Caretta on the Gulf — Restaurant in Clearwater

I called on Thursday to send my husbands employee to dinner at Carettas as a “thank you and appreciation dinner”. I spoke with the hostess on Thursday at 1pm and gave her our credit card number, asked her to write a thank you message for the table, send a bottle of wine to the couple and also gave her my phone number (3 times! And asked her to repeat it back to me) and to call me in case there’s any problems or questions on the night of the dinner.

Today, we found out the employee and his wife went to enjoy a $500 dinner and that they were told our credit card was declined. The restaurant never called me to verify the credit card number or to ask me to repeat the credit card number due to having problems processing the payment.

Instead, They ended up having our employee pay!!!

We are furious. I spoke to the manager today and she could could have cared less. She said “your card was declined three times” which is laughable and insulting! the only way this could have happened is by the staff typing in a wrong digit into the system.

The Am Ex has no spending limit and we never received a fraud alert that a charge was trying to go through. Their hostess messed up and embarrassed us. I told the hostess several times to leave a note with my phone number in case there’s any questions. She didn’t bother to write it down.

She didn’t even write my phone number down in case of emergency to call me. Instead they insulted our employee by having him pay when he thought the dinner was paid for by us.

They could have looked at OpenTable and saw our last name in the previous reservation systems to find our phone number.

Very unprofessional and disappointing Carettas! We live in PA and have a second home in Belleair Beach and come to Carettas everytime we are in town.

The management and hostesses professionalism needs a lot work!

We sent the employee and his wife to Seaguini the night before and had NO ISSUES with this, we had the exact same set up with them and everything went perfectly.

We have been to the restaurant dozens of times in the past year and this experience is beyond disappointing!!! Both with and without reservations.

The manager also said she was calling me back today once she spoke to the accounting department to inform me of a separate question I had, and never bothered to call me back. Instead, I called the restaurant again and the hostess said “the manager will call you tomorrow, the accounting dept is closed”

Zero communication, once again. And no...

We made reservations the day before to enjoy our anniversary dinner at Caretta. And even though we arrived a little earlier we were immediately seated at a table facing the window affording us an excellent view of the fabulous sunset over the beach. Our waitress was very knowledgeable about the menu and the specials. And this restaurant asks if you have any food allergies to let them know and the kitchen can usually modify the meal to accommodate them. At this point we had been to several restaurants with the same note on the menu, but only Caretta actually meant it. When I mentioned my gluten allergy, our waitress said the bread served had a gluten free cheese roll option, and when I told her also had a dairy sensitivity she said she did as well and understood, she then asked me about the sweet potato puree that came with the Ahi Tuna I ordered, just to inform me. I really appreciated that! When the bread arrived, my hubby was raving how delicious it was and ate the entire half loaf, so I decided to sample the GF cheese roll. . Oh my word they're so delicious!!! I remember Red Lobsters little cheese biscuits these are above and beyond! Then our Diver Scallops arrived which were incredible! And as we ordered a bottle of wine for our anniversary, our waitress never let our glasses of our wine or water get much below half empty. My Ahi Tuna was perfectly seasoned and cooked it was hard to leave any remnants behind as good manners dictate. Hubby had the steak and lobster and the lobster was fantastic. And he asked for the dessert menu to see if there was a creme brulee and it was the first dessert mentioned. I ordered a coffee and I meant to ask what coffee they served because I've never had a better cup! And when the creme brulee arrived there was a little edible Happy Anniversary confection on top. Our waitress brought it out just as the sun was trying to set with dark storm clouds. It was nearly perfect and although we didn't get that famous sunset we did get an amazing lightning show. Even if I wasn't staying at the resort, I would definitely dine here if I were...

Ok-the ambience, music and view from this restaurant is AMAZING-came when everyone was leaving on a Thursday evening at 840 and it was not busy at all -was told by front desk hostess they could not seat me in a table outside overlooking or view of the water due to late evening reservations even though all tables in that area had been completely cleared out about 15 minutes after I was forced to sit at a bar table inside until I left at almost 10p-ordered a martini and water and was not asked one time to refill my empty water or if I wanted another drink from 840-950p. Waited over 30 min for a wagyu medium burger with Caesar side salad-when order was taken, asked female bartender if it was ok to sub Caesar salad for fries and bartender said of course for a 1 or 2 dollar upgrade-when the meal finally arrived it arrived with some sort of garden salad with all kinds of stuff on it I don’t like (hence why I specifically ordered the Caesar salad as a side)-at first she said the kitchen told her they don’t offer Caesar salads as sides, what!?? Then I said well that’s what I ordered from you and they have Caesar salads all over their menu?? She said she would go talk to the kitchen and did not ask me if I needed or provide any condiments for my burger? I had to go to the bar and ask her for ketchup while she was In deep conversation the whole time with the people sitting at the bar —🤦‍♀️. Luckily minutes later they agreed to give me a Caesar salad 🤨…Not once did she ask how the burger was, but thankfully it came out medium and delicious as I ordered 😇 showed up excited thinking this was going to be my new upscale favorite restaurant on the water to bring family and friends to and wound up in the end disappointed-even had to go to the bar to get my check as I needed to get back to my dogs after 1 hour 20 min later …🤷🏻‍♀️ this is an expensive upscale restaurant we have to do...