Harpoon Willy’s

An update from my review on 12÷28÷14. Food has declined precipitously. They can’t seem to hold a chef. Used to get A+ treatment since we went 3 times weekly and tipped generously. Not the case anymore. Not looking for anything special but some perks maybe finding a seat at the bar for regulars. Unfortunate for us !

One of my favorite local spots. My dad and I frequent Harpoon Willy’s for a friendly lunch or dinner at the bar. Food is always delicious, bartenders super personable (I’d venture to call a few of them my friends)! Highly recommend the chili, burgers at the bar, fish burrito, and scallop dinner. Nice atmosphere, it’s a restored house over looking the Manasquan River. Sometimes the crowds are tough, but it’s well worth it.

We have been to Harpoon Willies recently. We made reservations on open table — we were seated promptly. Service and food very good. It does get a little noisy buts it’s a busy fun bar! We will be returning. Can’t wait to see the changes made when closed for construction. We also live in Point Pleasant and look forward to their new restaurant — the former Forte.

Great local hideout best suited for grabbing food and drinks at the large bar area, although tends to get crowded on a Thursday evening. Bar tenders are fantastic and the view out the large back windows to the river is great. Free half time app’s during Monday night football. Burgers, wings and steamed clams at the bar grill are the best! Good place to meet friends.

We went here on a Saturday night and it had a really good crowd. We got a table by the giant fireplace for dinner. I had s simple chefs salad with grilled chicken that was perfectly cooked. I tasted the salmon and the mashed sweet potatoes that were good enough to be on the menu of a much more expensive place.

The place is on the water but, rather incongruously (though not unpleasantly), has more of a warm (but still lively enough), wintery, log cabin atmosphere complete with large fireplace. Also feels a little old and (metaphorically) dusty. I’d never want to visit in warm weather, but I still kinda liked the interior somehow.
As a vegetarian though, I’ll be hard pressed to go back at all, despite a promising few (albeit ordinary) appetizers (though only a simple green salad among about five others with meat in them (Seriously?)), as the only entrée available is a barely edible commercial, frozen garden burger
Serving this in a restaurant (and not disclosing it as such on top) is so far beyond lazy and inexcusable (particularly in a place that seems to pride itself on its burgers) as to be embarrassing to the kitchen and flatly and deliberately insulting to guests.
It’s a shame and an easily avoidable and thus incomprehensible loss for both.

Best BURGERS in years! Went with a party of 7 & EVERY SINGLE Burger was done to perfection! Ran the gamut from rare (I want it mooing) to Well – (I want it like a hockey puck).
Lobster warm, large pieces on fresh greens was lovely.
GO TO place for burgers now.
Not cheap just worth it!

Haven’t been there in years. This place was always a favorite. I found it dirty and very disappointing.
The crab cakes that were served were burned. Tasted terrible. Waitress didn’t even come by the table to even notice they weren’t being eaten. At the end of the meal, when asked if we wanted the crab cakes wrapped to take home, the reply was «no thanks.» (trying not to be THAT customer) The waitress asked if we didn’t like them, the reply was, «well, they were burned and didn’t taste good.» There was no offer to remove them from the bill. It was VERY obvious they weren’t any good! Poor judgement on the waitress if you ask me.
The chicken dish I had was cooked in a white wine sauce served with garlic mashed potatoes. The one small chicken cutlet was served OVER the mashed potatoes which ruined the meal. Personally I think that gravy goes on mashed potatoes, not a white wine sauce. If you wanted a salad with your dinner, it was a la carte. This is not a fancy restaurant folks, come on… This was always great «bar food» and nothing more.
Definitely won’t return.

old, dark, not clean. too crowded to sit and enjoy a beer at bar, bar area too small. beers over priced. stupid shore locals losers bar, there is much better in and around this area such as Wendy’s. too crowded to get food at bar. no one eating at tables.

