Mattison's Riverwalk — Restaurant in Bradenton

We have been here many times, and I realized I've never posted! My husband and I usually stop in once a month on either a Thursday or Friday night during happy hour. It is a very nice ambiance with outdoor, covered, and enclosed seating. They have a band that plays both nights. My go-to dinner is usually the Greek salad with lamb chops. We usually get the beef brisket appetizer as well. Tonight, we had the Balsamic glazed goat cheese brushetta. Really tasty. I also ordered the firecracker chicken sandwhich with sweet potato fries.....also yummy. My husband usually orders the fish tacos. Adam , the bartender, makes the best drinks. Prices are average.

9/6/21 We brought family today, and unfortunately, I had to take stars off from previous visits. Mattisons are usually consistent with food and service, but tonight was a different experience. The parking lot was full, but inside, there were maybe 5 or 6 tables with patrons and about a dozen around the bar. Needless to say, it was basically empty as pictures show.

We ordered our drinks, and half the table received theirs while the waitress kept apologizing, saying the bar was backed up. Even the chocolate milk was not chocolatey. We put in an app....calamari. It arrived before the drinks that were missing. We had to ask for plates, and the plates that were brought to us were each wet. The waitress took them away and brought us new ones. She apologized. The calamari was not cooked and very chewy. 6 people ate half the order...1 order...... it was obviously rushed as we received it before the bar drinks. The waitress apologized and took it away. We put in our dinner orders and waited and waited and waited and waited, and the plates that came out were cold ( lamb way over cooked as well). I am all about businesses being short staffed and supporting local businesses, but as mentioned, this place was almost empty. 5 out of the 6 orders came out; the 6th was incorrect. The waitress apologized, and the correct meal ordered. Everyone finished their meal, and then another 25 minutes passed before that meal came out. The scallop dish also came out with 3 on the plate. It....legit 3 small scallops for a dish that cost over $20. Our bill came, and a charge for the dish that was never ordered was on it. When questioned, the waitress apologized. She also stated she normally adds on gratuity for tables with 4 or more people,but she wouldn't since our experience was not a good one. We were so excited to bring out of town guests here, and I rarely give negative feedback.

3/20/22 decided to go back and be highly disappointed in the food AGAIN. 😒 The bartenders are always fantastic and make delicious drinks. The place itself is nice, and the waitstaff is efficient. But, the food does not meet standards. The lamb on my salad again cold! Dry! And hard to eat. My husband's tacos were okay. The...

Been sitting at the bar for 40 minutes and the bartender hasn’t looked at us once. Finally after 15 minutes a waitress offered us a drink at the dirty bar with someone else’s food still sitting in front of us. After I asked for it to be cleaned, she brought us a drink. She received a tip for her service. The bartender actually poured refills for other customers before offering even a glance or a bar napkin to people who were sitting for 15 minutes. 😮

Now, 35 minutes later, we still have had zero attention from bartender. The bar is filthy with departed people’s food still here, dirty glasses everywhere. Who is running this place? I may not even get to any food because I can only tolerate the worst service for only so long!

At last, an offer for appetizers at 50 minutes in!!! This better be worth it! Sadly, the offer never became appetizers on a plate in front of me so my joy was short lived. We were ignored again by the bartender until our table was ready.

Update at 90+ minutes. Waiting on food, seated at a table!! Our sweet waitress has no clue about the menu she’s serving! What kind of training does the staff go through before they are on the floor??? It’s crazy! This is the worst customer service I’ve ever had and not even the best food would bring me back here. Management should be ashamed of themselves for this clusterfack of a dinner service. And not because it was so madly busy. It was busy, but not in the weeds busy. And all our bad vibes and disgruntled energy could have been avoided in the first 5 minutes. Eye contact! A word of hello and acknowledgment from the bartender, where we were sent to wait for our table, told to have a drink and an app….where we were ultimately ignored completely! How about a menu to look at? That would keep us busy while we wait. Easy customer service goals!

Final edit…after over 2 hours, we finished the meal. I had to say something to a manager about our experience and he comped our meal. This was not what I expected at all and am thankful for his attention. This is the same manager that I noticed bussing tables earlier and I was happy to see him on the floor and trying to keep things moving. Overall, I have to say, years of dining experience as a customer and a provider, this was like no other service I’ve had. I’ve worked high volume in NYC and seen the best and the worst. This was far from the best.

Side note…food was decent. Some tasty bits and some less. Salad was overdressed, soggy and warm. I asked for dressing on the side to avoid that, but it came overdressed. At that point, we just wanted to eat and leave. We didn’t want to wait for one other thing! Chicken on the salad was dry. Goat cheese bruschetta...

Disappointing all around. Arrived Saturday around 11:30am. The enormous dining room had 1 couple at the bar and maybe 5 tables of people. Otherwise it was deserted. We heard one table leave before ordering, saying they wanted something else. We should have taken the hint. We ordered an order of calamari as an appetizer. I got a small margarita pizza and my friend got the shakshuka. The calamari came spread out on a plate with 2 small plastic containers of sauce…one tasted like salad dressing and the other was Thai chili sauce out of a jar. There wasn’t enough of either dipping sauce for the calamari. The dish was supposed to come with pickled Thai vegetables, which turned out to be 4 pieces of vegetables about 1/4” long sitting on a small bed of spoiled lettuce. This was way overpriced at $17. Nothing at all special about it. My margarita pizza arrived. It was not a classic margarita pizza. It had no mozzarella, no tomato sauce, and slices of tomatoes that had been picked too early and had green cores in the middle. But the worse thing was that the greasy crust was 4 inches toward the center, meaning that nearly 1/2 the pizza was bread. Greasy bread…this for $17. And although it was supposed to come from a coal fired oven, you could have fooled me. My friend’s shakshuka was supposed to come with poached eggs. The eggs had been hard boiled. Instead of a runny center, they were solid. We would have sent it back, but it was so darned hot sitting outside, (no air conditioning) despite the industrial fans that were blowing, that it was too unpleasant to stay for much longer. If you can’t cook a nice calamari and a margarita pizza, your kitchen has troubles. All of this, with tip was $80. Terribly overpriced. Now I know why hardly anyone was there, and only one table arrived before we left. I hate spending money on bad overpriced food. I felt taken. Not worth trying a...