The Bridge Tender Inn Dockside & Tiki Bar — Restaurant in Brandenton Beach

We ate at the bridge tender the other night and had excellent service and food. We had 10 of us and everyone had great meals. We returned this evening and had a DRASTICALLY different experience. Our waitress was new so some of the service issues I will let slide, however two of the meals weren’t correct- the manager would not allow us to put two 4 top tables together so the 8 of us could sit together (3 of the 8 people being under the age of 10). But my biggest complaint is that my daughter was served blue cheese instead of ranch and she is allergic to it. I will take some responsibility for her eating it as she is only 9yrs old however if she had been allowed to sit at the same table maybe I would have actually caught it. When the manager finally came out to speak with us I was away down the street searching for Benadryl as she was having a reaction. The manager had the audacity to tell my husband that it was our responsibility to tell them that she had a food allergy and did so with a serious attitude. EXCUSE ME?! how dare you blame this on us and not take responsibility for your staff making a mistake- a MAJOR mistake. She is very lucky I wasn’t sitting there because my husband is far nicer then I am. The food can be excellent but it’s only as good as the staff serving it and the management running the ship! Extremely disappointed and...

My family has been here a lot. We've usually had pleasant experiences over the years. About a year or 2 ago we came and sat down at a table. After about 20 to 30 minutes of absolutely no one coming to our table and watching other people be seated and waited on, we got up and left. We figured maybe it was a bad day. We had a late lunch there today and it was a long wait before we got menus. Then there was a long wait before we got to give our drink orders. While waiting for our drinks to come back we watched another table get sat near us. That table ended up ordering and receiving their food before we even got to order our food. The waitress forgot a drink which we kindly reminded her about. When it was time to finally order, we ordered appetizers and meals. All of our food came out at the same time leaving me to choose whether I wanted to eat my appetizer cold or my main meal cold. When an alcoholic beverage was asked to be refilled, we never received it, but it was placed on the bill. When we pointed it out, they removed the drink, but the service was subpar overall. I have served for many years and the experience was definitely...

This is one of our go to restaurants when we come to the area. We come in by boat on our 26' cruiser and they have a decent dock for at least two larger boats and a few shallow draft boats. Watch the tide as the docks closest to shore are not usable at low tide.

We prefer sitting outside at the Tiki Bar overlooking the intercoastal. Everybody here is super nice and the food comes out fast and everything we've had has been good or great. It's a little bit on the expensive side, though. We went for lunch and shared a Cuban sandwich, black bean soup, fries and two cocktails and the bill was $36.

They do have an indoor bar and seating area as well. They jam a lot of tables into a very small space so it is cramped. You have to navigate through those tables to get to the restroom, there's only room for one person to slide between the tables.

The vibe is good. It's always busy and they have music playing throughout. On the weekends they have live music, which this past weekend was excellent.

All in all a great Waterside restaurant with a nice dock, friendly staff, good food...