Sun of a Beach — Restaurant in Town of Sylvan Lake

My wife and I first visited Son of a Beach last June and had a pleasant experience. The service was excellent, and while the food was decent, it was not particularly memorable. Tonight, we decided to give the restaurant another chance.

For our meal, I ordered a steak sandwich with truffle fries, while my wife opted for the bruschetta. She had hoped to find vegan options on the menu, but unfortunately, a restaurant of this caliber offers none—a surprising oversight in today’s dining landscape.

First and foremost, I would like to commend our server. Though a bit timid, he was attentive and provided good service. However, the quality of the food was highly disappointing.

The bruschetta, which was placed in front of my wife, was subpar from the outset. The tomatoes were unripe, the bread—allegedly house-made—was of poor quality and appeared to be a standard Sysco product, and inexplicably, it contained diced bell peppers, an ingredient not listed on the menu. The dish was entirely flavorless, with dense bread and hard tomatoes. My wife attempted to eat it but ultimately found it inedible. We expressed our concerns to the server, who kindly removed the plate.

Unfortunately, my own meal was equally underwhelming. The steak sandwich was served on the same dense, unappealing bread. I had requested my steak medium-rare, yet it arrived medium-well. Though I chose not to send it back, the accompanying peppercorn sauce was lumpy and had an off-putting fishy odor. The truffle fries were also disappointing—the overpowering scent and flavor of low-quality Parmesan cheese completely masked any hint of truffle. Given that the menu highlights Parmigiano Reggiano, it was frustrating to see such an inferior cheese used instead. I am grateful I ordered only a side portion because, had I paid $21 for a full order, I would have been livid.

To make matters worse, when our bill arrived, we noticed that the $16 bruschetta—despite being returned—was still included. I politely requested its removal, and our server obliged, informing us that he needed to get approval from the manager. This led to an additional 20-minute wait before the manager finally approached our table.

Regrettably, her behavior was the most disappointing aspect of the evening. She greeted us with, "I hear you have a problem with the bruschetta," in a tone that was neither professional nor accommodating. As we explained our concerns, she rolled her eyes and made dismissive facial expressions, appearing visibly irritated as if we were inconveniencing her. Her justification was simply, "Well, that’s our take on bruschetta." If a restaurant chooses to offer a reinterpretation of a classic dish, it should at least be properly executed and clearly described on the menu.

To my astonishment, she then walked away while I was still speaking. As a chef with over 25 years of experience—and 34 years in the hospitality industry—I have never encountered such poor managerial service. A restaurant that fails to listen to its customers cannot expect to improve or succeed.

Given this experience, I will not be returning to Son of a Beach, nor would I...

The burger I ordered ended up being burnt on one side, and had a fry that was completely foul. When I complained about this, the waitress, Kendra, treated us in a completely unprofessional manner, and when I specifically just asked for a burger that wasn't burnt, she told us that it's just how the burger is cooked, and instead of taking my request seriously, she asked if I wanted my patty medium rare, which I did not mention in any way. Her service and attitude from the beginning all the way up to the bill was extremely unprofessional. The sob burger I had was good at the end, but the ordeal I had to go through to have it was unacceptable for a proper restaurant. I also tried the pizza and salmon bowl and they were both mediocre at best.

response: I am speechless seeing this big of an effort of lying in order to save your reputation even though we all experienced the same food quality issues and poor customer service from Kendra. I did not even take more than 3 bites of the burger, because it was so bitter from one side being completely burnt, if I had eaten that much of the burger, there would be nothing left to return, same goes with the fries. Please try harder to make your lies believable next time.

Kendra, I know you read this review since you're also in on the lying about your own behavior. Not only did you ask about my issues in a condescending manner, you also did not listen to what I was complaining about. A non burnt burger does not mean that the burger meat will be medium rare. yet you asked if I wanted it medium rare multiple times after I said I just didn't want an entire side of the patty to be burnt. Also don't tell customers "it's just how it's made here" to try and guilt me out of my valid complaint. Also why even try to lie about being thoughtful of our receipts when you didn't even care about treating your customers with an ounce of respect

I didn't even mention you approaching our table with a pitcher of water, setting it down, putting our umbrella down without telling us any reason, and in the process, spilling some of that water on my friend, and not apologizing or anything and leaving.

Not only was my previous review fair, it was biased towards you, I still gave your burger a good review, which was the only positive I had for the entire experience, If I really wanted to make the review unfair, I would've only mentioned the negative aspects of my experience.

Whether you wrote this response on Kendra's behalf, or if she was a contributor, I would like you to at least take responsibility for mistakes that you make as a business, it's shameful seeing a restaurant attack its customers for its own wrongdoings, and own up to none of it.

Also the future establishments we visit will get good reviews if they have good food and service, just like I will leave a bad review for bad food and bad service, as in this case.

Message to the owner: If you tried as hard to make your restaurant better as you did defending yourself, maybe you'd have more success as a business!

Wishing you all the...

So disappointing, skip this place. I have been here multiple times previously, but after tonights service and management I will not return. Waited a reasonable 15min to be sat, and got what we requested which was patio. Once seated we waited for 20 min for a simple acknowledgement from a server ( a greeting/ introduction/ asking for drinks) but received nothing. My friend had to flag down a server. At this point we saw tables that sat after us had already received their drinks while we still hadn't been acknowledged.

Our server for the night (Karina), was great, and catered to us although we were not supposed to be her table.She heard our concerns and although we were expressing frustrations with her, she continued to show empathy and validation throughout it all. If for some reason I fund myself here again I would ask for her to be there server as I fully trust in her ability to perform amazing customer service

When the food came, we had still not received our drinks, and cutlery. My friend asked for ketchup, and an extra plate never received it. The fish and chips were served without coleslaw. We had already gotten through more than half of our meals so we asked our server to cancel the drinks, and when she came back she brought the drinks and I guess we had assumed that it would be free due to the service frustrations and us cancelling the drinks earlier.

When speaking to the manager she gave us such disrespect while talking to us by replying " oh, I don't believe that" when we told her that we waited 20 minutes and not maintaining eye contact when we were telling her about our frustrations. The bartender was doing tricks and she was looking at him rather than us. She continued to say things that invalidated our experience and said " I thought I was doing something great by removing your side of gravy and drink".We were going to pay separately, so this became an issue, as not everyone was going to get compensated. She ended up coming back after trying to call the owner when we told her this, and she offered us shots instead of just giving us some kind of discount ( we would have even been okay with 20% off each meal, we just wanted to be compensated for the time and money wasted on a horrible night), which we declined as we were not interested in alcohol.

We ended up just sucking it up and paying the bill with 1 gravy and 1 drink taken off, but still paid 145$ for a horrible night of experiences.

( we also witnessed another table leave as they too hadn't been acknowledged in 15 minutes)

Pictured is fish and chips (23.75$) that came with no tarter sauce and no requested ketchup and...