Penn's Fish House Restaurant — Restaurant in Brandon

I’ll start by saying I in no way blame the counter staff for the terrible experience we had. The two young teenagers working the counter were left to fend for themselves and they had clearly not been trained on how to use the register, making multiple phone calls to a manger just to ring us up. One of them had to come back to our table several times to see what we had ordered because the register kept clearing it out. They were so occupied trying to figure out the register that there was nobody to clean up the place. All the tables were left uncleared and the floor had trash everywhere. Sweet Tea was literally overflowing onto the floor from the drink station. There were also no bottle openers despite the restaurant serving glass bottle drinks that needed an opener. We had to improvise with a can opener from the kitchen to open the drinks we had already paid for before they told us there were no openers. There was one adult working in the kitchen so we had hoped the food would be normal or that they would at least help the poor kids. Nope. The catfish was bland mush and the Mac and cheese dry and hard. Fries and sides were basic fast food items kept sitting under a heat lamp. The highlight was the fried okra which had actually been made fresh. It was quite nice and how the rest of the meal should have been. How can any responsible manager or owner leave two kids to run the place by themselves? I felt so awkward being in this restaurant and I really felt bad for those kids. It’s not their fault; they probably haven’t even been fully trained yet. We didn’t have the heart to ask those girls for a refund. They had tried their best and this is 100% the fault of...

I went thru the drive thru, was immediately put on hold. Waitress came back a few minutes later & took my order. I pulled around & waited behind the only other car in line for a good 20 minutes. They finally handed that lady her 1 little bag. I thought "ok, maybe they're cooking to order. At least it'll be hot & fresh." I sat there another 5 minutes before the waitress came to the window with my ticket. Almost $18 for the regular catfish & shrimp combo with fries, coleslaw & a sweet tea. I was home within 10 minutes (haven't been to Penn's in forever & was READY for it!) To my disappointment, there were 4 tiny little overcooked rubbery shrimp, 4 tiny little overcooked rubbery pieces of catfish, a ton of overcooked tough hard fries, 3 overcooked dry hushpuppies & a little bitty cup of coleslaw. All of the food that should have been hot & fresh was cold & stale & the coleslaw was just about at room temperature. The tea was light colored & tasted like pure sugar water. And I don't know what that stuff is that they're trying to pass off as cocktail sauce, but that ain't it. It was more like watered down Ketchup. The coleslaw & tartar sauce were the only things that were decent, but I'm sure that they came pre-packaged from Sysco anyway, so... Do better, Penn's... PLEASE! I couldn't eat anything beyond a sample bite of everything. I sure wasted...

I went to the drive through and theperson on the speaker was very nice and patient. Unfortunately that was overshadowed by the poor customer service and inconvenience. I sat in the drive thru for 30 minutes before approaching the window. Once I made it to the window the lady ask for my payment, she stated there was a charge to use a debit card. She said she was unsure of how much the charge was. She said it was 2 and some change. Still waiting, I tried to get her attention while I was continuing to wait on my meal and she and another associate looked at me and ignored me. Someone else came from the back and I asked for an itemized bill. Another woman came to the window. I expressed my frustration and she offered to make it right. Upon talking to her the first associate comes back to the window and showed just how much she lacks customer service and slammed the window shut in my face. I asked for a refund and the other young lady that initially tried to fix the issue, constantly apologized and of course gave me a refund. I am appreciative of the two ladies that tried to help, but I will not be back to this...