Ocean Deck Restaurant & Beach Bar — Restaurant in Daytona Beach

The menu looks pretty standard at Ocean Deck. Shrimp, crabs, and fish with some beef dishes mixed in, basically what you would expect from a seafood restaurant. I chose the fish and chips because it had been so long since I’d had fish and chips. My friends ordered random combinations of steamed shrimp, crab legs, and one grilled tilapia, how could you go wrong.

The service unlike the food was fairly nice. The waitress checked in on us often, refilled or drinks regularly, and had an overall friendly demeanor. The only negative experience about the service was when one of the plates had come out wrong, the waitress who brought out our food showed she was very annoyed to bring the plate back. It could have been at our waitress or us but it’s still unprofessional to show your annoyance to a customer.

Let’s jump right into it and say all of our steamed shellfish had no seasoning at all. GarwoodGrub operates out of Virginia Beach, and we have pretty good seafood, much of our steamed shellfish is seasoned with old bay seasoning. At Ocean Deck, everything tasted bland, which may or may not be a Daytona thing, but it was very disappointing. Keep in mind we waited almost fifty minutes to service a table of 5, steamed shellfish. The tilapia was completely overcooked, chewy and again had no flavor. Imagine an overcooked piece of tofu being served in place of a fish with grill marks, that’s what we received.

My fish and chips were a category of their own. I was willing to bet everything I own that the fish & chips from Ocean Deck were frozen and microwaved to serve. If you just look at the picture you can see it actually looks like a kids’ meal. Also, I only ate one piece of the fish (that I spit out after) so the serving you see, is the serving they gave me. I did eat the fries because I was hungry after waiting almost an hour for my “fish & chips”, but I could not eat what could better be described as fish sticks.

The breading had no crunch at all, the fish had (surprise, surprise) no seasoning, and the texture was very chewy. I felt robbed for paying 15 dollars for microwaved or oven reheated fish sticks meant to be passed off as fried fish. At least have the courtesy to fry the frozen fish being served to give a crunch. This was the most disappointing entree of the night and the most underwhelming plate of food I have had in a long time.

If your ever in the Daytona Beach oceanfront area I can’t recommend this restaurant. I won’t say to never visit because the overall consensus is that it’s a pretty decent place to be. Keep in mind the majority of those reviews might be coming from the pub area downstairs that seemed to be more of a have fun and drink experience than a dining one. There are other great restaurants around Daytona (Check out our review of Ponchos Tacos here) so I might try them first before spending your money...

The reviews for Ocean Deck Restaurant & Beach Bar were very good. We love dining on/at the beach and with a beach view. Inside it is very crowded and a high noise level. We walked to the restaurant but did notice the parking was elusive and most were parking via valets. We arrived right around 5pm and was told there was about a 15 minute wait. We went to the bar to grab a couple of drinks and wait for our table. We had requested a table with chairs and not the high tops with stools. We were seated at 5:41 at a really nice table next to a window overlooking the beach. We waited...and waited... and waited, watching all the table around us receive service. At 6:23, Jade P finally made an appearance. I won't say she was rude but she was very apathetic to the fact that we had been waiting over 40 minutes. We were seconds from walking out. The only thing I said was, "I thought we'd been forgotten." and I smiled. She showed no personality (nor was she the least bit apologetic). I had ordered a salad with 1000 Island dressing and The Shipwreck dinner. (a steamed platter of large gulf shrimp, Alaskan snow crab legs, gulf coast oysters and clams.) Again, we WAITED, and no salad was delivered. Finally, our dinners were delivered THEN my salad was delivered with the wrong dressing. We were hungry so I just used the salad dressing which was brought because Jade was no where in site. Our food was delivered by other employees. Jade never checked back with us until we were nearly through with our meals. She didn't check back to see if our food was okay or to refill our drinks. When she finally graced us with her presence, I told her that the wrong dressing had been brought with my salad. I had asked for 1000 Island but received Italian. First she said they were out of 1000 Island then changed and said they didn't have any??? If that was the case, she should have told me when she discovered they were out/didn't have it and not just decided for me. Again, when we were finished, WE WAITED AND WAITED to try and find Jade and get her attention to get our check and boxes. Jade was AWOL most of our dinner. We saw other servers rallying for their customers. HORRIBLE SERVICE FROM JADE P. I'm rarely stingy with my tips but no tip was earned from this service so she received VERY,...

We arrived at the downstairs dining area and were promptly seated despite the busy, crowded atmosphere. It has a nice ocean views and a nice breeze. The music was incredibly loud. So conversations where difficult. Our party of five settled in quickly, eager to enjoy the evening. Our waitress, Jessica, however, set a sour tone from the start. She was noticeably rude and impatient, even chastising one of our group for not being ready to order right away. This attitude persisted throughout the meal—she stared at us with an open mouth and a clear air of irritation, which made the experience increasingly uncomfortable. We ordered a round of drinks: some opted for beers, while my wife and I chose mixed cocktails. Initially, I assumed our drinks were just expertly mixed since I couldn’t taste the alcohol, but by the end, I realized there was none at all... I felt nothing and tasted nothing. Thinking it might’ve been a fluke, I ordered a mojito next, only to receive what was essentially club soda with lime juice and unmuddled mint on top. I watched Jessica prepare it myself and saw no alcohol added. When I politely confronted her, she first insisted she’d made it herself, then backtracked, claiming she’d watched the bartender do it. The blatant dishonesty was frustrating and left a bad taste—figuratively and literally. For food, I ordered the blackened Mahi Mahi, which was decent—tasty enough, though not particularly memorable. The sides, however, were a letdown: the rice was overcooked with a burnt , and the green beans were undercooked and completely unseasoned. My wife, thankfully, enjoyed her tuna stack, which was a small highlight. Despite a couple of edible dishes, the abysmal service and nonexistent cocktails ruined the night. This was, hands down, the worst dining experience I’ve ever had, and we have no intention of returning.

Note to Jessica: You dont belong in the...