Valerie’s Place

I thought I was on a hidden camera show here. Every place in sea isle had at least an hour wait for dinner. No surprise this place was empty so we went in. After 25 minutes and three waitresses working three tables they asked what we wanted for dinner. We didn’t get offered a drink or water or anything throughout the night. Took us an hour to get our food and honestly it was horrendous dinner. The chicken park was three chicken fingers with tomato paste on top! Not even sauce. I’ve never written a bad review but this place should never serve dinner. My fiancé and I were sick the next two days and I’m positive it was the food even though we only ate ¹⁄₁₀ of our meal.

I’m glad we went with our gut when choosing after 20 minutes to throw down a 5 spot for our drinks (got Diet coke when we ordered regular) and quickly leave this crazy-​hole. The lone waitress had two other tables and had not taken our order or even acted like she was going to after 20 hungry minutes (we arrived just after noon) with our 2 year old! It was like the twilight zone in there. I could go on, but you should just read the other one star reviews…(they were not the ones written by Valerie). We come to Sea Isle every year and will never try this place again!!!

Not impressed at all. Obviously some waitstaff drama going on. Table behind us left without ordering due to long wait for someone to come back and take orders. Food was fair. I had a BLT and it was ok. Didn’t come with mayo or the chips & pickles it was supposed to. Kids had pancakes. Odd but no big deal — daughter ordered silver dollar kids size and got 8 pancakes all different sizes from 4″ to almost 10″. Son ordered a root beer float from menu — response was «I will have to check if we have ice cream». Later she just brought him a plain root beer soda and served it without any acknowledgement that it wasn’t what he had really ordered or check if he wanted a plain soda Plenty of other places in town to try and old favs to go back to.

My daughter and I went to Valarie’s for lunch. It was delicious! The atmosphere is casual and very kid friendly. The décor is an eclectic mix, sort of bohemian/​western.
Kath had the Blake Shelton and it was quite tasty with fresh, flavorful ingredients.
I had the chicken quesadilla which was extremely good. The flavors were very prominent (but no one was over powering) and blended so well.

Before I get started, I will say I just gave 1 star because I actually received food.
But I was having breakfast before the renovations at Val’s place. I walked in and children were screaming and running everywhere occupied with the toys and other crap laying around. I had a party of 6, and we were seated after 30 painful minutes. We all ordered after a frustrating 20 minutes and no food came after an hour. I had orange juice, that was really sunny d right out of the bottle. Another half hour went by and I received my Belgian waffle I had ordered. It was not a Belgian waffle though, instead it was a single eggo waffle. 4 people in my party were still left unserved, so val herself brought out a plate of watermelon, which looked like it was sitting under the fridge since the place opened. My waffle was drenched in a dense syrup which made the waffle in edible. The watermelon as mentioned earlier was not eaten and sent back. My table was offered an order of home fries about 4 times but fortunately they weren’t ours. I say fortunately because the home fries looked like something that came from a prison. I also noticed the quality of the name tags were so bad, I think spongebob has better ones. Our food eventually came out, and it was well short of even just decent. Nothing was removed from our bill, and Valerie gave our table a card, which stated how she said she was sorry for not serving the 4 kids at our table. She said she loved kids even though she did not want to feed them. The worst part of this was that she kissed the card with her bright pink lipstick and smeared it all over the card. I quickly disposed the card because my table was so disgusted and scarred for life. Val’s place is a place to avoid at all costs. Worst restaurant I have ever been too and I think I would have eaten beach sand than food at Val’s place.

Fail…
The coffee was weak
The toast was stale
The belgian waffle was lousy
The over easy eggs weren’t
The breakfast sausage was hot Italian
The water for our hot tea was about as warm as the ocean
If you want a nice breakfast steer clear.

We stopped here for breakfast on a Sunday morning while staying in Sea Isle. We come here every year for the week of the fourth, and are always looking for new places to try. We drove by decided to stop in and try it out. The interior is a bit scattered, two separate rooms (one was apparently meant for kids but both kid friendly). We sat in the room to the right, the chairs are heavy and pretty, but the cushions are completely stained and dirty. I would suggest recovering them in a stain resistant material! It made me worried to sit on them in my white shorts. Our waitress came over and was very cute and attentive. We ordered our food and it was taking a bit, despite only about 3 other tables there. They brought out chips and salsa, on the house, which was just cilantro, onion, and tomato chopped. It was good, but needed some salt, pepper, and a tiny kick of heat to add flavor and spice. A little bit later the food arrived. We ordered the breakfast burrito, blueberry French toast, chocolate chip pancakes, and the breakfast tacos. The breakfast burrito was good but needed sausage or bacon and some flavoring-​I needed to drown it in hot sauce. They also topped with a sprinkle of shredded cheddar cheese, it wasn’t melted because they didn’t add it until it had been sitting in the back for a while. Disappointing. The blueberry French toast is the best thing they probably have. The blueberries are sweet and tart and pair perfectly on top of the French toast. This is why I’m giving this place 3 stars instead of 2. However, we also ordered a side of eggs over easy that came out 10 minutes after the rest of the food. The chocolate chip pancakes were thin and pretty good. The chocolate chips were all at the bottom, (just a simple coating of flour on the CC will keep them from sinking in the batter) and the chips thrown on the top were not melted. I’d prefer if they put the chocolate chips on while the pancakes were still hot… not after they had clearly sat in the kitchen for a bit. The breakfast tacos were more like quesadillas, not tacos. They were okay, needed more spice but the addition of guacamole was nice. As mentioned, the waitress was sweet, but the slow food service, uncoordinated décor, and okay meal won’t have us coming back.

