Gilligan’s Pier

Went here for dinner and the atmosphere. What can I say? The place continues to be dirty and the service is still poor. Usually we at least get a somewhat decent meal; however, tonight’s meal was just $ 75 worth of awful…
The steamed spiced shrimp seemed like they were probably leftover from yesterday and reheated. Ever get bad shrimp that are mealy? That’s what these were like. They would literally fall apart when you would peel the shell off. Not worth the «special» price of $ 16.99. And the cocktail sauce that was served with them was gelatinous and coagulated. We just threw it out, along with ½ pound of shrimp.
The crabs were also on special. Word to the wise — when crabs are $ 20 for a dozen, stay away. Far, far away. We ate five and said no to the rest. Hell no. These also seemed like they were leftovers. The seasoning was goopy, in globs, and wet on top. Not like it should be. Very odd.
At least the kids seemed to enjoy their meals. The hot dogs and chicken tenders with fries were good, as were the hush puppies.
Other than that, not satisfied. Would have rather eaten at Foxy Fish. Better food, better service.

This place was pretty cool. The employees were nice and the food was great. I like the little table area that sits in the water and laid back atmosphere. And i like the ski boat, jet pack and boat rental service. What I didn’t like about it was that when you order one of their special drinks they MUST fill your cup or bucket up with ice. I asked for light ice for my drink and was told that they couldn’t give me light ice. I HATE watered down drinks, so I had to drink it fast before the ice melted. I could make a snow man with all that ice I had left from my 2 drinks. ha! Anyway, I enjoyed my time there and would like to go back again. *p.s this is not the place to wear heels*. lol

Great atmosphere but horrible service. I have never experienced more rude people in my life. Between roaches in my food and witnessing the bartender spit in my drink I am not sure how to respond. I highly recommend nobody visits this cesspool except for the health department. Please heeth my warning.

Omg! Where do I freaking begin. Have you ever been to a place when you leave you feel like you should bathe? This is one of those establishments. It was so dusty in there. The bathroom smelled like a port a potty *dry heaves*
First of all we were swatting flies away from our food.(family reunion of flies) As soon as I read a review on here I said to my mother «OMG they said there were flies on their food» and then the swarm of flies came. It was like the damn things heard us. like «Here we are. Did someone say FLIES?».
My mother and sister ordered ½ dozen of crabs. Which looked like they got them off of someones dusty bookshelf and put them in a microwave and hit the 30 second reheat button. They were DRY as the sand outside. I ordered the crab-​cake sandwich. This sandwich looked like a struggle crab-​cake sandwich. It looked OLD and I took two bites out of it and decided not to finish the rest. I was very dissapointed.
This is the dirtiest seafood restaurant that I have ever been to in my whole entire life.
Btw: Never take advice from someone that doesn’t live in Maryland on seafood. Lol! Never again!!!
1 good thing: The waitress was nice

The food lousy served cold, the scallops were rotten and bleached to hide the smell, lousy food presentation for the price, kitchen did not get order correctly and it took for ever to get the food. Place is dirty, restrooms are filthy, no manager on sight. waitress keep it apologizing something a manger should be doing .very un-​organized operation with a lot of potential. Never again

Tiki bar and crabs — what more do you need? It is a drive from DC but a nice retreat from the regular restaurants. Food was good (not great), service could have been better, but the drinks were on point. And the band at night, was a good touch!

Wow, what a find. Crabs, tiki bar, beach, tables in the river!!! Plus a band. However, If your picky or bothered by flys this place is not for you. The food was great. The service was friendly but lacked a sense of urgency. Kind of what to expect on the water in the woods.
This place is really off the beaten path but easy to get to if you know where to get off on 301 or arrive by boat or jet ski
There is lots to do here with a family and friends including beach volleyball and swimming. The tiki bar is between the beach and the band stand and you can fill up with a drink and access the entire property.
The food is reasonably priced but the kitchen gets slammed with large parties so there can be a long wait

Good food and great atmosphere. Waitress was a little slow and nonchalant with service. Reasonable prices and great drinks.

Thought I had left a review, but can not find it. So here I go again… very dirty, poor poor service and the food is just ok! After arriving and using the filthy bathroom, I should have gone with my gut and just said lets go somewhere else guys. But since it had a nice view and my college kids were with us decided to stay. The view is about the only good thing here. Waitress was terrible, got orders wrong, was very slow, never offered to refill drinks and she was in her 50’s not a young broad. From the beginning she seemed annoyed that only 2 in our party where drinking and no one wanted crabs.
The food was over priced, over cooked or not brought to us… we will certainly not go back, I guess they are more of a late night/​weekend young drunk kids place! Not for foodies!