We have always frequented this local place, but we will not be going back. It was so crowded we had to fight the crowd to get a drink while we waited for a table. ½ of My $ 10 Cosmo was spilled by another patron knocking into me. We had the oysters for appetizers which were yummy, however all 4 of our entrees were just ok, lacked season and were served on the cool side. All this for $ 220!

Went there for our twenty sixth anniversary
Saw previous reviews and traveled from seaside park to get there
After champagne toast we ordered
I got pork chop (it was outstanding)
Wife got flat iron steak and lobster tail for surf and turf.
Her steak was very good, but her lobster was inedible and butter was so salty that she was not happy.
Waitress took her entry off the bill, but the damage was done.
Very disappointed

So disappointed with my experience dining here last night. I made a reservation and still had to wait 20 minutes. The seating is way too squished, my boyfriend continuously had waiters holding dinner plates over his head to serve the table behind us. It felt like we were dining with all the tables around us we were sitting so close together. We had to remind our waitress 3 times for our waters we ordered amount other things she kept forgetting. She was really spacey during our whole time there.
This was both mine and my boyfriends first time at Harloon Willys and we both said we’d never go back!

Usually love this place. However, tonight was over 2 hours to be seated and served. In fact, we are still waiting for our food. Seriously.
Update: finally received food. 2 out of 3 orders were grossly undercooked. It seems like they have issues in the kitchen. Food took at least an hour to get out, wasn’t cooked properly, what a shame.

Tonight’s dinner was lackluster at best. My party of 6 included 3 adults and 3 kids. Kids ordered off the kids menu which was your usual chicken fingers, mini-​burger, pasta type of options and included a side of fries or mac-​n-​cheese and a scoop of ice cream. The adults had the braised short rib, the day boat scallops and the captain’s catch.
First, the kids meals. The hamburger looked somewhat dry and went virtually untouched and the fries were nothing special, the grilled cheese was fine as was the mac-​n-​cheese side that came with it, the whole wheat penne was a good option though on the small side even for a child. It is always irksome when they use 10 cents worth of pasta in a kids meal when they are charging $ 6+ for it.
What was really irritating was I asked for apple juice and generally limit my kids to having water or watered down juice at dinner but the waitress mentioned they also had chocolate milk so of course, all three kids wanted chocolate milk upon hearing that. I said OK to 3 chocolate milks. Had she mentioned that they were going to be $ 3.25 each, I would have said no way. That is $ 3.25 PER chocolate milk, as in, $ 9.75 total. It was approximately a 12oz cup of milk with a teaspoon or so of chocolate syrup mixed in.
The braised short ribs were fine. Nothing special, not bad, a decent meal.
The day boat scallops were served on a mushroom risotto and the entire entrée was awful. The scallops were simply overcooked rendering them chewy and stringy. The risotto (also overcooked) was mushy, pasty and heavy rather than silky and rich and there was too much cheese in the mix. It was the sort of dish you want to send back to the chef but what does a patron do, tell the chef s/​he doesn’t know what s/​he is doing? The flavor of the scallops was fine and they were of a decent size. All the more reason this dish was depressing because the raw ingredients were good, but the execution was novice.
The captain’s catch was not much better because it included the day boat scallops so those were left uneaten after an initial taste revealed them to be more the consistency of scungilli. The side vegetables were nice.
The view, if you have a table where you can actually see the river, is not bad though you have to look past all the cars in the parking lot to see it. The waitstaff should give patrons a heads up if their kids chocolate milk is going to be more expensive than their parent’s beer. I really liked our waitress until we saw the bill and the pricey kids beverages. She should have mentioned the cost before we placed the order.

