The Deck

Great fish tacos and also awesome for take-​out. But the place recently had a big fire and is closed for renovations. Just thought people should know before they rush over!

Sorry to say The Deck sustained a two-​alarm fire this morning (Aug 22, 2015) and is closed.
The owner says he will rebuild. My guess is it likely won’t reopen until next summer.
In any event, call before you go to see if it has reopened. (978) 499‑4422
Link to news article in today’s local paper:

The two stars are for the view. Zero stars for an expensive menu that’s cash only. Are you kidding?!

Unilocal, as always you didn’t disappoint!
Best chowder in years.
Amazing cold lobster sandwich.
Fantastic fresh fried clams.
Crisp cold summer brews.
Specialty summer drinks.
After driving all day, so glad we let Unilocal pick our dinner.
Madeline was our server. Very knowledgable and personable. Exactly what we needed.

What started great…
Has taken a step back a little bit. When this place first opened it was awesome. Small little deck overlooking the beautiful town of Newburyport. My wife and I used to call it the best restaurant in Newburyport not in Newburyport. It was a very popular place and quickly outgrew it small original deck. Over the winter we were very excited to hear about the expansion plans and couldn’t wait for the opening this May.
The new deck is a great addition. They’ve divided it up into drinks and appetizers on one side, and full meals on the other. Good idea.
They are still working out the kinks as it relates to logistics. We’ve been there four or five times already this year and everyone of those they’ve asked us to have drinks on the drink deck and pay for them there before moving to dinner. It seems that the one deck is not related to the other. A small annoyance but an annoyance nonetheless. (Another annoyance is its cash only. Really? It’s time to enter the 21^st century, take a small hit on your margin and allow other forms of payment).
And they’ve changed the menu. Last years menu was much simpler and much better. (Channeling Nancy Kerrigan here — «Why!!!)
I’m giving them three stars with the hope they can figure out the front of the room soon.

Walked in on a Tuesday around 5pm, got seated at the «dinner area» and waited at least 10 minutes plus and got nothing! After looking at the ‘cash only’ menu and the lack of options the only thing worth staying for was the view! Walked out.

Would be a 3 star, but the view amps it up.
The Deck was perhaps better last year as now they have added more space and a ~complimentary~ valet which will deter some folks, I know I preferred the previous laid back feel.
The burgers are great! The rest of the food is pretty standard, as far as I can tell. The mixed drinks are a definite yes and great beer selection as well. This is a place to sit outside, enjoy your surrounding and be prepared for noisy parties to surround you.
The lobster ~roll~ comes on a potato bun AND with arugula, its not your standard but worth a shot. My lobster wasn’t as fresh as I would expect but I still managed to eat it all!
WARNING: the umbrellas may fly loose and hit several customers in the head, so watch yourself on a windy day!

Beautiful spot but the buck stops there! Speaking of buck… it’s cash only! A Full restaurant and bar — cash only??? The parking is an issue. I think they are in a fued with the nearby restaurant/​motel and perhaps the marina too… but they have valets to park you — still a small inconvenience. Then prepare to wait a LONG time to have dinner and it is entirely possible you won’t find a seat at the bar either… and it’s not for the outstanding food! Once you get a waitress to attend to you, you get just oK bar food. After an hour of waiting for a table in the «dinner section» we went to another restaurant where food was better and they take credit cards!

Based on Our visit this past Friday (7÷10÷15)
Love this place! The view, the service, the cocktails! Our server «Maddy» made our visit a great experience. Maddy was on top of the food menu as well as the bar specialty menu! Her smile and her fun loving attitude made our time at The Deck a very, very great experience! Can’t wait to go back and have the great time we had recently a weekly event. Kudos again to Maddy and the deck staff! A diamond in the rough or a diamond in the flats of the Merrimack!

