Margaritaville Restaurant - Cleveland — Restaurant in Cleveland

We arrived at the restaurant around 5:30pm on Saturday, July 20, 2024 and were surprised to see that the restaurant was fairly empty. After a brief wait at the entrance we were seated in a booth not far from the entrance, and told that our server would be with us shortly. We waited almost 20 minutes before our server showed up. He took our drink orders, and we waited another 30 minutes to receive waters and margaritas. He took our food order without writing anything down, and we waited another 30 minutes to receive our food.

My friend’s sweet potato fries were cold, and they got my order wrong. I ordered the coconut shrimp dinner with a side Caesar salad. They brought me a plate that had three coconut shrimp, 2 pieces of fried fish, and some little regular fried shrimp. They also forgot my salad, and when I reminded the waiter, they brought me a house salad instead of a Caesar like I ordered. Given how long we had to wait to receive our food, I decided not to bother complaining that they gave me food I didn’t order. I didn’t want to have to wait ANOTHER 30 minutes to receive the right food. When we were finished eating, the waiter brought our checks without asking if we wanted anything else. I told him that we actually wanted to order dessert, and asked for a slice of the key lime pie to share. We waited 20 minutes before he finally let us know that they were out of the pie. So we told him he could just bring our checks again, and we waited ANOTHER 20 minutes for him to do that.

Honestly, even though they got my order wrong, the food wasn’t bad. It wasn’t fantastic, but it was okay. Definitely not worth 58 dollars though (and that was just for my food and drink alone since we got separate checks). The real problem with our experience was the service. Our waiter didn’t even greet us or introduce himself when he finally came to our table for the first time. His whole demeanor was very cold and bored, and every time he left to bring us something, it took FOREVER! I don’t know if he was really tired, or just didn’t want to be there. My friend and I even discussed that he seemed strung out, like he had been smoking dope, or was on some other drug. When we were waiting 20 minutes for a piece of pie, I don’t know if he would have ever even finally come over to tell us that they were out. It seemed like he only finally told us that because I was able to catch his eye. And like I said in the beginning, the restaurant was not even that busy!

It ended up being a very disappointing experience overall. I was especially disappointed because this is the first time I have ever been to a Margaritaville, and I had been looking forward to it. Needless to say, we will not be back. And I hope the waiter got the message with his 10% tip. I usually ALWAYS give a 20% tip, because most wait staff are friendly, attentive, and work their tails off, but with this guy, I just couldn’t. He was one of the worst waiters I have ever had in my life.

As far as atmosphere, I appreciated the tropical theme that the restaurant is known for, but that’s about it. The seat of the booth where I was seated was split open, so it wasn’t very comfortable, and the seat and table top felt sticky. When I went to the bathroom, I noticed that the restaurant floor was sticky as well. The stalls in the bathroom don’t close all the way. I think the stall walls might be slanted, because it seems like the doors of each stall are too wide to close. And the band that was playing was annoying and way too loud. I’m just grateful that we weren’t in the same room, because it was too loud even from where we were seated. I actually felt relief each time they paused between songs, and wished that they would just put a sock in it. Also, there were no silverware or napkins on our table when we were seated. When the waiter finally brought our food, we pointed out that we didn’t have any napkins. He brought us napkins (thankfully that didn’t take 20-30 minutes for once), but I had to steal a fork from a...

A friend and myself specifically chose to go to Margaritaville on Monday for lunch following the BROWNS Win to honor one of our favorite singers Jimmy Buffett. RIP 🦜We both are also in the restaurant business. We were completely and utterly appalled!!! I have never written a review for a restaurant in my life. But this was necessary. Upon arrival, there was no employee anywhere. When the gentleman finally approached, we politely asked if we could sit outside. And he said “well whatever you want” in a snarky kind of way. It was as if we were bothering him and annoying him. That set the tone. There was maybe seven people in the entire restaurant eating… So by no means were they at all busy or overwhelmed. When the server FINALLY got to our table, She was just as rude and uncaring as the man who sat us. You do realize you are a restaurant??? And we are coming to YOUR house to eat. Would you treat your guests like that if they came to your own home?.. I don’t think so. My friend asked for her salad to be brought out before her meal…. Which never happened until I had to go track somebody down in the restaurant which took about five minutes. When she finally brought the salad WITH our meal, she said in a sarcastic kind of way, I don’t know why the salad wasn’t brought out… Are you kidding me. You’re the one we told!! Obviously she wasn’t listening and again, I don’t even know why she showed up for work. Because it was clearly evident that was the last place she wanted to be. A piece of advice, if you don’t want to work in that industry… Don’t work in that industry! There was no silverware or salt and pepper when our food finally came out. And before we could say anything she walked away. So once again I have to go track her down. I again could not find anybody in the restaurant. I also asked for mayo on the side for my sandwich. Once again, had to get up and go track somebody down. Once again feeling like I am completely bothering them while they are getting paid to do nothing. The fries were completely cold… How can they be cold when nobody was in the restaurant eating… But maybe a handful. Ridiculous. He did bring out hot fries and didn’t take the cold ones… So it looked like I had a mountain full of fries that I was never even going to eat at this point. My friend maybe had two bites of her fish tacos… That were burnt and disgusting. And again let me remind you we are in the restaurant business. When the server came to give us our checks, she never asked why we barely touched our food. Because she didn’t care!!!! It’s sad that those two employees put such a negative vibe to our plans for the day. And I think it’s a complete insult to Jimmy Buffett. I would rate the whole experience a zero. Zero customer service, zero Self-awareness on how to run a restaurant, mediocre food preparation and presentation, and zero employee culture… Especially in a place that should be fun, upbeat and happy. To me, it starts with management… So if this was our brief little experience… I can’t imagine what it’s like on a busy or popular weekend. McDonald’s and Taco Bell’s employees are 50 times better than what we experienced. I’m sorry for the review. But as I said earlier… It...

Get ready for this situation, it's unreal. I ate in this joke of a restaurant on 9/7/2023 with my wife and son. We arrived around 6p to find nobody at the hostess station, so we waited. After around 7-10 minutes someone finally came out and seated us. There were 2 other tables with people at them at this time. We sat at our table for what had to be close to 20 minutes before James finally stopped walking around doing nothing and came to ask if we would like drinks. The entire time we were in this location we noticed NONE of the employees seemed to want to work, and were frequently not on the floor. The food was underwhelming, the lack of service was appalling, and it just seemed like nobody cared at all.

When James brought us our check, he also left us a little present on the table in the form of a small amount of the blunt he had in his pocket with our bill. At this point, we just wanted out of there, but I didn't trust James or his fake smile. So I intentionally gave him a credit card that I don't use often to pay. I had a feeling he would alter the bill, and I wanted it to be on a card with a smaller credit limit. We pay, and leave, and then head back to where we were staying for the night, since we were on vacation.

I go on to my credit card app on my phone on Monday 9/11/23 to check it and make the payment...and James did not disappoint...he had altered my slip and added $10 to the tip and total. I immediately contacted the manager, Mike Grasso, and explained the situation to him. He went and found my slip, and acknowledged that he see what I told him and informed me he would be refunding my entire order, and he would handle it.

Here we are 2 weeks later, and NO REFUND. I followed up and was told it was sent to corporate last week. So I messaged corporate, and haven't heard from them either. NOBODY at this location cares. Let this serve as a warning to you to avoid this place at all costs. And if you do happen to go there and see James is still waiting tables, that will further prove that they don't care about their patrons.

UPDATE: As you can see below I was sent the same canned response from the manager that he send every single bad review. I emailed the address that was provided, and have not heard back, as expected. Please beware and avoid this location...