Val is a total Texas blast! She cooks, she’s the hostess and part of the entertainment that extends through to her friendly and experienced staff. On season, get here early. Off season, take your time and relax. The newly upgraded interiors are very bustro. Get ready summer 2014 for some expansion plans that may double the space.

This place was so good… I don’t understand why they only have 3 stars. The food is perfect, the service is great, over the top and super friendly, Valerie is so nice. gave us some strawberries and chocolate milk on the house for my 4 year old. I would definitely go back… in fact we went two mornings in a row…

Poor service, bad food, and circus like atmosphere. I will recommend Valerie’s to all my mortal enemies… With a smile. We went for breakfast and waited 15 minutes for someone to approach our table. Once we finally were approached we ordered oj and a coffee with fresh fruit. 10 minutes later the «fresh» fruit arrived thrown on a plate in a hurry without any utensils to eat with. And still no coffee or oj. After another 5 minutes of waiting we requested for the second time oj and coffee and did not receive it until after our breakfasts arrived. Flys circled the establishment full of unhappy patrons. I actually heard a table told they could not have chocolate chip pancakes because the chocolate chips had melted… But offered sprinkles instead. One table of 8 left annoyed saying they weren’t leaving anymore than 10% because of the horrible service. All the while this is going on, the owner struts around like a clown oblivious to the unhappy paying patrons seated in this all brown painted funhouse.
There are a 101 options for a decent breakfast down the shore, don’t get trapped in this dump. This review is from an unbiased patron who has been visiting sea isle for 30 years.

We had dinner here last week & it was an absolutely dismal experience. We used to frequent the old Valarie’s location & experience hit or miss service, but the family friendly atmosphere & pretty decent food kept us coming back. This year, the new location just opened & we thought we’d give it a try.
The restaurant was crowded when we arrived, but we were seated at a five top right away (there are four of us). Shortly after seating, Val asked us to move to another table to accommodate a larger party, but somehow they changed their minds and we were spared the relocation. It was at this time that I noticed all of the other patrons had looks of desperation on their faces. This was when I realized that this was going to be a looong night.
We never saw our waitress, but a busboy named Connor stepped up to take our order. Thank God for him, or we would not have received any food at all. We asked him for everything, «can we get our appetizer?» «can we get our salad?» and he did his best to bring everything out. Other tables had their food come out and get sent back multiple times. It was a fiasco.
The bathroom wasn’t labeled, you tripped over a decorative turtle statue to get to it, my 5 year old asked «why are there three trash cans in here.» & then the coup de grace, no soap while there was a (supposed to be cute) sign over the sink reminding people to «use soap!»
I don’t even have enough words to describe the desperation in the air this particular evening. Val emerged from the kitchen, gave a glassy-​eyed look to everyone, muttered to us «your food will be out soon?» and wasn’t seen again.
When our food finally came out it was fine, but we were also starving. For example, my salad was dry & I never got dressing. The final insult was that not one item was taken off our bill, or even any «sorry», coupon, or explanation for the complete disaster of an evening.

My uncle brought me to Valerie’s for breakfast yesterday, and it was pretty darn solid. He mentioned as we were walking in that the place is very kid-​friendly. That was an understatement. We opened the door to a symphony of Playskool instruments played by just two miniature band members. Paint hand-​prints covered the walls and ceilings, the artists’ names scribbled nearby. This would not be my first choice for a hangover breakfast, but it was just right for a weekday.
The selection of breakfast and lunch items was vast, but I went with one of the specials, an omelet with blue cheese, tomatoes, spinach and bacon. It came with homefries and some toast. Definitely a solid meal for a day on the beach, and my requests for egg whites and a side of hot sauce were met.
Heinz devotees, take note: the house ketchup is Hunt’s.
A woman who I assumed was Valerie came out of the kitchen to say hello to the regulars. She even recognized my uncle’s friend from his previous visit and made a point to say hi. I like that. This is a solid spot for eats in SIC.

Valerie’s is a great place with great service and great food.
Try their crab chowder. Really good.
And Valerie, herself, is a real sweetheart of a Texas girl.

I’ve eaten here a few times. While they do have a great Philly cheesesteak omelet, I find the food very bland and just lacking, in general. The portions are good and you don’t leave hungry. I think I just find the food too «homely». I really wanted to love this place but just could never get there.
As per the first comment on no fine dining, try the the Avalon Rose on 8^th in Avalon.
Bottom line; Sunset Pier wears the breakfast food crown in this town.