Fleet Landing Restaurant & Bar — Attraction in Charleston

The place was a referral over another popular restaurant in the area due to its high prices. Let’s get right down to it. Maybe I should’ve paid the higher prices. The interior of Fleet Landing Restaurant was delish’ can’t say that for the once again lacking of seasoned foods at restaurants here in the land of low country cuisine. If I return, it would be for the view’s. The restaurants sitting on the water so I’m sure the views are amazing of the ocean. Funny how the couple sitting behind us, got up and said blatantly, don’t order anything they had off the menu. We eyes open wide ask, what did you order❔ They just replied we’d be better off grabbing water out of the bay and dirt from the floor. I’m not gonna say the food was this bad, but I did leave without asking for a doggie bag. My fiancé even asked why I hadn’t finished my drink. All I kept saying is that I’d like to visit in the daytime, next time. Would I return for a second tasting, yes❕ I ordered Grouper, but wasn’t sure if that was Grouper. Grouper is thick like a swordfish steak. The BEST part of my meal was the rice and potatoes under the fish. My fiancé also, not finishing her meal said it was just ok. The couple in the next booth said DON’T order the SheCrab Soup… one of the plates ordered at their table, amongst a bunch of other dishes. Each time I visit Charleston, it is getting harder and harder for me to venture off and try other restaurants. Sticking to my usual visited choices. Bad enough, a restaurant sitting on the water serving such small portions of seafood is really becoming irritating. A little well known place called City Island, A strip of seafood + restaurants in the Bronx, New York can serve 2 pound lobster tails, orders of 10 shrimp that will fill you up, (size per shrimp) and swordfish steaks, that will serve two people. I don’t know how these local restaurants are enticing people of a return for such skimpy meals, unseasoned with bland tastes. Many people knowing that I visit the Charleston area quite frequently asked me where should they go eat. About five restaurants that I frequent will be listed. I may only add one alternate choice letting them know, palette beware. The hype is not all it’s caked up to be as reviews state. I’m sure these are just visitors to the area that give the better reviews. The more I even think about it now I’m willing to bet that was not grouper on my plate, thinking back, watching a news special of how restaurants. today are selling cheaper, similar fish, than spending the extra money on the restaurants menu’s. Those gold stars above now have me wanting to remove one more from the rating. Everything here seems to close around 10 o’clock so get to dinner early or you’ll be at some takeout spots,...

Server Shelvy was a little abrupt from the beginning, not very warm, we felt rushed when we asked questions, (my wife has a soy allergy), and by the end of the meal we were looking for her to come back for a long time. The place was closing by then and maybe she was doing side work which is fine, but you still need to be checking on your tables. We sat outside and my wife got bit up by No-see-ums, (kinda like mosquitos?). Water glasses were not refilled regularly. My wife ordered a pasta with chicken and pesto, and it was delivered without pesto by a food runner. It took forever for our waitress to check on us after meals were delivered, and when we finally caught her to let her know, she started to argue that there was pesto you just can’t see it…I tasted the pasta and let me tell you it was bland, there was no pesto, olive oil, or any other flavor. Eventually our waitress just said “OK” grabbed the plate of pasta, and turned away quickly heading for the kitchen. No apology…Not a warm and fuzzy experience. When the pesto pasta returned it was good but the situation could have been avoided, and should have been handled better. My meal was good. Fried calamari was almost thick as sharpie markers. Fried scallops and shrimp platter was really good, and there were approx 8 half dollar size scallops - Nice! The fries were terrible. They died under a warming light long ago, so it was difficult to eat them but that was alright, because I had plenty of seafood to enjoy. If we sat inside and worked with a different server it would have been a better experience. Worth mentioning, I don’t like the electronic check. The server will run your credit card at the table using their tablet/POS/Ordering device, and you have to tip the server while they stand there. On the POS screen there are predetermined tip percentages pictured for easy selection (20%, 24% and 28%) or something similar if memory serves. There is a custom tip option, but how many people take the time to do math for a custom tip as the server stands over them waiting. It’s a little intimidating so most people will simply select a predetermined amount. As someone who has served in several restaurants - I love it because it basically ensures at least a 20% tip. But from a customer perspective I was not happy about that. Yes 20% is my default tip when dining out, but in this case it felt like I was strong armed into tipping more than was deserved. Food was pretty good, but that and the service left...

We live in the area and have been to this restaurant a handful of times for dates and when family comes to visit as they love the view whenever we sit outside. The food is usually pretty good, some items are okay and we have learned what isn’t worth it. I don’t know if I can say anything about it is exceptional, though. If you can sit outside, it’s far more preferable than being inside which can be way too loud sometimes. You really pay for the environment, here.

We made reservations for ourselves and immediate family following our wedding and asked to be seated outside which they were able to accommodate with a little extra wait. We all agreed our food was good or very good. Unfortunately this experience had us questioning whether or not we will return, and we lean toward it just not being worth it. The last several times we have come, we have always had fantastic service. I will say the servers are always friendly and attentive. But this time was different. Our server wasn’t necessarily rude, but she wasn’t particularly friendly either.

Overall, we felt very neglected the whole time we were there. Our server gave a lot of attention to her other tables around us, but not to our party of eight. She didn’t come over to refill our empty waters, ask if we needed anything or how the food was, clear our table, or even bring over our food. She just took our order and returned with the check. The one that brought our food, and eventually cleared our table because we didn’t even have room for our plates after the appetizers, was a teenage runner who was a hard worker. Whenever we tried to get our waitresses attention to ask for another drink, a steak knife, etc. she would just… avoid us? It was weird and we wondered if it was us (but we feel that we are always super polite and easy going, so I’m not sure what we could’ve done better). It wasn’t until it was time to pay that we realized why she ignored us— the 20% tip is automatically added for parties of our size so she felt no need to do anything and was giving all her attention to the smaller parties around us that had flexibility in determining what sort of tip they left.

Anyway, it was very pricey, and while we enjoyed the view, we didn’t feel the expense was justified, especially with the lack of service. I think we will try some place else next time family visits or we want...