WOW! Thats all I have to say. FRESH FRESH food. Crafted with artisanal care, in a MICRO CRAMPED KITCHEN with chef and cooks the culinary Houdini vault… Roman, the GM is an Ambassador of good taste and excellent food, good times and heart and soul. This is a people friendly place. CASH ONLY!
Not inexpensive, but not break the bank eats, they cook right. And from SCRATCH. Breads baked every day. Pulled pork made with melt in your mouth tenderness thanks to our local hero Sam (Adams). Fried clams? FRIED RIGHT! The tartar sauce is home made and its so good, I’d eat it with a spoon (ok, I did…). Fantastic drinks, because they elevate the shelf enough to serve better than rot gut.
The place PACKS so expect to wait. And expect to wait for the food. The kitchen is SMALL. so if they are short a staff, they are hauling butt. BUT, (this is my big BUT) — don’t let that shy you away. Patience will be rewarded. The hostess is a bit off, not as friendly as the rest of the crew (she sat a group that came after us before us and thought we didn’t notice, but I think the 3 single gentlemen were more appealing than us OR they are regulars, so KUDOS for taking care of the regulars…) but if you over look that hostess, focus on Roman and the bar staff, and some of the waitstaff (too soon to pick a favorite), bring cash and shades. Enjoy the view and the vibe.
Valet parking — free, so tip those delightful young lads handsomely.
Try the ONION RINGS! And the fish in the tacos — M O N E Y!

Slow service, but great food! The drinks could use a little help, as the monitor at our table had no flavor, and wasn’t muddled.
It’s a great spot for a leisurely time. Which is what it is.

Forgot to mention… stay away from the guacamole (½ avocado mixed with a pint of sour cream), and get your salad dressing on the side because they drown your lettuce with it. Everything we tried was WAAY too salty too. These young entrepreneurs are appreciated… but get an adult in there who knows how to run a restaurant including what properly prepared food tastes like! What a waste of a great location!

Great food, great service, awesome location. We are locals who have been waiting for a place like this. Will be back very soon.

I had the Hot Little Piggy burger, which although was well above my normal burger price range at $ 16, was one of the best burgers I have had in a while. There wasn’t much guacamole and the menu said it had pork cracklins but it had the candied bacon instead. Whether it was intentional or a mistake, it was cooked perfectly and was delicious. I highly recommend that burger even if you have to self customize it.
In general I liked the atmosphere great views of the bay. I was very jealous of the rich older folks that rolled up to the dock on their boats for dinner. Don’t go if you are seeking a quiet dinner, it is definitely a place to see and be seen. It seemed easier to get a table if you were a smaller group but there is plenty of space to grab a drink while you wait, even if there are many people in your party.
The cash only feature can be annoying if you don’t know ahead of time. Also, since it was our first time here, we didn’t immediately understand that one section of the deck was for dinner and the other was only appetizers and drinks so while we were waiting for a table, we didn’t realize the non-​dinner seats were first come first serve. Perhaps the hostess can work that in upon taking the name (in case someone reads this). And still, it was no big deal because there is plenty of standing tables that you can gather around and space in general.

I’ve been here two times, first time was for lunch and it was a really nice time. We waited on the «appetizer» side and had mussels and guacamole, both tasty. Guacamole has more lime than normal, I loved it but my mom said it was too much lime for her, all depends on your taste. I ordered the fish tacos, they were deelish! My family members enjoyed there meals as well. The second time I went to dinner and ordered a salad with shrimp, super fresh! I thought the menu was going to change for dinner and it had not, so if your in the mood for a casual dinner, this is your spot. Great service– 4 stars. If there was music I would say 5 stars.

It’s not good to be writing a muddy Unilocal review while you’re still at the table, but there’s nothing else to do here besides acknowledge the inadequate service, food, and atmosphere.
The food is bland, the bartender uninformed, and the atmosphere hopelessly prosaic.
Get over yourself, NorthShore.

You really can’t beat the view and it’s nice to finally have a place that has a huge outdoor deck (beside’s Michael’s Harborside which I have grown to hate). The fact that it’s cash only really doesn’t bother me… it’s a seasonal place and credit card companies charge a fee. We did not get any food so this review is more about the service and set up.
The new set up is kind of weird. I know the kitchen is small but why is the «drink and app» area twice the size of the «dining» area? Our poor waitress was so stressed out because people would come and sit for drinks then get up and move to the dining area when their table was ready. The waitress, I presume, would lose out on the tip after serving these people and would have to go through the hassle of switching their tab over to the new waitress. It took forever to get our drinks and the waitress mentioned they were pre-​made. If the problem is a small kitchen size, they definitely need to expand it. We also noticed only 1 bartender behind the bar and it seemed as though they were understaffed. Annoyingly enough, people that went up to the bar got served way before we got our drinks. This place has the potential to be great but it has a few things it needs to fix.

