This was a complete customer service and culinary failure.
I have eaten at this Bonefish Grill location at least 12 - 15 times over the last few years. In October 2019 my mother, my husband and I ate there and had a less-than-stellar experience for the first time ever. We had to send back a cocktail and a full meal and had a terrible, over worked waiter. We chalked it up to a bad busy night, but stayed away until last Saturday.
My mother is 84 and is recovering from lung cancer, but is on oxygen 24/7. She has trouble walking. But she can get by if it's not too much of a trek. She has a nifty little portable oxygen unit that looks like a purse and it's as unobtrusive as that type of device can be. I made advance reservations for a VERY early time slot (5:30 PM!) so we would not be fighting the really big crowds that show up after 6. I asked for a booth, because she can set the little unit on the bench of the booth next to her and not be in the way of staff and other patrons. As soon as the location opened at 4:00 PM I called and spoke with a very nice young woman and told her my name and the time of the reservation. I explained why we wanted a booth and asked if we could have a booth in the bar or at least one nearest the dining room entrance because of her difficulty in walking. She graciously said she'd do her best and made note of the request.
It's not my first time dining out, so I KNOW it's a request and not a guarantee,
We arrived early, on purpose-5:20. It was busy and we had to wait a few minutes to be seated. We were shown to the VERY LAST BOOTH at the opposite end of the restaurant from the entrance. It was the antihesis of what I requested! When I balked politely, and asked about the 3 vacant booths in the bar, I was told they were reserved. So, with great difficulty, my poor mother gasped for air to the back of the room.
Again, we've been there enough to know that it takes forever to get your cocktails delivered when you dine in the restaurant. As soon as our young waiter arrived, we ordered a Bloody Mary for mom, a Coral Reef Punch for my husband and a Winter White Cosmo for me. After a long wait (BUT--we expected to sit there and wait) our drinks were delivered and mine was perfect. But, the Coral Reef Punch has been sitting too long and the ice had melted and it was very watery. Drinkable, but watery. The Bloody Mary-undrinkable due to way too much hot sauce and pepper around the rim. Again, it took a VERY LONG TIME (I was finished my cocktail and my husband was ¾ of the way through his watered-down punch) but we finally flagged down the waiter and ordered 2 glasses of wine for us and returned the incendiary Blood Mary and swapped it for a rum drink for my mom.
We ordered the crab dip and the crab cakes to share as appetizers and they were excellent and rich and arrived hot. No issues with the apps!
For my main course, I always stick to the basics at Bonefish-grilled fish. I had the grilled salmon. My mother and husband threw caution to the wind (in other words, they ignored my warnings not to get so fancy...) and ordered steamed lobster tails. My husband had 2 and my mom had a single one.
When the meals arrived, mine was wonderful. Hot off the grill with both my broccoli and the accompanying potatoes acceptably hot.
All 3 of the lobster tails were cool. WAY under room temperature. Worse, the butter in the so-called warmers, was congealed and cold. Like never been hot cold. My mom's potatoes au gratin were cold and my husband's broccoli was cold. There meals were a mess.
With some difficulty, we got someone to come to fetch the waiter and he took them back to the kitchen. After a long period of time, they returned slightly warmer but the butter was still not warmed. Worse, they had been warmed in such a way that they were rubbery. The waiter -after being hailed again-got the manager.
The manager was a sullen young guy whose name I promptly forgot if he said it at all. He said that the problem was the butter warmers did not really melt the butter. NO KIDDING, PAL?! He spent 2 minutes with us and shrugged off our complaints and LEFT.
There was no offer of replacement dinners and of course we would not have taken them because I was long finished and it RUINED the night out. We had cocktails, appetizers, wine and 2 of the more expensive dinner items on the menu.We were not cheap Charlie-ing it, so I would think we'd be the type of patrons they would value, but apparently not. The bill for this fiasco, with tax was $155. For 3 people. Nothing was removed from the check or discounted. I gave the server a $30 tip which is less than I normally would. I did not want to penalize him for the lousy food or the uninterested but condescending manager, but he did disappear on us.
Needless to say, with TWO bad experiences under our belt, we are DONE. Dine at your own peril and don't say I did not warn you, friends. read more