Surfside Taphouse — Restaurant in Clearwater

So, I rented an AirB&B luxury stay for my children and I to bring in the New Year. Our house was literally beachside ocean side. I did this not only to have the BEST there is to offer, but also to avoid 'any' Racial Conflicts in dining experiences (happens WAY too often, more than you would think🥺, and when I'm treated like a "nigger" i can get REEEEAL "niggerish"😊, so i usually avoid going out to eat), also to make sure we are served the BEST food (I loooove to cook 5 star meals for my family, friends, and homeless people. Jesus tells us too, it's mandatory 💁🏾‍♂️).

But I 'KNEW' the Vikings were playing (#SKOL BABY), we were facing off with our border nemesis Greenbay Cheeseheadz, so I was hoping to treat my children to a light meal for the Sunday night game, as a "Purple People Eater" we were out to Eat Cheese 🧀 🤭😋🤤

I called around to all the local "Sports Bars" on the island, and decided on THIS place after an AMAZING conversation with the manager via phone. Parking was a NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!! Let me tell you! But again, the manager came to my rescue! That beautiful amazing humane! Remembering me from the phone call, she told me the best space, and she was right...

My girls and I cheered on the Vikes with straight-up Purple Pride 😁

After getting parked (a block away) I ordered us a nacho. Now, for those who know, I am a "Nacho Connoisseur." I travel the country trying Nachos (I need to do more reviews around this for yall). This place has EVERYTHING going for them, except the parking and their nachos! 1st of all, it was the smallest stack of chips I have EVER seen served!!! There was little to no cheese for the small amount of chips and absolutely 'NO' vegetables!!!! Except for a "side cup" of pickled peppers 😂🤣 😒

But, this made for GREAT conversation with the beautiful manager again. She came and checked on me, and I was 💯 with her, I told her the nachos were NOT "it." She was taken back a bit. I told her everything wrong and what would make it right. I explained my connoisseur tendency with nachos and that THOSE nachos were the 'WORST' nation wide!!! The manager went on to explain that they are in the midst of a menu upgrade, and she will take the nachos into deep consideration... we actually talked for a good 20 minutes until my new friend from Chicago showed up (guy I met and befriended at the bar, lol).

I didn't get the managers name. She was so kind, so patient, so understanding, and SO very attractive! If she wants help figuring out a nacho that will bring people back, I would LOVE to share my thoughts on the most ultimate nacho feature 🤗

Let me tell you, the next night at the B&B, i made coconut oil fried garlic chicken, made a Nacho Supreme, and topped it with an assortment of fresh local veggies and tomatoes. My children SMASHED those nachos and said, "dad, you should open a restaurant, you are the best cook, and everyone believes it. Everyone would come eat at your restaurant and be happy. "

I spent $140 on groceries for 5 days in FL, which made 14 meals and about 5 snacks!!! We ate out TWICE, yall!!! Both times, we were HIGHLY dissatisfied and disappointed. I spent $75 on those 2 disappointing meals! 1 being HORRIFYING service, other being DREAM service!

I'm convinced! I neeeeed to open a Farm to Table restaurant chain! With Surfside Taphouse Service and my cooking!!!

BTW, back here in MN, I am the co-founder of the Urban Ag House File and the primary "Gorilla Gardener" of the USA! Meaning, I TAKE vacant lots in "food desert" communities, and I install gardens whether raised bed or in ground (depending on soil condition), and I teach communities HOW to garden, and HOW to harvest, and I hand out FREE locally produced fresh ingredients for meals, as well I put together meals for communities to have, for free! And this has ALWAYS been voluntary work for me! And I've done this for SIXTEEN YEARS now!!! But I am ready to start a Farm 2 Table restaurant! And I think the FIRST thing on my menu will be VEGGIE NACHOS lol!!! I'll call them the "T.C. NACHOS".

Sorry, i didn't take...

Further to our previous rating of 1 star, the reasons behind this low rating are as follows:

We have flown to Florida from the UK as we have for the previous 6 or 7 years. Of all the restaraunts we have eaten at across the years, the food in Surfside Taphouse is some of the worst we have had. I had the peel and eat shrimp to start, which tasted as though they had been frozen and thawed, very watery and not much flavour. My partner and my sister in law had a cheese/tomato flatbread which was very greasy and soggy. For main I had the seafood platter, which the waitress recommended to have fried. What was served to me was a plate of greasy battered fish, that all tasted the same. You could not differentiate between the taste of the oysters or prawns as they were very bland and tasted fatty, and some of the "oysters" were just balls of batter with either no fish or a tiny piece of fish inside.The fillet of fish that was served was also greasy and tasted basically the same as the prawns and oysters, and again it all tasted rubbery like it had been frozen previously, which you don't expect from a seaside restaraunt. My father and mother in law ordered the baby back ribs to share, and they felt that they were fatty, tough and certainly not "fall off the bone" as described.

My partner and sister in law had a chicken burger for main, which to be fair was okay, but then its quite hard to go wrong when cooking a basic burger.

The lime wedges served with our corona buckets were so big that you couldn't fit them in the corona bottle at all, and we had to cut these to size ourselves, however these were good value otherwise.

Our server was good, brought the food out on time and was attentive, however she didn't ask whether we enjoyed the meal, even though we left most of it on the plate. We still gave her a tip as the bad quality of the food is not her fault.

Our total bill was over 200 dollars which for the quality of the food was very expensive, and did not respresent good value for money.

Nothing wrong with the bar itself or the staff, but the food massively let...

I’ll preface this with saying THIS PLACE HAS POTENTIAL.

We went last night, because this place was right across from our hotel, and had live music. We arrived to a hostess stand outside, but no hostess. We stood there for a few minutes before eventually seating ourselves.. we grabbed a few seats at the bar and almost immediately greeted and served. The bartenders eyes were glossed over like he had a few drinks himself (which would be fine with me, had his service been better). After getting our drinks, he disappeared for a bit or was busy helping other patrons, it took about 15 minutes before finally getting a menu to order food. By the time our food was delivered (but someone else, either a food runner or manager) our drinks were low - the bartender never asked if we wanted anything else to drink, how the food came out or anything. We finished our food, got the check and left. So back to how this place has potential; The food was good. The blackened scallops were chefs kiss but the steamed shrimp seasoned with Old Bay tasted like water. The crowd was decent, with live music and the potential to have the place packed. BUT, the service was lacking- and they REALLY need a hostess at the front. We watched multiple people come to the hostess stand, wait for someone to greet and seat them, eventually to leave. The guy who served us the food, seemed to be the only one on top of things, running around with some purpose. If he isn’t a manager or someone with some authority there- he should be. And the bartender should have help, if he can’t handle it himself. It was 9pm on a Thursday night, a somewhat busy bar and he was alone and making drinks for the whole bar and restaurant.

I know finding good help is hard these days, but this place could be better- if they had the staff...