Big Pine Rooster — Restaurant in Stock Island

I dined here the day before Christmas Eve. I am a solo traveler so my party was a table of one. The property is on the Gulf side (right when traveling south).

When I walked in, I didn't know if you seated yourself or if someone seated you. I was eyeing a seat at the bar, but wouldn't have minded a table. I asked the woman working, a petite blonde with long braids and blue eyes. She snapped. "There is a sign at the front that says wait for a table." I double backed and apologized.

Moments later, she seated me at the only table I could see available. It was the one next to the table where they keep all the dining notions.

I placed an order drink. She asked if I wanted a cold glass. "Yes!" She slammed it on the table. Okaaaay.

When I placed my meal order, I asked specifically for fresh hot fries. After she left, I realized I didn't get any water. When she was passing, I said, "Excuse me," and asked for water. She actually seemed bothered, no, annoyed with my inquiry.

She brought me the water, but honestly I didn't feel comfortable drinking it, so I asked another woman, a petite curly blonde for the same. She was kind, open and welcoming. Safe.

While I waited for my food, a young Asian family came in. They, too, must have missed the "Wait to be seated" sign and she stopped them to tell them it would be a 10-minute wait. I looked around and saw empty cleaned tables, so I didn't quite understand that. Maybe she was giving herself time to maneuver between customers? But, that's not the issue. It's when she walked away from them and towards me, she rolled her eyes like I was complicit in her rudeness and disdain for them.

Wow, I thought. Did she roll her eyes at me, too, when I did the same thing just moments earlier?

Another thing worth noting, I noticed the woman in braids struggling to receive help or assistance from the other curly blonde - even going as far as jumping ahead of her to do whatever she was trying to assist her with. The restaurant only has 11 or 12 tables and maybe one person can work the entire thing, but it is always good to have help.

I took that as a note to myself. Let people help you! It's not a sign of weakness, just the opposite.

Anyways, my waitress didn't ask about my meal until I was finished. She was so rigid and rebuffed simple requests like water so I wasn't going to dare stop her to tell her that my fries were barely luke warm and not hot like I had asked.

I just shrugged it off and let my displeasure reflect in my tip. You only get one time to make a first impression. The food was okay but it was my waitress' attitude that kept me from returning during my stay in the Keys.

She actually warmed up towards the end, but by then I was set on not returning. Who wants to pay to go through that again? Not me!

That aside, I didn't get a chance to snorkel during my stay in the Keys due to weather conditions (high winds), so I appreciated the diving video the restaurant ran on the...

Frustrating experience that could have been resolved if kitchen were better organized. I found the Rooster online, noted that they were open at 9am and had pickup/delivery available starting at 11am. Expecting company to visit, I called to place a to-go order, but received a recorded message indicating all to-go orders must be placed online. As such, went online and ordered 3 sandwiches w/ fries and a Mac&Cheese dish. Order placed at 10:20am; assumed a 11am pickup would be easily viable (Note: downside to web system is it gives you no idea of pick-up but tells you to wait for an email confirmation). At 10:30 I received a phone call from restaurant informing me I couldn’t have my food until 11:30; while not thrilled, I accepted the time (I’d already paid $80+ for food + tip) and planned my arrival to be a few minutes ahead (because seriously, 3 sandwiches and mac&cheese couldn’t really take an hour?). I arrived at 11:20, waitress checked the kitchen and told me 10 more minutes. No problem, they told me 11:30 from the outset and so I sat at the bar and waited. And waited. And waited. At 11:50 they brought out everything except the Mac&Cheese. And I waited some more (with sandwiches and fries cooling). During the time I waited a local gentleman actually texted the owner b/c he couldn’t believe I’d been unable to get an online order in the extended amount of time. The owner promptly called the restaurant and belittled the waitress (who, for the record, was doing her best and was pleasant; however, the kitchen was obviously disorganized). I continued to wait. I sat there long enough the owner called back again and I listened to the waitress explain to her the kitchen wasn’t doing orders by schedule, that they had repeatedly been told when orders were coming in and that they were simply being lazy. In the end, I finally left with my food after noon. The sandwiches were ok and I think they & the fries would have been quite good had they been fresh instead of sitting for 30 minutes waiting on the mac&cheese. The long awaited Mac&Cheese was good according to my guest. I’m sure they are struggling with the inability to get help amid COVID and while this is unfortunate, they could benefit from a more structured kitchen staff model and updated online ordering. The two women waiting tables were hustling and looked exhausted. I doubt we’ll try them again while we are visiting but they do have a menu with much variety and quickly interior to...

We were in the keys for 8 days we ate at the rooster 11 times. This restaurant has it all breakfast, lunch, and dinner, a huge menu and everything on the menu is delicious with a couple of exceptions.

One of those exceptions would be the gator bites.

We didn't enjoy the appetizers very much because the meals are so huge and we usually had leftovers unless we would have been on the water all day without any breakfast or lunch

I think our favorite entree became the shrimp tacos and the fried shrimp dinner. The shrimp are about u15 in size. This means about 15 shrimp per pound and that is a large sized shrimp.

I also had the meatloaf dinner twice, the first time was a 10 out of 10, the second was an 8 out of 10. The potatoes are better the first meal they were more creamy and the gravy was better the first meal.

It seems they make everything from scratch and the dinners all seem to be made to order. It is just good quality food as far as we could tell.

My son had the seafood dinner with the lobster sauce and it was amazing. Any of the seafood dinners on the back page of the menu are delicious.

We ate breakfast there 4 times and we had the eggs benedict and the waffles with chicken. I wouldn't go with the breakfast burrito I thought it was the probably the weakest meal that I had.

This isn't the best breakfast place but the portions are large the prices are good. The food is good at breakfast but not as good as it dinner.

For breakfast I would suggest the Stuffed Pig up in Marathon.

The place is usually very busy in the evenings after 5:30 PM. We found a place we liked, there weren't many other options close by, so we stuck with it and enjoyed it. Of course we got to know a couple of the waitresses and that made the place even more fun for us.

We highly suggest it the one thing we didn't have was the steak but all the steaks looked delicious.

Happy travels and if you eat it the rooster we hope you enjoy it as...