Dolly's Fish Market

I want to start with Prince Rupert is a very beautiful, green, flowery, seaside, small town. Our cruise was redirected here instead of Victoria. I don't think the restaurant was prepared for as many visitors as they got that day. The wait was long to be seated and the wait for the food was even longer! I even overheard the employees arguing with each other. The biscuit was amazing, I would pass on the chowder but the crab legs were good. I really didn't get to taste the poutine. It looks like it needs more cheese to me. The market has some good, interesting items.

Some of the best fish and chips we've ever had ...we got the combo halibut and cod with chips...both types of fish were extremely fresh..doesn't hurt that the fishing boat docks are literally right there...they were seasoned and fried perfectly..not greasy but light and crispy ..we ordered another couple pieces since we were enjoying it so much.The fries were also fried perfectly...crispy outside and soft inside. The little fish market attached had some great fish,crab and grocery items that had me wishing we were staying there in an airbnb but we were in Prince Rupert on our cruise stop ...service was good and the food came in good time. Definitely go here if in Prince Rupert BC

Absolutely the worst staff and service. When I first got there I went to a table to ask if I can sit down, the girl said yes. Then someone else came up and said I'm sorry you cannot sit there. That person is just a dishwasher and she doesn't know what she's talking about.

Ok. So. Waiting another 10 minutes or so to be seated. Finally sat our group of 8. We waited 25 minutes for someone to come ask us if we wanted anything to drink. We ordered 2 waters, 4 Italian sodas and 2 alcohol drinks along with food. The drinks were watered down and tasteless.

We were never told that the wait could take a while or anything. Our drinks came out about 10 minutes later. Which was fine we were enjoying our company and the scenery and our experience in Prince Rupert.

We realized that an hour and 25 minutes had gone by and none of our food had come yet. And now we're realizing that we are about 45 minutes away from having to be back on the ship. A couple of us went inside to go find out what was going on with our order and we were told that they hadn't even started it yet.

This is absolutely beyond ridiculous. Just sit and wait for an hour and 25 minutes and they don't even have our food order going yet. We told them to cancel because we wouldn't have time to eat it and enjoy it. Everyone around us was saying that they should comp our drinks because they all saw how long we were waiting.

We asked four times to two different staff members to speak to a manager, and none of them seemed to be able to answer our question and said that she wasn't there.

Finally out of no where, the lady came out who claimed she was the owner and said that she wasn't going to do anything to help us and that we just need to pay for our bill.

We tried to explain to her our experience, and she said, she didn't care and that yes this is how she handles owning her restaurant. We explained why we felt a few drinks should have been comped as good gesture, she was incredibly rude and in my husbands face and said, "she did not care" and not once apologized for their lack of customer service.

It's a shame this is how they treat their tourism and their travelers. They definitely did not care about us, especially since we are not locals.

Dolly's was highly recommended from our trolly tour guide so we walked over there with high hope and expectations. As a travel agent, and having many clients traveling to this port, I definitely will not be recommending this place to anybody.

There was only one ship in this port today. So if you were anticipating a busy crowd, maybe the owner should've staffed accordingly.

Communication is definitely key, and it would have been nice if someone literally anyone that worked there explained to us that the wait was going to take over an hour and a half.

Not one time did anybody come and ask us if we wanted refills or more water or anything.

There are so many other options of restaurants in this area so I would definitely try something else if you're ever in this port.

Food is ok but nothing special. Prices are on par for the small ocean communities of the northwest (i.e. not cheap because everything is really expensive up here). But you won't be ripped off price wise, especially if you are paying with US$ and there's a favorable exchange.

The place is clean and in good repair and the staff are friendly. However, service is slowwwww. Plan a long time for your meal.

The fried halibut bites were tasty and the fish fresh. The bannock taco is an uncommon dish although southwest US folks might recognize it as a Canadian First Nation version of Navajo tacos or Indian fry bread tacos. The clam chowder is very leek forward and pretty good. I wasn't a fan of the anemic red chowder. The cheese biscuits were underbaked and dry.

Overall, it's ok but you can probably do better.

Poor service. Asked for ketchup for fries. It never arrived
Asked for half litre of wine. Recei2 small glassey
Several customers had to go find their own menus
Fries soft and greasy
Rockfish was very good
Will not be back.
Even the bannock tacos. A local favorite they did not have. Bannock is so simple to make

Ordered halibut fish tacos. Not really a taco, more of a grilled pita bread. More slaw than halibut and no flavor to the fish. Service was adequate but slow, considering there was only one other table.
Not a cozy place and the floor was STCKY! Not just in certain places, but everywhere you walked.
Find another place to eat, this was a big disappointment.

