumbo crab cake. This was a monster of a crab cake and was all meat. It was amazing! I had the scallops and once again they where huge! They where cooked with wilted greens, proscuitto and fig. The combination of the sweet scallops and the salty proscuitto and the bitter greens was great. I had a bread pudding special that was great for dessert. They made it with Vermont Cheddar and served with and apple compote. Yum! One of the best parts of the experience is that they have free valet parking!! I have never seen that in the city.

Upon arriving a wee bit early for my confirmed luncheon reservation (2 p.m. on a gorgeous Friday afternoon this summer)arranged through Open Table, the hostess did not check my name against her reservation list, but, after exchanging the usual pleasantries, showed me promptly to my table in the still quite full dining room. After a few minutes, however, I was informed by my server that Open Table had somehow erred as they close luncheon service at 2 p.m. I immediately indicated that we would, of course, be leaving - whereupon he graciously urged, cajoled, and practically insisted that we remain. Since my lunch companion had just arrived from out of state, I reluctantly accepted what seemed to be a sincere offer of accommodation - only to be positively whirlwinded through our meal. Appetizers had barely arrived when the entree was hurriedly jammed onto our already overly stressed tiny table for two. The service left much to be desired, to say the least. We settled our check in advance as a courtesy (and we were not the last to leave) but overall we found his follow through on the initial courtesy to be sorely lacking. The food was quite delectable, but any other server could have made the occasion more pleasingly memorable.

My husband and I always find the food to be fresh and cooked just to our taste. The lobsters are sweet and cut in such a way that they are easy to eat and not messy at all. The waiters and waitresses are polite and very professional.