Ocean Hai — Restaurant in Clearwater

We only opted for this restaurant due to convenience as we we were staying at the Wyndham Grand. We made proper reservations at 7pm and the restaurant did not appear to be overly busy at that time. We do not tend to raise the flag & demand discounts or other alternatives when dissatisfied so these are just our opinions.

We ordered the gulf grouper and the wagyu sirloin. For dessert was pandan brûlée and espresso martini. No appetizers. Negatives: The host had zero personality & although it may just be him, this is supposed to be an upscale place & when you are people like us that due to the high cost only frequent these high end restaurants once in a great while you have a certain level of customer service expectation. Not the case here. The grouper was entirely bland. No flavor whatsoever. By far the worst grouper I have been served in my life. Did not appear to be fresh at all. It comes with a pepper sauce that has no pepper taste in it. Very far from it. The rice & bok choy served with it also lacking any flavor and only serves as extra calories. The waygu steak was a tiny piece of meat that gave it’s first warning sign by being very tuff to cut. Although only the center was cooked to the to the request temperature, the remaining was not & thus overcooked with a very hard outer crust. It did not taste anything like the high end & very marbled fat piece meat it should have been. It should have melted in your mouth. Instead it tasted as if it were broiled & seared a few days prior and then microwaved to serve. The server was decent but when taking our dishes away that had more than half the food still present never asked if everything was ok. He was young and may just be ignorance but it does comes down to proper training by management. On that note, the manager was too busy it appeared ensuring the meals were coming out from the kitchen or was on his phone (possibly checking on the reservations ????). It should be the head chef making sure meals are coming out to the customers & the manager should properly train the wait staff to see that the customer may not be happy with all the uneaten food coming back and inquire if all is ok. I’ve eaten at much lower scale restaurants where we have been addressed by the server, the server’s helpers and the management to verify all is well with the food. Not once at this place. The service was slow. Main entrees came out ok but waited way too long on the desserts & for the waiter to take up the tab.

Positives: clean & nice atmosphere. Seated almost immediately. Live acoustic solo performer that played very relaxing music. The presentation of the meals were excellent. The desserts were spot on and welcoming after the disappointing entrees. The servers recommendation on the specific brand of wine proved very worthy.

Overall I would not recommend. Not worth the $125 per person we spent. Hoping management here can open their eyes & make...

This restaurant was a terrible disappointment. I had my fiance's birthday lunch here. My family and I ordered the beef pho. It arrived with luke warm broth with the beef near raw and bloody. The broth is supposed to be hot enough to cook the beef, but it wasn't. The broth had zero taste. It was a very weird version of pho. We sent it back. The server told us that the chef does not like serving that dish-so why have it on the menu? The item needs to disappear from the menu because it is not it.

The crab rangoons were lack luster, no flavor. The sweet chili sauce made it a bit better, I suppose. The sushi was the same-nothing special. The hoisin chicken bento box was OKAY, hence why I decided to leave a 2 star review versus 1 (though, I still feel the 2 stars is pushing it). The chicken and veggies were decent. It is definitely not good enough to cause me to return or recommend the place. The lunch menu is not very extensive either, so if you like options, this is not the place for you. The chocolate cake they brought out for my fiance's birthday was good and probably the best thing they offer. Again, nothing I would return again for.

The outside deck facing the beach can definitely do with some maintenance and upkeep. It felt borderline gross sitting there to eat-especially with lovebugs attacking you constantly.

The service is extremely mediocre. The hostess took us right away to a table on the outside deck, while the table was not even ready. Six of us stood there foolishly while it took 3 people that seemed to not know what they're doing to set up the table for more than 5 minutes. Weird. **19% tip is automatically added.

Overall, this place is a terrible disappointment. I do NOT recommend it to anyone. Spend your money elsewhere-especially if celebrating an occasion. It is saddening that we wasted money and...

The service and menu was AMAZING! However, the manager on duty made our experience unsatisfying. We were told that we couldn’t be seated right away due to pending reservations. Which, we totally understood and the fact that she told us that people cancel all the time made it worth putting our names on a 1 1/2 hr wait list. We enjoyed cocktails and a wonderful sushi dish in the hotel lounge while we waited ever do patiently. When it came time to be seated, I walked up and the hostess was so sweet and refreshingly apologetic for our wait. Up to this point, there was nothing to suggest anything was awry. However when I entered the restaurant (expecting a FULL house due to waiting 1 1/2 hrs), I was shocked to see the restaurant pretty much empty. In all, there were FOUR tables (including us) occupied inside and THREE outside. My boyfriend had the SAME observation and was just as upset as me over finding out we were made to wait so long. We called for the manager and without being sincerely apologetic, she attempted to make excuses and offered a 20% discount. We were accepting of this but when we got our bill, we found a 19% service charge (gratuity) tacked onto our bill. Seriously!!! Right?! As a show of appreciation for the wait staff (Andrew), we left an extra 30% gratuity. Because had it not been for him, our last night in Clearwater would have been a bust. My final thought is this. 5 stars for the wait staff and hostess. 5 stars for the food. 1 star for the mgmt. of the dining experience. She needs...