Gulf Coast Kitchen

It is unfortunate that I have to rate this restaurant a 2 out of 5 rating because I came here for three meals during my stay in Montauk and truly enjoyed the food but the last meal I ate had hair in it!
The server said he was very sorry that there was a hair in my food but his actions did not show it as he charged us full price for my meal. Not even $ 10 off or something! This just makes me think that he thought it was my hair (even though it was short and black and my hair is long and blonde) and was not taking responsibility that someone in the kitchen messed up.
The two other times I dined there I had a lovely experience as the food was great and so was the service. Unfortunately this one incident made me change my positive review to a negative one.

I visited Gulf Coast Kitchen for my wife’s birthday. I give them 5 star because:
1. The staff is truly kind, they go the extra mile for you. 3 of them sang «happy birthday» while carrying a cake. One of then gave us a handmade magnet for our fridge, so nice of him.
2. The food is great, well cooked and simple as we like it. The ingredients are very fresh and I don’t think you can complain about how they are cooked.
3. The views are amazing and the sailboat décor is very curated.
All in all I would go back to this restaurant and I also recommend you do the same if you want a personal touch with your meal!

From beginning to end, dealing with Gulf Coast Kitchen was a nightmare.
Made reservations using Opentable. Received an email the night before my reservation telling me that they have cancelled my reservation. I called twice to ask why this happened. They do not have a direct number so both times my phone call is picked up by the Montauk Yacht Club concierge. The girl just transfers me the first time which goes to voicemail and when I call back, she offers no other alternative than to try transferring me again, which again goes to voicemail. I leave a message asking them to call me back regarding my reservation. No one calls. I go back on opentable and make the reservation again and hope for the best. The next day, I call to confirm my reservation and ask why my previous one was cancelled. I finally spoke to someone and he said my previous reservation was cancelled because I didn’t show up for it. ??? I’m dumbfounded as to how I was supposed to show up for a time that hasn’t occurred yet… he hung up before I could argue. This should have been my red flag, but i soldiered on stubbornly.
When we arrived, the dining room was beautifully decorated. But empty except for 3 other tables. It was at this point, I knew I had made a mistake. We were seated promptly and… nothing. For a good 10 – 15 minutes, no one came to take our order or give us bread or water or anything. There were about 5 people working, but I think only one waitress who was actually allowed to interact with the diners. When she finally came, she apologized for the wait. She was perfectly lovely and tried her darnedest throughout the night, but the idiotic system at this restaurant prevented her from getting any help when she needed it so 4 people are standing around doing nothing when 3 tables need something from her at the same time.
As far as the food goes, it didn’t get much better. For appetizers, we ordered oysters and scallops. Oysters came with a little onion mignonette on top which was dumb because what if I don’t like onion mignonette? But once I had it, I understood why they add it. They oysters were not tasty or fresh. They needed the mignonette to mask the off taste of the oysters. The scallops were also not quite right. Not fresh or sweet, and not cooked thoroughly enough to be considered cooked, not raw enough to be considered seared. And for it to be «sea salt crusted», there was an utter lack of seasoning. Entrees were a bit better. Salmon was good and duck was surprisingly ok. For dessert, we got the crème brûlée, the highlight of the dinner.
The check again took forever to get. But I don’t blame the waitress at all. She was lovely and very warm and friendly. It’s the restaurant itself with horrible management and horrible food. Not at all the classy place it pretends to be.

A very nice looking restaurant with an excellent view, Gulf Coast Kitchen feels like resort dining. There is a very limited menu, there is some noise that comes through from the nearby lobby, and the food is merely ok. The Clam Chowder was a highlight, well-​seasoned and creamy, the strip steak was ok, and the stuffed half lobster was decent, though for a reasonable $ 19 it was strange that you had to customize the menu to be able to order a whole stuffed lobster, which our waiter graciously accepted. The highlight was the view and parking was a pain, but overall a fine night out.

The Easter brunch was amazing. They had incredible seafood with crab claws, green-​lip mussels oysters etc. All very fresh. If their normal dinners are anything like this I’ll be back

I was borderline with giving 5-​star Unilocal to Gulf Coast Kitchen. I have very very little to complain about, if anything. I’m surprised there aren’t many reviews here, except a few mentions contained within the MYC’s reviews, but GCK deserves a stand-​alone review section.
First off, I got 1000 Open Table points for a pre-​7 PM midweek reservation. Now that’s just awesome because it’s worth $ 10, essentially. We were seated promptly, and were given a table with a view of the harbor. The staff was friendly, they did not rush us, they were courteous and knowledgeable about the menu. The cocktails were ordered were great.
We shared 2 appetizers, the roasted golden beets salad and the battonet of eggplant. The beet salad was excellent, properly cooked beets served with toasted walnuts and fresh blue cheese. I guess I apparently like beets (at least properly cooked beets) because the dish was awesome. The eggplant was nothing short of outstanding. It was flash fried with a nice crispy breading and a very tasty spicy creole type tomato ragout over top.
Jess ordered the Gnocchi Bolognese. I very much enjoyed it, especially when I had it as a leftover a couple days after. I did find it hard to taste the goat cheese. I also had a hard time enjoying her dish because mine was so ridiculously good that it would have been like driving a Audi after getting out of a Bugatti. I ordered the seafood bake and enjoyed the hell out of it. The three seafood components were little neck clams, scallops, and shrimp. Each was cooked to perfection. I even remarked to Jess that even if you hated clams (like she does), you would think the clams were excellent (she still didn’t try one). The dish also contains kielbasa, potatoes, and corn on the cob, in a white wine, butter and garlic sauce that was so good I wanted to pour it in a cup and drink it when I was finished.
GCK was my favorite meal in Montauk this past week, even beating out Harvest. I need to return to see if I can bump it to 5 stars; I would like to see how they handle a busy night and try some other items on the menu. I would recommend it to anyone.