I had been eagerly waiting to try this place since they opened, despite only mediocre reviews as a friend of mine raved about the new ownership (though she has never eaten there). So my husband and I went last Wednesday night, figuring that by 8:00 we would be able to get a table fairly quickly.
The first thing we noticed was a very large area of seating and a bar, which was completely empty; we found that strange since the parking lot was pretty full. The hostess explained that the area we were seeing was for drinks and appetizers ONLY. Full meals (dinner and lunch) were only served on the other side. Apparently there is a sign stating this fact, I just didn’t see it.
She led us through the empty area to the «other side» where there are a few umbrella’d tables and a counter that runs along the entire deck (facing the water) crammed with stools. It was after 8:30 on a Wednesday (last dinner orders go in at 9pm) so most people were finishing up or leaving and there was an open table right in the middle and yet she wanted to seat us on stools at the counter area smooshed in between other people. We asked to be seated at the table and she reluctantly agreed.
We waited about 10 minutes for anyone to acknowledge our existence and when the young waitress finally came over, she did not mention anything about specials. In fact, we didn’t even know there were appetizers because they are not on the menu (they’re on a little slip of paper on the table which we thought was a drink menu).
I do not eat meat or dairy so i ordered the «I hope we never meat» burger and my husband ordered the fried clam plate with onion rings. We waited a very long time for our food and when it arrived, I looked down at my meal and saw mounds of what looked like goat cheese on top of what I think was caramelized onions. I pointed it out to our waitress and she told me that my selection came with cheese, to which I told her it did not. She checked the menu to confirm I was correct, apologized, and took it back to the kitchen.
My husband was about ¾ finished when she returned with my food, described as a quinoa-​root vegetable-​mushroom burger but all I saw was quinoa mush. It was not at all tasty. My husband said his clams were the worst he had ever had and couldn’t even eat half of them. (He thinks they were most definitely frozen) On a positive note, the fries and onion rings were excellent! The onion rings are the stringy, hand breaded kind — not the thick beer battered ones, which we really like.
After our waitress cleared our plates, it occurred to me that there is a burger on the menu called «the tipsy gardener» which is a beef burger topped with caramelized shallots and goat cheese so I am thinking that maybe our waitress told the cook she wanted a «veggie burger». A totally honest mistake since that’s what most restaurants call a non-​meat burger. Who creates a menu with a beef burger with the word Gardener it it???
Anyway — overall, super disappointing. Our waitress was actually quite sweet despite the service being incredibly slow. But the food, the atmosphere, the layout, and the overall experience was very crappy. I would never go back.

The good:
We had the hummus for a starter and the Cuban sandwich, the burger with blue cheese and caramelized onions, and the fried chicken sandwich. All of the food was well-​prepared and delicious. There was a $ 2 upcharge for onion rings and sweet potato fries, which I normally find annoying, but they were homemade and worth it in this case. Our waitress Alice was pleasant and knowledgeable.
The bad:
They only take cash, which is clearly stated on the website (so I knew to bring cash) and on the menus. They do have an ATM on site, but then the customer ends up paying ATM fees. I know businesses have to pay a percentage of the charge amount to the credit card company to accept credit cards, but I think they should suck it up… it’s the 21^st century :) I know it’s a seasonal restaurant, so perhaps that had something to do with the decision? Sorry in advance to complain if it’s out of management’s control. The second con is that the burger was overpriced. It was delicious and clearly all parts were fresh and homemade, but it was $ 15 for a relatively small patty. I think a price point of $ 10 to $ 12 would be more accurate for what you get and comparing it to peer restaurants in the area.
The ugly:
Nothing :)
Bottom line is I’ll be back because the food and service were great, and it’s a perfect location. I’ll just make sure to bring a large amount of cash.

Very nice atmosphere, great location, awesome new deck, worst service I’ve ever received. 5 stars for the location. 0 for the service
Went on a hot Tuesday night in May around 7 with a few friends. Hostess said it would be a 2 ½ hour wait to eat but there were open tables for drinks and apps. Dinning area appears to be too small bar area huge. Sat down, no one came over, had to get up and ask hostess for a menu. After about 25min and none of the staff even saying hello we got up and left. A couple in front of us was leaving at the same time and told the hostess that they received the same lack of service. Heard good things maybe it was a bad night but still…
Will try it again because it really does look like a fun place overlooking harbor to eat and have a few drinks. Hopefully service will improve.