Love this place for the atmosphere; situated right on the bank of the river, it sports its own beach, pier, etc. Great place to go if you just want to hang out and have a few drinks. Stay away if you are looking for timeliness, great service, clean bathrooms.
My family and I have gone three times (including tonite) when the kitchen was so overwhelmed they quit seating people. We arrived a little after 5 pm and were told it would be a 45 minute wait. We were finally seated almost 90 minutes later only to be told the kitchen was only filling steamed food orders. It took another 45 minutes before I was able to order an entrée. We were able to order an appetizer but it was served missing the dipping sauce. It took 10 minutes to get the server’s attention and get the sauce at which point the appetizer was cold. I DID finally get to order an entrée and I have to say, the rockfish was amazing.
In the midst of the 90 minute wait to be seated and the additional 45 minute wait to order an entrée, we may have visited the restroom a couple of times. Unfortunately, the men’s room was closed for awhile due to some mishap.
We did get 2 free drinks out of the joint for our troubles, but all things considered, I would not do this again.

I had a business dinner date and we choose this spot because it has its private beach that I took full advantage of. Very laid back atmosphere, bartender and waitresses were hit or miss. If you have to go to the bathroom, hold your nose, run in and out as quickly as possible!!! The smell is enough to gag a maggot or Make you lose your lunch. Not clean at all!
However the SEAFOOD was great, I ordered the blackened platter, which should have come with scallops but didn’t. I was only told after served and I inquired. They did not have the baked sweet potato I ordered either, so I went with the coleslaw. It was very bland, just horrible. The crab cakes were delicious. The blacken oysters were also. They truly only specialize in seafood, so anything outside of seafood tasted horrible. I will go back only for the beach and seafood, no sides.

Came here for the first time. Location is cool and laid back atmosphere. A mixed crowd with live band and DJ on Saturday. If you want to have a good time, make sure you wear shoes sufficient for walking in sand as I came in 6″ heels and looked like a damn fool. Also there is tables in the water for adults so wear shorts for that. The swap water drink is good but order order by the pitcher it’s cheaper.

Went for an early dinner today because the weather was gorgeous! I got the scallops (broiled) and they were great as usual. Only downside was they had a bit too much old bay or whatever seasoning they use but I just scraped it off. My daughter’s fried shrimp were good. My other half got the dozen crabs for $ 28! And they were huge! Biggest crabs we’ve seen all year! And the cheapest. normally a dozen crabs at this size is $ 80 during the regular season. Three stars is because since it was so gorgeous we ate outside. bad idea. The bugs were absolutely horrible. So bad that I ate my food, he ate 2 of his crabs and we bagged everything else up to take home. had to leave ½ a pitcher of beer :’-(

Still one of my favorite river crab shacks. The view and feel of the tropics even on the river is amazing. Good local laid back bar scene. This last visit I had the blue crabs again but they were so small with hours of work and no meat and they did not have large crabs. Hush puppies were great. Nice place for families but only daytime and indoors away from the bar area. Cannot understand how people bring their kids outside when theres foul language and it really is an adult bar setting.

I am giving 2 stars but I am really on the fence about that because the staff at this place was really that unfortunate that it brings a high 4 star food rating down significantly. The ambiance at Gilligans is absolutely great, its got a very cool and relaxed beach bar theme. They also had a live reggae band playing and they were very good. However, the multiple negative encounters with staff at Gilligans really screws up that postive environment quickly.
My mother, sister and myself all ordered daiquiris from their bar menu. My mother ordered hers without whipped cream but when they brought all three of them none had whipped cream on them, which is not a big deal. We went to the bar inside and asked the bartender for some whipped cream on our drinks. The bartender said, «If we wanted whipped cream on our drink we had to ask for it because it’s not like it comes out of a button.» Her tone and body language just conveyed an overall sense of rudeness. We didnt know if you wanted whipped cream on your daiquiri you needed to ask for it, otherwise we would have. There was really no need for rudeness towards us.
For our food we ordered snow crab legs, steamed shrimp, and TWO dozen Blue Crabs. Our food was there quickly and the food was good.
My mother ordered another daiquiri but this one had the consistency of a Slurpee that wasn’t blended properly cuz there were big chunks of ice and it tasted bad. So she took the drink inside to the same bartender and was told that is how the frozen drinks are supposed to be and also that all of the frozen drinks at this restaurant were crappy. My mom was shocked that the bartender was saying the drinks here were bad. So she asked the bartender if the drinks are so bad why sell them she also asked what she recommended as a substitute and the bartender said, «whatever you want to order.» So my mom got a margarita on the rocks.
Our waitress was very unattentive the entire time we were there, we had to ask her repeatedly to refill drinks, bring extra cups, and even empty the buckets that had the crab shells in them. We were a party of 8 people but we were back in the corner on the patio and it seemed like she just forgot we were even there for a majority of our visit. So I ask to speak with the manager, she was very nice but her excuse for the bartender being as rude was because she was overworked and having a bad day. But she said that she couldn’t apologize because there was no excuse for her behavior. She offered to give my mother a free drink because of the bartender, but it took them almost 15 minutes to bring her that drink.
The owner was at the bar on the beach and he was pointed out to me so I went over to tell him about the negative experiences we had encountered at his restaurant yesterday. He was upset and told me that the bartenders were overworked but he said he was sick of hearing complaints about the bartenders attitude. So that tells me that my complaint to him was not the first one he’s received about the bad attitude. Why is she working in a customer service if she has zero abilities?
We finally received our bill and the waitress had rung us up for three dozen crabs rather than the two that we asked for. I am not quite sure how she confused 2 dozen with 3 dozen because they don’t sound anything alike and we didn’t order 3 of any food item for her to confuse it with. When we received the crabs at our table we did not bother to count them either, because it did look bigger than 2 dozen but the waitress told us that they were «generous» with their dozen blue crab deal. So when we asked the waitress about that she said that we did receive 3 dozen crabs and that’s what we ordered even though we told her that we only ordered TWO. She did not offer to make any adjustments to our bill, she didn’t offer to bring the manager or the owner back over. She just kind of shrugged her shoulders and without saying it, told us we had to deal with it. We had been there for well over 2 hours at this point and with the lackluster staff experience we had there, we were just ready to leave and there was no point in trying to argue with this waitress who obviously wanted nothing to do with trying to make her table happy. So we pay the 200 dollar bill, left the waitress 15% tip, even though she really did not deserve that and left Gilligans, with a bad taste in our mouths that wasn’t caused by the food.
We don’t live close to this restaurant and drove an hour to get there and back. I don’t know if I would return to this restaurant, maybe if I was in the area I might give it a try again, but to go out of my way to patronize this place probably won’t happen. And it’s very unfortunate because the environment is really wonderful and it’s a great place for families. The parents can relax drinking and listening to live music while the kids play on the beach and get a good meal.

