Jimmy Seas Pan Pasta

I’ll make this simple. We were a party of six seated. After appetizers we all ordered dinners. My wife and I ordered clams over linguini. They were the first two dinners to come to the table. I immediately noticed there was grated cheese over both our dinners. I called my waiter over and told him we would rather not have it with cheese. Another waiter claimed that it was listed as part of the dinner on the menu. I asked to see the menu. Some did list cheese but our dinners DID NOT. If the menu said it did, we would have requested it without. The waiter took our plates away and this is where I have a huge problem. Because our table was near the open kitchen we clearly heard the owner/​chef slam the plates and heard him say Ill do it but I’m not happy about it. After a loud exchange with my son which I apologized for the chef then was heard saying They are going to wait now. The dinners never came out which was totally intentional. I told the waiter to bring the bill. We paid and left. Was my son out of line, yes. Was the owner dead wrong how he handled it, absolutely. The professional response would have been to not complain and to re cook the dinners the way the patron who’s paying wanted it and how those particular dinners were described on the menu. End of story. New owner/​chef better realize this or he’s not going to be in business very long.

HORRENDOUS– 0 STARS. If I could do negative stars I would! We came to this restaurant with a party of 6. We have been here before with the previous owner and had a great time. We had a short wait and were very excited about that with a larger party. We ordered a bottle of wine and apps and everything was going great until we received our meals. All fish meals came out with grated cheese. 2 of the meals specified on the menu that there was cheese, but the Linguini with clams did not specify on the menu that it had cheese on it. With the party being straight from Naples, Italy it is a known fact & sin to put cheese on fish. Therefore, the 2 with the linguini w/​clams kindly asked if they could get the meal without the cheese. The waiter was very understanding and took the meals back. The problem aroused when we overheard the owner & chef slamming the pans in the kitchen and said specifically «I’ll do it, but I am not happy about it.» With an open kitchen, someone within the party confronted him and advised him that since we are Italian, we cannot put cheese on fish. Since this is an Italian restaurant, you would think they would know about this major rule. The Owner/​Chef absolutely flipped his temper and went off on the man in our party who confronted him. Since half the party received their meals, we finished while waiting for the linguini w/​clams. In the mean time, we overheard the chef AGAIN say to the waiter that «THEY WILL BE WAITING.» So we knew this owner was very unprofessional and we all could not wait to get out of this situation. We paid the bill with the meals we had, never received the 2 linguini w/​clams, and headed over to Nancy’s for a nice view w/​drinks and apps. Never again will we be returning to that unprofessional restaurant and I hope this review changes the minds of Italians wanting a good dinner while on vacation.
Lisa– thank you for responding, but that was not the case. Yes the man was yelling in a raised voice, due to the Chef complaining and grunting over having to re-​cook the meals right next to us, but no profanities were ever said. We chose to have the man upset finish his meal and leave the restaurant while the other two older couple could eventually eat their meal. No where on the menu did it specify that linguini w/​clams had cheese on it otherwise we just simply would have asked the waiter from the beginning to not add the cheese. The older couple waited and waited and never received their meal. It was never communicated to the party that those meals were not going to be cooked, so we decided to leave on our own. If someone had mentioned to us that we were not going to receive the meals the older couple would have never waited an extra 40 mins in your restaurant for no reason.

Had the worst experience here this past week. Got seated and ordered 2 pastas right away. Waited 20 minutes and they arrived which was great but one of the dishes brought out was the wrong one so we sent it back. Not wanting the other one to get cold I started eating while my date waited another 20 minutes for a new one to be brought out. At this point I was done with my meal when it came. The next problem was that the new meal was correct but ALL of the scallops were completely RAW. So we told the waiter to forget it and not to make a new one since I was already done and we didn’t want to wait again. The waiter then took 30 minutes to get us the bill because he was waiting for the manager to fix our bill so not entirely his fault. The hostess then got involved, who was very nice, but clearly didn’t have enough power to rectify the situation. She then promised to send a gift card to try to make things better but of course we aren’t holding our breath to receive that in the mail. Will not be back. Which is sad because it used to be a great place.

I have lived on the Vineyard (and in Cambridge) for many years. Jimmy Sea’s used to be in our regular rotation, but after the last 2 visits this spring after they opened up for the summer, I’m afraid that other options will have to take precedence. It’s just too expensive and the smaller portions and hefty charge for sharing make this former favorite a challenge. I used to go to Jimmy Sea’s on a fairly regular basis (and bring home leftovers), especially when friends came to the island, but just can’t justify it anymore. (Still love the salad!)
I’m sorry if this is hard for the owners/​management, but I’m not alone with my observations. I would love to see Jimmy Sea’s continue as an iconic island restaurant. It’s very hard for so many restaurants here as the summer season is very short.