I went to this place last night based on Unilocal reviews and the fact that most of the other area places had about a 30 minute wait and we were hungry. Very disappointing. The grounds are lovely being right on the inlet. We got a lovely tour of River Road because their address for GPS is incorrect. So once we found the place, it looked promising. However, the restaurant was dark and very noisy with the waitstaff rushing around crazily. We got seated right away and perused the menu which wasn’t huge but had a nice variety of food. My friend and I both ordered the crab cake sandwich and a cup of New England clam chowder to start. Bad idea as both of the offerings were not good. The chowder was grey, watery and strangely sweet. That went back to the kitchen. No need to get sick.
The crab cake sandwich was just ok. It was a nice sized patty with a crunchy coating. As with most crabcakes, the crab was barely noticeable. It had a nice crab flavor though. Sadly, it was served on a kaiser roll that was too big and hard. Better idea would’ve been a regular hamburger bun that would’ve been easier to eat without destroying the crab cake. We both got the side salad which was fine but no choice of dressing?
Our waiter Matt was very nice and took the chowder off the bill. We won’t be back.

Went here on a Tuesday night and the place was packed at 8pm. Had to park across the street in a boatyard parking lot. The bar was completely packed and we were glad we had made reservations. When we walked in, we were promptly seated while others were still waiting for their tables since they were walk-​ins. As an FYI, this place I located along the river, but has no views of the river — just views of the parking lot.
The dining room isn’t all that big — it looks much bigger from the outside. It is an extension of the bar and the decibel level matches. We were a party of two sitting at a small table and still had to yell across at each when we wanted to say something.
Within the first few minutes were greeted and our drink order was taken. We received our drinks in less than five minutes which was impressive given how crowded this place was. This is when things turned south for us. Our order for food was taken in about 10 more minutes and our apps were brought out within 15minutes of our ordering. The fried oysters were kind of boring compared to other places we’ve had them. Our main course did not arrive for an HOUR after our apps. I will say our waitress stopped by a few times and replaced our drinks when she saw they were running low.
When our main meals came out they were terrible. My husband’s grouper was bland and the artichoke crust was barely recognizeable. My fried scallops were totally inedible. I thought maybe I got one bad one, but then bite after bite, the same thing, they were completely overcooked and rubbery. I could not eat them. It was the worst experience at a restaurant that I have ever had.
Next time, I will listen to locals who warned us about this place not being very good.
Service = 3 stars for prompt service and follow up
Ambiance = 1 star for acoustics and cramped seating
Food = negative 1 as the cooks need to learn how to cook

Great place for dinner and hanging with friends. Food is fresh and really good with a big variety to choose from.
Service was great and atmosphere so pretty overlooking the river.

HW continues to deliver some of the tastiest tavern food at the Jersey shore. They are way better than the typical Irish bars that dot the shore line in Monmouth County. Beautiful scenery last night with snow falling, fireplace burning, lights twinkling and a serene view of the Manasquan river to enjoy.
Their burgers are still the best around hands down and they are grilled right in front of you at the bar. If you are in the mood for fried shrimp, you can order them by the pound and they are perhaps the best fried shrimp I’ve ever eaten. All of this comes at a price as they are not cheap and don’t go looking for any happy hour deals here, but do give them a try if you have not already.

Ordered the Hand Picked Center Cut Fork Tender Filet Mignon with Roasted Garlic Compound Butter
— The order was takeout, and the servers were quick to prepare my order.
— The Filet Mignon was cooked medium rare, as I had ordered it, but there was little to no seasoning. This would have been iffy if I had received the Roasted Garlic Compound Butter as ordered, but it was not in my to-​go box when I arrived home.
— The accompanying Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Baked Mac n’ Cheese were both underwhelming (the former) and of a weird consistency (the latter).
— I will admit that my meal was filling, though I was expecting a whole lot more (quality) for the price.

One of my favorite spots at the jersey shore. Food is very good. I recommend the burgers.
Never a bad time to go. Summer, you see views of the river under the sun and in the winter, try and get a seat by the fireplace.
A couple things that only give it three stars.
First, the service can be very slow. If you sit at the bar and the bartenders do not know you well, they tend to be a little slow. The servers also can be a little slow at times, even when it’s not as busy at times.
Second, the place is a little cramped. When it gets busy, which it does often, there’s not much room. The bar does not have much room on one side and tables are rather close to each other.
Overall, if you want a good meal, come here. If you have time to spare and want to relax, come here. Great views and atmosphere feel, come here.
Enjoy!