1776 Steakhouse
1776 Steakhouse is a restaurant institution in Rehoboth, that was sold in 2026 to the Nalu and Summer House owners, who promised in published reports to keep it the same. Bad operating decision. Prior to its sale, 1776 was perhaps best known to non-regulars about its opportunistic website posting accolades from Zagat (popular in NYC from 1990-2010), a review that could never be fact-checked because Zagat was acquired by Google in 2011, was then spun-off to JP Morgan Chase, and closed years ago, so the review itself was at best 14 years old. That review, coincidentally, linked the Zagat logo to Chase Bank, a curious choice given that diners need an ATM visit to pay for the meal.
As for the dining experience, let’s start with its strip mall setting at the Midway Plaza, where you will jockey for parking with visitors to the adjacent cineplex and other restaurants and retail stores (hopefully, a new super hero movie release does not occur around the time of your reservation). 1776 Steakhouse is old school in approach, and patronage, with most visitors seemingly regulars. Steaks are usually prepared as ordered and are custom steakhouse in approach, but are they USDA prime? The menu doesn’t say. One of the operators formerly helmed the Rehoboth Beach Country Club, and the 1776 menu and food seems about RBCC in terms of quality and approach. Indeed, you get the feeling you are at a country club wedding when the food arrives, given its presentation and taste, but, unlike a country club invitation, at 1776 Steakhouse, you get billed at the end of the meal.
Let’s end with service. It is slow, awkward, and inconsistent. On our last visit, bread was served one minute before the entrees, which themselves took nearly 40 minutes after appetizers, with substitutions made at the last moment. Our server was nowhere to be found for most of the meal, and had to be summoned most of the time. It’s one thing to suffer through bad service for good food; another to wish the meal was over based upon quality and service.
There are numerous other – and better – steak restaurants in Delmarva from which to choose, but sometimes muscle memory leads you right back to that sweet spot of predictable, but acceptable mediocrity. Alas, 1776 Steakhouse is a mainstay and popular restaurant drawing repeat and loyal customers who yearn for that “Cheers” experience where everyone seems to know your name. For us, we prefer the “Seinfeld” experience metaphor, a show famously about nothing on behalf of a restaurant that, if you are intellectually honest about the experience, is mostly about nothing.
