Dahlia Daytona Beach — Restaurant in Daytona Beach

We have eaten here 4 times. This review will summarize all 4, but tonight was especially less than amazing.

When you come in, the restaurant is very clean. The decor is quite edgy, and very nice. I’m not not a slender, skinny jeans type of fella. The young hostess promptly seated us, or tried to seat us in a booth built for a small child. There is no lubricant on earth that could have squeezed me into that seat. So, she seats us at a very wobbly high top table in the bar section. The server arrives, and, we ask to move to a table that isn’t going to yeet everything we set on it off onto the floor. Finally, table 3 gets us in our final destination for what will soon become just comical by the end.

The server, takes our order of 4 people in our party, not with a tablet or electronic device, not with an order pad and pen, but with a wet napkin that already had writing all over it. I actually watch him run out of room and then Flip the napkin to a different section, in turn splitting up our orders. We already knew it was not going to turn out well. It certainly did NOT. We asked for an extra bowl of chips since we had ordered queso, and had quite a bit left when the first bowl Ran out, that didn’t come until we asked a third time. When our food arrived, 5 meals showed up, 3 of which were not even for our table and 2 of our party didn’t receive their orders until 15 mins after we got our 2 orders of the 5 that showed up originally. The meltdown was in full swing by this point. He then proceeded to pour water in a sprite glass, while then grabbing a fresh sprite and giving it to the wrong person. The burrito that was sent back came back with the wrong meat in it. We just decided to eat what they brought us at this point. I did notice that the shrimp burrito had exactly 3 shrimp in it. The rest was rice and veggies. The flavor was fine and temp was fine as well. But, for almost $20, 3 shrimp doesn’t get it done.

Now, I understand having an off night. The hostess was sitting at a table where they do side work (roll silverware) playing on her phone. There were 10 tables in the place that had guests, and no less than 6 servers on the floor. It doesn’t appear that they are trained to work together as a team at all. I saw a lot of standing around and laughing. Several other tables had to ask for refills of their drinks as well. Not once did a manager approach us to address the nuclear meltdown that we just experienced. Then the bill came, and surprise, nothing was adjusted. That is fine. We paid and tipped over 20%. I’m not even mad. It was a stressful dinner. I don’t think as a patron, I should feel stressed about a meal when I paid to dine at an establishment. It was crazy. 3 of the 4 times we have been here, we have experienced front of house issues. We have also witnessed other patrons experiencing problems as well.

I guess it’s just another sign of the new world we live in. We did enjoy the food the first time we came there. It hasn’t been consistent, and service is a 1 star for sure. I’m not usually the type to complain or make a huge scene in a restaurant. We probably just won’t...

I am visiting from out of town to celebrate a graduation and Mother's Day with my sister, the graduate, my nephew and his girlfriend. She chose this place which didn't matter to me. It must have been a off day because it was chaotic. We waited a long time to get our drinks. As we are waiting, a huge group came and though they had tables set up for them, they took up most of the restaurant. Meanwhile, I saw people leaving because there was no one at the hostess stand to acknowledge them. To say the least, it lacked the attention needed because everyone was "running " around because either the lack of preparation or poor management. My server was also serving the large party as well which prolonged our time there. I have been in service for a long time (retired) and couldn't help but noticed the lack of organization and team work. However, the food came out in a reasonable time and that was OK. And what I had,, the pork question dip with chorizo and the pork confit tacos, delicious. I wished it could have been more enjoyable because the food was delicious but not the atmosphere. The hostess was helpful but my server and the staff were overwhelmed. I don't know if it was the lack of staff, inexperienced manager or both, but it could have been better. I was able to analyze the situation because I didn't want my family to bother the server unnecessarily as they tried. I am not trying to be mean but something was not going good that day. I did leave a 20% tip because the server did his best. My nephew and his girlfriend was not impressed. Neither was I. However, this is an extraordinary busy weekend and it should have been able to exceed our expectations. Again, I am visiting. However, that being the first meal that day, within the time I walked from the restaurant to the car,I started to feel violently ill. I started to have this headache out of this world, sweating profusely and throw up having to stop so I could throw up. It was so intense that I stayed in bed the rest of the night. I am not accusing you of anything but I was sick immediately after eating there. Again, I served most of my life and never experienced anything like this. I'm just sharing not for anything but my experiencing you for the first time. I am still recovering but not as it was yesterday. Whatever happened when I visited doesn't happen again. I hope you can learn from your experience yesterday and exceed guests expectations. By the way, when a waiter is telling you that things are crazy and running in the restaurant, not a good look. My sincere wishes to...

Dahlia gets one star only because zero stars is not an option. The wait to be seated was longer than 10 minutes in the nearly deserted restaurant (which made me wonder who the loud music was meant for). The server, when she finally got there, was snippy and seemed exasperated that questions were being asked. The food, almost 100% percent of it, was awful. For instance one of their three taco offerings comes with avocado sauce with no detectable flavor. I think it was made of a half of an avocado dropped into a blender and left to puree. The tacos with carnitas were riddled with gristle and petrified chunks of unseasoned pork hard enough to chip a tooth. The enchiladas (sadly, also made with carnitas) were wrapped in soggy tortillas and, again, bland as a Lutheran wedding reception. They came with a skimpy amount of completely respectable verde sauce. One bright spot though, the Elotes (these are Mexican street food, corn on the cob with seasoning and sauce) were quite tasty and tender - even then, not charcoal grilled and not charred in spots as they should have been. At least the tortilla chips were good and freshly made. Again, the salsa was thoroughly abused in a blender. Not flavorless though, so I wondered if it was a decent grade of store-bought-picante-sauce that they chose to liquify. Guacamole was ordered but didn't materialize, however by then, I thought that might have been fortunate. In defense of the server, some guacamole a freshly made bag of tortilla chips were offered to take out at no charge and we weren't charged for the ordered guac. Including the tip the whole thing came to $45, with no drinks or dessert. Rather expensive for an experiment, but then, now I know...