FABULOUS dinner.
We got the pesto goat cheese ravioli and butternut squash ravioli. Comes with salad and bread. Yum, the bread! Ordered the mussels as an appetizer, which were cooked to perfection. EVERYTHING was.
You can easily split the huge portions, but with so many great choices, it was hard to pick just one.
Our meal was absolutely gorgeous. I’d eat here every night and never tire of it.

Five stars! We got the pesto shrimp, shrimp scampi and butternut squash raviolis. The meals were HUGE and very very good. It comes with a house salad and bread. You could easily split a dish with someone and still have plenty of leftovers. We will be back soon.

I hate to write this as Jimmy Seas is one of my favorite restaurants in OB.
However, my experience last night was so horrendous it simply must bear repeating.
I had called at 6:30 to ask about a wait. A woman picked up the phone and told me about an hour. I thanked and hung up.
Called back a moment later, and a man picked up the phone and I asked if I could put my name in. I said ‘Harry party of three.’ He said great, it should be an hour.
Fantastic.
We showed up at the restaurant at 7:30, and there was a very, very long line to get to the maître d’hotel. That was fine.
The host as incredibly overworked, buzzing into and out the restaurant while ignoring everyone else in line. He called out ‘Julia party of two,’ two or three times, and I tried to get his attention to no avail. No worries.
After about twenty more minutes of being ignored, the host, who I believe is also the owner finally came back outside.
He called ‘Julia,’ again, and my mother, my father, and I all said ‘I believe you already sat that party. We would just like to see where we are in line.‘
He snapped at us ‘if you cut in line, that doesn’t help. Other people want to eat as well and they waited their turn. If you want to eat elsewhere, that’s just fine.‘
My father responded ‘in that case, we will. Good bye.‘
Needless to say our name was not on his list.
I have never, ever been treated so rudely at a restaurant.

We found a dining winner on our last night on Martha’s Vineyard. What a pleasant surprise after being disappointed in the previous highly recommended restaurants. We started with the red pepper appetizer, which was very tasty. My wife had the mussels with marinara sauce and I had broccoli, chicken with penne noodles in oil and garlic. Both were yummy. Highly recommend.

The service and food earns Jimmys Seas 5 stars. The portions are absolutely ridiculous & worth the price, in my opinion. Truly one of the only spots in Oak Bluffs that can satisfy a pasta hankering. I would suggest splitting a pasta dish/​entrée for two people. They provide bread and salad that fills you right up. We had the alfredo and pesto sauces & would suggest either. Delicious! We will be back the next time we visit the vineyard.

The worst possible place I have eaten in 5 years…
Left after 2 hours and no food, manager made excuses, server he said was having «issues».
We wind up leaving after we saw a someone swish a dirty plate on outlet food just before it came out… completely disgusted.

Surprised we got seated as soon as we did but with Labor Day late this year things worked in our favor. We sat at at the bar and were able to chat with the server which was fun. Bread and garlic came right away. It was great but surprise at bill time it’s not gratis. Salad however was. We knew portions were big so no apps. Janet got the pasta Juliette, basically chicken Alfredo with mushrooms prosciutto and enough cheese to choke a whale. In a good way. Delicious. I got the frutti de mare. Lots of seafoody goodness. For the record «market price» must mean double everything else. But it was great. Everything is served in a pan hence the name of the place. It’s a big friggin pan which means half of our dinner is tomorrow’s breakfast! Watch out breakfast!

My family came here unexpectedly after Offshore Ale was booked solid and we are SO GLAD WE DID! The pasta was incredible. Each person’s dish was beautifully plated and came in the pan it was cooked in. The portions are huge and the flavor matches the portion size. We got both the red and white mussels, the butternut squash ravioli, the clams, and the penne bolognese. The real winner of the night was the pasta Juliette. My Italian family left very happy.
Ignore the reviews that say there is no oil for the bread. Oil, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and chili flakes are permanently placed on the table.
I’m also glad there wasn’t a kid’s menu – it was great to have an «adults only» night out.

Amazing food
Real Italian flavor
All garlicky
Better than most of providence, Boston Italian $$$ places.

Butternut squash ravioli!!! This is a great find, amazing food with great service. Prepare to get stuffed, meals served in the pan, huge portions. Best seat, the side bar.

