Grumpy’s Cafe

My husband and I stopped here on the 4^th of July for a quick bite to eat before the Weiner Dash (which I highly recommend, by the way). We did notice the sign on the door warning that restrooms were for customers only, but didn’t worry about it.
A moment after we sat down, a woman and her pre-​teen son walked in the restaurant. The boy is literally dancing in place with an obvious need to pee, and his mother asks if they can use the restroom. The server says they are not supposed to, but eventually gives them permission.
My table had a clear view of the bathroom door, so I had a great seat to the image of another woman suddenly banging on the bathroom door. This was not a polite, checking to see if someone is already in there knock. This is a police at your door in the middle of the night with a warrant knock. A gentleman waiting in line explains that someone is already in there, and the woman says, «I know, but they’re not eating!» and continues banging.
At this point, I’m concerned that this poor boy is going to have a complex about ever using a restaurant bathroom again, and get up from my table to explain that these people were given permission. She argues with me that restrooms are for customers only. «Yes, but your other server made an exception. I saw her. They have permission.» The banging continued.
My husband and I left without ordering and won’t be back. I won’t spend money at a place that gives children permission to use the restroom, and then harasses them for doing so.

Chewy clams, tasted like the cocoanut shrimp came from a box as well as the fish. Chips may have been made there but were super greasy. Staff was inattentive, smell of burnt toast.

Fish & chips were great. Homemade coleslaw, fresh cut french fries, homemade tartar sauce. Don’t look past this place.

This place is truly the opposite of happy. My bf and I decided to drop by this spot on our way back to our beach house. He was being grumpy and I joked that we should go to Grumpy’s.
This was a mistake even though it started out as a joke. We walked inside and were greeted by two people to sit anywhere we want. Keep in mind that we rolled on by around 1pm (prime lunch hour). Please note that its a bad idea to eat at a place that has more employees who work than the number of patrons eating.
I needed a coffee badly before my caffeine headache started. Coffee was watery with little flavor. I suspect they reuse their coffee grounds to save on cost. I ordered the captain’s platter and the server asked us if we wanted to split it, we said we’ll share. The platter came out on two plates. We get our bill with a $ 1 charge for splitting it. Ok, no big deal! Only a dollar!
We get our food and the plates looked greasy. I know, it’s fried food but if you fry anything at a low temp, it comes out greasy and saturated with oil. All the food on the platter appeared to have been put in the fryer all at the same time (fries, halibut, clam strips).
Long story short, please skip to my Lou and head to Rick’s bar and grill down the street.

Wow, what a disappointment. My family stayed in Rockaway beach for the 4^th of July fireworks this year (2012). The morning after watching the fireworks we headed out from our vacation rental to get some breakfast. There aren’t many options in Rockaway for breakfast and we decided to try Grumpy’s since they were the first we came across with enough seating for our family of six. The place was busy (as we expected it to be following the very large inrush of tourists that had come to see the fireworks show. We were seated after about a 5 minute wait. We waited another 10 minutes or so to get menus. When our waitress gave us our menus she didn’t ask if we wanted any beverages. After waiting about 15 more minutes our waitress was back to take our orders for drinks and food. I ordered French toast with sausage and scrambled eggs, my wife had a cheese omelet and hash browns. We both ordered coffee and received it 7 to 10 minutes later. We didn’t have any silverware on our table when we got our coffee and it took about 5 more minutes to flag down the (admittedly very busy) waitress for a spoon for my wife to stir her coffee. We weren’t offered or given water during our entire meal. Speaking of the meal… when it finally showed up about a half hour after ordering it, it looked pretty good! It’s been said that looks can be deceiving… and it’s true. My french toast was cold, DRY and tough. It may have been made a day or two before and warmed up (hah!) for me. It was the worst french toast I remember ever eating. My sausage patty was just warm and while it looked a little over cooked on the top, it was truly horribly overcooked (about two seconds on the grill from actually burned) on the bottom. I struggled to cut through it with my fork. It was awful. My eggs were okay, save for being barely warm. I ate part of one wedge of french toast, a couple of bites of scrambled egg and a bite of sausage before giving up and pushing my plate aside. I drank my cup of barely tolerable coffee while my family finished their food. My wifes’ food was a little better than mine. Her omelet was pretty good (and warm even!). Her hash browns were typical frozen restaurant hash browns. Her toast was cold, as was the toast in the meals of the two kids of ours that had it. The french fries that two of our kids had were limp and swimming in frying oil. One boy had bacon with his breakfast and it looked like charred zombie flesh. He described it as «really crunchy» with his eyes bugging out. Two of the boys had burgers that they said were pretty good. So… if you’ve got a ton of time to kill and love really overcooked and cold food come visit Grump’s Café in Rockaway Beach! The one highlight of the meal was that the waitress was nice. She was inattentive and overwhelmed, but she was friendly. Two groups of people that came in after us got up and walked out after the wait that they were experiencing exceeded their tolerance. I’ll get around to a review of one of the other two breakfast serving restaurants in Rockaway I’veeaten at that serves much better food. The name of that other place (I’ll give it 4 stars) has a cow in it. As of this review I haven’t eaten at The Whale Spout, but I expect it’s much better than Grumpy’s.

This place is a small town diner with greasy and delicious comfort breakfast food. The owner is friendly and funny. Prices are right. Service is a bit slow but its a comfortable wait. The owner informed us they accept all payment except IOUs and small children. Great place for breakfast with the family while in Rockaway!

OMG, where do I start? Was it the menu with five choices: #1 pancakes #2 pancakes and eggs #3 pancakes, eggs and meat #4 biscuits and gravy #5 Eggs and meat? Or was it the 45 minute wait for the limited menu items? I would think they have such a limited menu so they can get the food out faster? Nope, not here. Our kids food came out first: one plate, then five minutes later, another plate, wait five minutes, my plate. Wait five minutes: two other plates. Wait five minutes: last plate. The service was unbelieveably slow for such a small menu? We did not eat together because we were STARVING by the the food came and it came over another 25 minute span. But the kicker was getting their speciality «biscuits and gravy» and one of the biscuits was blue with mold. Not just a little mold. I flipped the biscuit over and it was covered in mold. How could the chef miss that? These people have no idea how to run a restaurant. The bathroom was disgusting and had a sign in it that said «clean up afteryourself. The people that end up having to clean up after you are the ones handling your food.» OMG. Disgusting!!! Stay far away from this place.