When you are in the mood for scrumptious crabs I suggest you check out Gilligan’s. They have jumbo steamed crabs that will satisfy your craving. The crabs are large, artfully spiced and steamed till tender and irresistible. We started off our meal with crab ball appetizers. Just think of a round crab cake that is fried and served with your choice of tartar sauce or cocktail sauce. They came out hot from the fryer and full of tender crabmeat. We also enjoyed creamy coleslaw that was not too sweet. We ordered onion rings that were thick and crisp. Gilligan’s has a variety of frozen drinks to chose from. We opted for the piña colada which was sweet and tasty to accompany the crabs. Gilligan’s is a bit of a ride, but worth it if you are feeling like crabs. It was not cheap, but definitely worth the price. Our waitress was kind and service was spot on. So next time you are feeling crabby, try Gilligan’s and you will leave a happy camper.

I will say the ambience of this tropical getaway is amazing! Just an hour away from where I live, I was transported to the Caribbean! My friends and I were kidnapped by another friend who took us to this fun spot, not telling us what it was the whole way there. When we arrived, we were greeted by gorgeous views of the water, palm trees, and a little pier. I immediately started snapping pics of the gorgeous sunset as my toes sunk slowly into the sand. There are even tables in the water! You can dangle your toes in the beachy waves while sippin on a freshly squeezed Watermelon Cooler… which I tried, which is as delicious as it sounds. I watched the bartender juice the fresh watermelon pieces myself. I’ve never tried something so unique! And I love pink drinks.
Now I can’t say much about the food because I did not have dinner here. I tried some of my bf’s seafood nachos, which were decent. Nothing special. I think the food is just okay, but the draw is the location, location, location. Plus… we were treated to a live band that evening! The Amish Outlaws are as wonderfully awful as they sound! Most are a bunch of fakes (not really Amish), but I was thoroughly amused listening to all the techno classics, 80s & 90s beats, and a bunch of awfully clever (and cleverly awful) remixes.
Overall, a really fun night, and I felt like I was on vacation! I’d come again!

I’m obsessed with Gilligans. We LOVE IT HERE. It’s mom’s favorite place to boat to because they have the colorful chairs in the water, live bands and a volleyball net. My friends love the fresh squeezed fruit & alcohol drinks that are prepared on the spot and I’m all about the AYCE crabs.
I might always be tipsy when we get there but I’ve never had an issue.
Only thing I dislike — the rocks hurt your feet along the shore. If thats the only gripe I can come up with then it can’t be a bad spot.

Great couldn’t complain about the food now the service on the other hand took a while but was worth the wait sort of! Wasn’t packed on a Tuesday but took a long time for our waitress! Drinks are great Swamp water awesome!

No Bleu Crabs today!
We were a day late for the famous Chesapeake bleu crabs. We have never had them and our niece was going to show us how to eat them but they ran out the day before we arrived. I ordered the next best thing, broiled crab cakes with a baked sweet potato and green beans. Everything was good but the crab cakes were great.
The restaurant had a very casual fun feel to it. Our waitress was great as we had fantastic service. She let us sit in the back away from the screaming kids in the front room, which was perfect.