We had heard many good things about Jimmy Seas and looked forward to a nice pasta meal. Sadly, it turns out to be just another Vineyard restaurant that is propped up by the reviews of friends and people that have lived here too long and just don’t expect very much from a restaurant.
The restaurant is small, but as we were there early, it wasn’t cramped. They play Frank Sinatra which kind of works.
After ordering, you’re brought a big bowl of house salad with a light Italian dressing. While nothing fancy it was good. They also bring a basket of warm bread that was nice and crusty, but no butter or oil. I’m not sure if that’s the standard here, but when I asked for butter, I got a single pat in a ramekin for the three of us.
I should also state that we brought our son with us and there is no children’s menu (Would it be that hard to offer a single plate of pasta for say $ 10?) Anway, we decided to share with him and paid a $ 10 sharing charge. I can understand a sharing charge if it’s an adult… or the place is full (it was almost empty). Anyway, that wasn’t the real problem.
The problem was the food. They say they serve their past al dente. Well, in the case of Jimmy Seas that means crunchy… and that’s not good. Both dishes Fettucini Al Fredo and my Chicken and Brocolli had pasta that wasn’t al dente but crunched.
The Fettucini was so-so…really nothing great… the sauce was a bit lumpy and basic. Nothing like what you would expect from a place that is supposed to be all about pan pasta.
My dish was even worse. It was some undercooked ziti sitting in a pool of hot water with a little bit of wine and garlic. There were some pieces of chewy chicken that mostly tasted steamed and a few pieces of broccoli (some that were off-​color). I can’t remember the last time I had to use salt and pepper at a restaurant, but this was so bland there was no choice.
The portions are large, but who wants to eat a big plate of undercooked pasta sitting in a pool of hot water?
We all felt there was no reason to go back again.

Huge portion! One order enough to feed Two+
My girlfriends and I are spending a mini getaway to Martha’s Vineyard. We were in lines for Back Door Donut, on our way out we saw a Garlic sign, thought it was cute that’s how we decided to check out the restaurant.
On Sunday night, the restaurant was 70% full yet we waited for 20 minutes to be seated. We saw the orders from others table were huge and wondered why they ordered one pasta for each. The four of us are traveling and it’s our last night in town, so we decided to order two entrees and one appetizer to share: Shrimp Pesto Cream, Calamari in White Sauce over linguini for entrée; Roasted Garlic to start. Even so we still cannot finish the pan size entrée and there were 30% leftover. Roasted Garlic is literally a bunch of garlic soak in olive oil, its tasteless and cost $ 8!!!
When the bill came, we were surprised to see 2 split cost for each entrée: one cost $ 10, total $ 20. The server explain its because we order two entrée and split among 4, so there are extra cost. She also explained it was written on the menu.
Two things we are unsatisfied about:
A. Neither one of us saw the split cost on the menu.
B. We would appreciate if the server mention the split cost before placing our order. With extra $ 20, we could have order another entrée, even if we cannot finish it.
The restaurant do not have a good system seating the customers, the seats were tight and the food was ok. I would highly recommended RED CAT if you desire for good food with $$ budget. Skip Jimmy Seas for better dining experiences.

The food is amazing! The seafood is so fresh and the staff is so kind and attentive! I love the ambiance and everything on the menu is delicious.

If you don’t eat pasta, you will have a tremendously tough time finding something to eat here. The entire menu is pasta. Husband and I stopped in here ravenous and tired of looking for something to eat that wasn’t going to be an hour wait, luckily they had a table for two ready to go. I wasn’t super excited about it because I don’t usually eat pasta/​bread anymore (it does not agree with me anymore) but figured what the heck, I’m on vacation, I’m just going to go with the flow. They serve a huge bowl of roasted garlic with olive oil with the bread. .. I am a sucker for roasted garlic — so good and sweet! No word of a lie, there must have been three whole heads worth of garlic in that bowl but john and I ate almost all of it (don’t even need to eat bread with it — so good!). I had the butternut squash ravioli which was served in a sage cream sauce. It was pretty good. I expected it to be frighteningly heavy (since I don’t eat it these days) but it was lighter than I thought it was going to be. John had the chicken, broccoli and ziti and he enjoyed it. If you like pasta — this is the place to get it in OB.

I came here with a group of 12 guys a few weekends ago. One person in the group spends a good amount of time on the island and assured us that he would take us to a place where no one would be able to finish their meal. He was right.
Plates do not exist here. Your food comes out in massive skillets overflowing with whatever it is you ordered.
The popular dish seemed to be the linguini and clams. I went with the butternut squash ravioli (I was told it was an extremely popular summer dish) and it was delicious, sweet, and creamy.
Waitstaff was wonderful. Not only were they personable but they were very friendly and accommodating in trying to fit all 12 of us at one table (not a huge place).
I will definitely be back next time I’m on the island.

The Bottom line: poor service, touristy, okay food
The pros: The food was okay. Most dishes in our party of 7 were very large so we could have been okay with 5 dishes for the table, especially as we had a salad which is large.
The cons: The service was poor all around. There was a very long wait time. The hostess was impolite. Our server was extremely chatty yet inefficient. The courses came out separately — by the time the last one came, the first one was cold. Seating was uncomfortable. The garlic in oil dipping sauce for the bread lacked flavor and the bread felt industrial. Pricey for the product.