Ocean Seven — Restaurant in Clearwater

My wife and I are somewhat foodies and have been to some very high-end restaurants, so this review is a comparison to our experiences. My party of four ate dinner Monday evening. The food was very good. However, the service was less so. Our entrees took an unusually long time to arrive. I noticed that a larger party that arrived after us got their food before us. The servers were very friendly, but were not trained very well. For example, I had to ask them to clean the table off after we had finished our entrees and there were food bits and such on the table. We wanted it clean for our dessert and coffee. The cleaning was a bit awkward as after the server cleaned the table with a wet cloth, I had to direct him to wipe it with a dry cloth so the table was dry. Also, the server did not really come around to our table much and I had to call over the server to say we were done with our appetizers and wanted to order our entree. Then when we were done with our entree, I had to call him over and request the dessert menu. There's not that many tables inside and there seemed like there were a number of different servers, but they seemed to be dispersed and not organized. I also had to ask for another Arnold Palmer when it was clear that I had finished the one I had. A good server would have noticed that and automatically ask if I wanted another. After our meal, the server did comp our dessert to make up for the slow service. That was great, but didn't totally make up for the lessened experience of the night. Also, the table next to us had a screaming kid and it was very distracting to have a quiet atmosphere for nice dining. The servers did nothing about that. That's one negative about this restaurant - it's right next to the walkway to the pool and there's no wall to separate that body traffic. So you get all the people going to and from the pool walking right past the dining tables. All in all, the food was great, but the service needs to come up to the level...

Fine dining but unimpressive food

My boyfriend and I stayed over at the Hiatus for a 2 day vacation in Clearwater beach and we decided to celebrate our 3 year anniversary at this gorgeous rooftop restaurant the night before our departure. We had a pleasant time with the super friendly staff who accommodated us with warm welcome, sunset champagne toast, and a free dessert on the house, for which we were hugely appreciative. However, our honest opinion on the food was mediocre at best. It almost feels like the restaurant was trying too hard to innovate its menu by inventing niche flavors, but ended up a disappointment.

The cocktails were beautifully made although they were quite strong so definitely be prepared. My favourite was the Floribbean Dream which almost tasted like a dessert - creamy and coconuty. However soon afterwards we discovered that “sweet” became the overwhelming theme for every dish. For some it worked well but some disastrous.

The starters were a delight - The shrimp bisque was flavorful and creamy with a sweetness like corn chowder; the burrata salad was also tasty and the sweet sauce mixed well with the sourness of the grapefruit. However when we got to the entree - the “coffee rubbed” ribeye - the sweetness became off putting as the mix of caramel, smokiness and fat didn’t go well. We had to sprinkle quite some salt to compensate for the lack of saltiness. The sides were decent but the creamy corn was also super sweet which didn’t go well with the already overly sweetened steak. Although we appreciated the gesture of the dessert, it was again very sweet (for a key lime pie which I had hoped to be citrus from the name).

Despite not finishing any plate after the entree we did enjoy the warm welcome and the brilliant service from the staff. Would rate the food 3/5 with additional 0.5...

DO NOT EAT HERE! My family and I had Thanksgiving reservations at the 7th floor restaurant. While we knew that the Thanksgiving food would be buffet style, we were unaware that they offered basically nothing besides the $65/per person buffet. When I asked the server what they had on their regular menu, he said “I think steak and grouper, some salads, oh and some sides… maybe corn?” I expect much better from a place charging such egregious prices. Because of this response, my entire party got the buffet dinner. This consisted of a completely picked over “raw bar” (was supposed to have oysters and shrimp, only had a few shrimp that were caked with ice), an array of cold vegetables, various forms of entirely picked over potatoes, and turkey breast so unnaturally large that it was concerning to consume. On top of this, our dirty plates were not cleared from our table until we asked multiple times for them to be removed (and even then, only about half were removed), we had to wait upwards of 10 minutes for clean plates to be brought to the buffet because the table was empty. Yet, half of the plates my party used were covered in salad remnants from previous use. Imagine paying $65 for a buffet and not even receiving clean plates. You are not offered new or clean plates for desserts (which were cookies and cold, stale pies), and to top it all off… they charge a 20% ($70) automatic gratuity… ON A BUFFET! The server did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. As I mentioned he didn’t clean up our plates, refill our water, or serve us in any capacity. Mind you, this was a party of 4. Automatic gratuity is NEVER included in parties under at least 6 guests, let alone at a buffet. THIS PLACE IS AN UTTER SCAM....