Wharfside Patio Bar

Super casual and relaxed waterside place for drinks, some good quality simple bar food (Order and pay at the counter; choices are brought to the table.) with a good number of vegetarian options relative to the size of the (albeit small) menu, wide range of ages but more adult-​skewed people watching, and live music.
Can be tough to find seating but worth the wait as you can linger for hours.
Great hot pretzels and, and I haven’t ordered these in decades but it felt kinda warranted here, excellent, flavorful, somehow not remotely greasy mozzarella sticks. No, really; not remotely.
A very welcome find that satisfies a niche (See what I did there?).
Oh, and good luck parking.

This place is legit for drinks, the the view, and basic grub! The food is pretty good
Your not getting a lobster roll with a lemon twist or ceviche served out of a martini glass, but good fast fried bar food
The coconut shrimp is good
The seating us 1^st come first serve and it’s really fun for a group of friends or a few casual drinks
Watching all the boats go by Is cool

So torn between 1 and 2 stars and I rounded up due to the fact that you can pull up on your boat and dock there easily which is quite convenient when you’re living life on the high seas. The sangria is pretty decent and the staff was friendly. However, this is NOT the place for a vegetarian to go eat. Your only options are grilled vegetables, some rice, some mashed potatoes and a bunch of other miscellaneous sides, and even those are pretty substandard. They have table side salad, but nothing impressive. Overall, a good place to pull your boat into, have a few drinks, and then continue onward to a better restaurant.

Excellent family dinner! Food & drinks are great. Nice view of the inlet. We had drinks, apps, and dinner for 4 for a very reasonable price. The mobile salad bar was a fun touch!

Loved to come for a little raw bar, a beer. Bouncer, who is the first person you see, can’t say ‘hello’ back. The oysters have shrunk to the size of littlenecks. Wait staff slightly disenfranchised. Overall negative vibe, this place has unfortunately changed for the worst.

I have been to the Wharfside Patio Bar on multiple occasions and from those visits I have a few takeaways.
Firstly, it has a great atmosphere. It is located right on the water and there is usually a live band playing. Drinks are moderately priced. Food is decent — it may be a little over priced for what you get. The place does get extremely crowded in the evenings. I came with some family around 8PM for dinner and we could not get a table. We waited for an hour and ended up going somewhere else. This could be due to the fact that there is no hostess — it is a seat-​yourself restaurant. Can’t say I am a fan of that.
Overall, I would recommend especially if you want to get away from the hustle and bustle on the Jenkinson’s Boardwalk.

Great location, beautiful view, enjoyable bands but three stars due to the lack of menu. Vegetarian options are scarce (not surprised since it’s a seafood place) and what is veggie is just okay. The online menu varies some from their grill menu.

Very enjoyable afternoon & early evening
was hot but there was a breeze and loads of umbrellas to provide protection when we arrived around 4:30. No problem getting a table.
We started off with drinks that were excellent, a half pound of pick n peel shrimp with cocktail sauce & an order of crab spinach dip with tortilla chips. Everything was delicious! There were large pieces of crab in the dip that surprised us. The big winner were those shrimp. They weren’t saturated in old bay; just plump ice cold shrimp lightly seasoned and perfect cocktail sauce. My friend said they were the best pick n peel shrimp she’d ever had.
They had a wonderful band that started at 6 & the tables filled up in a hurry. We ordered dinner… more of those shrimp for my friend & a dozen raw oysters & for me fried clam strips that I’d been craving all summer & a plate of onion rings. The rings were great served with a good horseradish sauce. But the strips were a huge disappointment served with a small delicious coleslaw… clams were tiny little pieces that were identical to those that came from a packaged frozen preparation. For $ 14.95 they had to be a major profit maker for the bar. I took one star but probably deserved to take 2.
I’ll definitely go back… just will avoid those clams.

Food was pretty good and place was packed, so me and my two friends chose to eat at the bar, the Bartender Jackie was the bomb she was dreaming awesome service was a five star food was 4 Star

Sat outside at the patio bar. The bartender was directly in front of my friend and I, but she didn’t even acknowledge us for a few minutes. She continued to make other drinks which is fine, but at least greet us and say you’ll be with us soon.
¯\_(._.)_/¯ I guess.
Ordered a mojito and it was one of the worst I’ve ever had. The bartender just threw everything into a shaker and served it lol.
We made the mistake of ordering some apps while we drank our drinks. Fried calamari and steamers. The calamari was really good, but the batter they used before frying had partisan cheese in it. And I’m allergic to dairy so I wouldn’t have ordered it if it said that on the menu under the description.
I also ordered steamed clams and didn’t realize they weren’t littlenecks. They refunded my money even after serving me. I was just going to take the L on that one, but they offered which was really nice of them.