To start, we ordered our food. I ordered the halibut. They were out of halibut. Ok, how much is the lobster. No lobster. What about the rockfish? Yes they have rockfish. Fine, I'd like to start with a cup of clam chowder and a cheese biscuit and I'll have the rockfish. Hubby was easy, he ordered a whole crab dinner. We weren't offered drink menus but had overheard they had Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay. We decided to get a bottle of Chardonnay and hubby got a beer to start.
When our drinks were delivered we were given a beer with a mug (not poured). Two wine glasses and an unopened bottle of wine. I guess since it was a screw top that step was deemed unnecessary.
Our food was finally delivered and we got everything at once. When I asked the girl why my soup wasn't brought as an appetizer? She just smiled and shrugged. She started to walk away and we had to ask for silverware, as we hadn't been given any. She brings back silverware and my husband had to ask her for butter for the crab. She goes and gets that. When she returned, hubby asked her what happened to the garlic and honey that is supposed to be on the crab (per the menu description). She said she'd go ask. We never saw her again! Not once did she come back and neither did our original server (who took our order).
I will say the chowder was pretty good. Biscuit was ok. The crab was really good. The rockfish was not good at all. First of all it was breaded, which is not in the description on the menu. Also, it was described as "herbed" but was incredibly bland. Salt would have helped but there was none on the table and severs weren't anywhere to be seen. The fries were decent but again could have used salt and maybe some ketchup, but you guessed it! No ketchup on the table. And no servers to be seen.
The wine was just bad. It tasted more like grapefruit juice than an unoaked Chardonnay. We drank it because we paid for the whole bottle, and there was no ordering anything else with the lack of server presence. Seriously, if you have any palate for wine, avoid this one.
Also, please understand that the restaurant was staffed! I went inside to use the restroom and five employees were seated at a table inside laughing and joking having the time of their life. (I could tell they were employees by the shirts they were wearing).
The restroom was a mess! (Big surprise!). Trash overflowing, TP roll holder was broken and the broken piece just sitting there on the sink. Gross. (I thought about taking a picture but didn't want to expose you all to that.)
We were seated outside and two separate tables left and no one bussed them. So every time a slight breeze blew, garbage, cans, napkins etc flew off the table and littered the patio.
Overall; mediocre food, really poor service, bad wine, dirty place. I wouldn't go back and wouldn't recommend it to anyone!!! We really regret not going back to the steakhouse in our hotel!

If you're on a cruise ship, you've probably realized there's not much to do in Prince Rupert at this point. You've decided to eat something anyways since you're in town, and you wander down to Dolly's Seafood Restaurant near the port because it does smell good from the street and the place is packed, which is usually a good sign. You've forgotten that there's not much to do in Prince Rupert and fail to realize that the place is packed because everyone from the cruise ship had the same idea and went there.
The food we did have, or at least the things we ordered that came out, was just ok. The smoked salmon portion was pretty small and was served with pressed hamburger bun bottoms instead of crackers. It was smokey, but the texture was uneven; parts of each piece were dry, and parts were soggy.
The clam chowder was pretty runny with very small potatoes and some clams... not terrible, but nothing special.
Our shrimp never came out, so I can't comment on that. Several other tables also had items never arrive.
The service was the real problem. The restaurant has zero organization. It seems that everyone is running around doing everything, which means that nothing gets done. There's no real place to check in, so servers are dodging around people in the check-in line while some people are trying to check in and some pay at the same station (which is in the middle of the restaurant).
There was no order to who got food when... we waited 45 minutes to get our three... er, um.. two appetizers. People who came in well after us were served before us... with full meals, not appetizers, and people who were there when we arrived still had not yet been served. And good luck getting a refill on your water. We had two small cups of water in our 65+ minutes in the restaurant.
The staff were very kind, but most were late teens/early 20s and seemed to have no direction or management. They were just doing whatever they could in the moment... putting out one problem after another without ever moving anything forward in the restaurant. They did the best they could without any leadership. I never saw a manager.
I wish we'd have just gone back and eaten on the ship... take this warning

1 star only because I have to. This restaurant came recommended by a staff member aboard our cruise ship but he couldn't have been more wrong. We got there and waited. And waited and waited some more. No one came for at least 30 minutes to get our water/drinks order and when they finally came to deliver them we quickly told them we were ready to order since we were getting the idea that it was going to be awhile. They took our order and never saw anyone again for an hour. By the time the 3rd person in our party got up to ask someone where our food was it had been an hour and 20 min. They told us our food order was on the list to be prepared next, that they hadn't even started! When we told them that we couldn't wait any longer, let alone another 30 min for them to cook our order, they said fine and brought out our check for our 2 drinks and 3 kids sodas! Even the table of locals sitting next to us told the staff it should be comped for us waiting so long and patiently but they said nope and made us pay. When we asked to speak to the manager, both employees said there was no manager there but 5 min later a woman came out saying "I'm the boss, what's the problem?" After very politely trying to explain to her what was happening and that we had to be back on the ship shortly she said "Okay, well we're busy and there's nothing we can do" She was so rude and didn't even try to apologize or seem upset.
We were all so upset and totally missed out on exploring due to having to sit and wait for nothing. So disappointed

One star is generous. If I could give -5 I would! Took forever to even be seated. That should have been a hint to us. Took about 15-20 to even get a menu. Took another 20 to place an order and had to ask if we could get our order in. We had to ask for drinks and waited 2+ hours on our food.

The worst part that is infuriating. They gave us our $140 bill. We asked if they took American money and they replied, "Oh, of course!" In the nicest tone that they'd been all day. We asked what the exchange rate was and they said 1-1. We didn't have internet service on our phones so we couldn't verify. FALSE. SO GLAD WE PAID WITH OUR CARD because it was only $104 American dollars. This made us so mad that we even gave them our business. Having terrible service is one thing, but trying to scam people out of money is another.