Let me preface this by saying I often give businesses the benefit of the doubt, and if you look at my previous reviews I typically err on a positive note. This is not one of those times. I apologize in advance for the length, but I want to get the details right on why people should steer very clear of this establishment.
In short: This place had laughably bad food and worse service, which was magnified by the price they deem fair to charge for both. We went here with my family over the weekend, as we had looked at the menu online and were excited about the food. Upon arrival, we were informed that they had a new chef, and the chef changed the menu entirely from what was on their website. Not a problem, we are an agreeable group just happy to be spending time together. As long as the food is still okay, right?
Half a star goes towards the atmosphere: it was nice, though it's not tough to make outdoor seating in south Florida a good experience.
What really surprised me though was the lack of service. Our server consistently brought out the wrong food at the wrong time, mixed up orders and drinks, and left long spaces between touching our table. Again, no big deal, we chalked it up to her being new. The problems really started when the food began to arrive. A runner brought out the wrong salad to my father. When he pointed it out, the runner said [paraphrased] "No, this is what you ordered, this is what it looks like." He had ordered a lobster salad on mixed greens and got something like a wedge salad with some (partially frozen) crab on top. The food runner argued again before taking the salad away entirely (and bringing nothing else back in return). My grandfather was brought out his entree as an appetizer. He ordered as his dinner the appetizer portion of shrimp and a side of fries. The server brought out the shrimp as his appetizer and when he asked about it she said [paraphrased] "You ordered the shrimp for your appetizer and the french fries for your meal." Does that even make sense? Why would she even argue that?
The brie was good. So. That's the other half of this star.
After delivering our entrees, our server came back to check on us after a bit. When asked, we politely informed her the food, frankly, was awful. And it was. The pasta dish I ordered was so overcooked it was basically mush, and nobody bothered to reduce the wine in the sauce so it was still bitter and boozy and sitting in a separated pile of butter. Three of the other people at our table gave up with their meals after a couple of bites as well. This might pique a server's interest typically, but not ours. She looked at the untouched plates after hearing our comments, shrugged and said "Ok."
Like... what?
Shortly after, we heard the table behind us complaining about their food to their server - so we knew we weren't the only people feeling the sting of a lousy cook. Then the "manager" came by. That's in quotes because I'm not entirely sure that was his job. He seemed like a really handsy bartender[?] (he really enjoyed touching people without their permission) who filled in as a pseudo-management role. We said our waitress was doing okay but we could tell the stress of a weekend dinner shift was still hard on her. He said [paraphrased] "Oh she's not new, she's been here for awhile." Then we told him the same thing about the food - again, motioning to our untouched dinners. He said [paraphrased] "Nobody has ever complained about our food before."
Bro.
We literally just watched him say that to the table behind us. There was no offer to remove the uneaten entrees from our bill - not even a comp'd drink or dessert (In addition to our large party of apps and entrees, we had ordered two bottles of wine along with some other drinks). We ended up having to pay full price for a dinner that left us hungry and a little queasy. That is so weird! Even at the road-side diner I used to work at, we didn't require customers to pay for food they hadn't touched.
So if you're looking for a nice evening out, go somewhere else. Seriously. This area is teeming with good eats and you could throw a dart anywhere on the map and land at a good restaurant.
Unless it's South Fork Grille. read more