You do NOT go to the Patio Bar for the food. You go to hangout on the Manasquan River listen to a cover band and have a few drinks.
Very little seating. You have to stand unless you can swoop in a n score one of the few tables when someone gets up.
The food is basically poorly prepared shore bar food.
This past Saturday I had the Soft shell Crab sandwich. It was flat as a pancake and as dry as old shoe leather and the served with some broken up potato chips, not even fries.
The rest of my party also had just barely acceptable fare.
But as I said you go to hang out on a beautiful summers night.
I will say the oysters were good.
Waitresses work hard so tip them well.
Two Warnings:
Mixed drinks are very weak
Parking is very very difficult

Came here this past July 4^th weekend wanting to eat — should have known it’d be packed. To grab a table — you have to kinda just wing it. if someone gets up — run for it. We were hungry so just decided to skip eating there, go next door to the outside restaurant part, and come back here for drinks. which i didn’t mind.
came back after we ate — still packed so we got our drinks (patio punch that comes in a cute 32oz bucket & well worth the $ 15) and stood for about 20 mins. Some people offered us their table as they got up … and then some others offered us their table closer to the water. Well thank you… :)
enjoyed our drinks watching the boats come by, listening to a live cover band.
Definitely would come back. Its a relaxed atmosphere.

Maybe I’m just sour cause I’m a local. But for $ 70, I’d rather go eat at the ship wreck. Food and drinks are crazy, food is at BEST mediocre. Enjoy your cafeteria quality food w a side of cigar and cigarette smoke from nearby tables. Mmmmmm. Service is really good though. And it’s great chilling outside w drinks by the water. Just inflated prices for a benny hot spot.

Sat indoors because the weather was iffy, a little warm, but all in all comfortable. Beautiful view! Service was good and food was decent.

If you’re looking for a place with awesome outside seating/​bar area, right on the water, with some live music, definitely come here. Its a big area but definitely gets crowded, especially on nice days.
The waitresses handle drink orders only and I believe this place is notorious for their rum buckets. I went with the Patio Punch rum bucket and it was delicious. The perfect amount of juice and alcohol. After I finished my rum bucket, I ordered the Sneaky Pete (just as a drink, not a rum bucket). That drink was disgusting. It had an overwhelming taste of tequila, which wasn’t even listed as one of the ingredients. I was happy I didn’t order this as my rum bucket.
Food wise, I was very pleased. They have a rather large menu with a bunch of selections. Sandwiches, salads, pizza, raw bar, burgers, soups and baskets, anyone can find something on here. They offer a lot of seafood, which is expected for a place like this. I went with the Onion Crusted Cod sandwich and loved it. Keep in mind you don’t order food from your waitress here, you go up to a little hut and order it yourself. The food bill and drink bill are separate. They do deliver the food to your table so you don’t have to stand there and wait.
Whenever I am in the area again, Patio Bar will be on my list of places to re-​visit.

Can’t beat the view of the Patio Bar. Drinks are reasonably priced. There was a live band playing at the time, which was entertaining for any of all ages. Definitely recommend coming here on a nice day out and enjoying the views and great company.

In its class, they are the best! Family seafood dinners, fried, broiled– whatever! The old standards are the A+ fresh fried hush puppies & garlic breads, which they aren’t stingy about refilling, but be careful because you won’t have room for dinner. The cole slaw is B+, but the table side anti pasta is a solid A-​. Tonight my fish, shrimp & scallops were perfect cooked. Service was bumpy at first, but then fine, and they had a decent glass of Pinot Grigio for $ 6.00. Overall, a great start for the weekend.

I LOVE this place — tasty food, yummy drinks, great location, amazing view, and just a fantastic atmosphere.
In my opinion, The Wharfside Patio Bar has all the characteristics of a perfect place to grab drinks or a bite to eat!

3 star. It is a fun touristy bar. They have good music on the weekends in season. The food is boardwalk food. Call me a snob but I like being waited on when I go out. I don’t like leaving my seat at the bar or table to get on line, place my order and pay my food bill and then they hand you a bucket with salt & pepper etc. Etc. In it, as I skip back to my seat swing a bucket. It’s not a good look.
Okay, back at my seat at the bar they use ash trays to hold your money down. I know it’s windy and they need something but, how about a rock. I quit smoking 20 yrs ago. Check out the picture. It kind of kills the fresh air and the great out doors feel you get… because it is on the water.
Would I go back??? Yes and I have many times. Like I said, it is a cool touristy spot.
You can get a nice tan watching the boats moving through the inlet.
Enjoy

I heard a lot about this place and finally went last night. I was very impressed. First, make sure you sit outside. The view is absolutely beautiful and there is a live band most nights.
As soon as we sat down the waiter brought us water, coleslaw, and a bread basket filled with little corn zeppolis and garlic bread that were delicious. What a great way to start the meal!
We ordered a bottle of wine, steamers, stuffed mushrooms, oysters Rockefeller, and snow crab legs that came with a cup of lobster bisque and steamed vegetables. The crab legs were seriously addicting. I never tasted crab that good. It was so sweet that it didn’t even need the butter. (Of course I used it anyway.) I loved everything else we got too.
The only problem was we ordered a $ 20 bottle of pinot grigio and they brought out a different one. She did say «oh I’m sorry I brought you the wrong one. Do you want me to get the other or is this ok?» We said that was fine but it ended up costing $ 45 when we got the bill. Our bill was around $ 120 so it’s kind of pricy, but we did order a lot.
All in all, I would definitely recommend this place to everyone!