Salt Shack on the Lake — Restaurant in Clermont

We had some family come in from out of town. When we arrived, we put our names on the list requesting a table inside due to a disability in our party. After waiting patiently for over an hour and 15 minutes, we were seated outside at a picnic table. We mentioned this to the hostess who spoke with a manager then told us it would be a while longer. We compromised by asking for a chair to be brought out.

We then waited another 10 minutes before someone from the wait staff took our drink order. Completely expected as it was an obviously busy night.

Our appetizers came out fairly quickly, but they were missing the sauces. They were delicious nonetheless. When our entrees were brought out, they were missing one dish (a shrimp basket) and they told us it would be out shortly. We also asked for silverware since the hostess didn't seat us with any. During this time, a waitress began complaining that one of the heaters wasn't working (the one at our table) and demanded that our waiter fix it immediately if she was going to keep working. Our waiter dropped what he was doing and started to work on the heater. After another 10 minutes and seeing people being sat and served with silverware, we saw two managers standing at the door chatting and laughing with each other. We approached them and asked for silverware to which they casually responded that it would be coming and then went back to their conversation. A minute later, a hostess walked by them with silverware in hand, spoke with them and the managers sent her back in without even mentioning that we needed silverware.

Our food was getting cold and our patience was waning so while our waiter was struggling with the heater which we told him not to worry about from our standpoint, he asked the waitress who asked him to fix the heater to get us silverware and check on our missing entree. She brought back silverware and blamed the kitchen for the miss on the entree. A few minutes later, a food runner comes out with the entree and takes it to the table behind us where the waitress meets her. The table says they didn't order it and the waitress then tells the table to keep it and take it home.

By this time, everyone else was done eating and we just wanted the check. We told our waiter (still messing with the heater) that we wanted the check and to speak with the manager to discuss our entire experience including our food being given away in front of us. We watched him walk over to the elder manager and watched as she began reprimanding him and she sunk behind a wall out of our eyeline. He approached us again to attempt to settle the bill (obviously, the manager did not want to speak with us) and we requested the manager again.

After another few minutes, we approached the manager and tempers were high and patience was thin. My husband expressed his displeasure and used a curse word out of frustration and demanded that the manager come to our table. She finally did, but instead of listening to our concerns, gave us all a lecture on use of profanity. We were just ready to pay and leave after our missing entree was removed, but this manager wanted to continue the lecture, while blaming our server for the bad experience. After insisting that we want the bill and to leave, the waiter asked the manager's assistance to remove the entree from the handheld terminal. She stated that he didn't have any connection and the went back to the door. We watched as the manager continued to berate the waiter. She came back alone and said that she would comp our meal, but then continued the lecture of the use of profanity. We requested to leave again and she stood there while we got up and pointed out the exit to each other. We wanted to ensure that our waiter at least got a tip and did not feel comfortable leaving it on the table while the manager hovered. It was also taking some time to move to the exit due to the person in our group with mobility challenges. The manager decided to then patronize us by asking if we knew where the exit was.

We are extremely disappointed in the...

I’ve been to the Salt Shack several times and usually enjoy the food, which is why I brought my family for the first time this past weekend. Unfortunately, this visit was by far the worst experience I’ve had—largely due to how unprofessional the host staff was.

In the past, the host stand has always seemed a bit chaotic, which I understood given how busy the place can get. But this time was different, and not in a good way. When I arrived with my family, the hosts were laughing and joking around with each other instead of paying attention. One hostess had to ask my name twice and almost took down my phone number incorrectly. Still, we got a text within 10 minutes saying our table was ready. We stood up—we had never left the area—but noticed that several other families also seemed to get the same text at the same time.

A hostess asked if I preferred a booth. I said, “No, I prefer inside,” and she told us to continue waiting. Then we watched other parties—some of whom arrived after us—getting seated inside at 4-top tables. Confused, I asked the hostess what was going on. She said she was “waiting for a table.” I pointed out that couples who checked in after us were being seated at inside tables that could’ve worked for us. Her response? “If you have a problem, take it up with the manager.”

The manager happened to be walking up at that point. Instead of listening, she immediately told me I didn’t come up in time for the text and that I had declined a booth. While technically true, I was standing at the host stand the whole time, and I had only declined a booth because I preferred inside seating—as was my right. What really upset me was when she told me that those couples had "priority." How? They checked in after us. The manager seemed to have made up her mind before hearing me out, and both she and the hostess had terrible attitudes about the entire situation.

After about 30 minutes, we were finally brought to our table—which was still being cleaned. There was food on the floor, and I had to wipe food off my own chair before sitting. Eventually, a woman in a pink shirt (whom I hadn't seen before) came over to apologize and admitted the host staff had mistakenly sent out too many “table ready” texts at once. She was the only one who acknowledged the mistake and apologized sincerely.

To be clear, the 30-minute wait itself wasn’t the issue. We understand busy restaurants can run behind. But the way the host staff handled the situation was incredibly unprofessional—disorganized, dismissive, and lacking any real accountability. Even my daughter recalled a previous bad experience with the host stand but never left a review.

The host stand is the first impression of your restaurant. When the staff up front is unprofessional and chaotic, it sets a tone for the rest of the experience—and that tone unfortunately followed us to the table. If you can’t stay focused and treat guests respectfully during a busy shift, maybe the host stand isn’t the right role.

I hope management seriously reevaluates how the front of house is being run. Because despite the great food, poor service like this can ruin an otherwise...

A mixed bag on the experience, but overall, I think it was good and I would come back.

To start off, I really applaud the simple thing that so many popular places miss is literally offering the option to see where you are on the queue, it makes the wait a lot better knowing that you can go and do whatever you want in the area and having a general idea of how long until your table is ready.

Moving onto the restaurant itself, it is on the water and it is beautiful, BUT I would really like to see more decor, everything was very plain and barebones and really was noticeable. How can you be on the water and not have some matching decorations to go with it? Also the layout of this place isn't exactly efficient, I feel like the tables could be much more optimized in their placing to allow for more people to be sat, but also ontop of this allow for more of a buffer so that I can enjoy eating my food without having guests that are awaiting to be sat being nearly on top of me while I am eating dinner. I was sat on the outdoor patio and there was a large empty space next to my table that people would just stand in or occupy and get a little too close which wasn't fun.

Moving onto the food, it was very much a hit or a miss. The carribean fritters and the calamari were unfortunately soggy and not really crunchy or packed with flavor, the sauces really carried the experience. The Tuna Tartare was the highlight of the whole meal, it was fresh and packed with flavor. I also had the chicken tacos with veggies. The chicken tacos on their own were just okay but once again with the shack sauce it really was delicious, but if you ate it without the sauce it definitely would have sucked.

The service was okay, I really didn't appreciate how I got my appetizers and food within 30 seconds of each other, it didn't give me much time to enjoy and share the appetizers with my group and I also am concerned that the kitchen is almost too efficient? I mean the server literally mentioned some items coming from a bag which isn't exactly surprising for some things that were served. Our waitress was attentive but it took multiple times of asking for a to go box, or for the check to actually get things.

Overall, it wasn't a horrible experience, but it also wasn't the best, but I'd definitely come back. As someone who grew up near the ocean it really reminded me of a lot of the fun tiki bars that are on the ocean or intracoastal (just with a lot more theming and fun). Hopefully with some more time they can work on these more minute details and hopefully even offer some new fun food offerings (please offer a rice bowl...