Shark Pit Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Cocoa Beach

Manager please take note…. once you figure out service, this place has potential to be fantastic! You’ve got it 80% figured out! Good news: The food itself once it finally came out was perfect for what we were looking for! Menu that has something for everyone! Pizza was good, grilled Buffalo chicken wrap was good. Waitress was kind and tried. Bad News: Entered through back door (even though it appeared to be the front door). Stood there with my family several staff members looked at us. We were confused as to whether it was seat yourself or wait to be seated. Then I saw a sign that said to be seated go to the main bar. Went to the main bar area where there was what appeared to be a hostess stand. Again we waited 10 minutes with nobody instructing us where to go before finally I went to the bartender and asked if we could just seat ourselves which she said we could. We sat down and someone who appeared to be a manager asked if we had been helped yet which I said we had not. He quickly brought over menus for us. 15-20 Minutes went by without a server before finally one came over and asked if we wanted drinks. At that point we could see where the night was going so we ordered everything all at once. Note that it wasn’t crowded and we didn’t order anything difficult, grilled cheese, 2 pizzas, and a Buffalo chicken wrap. At least an hour went by before getting 90% of our food. In that hour the waitress never came back to ask if we wanted more drinks while we waited. She did assist the waitress who had the table behind us with their food and said “we’re just waiting on the pizzas is it ok if I bring the other meals out or do you want to wait?” We waited and I said can we also grab another round of drinks. She said of course so she went back to the kitchen and 25 minutes later came back and said “sorry I forgot what we had for drinks” at that point I said don’t bother it’s ok to which she replied sorry it’s my 3rd day. I told her it wasn’t her fault as she genuinely was trying but her own success was being hindered by the kitchen not being able to figure out how to time food the right way! Once the food finally came I got a thing of blue cheese for my Buffalo chicken wrap that had a date on it of 6/24….the actual date was 7/6. At this point knowing our waitress was overwhelmed I took it upon myself to exchange my blue cheese with one that wasn’t expired and obtain my own ketchup bottle. In the end this place could be an absolute gold mine of a spot but if they can’t figure out how to pay attention to their patrons better they’re going to miss a great...

I am reluctant to give a poor review because it's unfair: I'm not a professional restaurant reviewer and I may have gone on a bad night. However, there were signs that I missed when deciding to dine here.

It looks like it was once popular and when losing popularity, decisions were made: prominent features like the wall of water fountain was turned off (likely permanently). The namesake shark tank (pit?) was empty, replaced laughably by a photo of fish (see pics). These are immaterial until you consider other cost cutting, like staff and probably food. The place had lots of empty tables, inaccessible as they had not yet been cleaned. This gave me the impression that they may have just been a dinner rush. In actuality, they remained this way throughout my dinner and I suspect they had been that way for awhile. The servers were wonderful, given the herculean task of managing their tables with no bus help and only two of them for the entire restaurant. I can only imagine a similar situation in the kitchen as the food came out slowly and was disappointing at that. Conch fritters were bland and contained almost no conch (or other flavor). The accompanying orange-colored sauce was no help. Out of concern, I ordered the simplest thing I could, a cheeseburger, and even that was disappointing: the patty was pre-formed and probably frozen, as were the fries. At least the beer was cold and there was a decent selection.

In retrospect, I should have ordered the pizza which looked nice at the next table. When entering, I observed an employee assembling pies in an windowed kitchen area designed to showcase this along with a brick oven.

If this place is still open by the time you read...

We were staying at the attached hotel. After a long day of traveling we decided to just go to the restaurant for dinner. As a party of six we were able to self seat right away it was early. Our sever Nicole came over immediately greeted us, was friendly and told us about drinks. Took our order when she came back she brought our drinks and told us because a party of six is a large party gratuity of 18% would be added to our check but feel free to add more because she was going to take great care of us. Little did we know that her next visit to bringing out our appetizer was the last time we would see her until she brought us our check. We were seated so the expo window was in view. We could see our food as it was being place under the heat lamps. Another party of 15 came in shortly after us. The sever that served the 15 top brought our food after a very very long time of it sitting under the heat lamps. Meanwhile watching Nicole working behind the bar. I guess her regulars came in she was to busy taking shots with them to bring us our food. Our food I think would have been good had it not sat under the lamps so long, fries were cold , buns were hard as rocks, Mac and cheese you could turn upside down in the cup it was in and it didn’t fall out it was so dried out. We got no refills everyone’s drinks were empty. She did offer us togo drinks. When she came to get our money. I guess if you can add the gratuity why give good service! I have been a general manger of restaurants for the last 15 years. I can only say to the GM don’t take my word for it look at the cameras!!!!...