Bonefish Grill — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

Edited to say: I followed the prompts to communicate my experience per the review comment below, received an email asking for more info and saying they’d like to make it right. I responded to the email with the additional information requested, and never heard back from them. Ridiculous. Had a disappointing dinner last night at our go to anniversary spot. For the past 6 years, we’ve gone to Bonefish as a treat for our anniversary. Last year wasn’t great either, but we chalked it up to a bad night for them due to it being the first time having a not-so-great experience. Now, this being two years in a row, we honestly won’t be back. First let me say, each year my place of employment gives us a preloaded Visa Debit gift card as a bonus. And each year, that’s what we use to treat ourselves to a dinner we otherwise wouldn’t really be able to afford. I ordered the Sirloin and Shrimp, my normal fav. I ordered my steak medium done. When I got it, it was bright pink throughout the inside, and had large fat chunks. It just wasn’t a great cut, and would definitely say it was more medium rare. My husband got the Stuffed Halibut, and the presentation of it was not appealing. He unfortunately ended up getting sick later on as well. At the end of the night, I gave the waitress the gift card when she came over to check us out. I asked if we could use what was on the card, and then pay for the remaining balance with my regular debit card. She said she’d have to take it to the back due to the hand machine not accepting gift cards. She came back shortly and stated that they don’t accept these kinds of cards. I questioned it because it’s a Visa Debit, with a PIN number, and we pay with that every year. She just said it again, so we paid the full balance with our regular Visa debit. Unexpected at a tight time of year. I kinda wondered if the waitress was worried we’d only tip off the remaining balance instead of the full total and that’s why they suddenly didn’t take that form of payment. I had already figured out the 20% tip based on the full total so I was ready when she came back with my gift card originally. After paying on the hand machine and hitting the 20% tip - figuring it would be the same as what I had already figured out, we noticed it added a couple extra dollars on. I double checked the math, and sure enough! Not sure why their 20% would be more than what it was actually suppose to be - but that was pretty frustrating as well. On a positive note, the Bang Bang Shrimp and the margarita was good. The waitress was good besides the payment issue. We will be looking for a new spot from here on out. It’s too expensive to have these...

We finally took time to try out Bonefish Grill. We now regret for waiting so long. The service and all of our food was absolutely excellent! I ordered a bowl of the corn chowder with crab. It was delicious, but I felt the serving size was a bit in the small side for the price. I would almost be willing to bet that if I had a cup, the "bowl" I had would have fit in it. The bowl was very shallow. My wife got a shrimp and scallop pasta dish that we both really enjoyed the flavor of and the Bang Bang shrimp was very tasty as well. They were VERY busy and we waited nearly 40 minutes to be seated in total. When we got there, they were telling walk-ups that it may be 60-90 minutes for them. We checked in online and that may be the smartest thing to do. We look forward to going back.

Update - 12/31/2024 For the first time in many years, we decided to go out to dinner on New Years Eve which is also our wedding anniversary. This time, we were seated in about 10 minutes even though they were pretty busy. We started with the Bang Bang Shrimp and I think they need to change the name of it. It came out just barely warm and really, there's nothing "Bang Bang" about the dish at all. Between 4 of us, we inhaled them so that we could at least eat them while they're slightly warm. 3 out of 4 at our table ordered steaks. My mother ordered a filet, my wife and I ordered strips. I wish I had taken pictures like I did last time, but I failed to do so. If we were to put the strips next to my mother's "filet", you wouldn't be able to tell which was the "Center Cut" filet. I've never seen filet look like that and it should be different to distinguish a clear difference in cuts. We couldn't tell by look. Anyway, my wife's steak came out perfectly medium and she enjoyed it. Both my mother's steak and mine came out more medium rare to almost rare and bled all over the plates. I'll save the rest of the drama so this isn't a 30 minute read. Regardless, a manager took our two steaks off of the bill and apologized. They did bring us new steaks that were better, but half of our party was now already done eating. So, we asked for boxes, ordered one dessert and left. What a very disappointing last dinner of the year on top of ruining the mood for our wedding anniversary. We most likely won't be going back after that and it's just very unfortunate. Our server even told us "I don't know what's going on back there tonight. We've had a lot of steaks go back for some reason." That should have...

We’ve typically enjoyed dining at Bonefish, but this experience was disappointing. I made a reservation over 10 days ago for a birthday dinner for six people. When I called this evening to add one more person to our party, I was told there was a large event taking up the entire dining area, that we’d be seated on the fringe, and that they couldn’t accommodate an additional guest.

What’s frustrating is that this event had been planned for months, according to the manager, yet nothing was mentioned when I originally made the reservation. Had I known, I would’ve made other arrangements. To make matters worse, when I called tonight and asked to speak with a manager, the person who answered wouldn’t transfer me until I gave him more information. I had to insist, and even then, he asked for my name before connecting me—something I would’ve gladly given the manager directly, rather than repeating myself. When I finally spoke with the manager, she offered to move our party to a high-top table in the bar area, but mentioned it would be very noisy because of the event. That comment gave me the impression that not only would the atmosphere be less than ideal, but the level of service might also be compromised due to the event’s demands. Then the call was abruptly dropped and no one from the restaurant followed up or called me back (they had my number).

I fully understand restaurants hosting events. What I don’t understand is why this information wasn’t disclosed at the time of booking, especially for a semi-large party for a birthday celebration. There was no mention of it in the confirmation email either, and no other communication followed. It’s only by chance that I called to modify the reservation tonight. Otherwise, we would have shown up completely unaware.

Now, with less than 48 hours to go, I’m scrambling to find another restaurant that can accommodate a group of seven. Very disappointing, and unfortunately, it’s unlikely...