The Slippery Mermaid Navarre, FL — Restaurant in Navarre

In regards to the owners response:

We brought a cooler to keep my daughters milk cold (my 1 year old)

Yes, both kids were eating chicken nuggets. Since my daughter is on the spectrum and has multiple sensory issues, she eats about 2 at that, some fries and then finishes off her meal with her prescribed pediasure (by her doctor)

I don’t have to mention she’s in feeding therapy, that’s personal. But I did inform she is on the spectrum which can cause a lot of difficult eating.

In addition to that, she will not eat steak, plain chicken, soup, etc. yes, she does strictly eat chicken nuggets, Mac n cheese, and pediasure for breakfast and as an addition to her meals. Shouldn’t have to explain myself.

I did mention this didn’t feel inclusive but was spoken over that we should’ve eaten at home as a family and which btw ? Family’s with special needs, deserve to get out of the house too - that was a very small comment to make.

At the end of the day, there was no compassion or customer service whatsoever. The waiters were sweet and even apologizing on behalf of the owner.

And then she asked if she could take my daughter’s food to their fridge… so we are suppose to eat in front of her while she is hungry? And again, no - she wouldn’t eat anything off the menu.

Never have I ever encountered this in multiple states, here, or anywhere. So apologizes that I didn’t realize a few chicken nuggets along with her special shake would cause such chaos and insensitivity.

Also to refer back to this health code safety you keep referring to…

Since the medical shakes and chicken nuggets my daughter requires are not regulated, a restaurant may choose to allow or forbid them as part of its OWN policy, but doing so does not violate the Florida health code.

However, if the restaurant refuses necessary accommodations for her disability, that refusal may violate the ADA and Florida Civil Rights Act, not health regulations.

To clarify further:

Florida’s Chapter 64E‑11 – Food Hygiene (administered by the Department of Health) governs the sanitary practices of restaurant-prepared foods—not what customers bring in. There’s NO provision in that code about prohibiting outside food or drink, even if it potentially causes a choking hazard

You can see from Rule 64E‑11.001 that the code defines which food operations it governs, such as restaurant food prep, vending machines, and caterers. It does not regulate any food or drinks customers bring into an establishment

Original post:

Just an FYI — the owner of the Slippery Mermaid in Navarre informed us of their “no outside food or drinks” policy in a really disappointing way. When I asked about my 1-year-old’s bottle, she said, “I guess she can have it,” and added that the crackers were fine too. But when it came to my autistic child — who is currently in feeding therapy and has a very limited diet (only Pediasure, mac & cheese, and chicken nuggets) — she said absolutely not.

She claimed it was a health issue due to the risk of choking on food from another restaurant, but couldn’t explain how that applied to a child with diagnosed feeding difficulties. I explained my daughter’s sensory needs and food restrictions, and she told us if we wanted her to have her food, we should eat at home as a family instead of going out. When I said that didn’t feel inclusive, she didn’t seem to care as she was walking away.

We ended up going somewhere else where it wasn’t an issue at all. Just another frustrating experience as a parent trying to advocate for your child’s basic needs.

She was pretty hostile and came off strong as well - there was no empathy or anything. Not even “I’m sorry, you have those difficulties but...

UPDATE/EDIT: After reading the owners response, I understand now what happened and why it happened. Although this explanation would’ve been welcomed when my order was cancelled, I understand now. Very well thought out and detailed response, and hopefully if they ever have another day like that, this will be explained the day of. Thanks for the response and clarification 👍🏻

Put in an order at 5:25 for $66 worth of food. Was told it would be ready at about 6:40. Had some time to kill and I know it gets busy for them so I said that was fine. Got to the restaurant about 20min early so I sat in my car and waited until I was called or until 6:40 came along (whichever happened first). Saw people walk up to the restaurant, then walk right back which I thought was strange as I didn’t see a huge line. Imagine my surprise when I get a call at 6:33, 7 minutes before my estimate pickup time, and I’m told they are out of everything and cannot make any of my food. Oh but don’t worry, here’s a $15 credit for when you come back. Which is so cheap of them.

It started to make sense on why people were turned away, but what doesn’t make sense to me is that Slippery Mermaid had to have known that when I put my order in at 5:25 that they were running low on ingredients. I saw others get turned away for what I’m assuming was low/no ingredients in the 20min I sat in the parking lot but no one thought to call me. Why did every single employee drop the ball and not tell me that they were low on ingredients sooner than 7min before my pickup time? They had over an hour to use some foresight and realize they were pretty low on RICE (which is honestly insane to think about. How do you run out of rice) so they probably shouldn’t take on any more orders, but they didn’t. And they offered a $15 credit as their apology (again, shows how cheap they are).

It’s easy to overlook small things when they’ve run out of stuff in the past (no shrimp, fryer broken, etc) but this just shows how disorganized everyone’s communication skills are. If they’d just told me they couldn’t fulfill my order when I placed it or shortly thereafter, I would’ve understood. Super irritating. If you want consistency, go somewhere else. This happens...

My family came in on 03/29 to eat. We got put on the waiting list for 2 babies & 3 adults, the wait time was 30 minutes. We got the message and came inside excited to eat. We noticed at the same time as us a table that had 4 adults got sat inside, while we got sat outside (not asked) while it was in the low 60’s with the wind blowing making it very chilly. With two babies who were freezing we asked our waitress if we could move inside once the next table became available. She said yes, and understood the babies couldn’t be outside in the cold conditions, even she had shivered when she walked outside to take our order. She talked to the manager and came back & we got told we could get our food to go. We drove 20 minutes to eat as a family and enjoy a meal, not to eat sushi to go?!? We were told another option was to wait 30 more (extra) minutes for an inside table since nobody had gotten their food yet.

All of this to say I feel like the situation was handled poorly by the manager, and waitress. Who sits two babies outside in the cold, in general without asking. I just feel like the management skills were very poor, when we asked to speak to her she didn’t have a solution other than sitting outside in the cold and wasn’t apologetic and acted like we were a inconvenience. We ended up leaving after waiting 30 minutes outside, and the manger told us our food hadn’t been made.

*I wanted to add, a family inside that didn’t overhear the situation came outside to offer us their jackets.

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To start off your reply as a business is completely unprofessional. That itself speaks over our whole experience. The weather in the high was 63 and low was 51. The wind was 8 mph. As soon as we got outside and our waitress came that’s when we expressed our concerns with moving inside. We did ask to be sat inside and was told we would be the next on the list for a inside table. We were under the assumption that it would be sooner than later so we decided to go ahead and order food. Speaking someone INSIDE seen the issue, and your still not seeing the issue is the problem of this business....