Riverside Johnny's — Restaurant in Daytona Beach

Updated! I decided to try Riverside Johnny's again as following up on my review they sent me a note to give him another shot. I am really glad I did! I understand that the service industry is difficult and there are bound to be mistakes but when a company can prove that they know how to run a business and take critical feedback well you can only be impressed.

1. They didn't know who I was and I was sitting at a seat within a minute and a server was asking me for my drink order within another. They were extremely attentive, friendly, and helpful! Really nice.

2. I tried to order the same food as the last time and the blue cheese burger was really good. I might add a bit of blue cheese on the side but it is well worth ordering! I did splurge and get the bacon fries which are now a guilty pleasure. If you can spare the calories, you have to get those!

3. The GM/Partner dropped by after work let them know I was back and I was really impressed by his professionalism as well as his dedication to making this place amazing. Wow.

I'll definitely be back and looking to explore more of the menu!

It took what you felt like forever to even get service. The place wasn't crowded, with lots of empty tables and plenty of servers walking past my table.

Once I place my order, a double smashburger, beer, and blue cheese for the fries, my beer arrived a few minutes later and enjoy the view.

Maybe 10 or 15 minutes past when the server asked me if I wanter another beer. I said I would take one with my and she said okay.

Another ten or so minutes and I had finished the beer and she dropped by to ask me if I wanted another beer again. I said no I would still take it with the food. I then asked her if she would mind checking on the food as it had been so long. "Oh, sure."

Funny enough, the food arrived a minute later. The french fries, as you can see from the photo, or what looked like the remnants of whatever was left over but what was worse is they were cold. There was no blue cheese but at least the burger was good. I slowly at the burger while waiting for the beer as I prefer to drink a beer and the same time. Another 10 or 15 minutes later I finished the burger and not touched the fries.

Eventually somebody else showed up with the beer and I simply said no thanks and mentioned the fries. "Oh, sorry about that."

This is the second time I've been here and the last time was significantly better but if I were to base it on this experience I would never set foot in this place again. That all being said the double burger was still...

Let's start by saying this place is so strange. My husband and I came here on a Sunday afternoon late. We walk in and I have to put my hands over my ears and the young lady walks up to me and says "are you okay.". The music and noise in this area where there's a central bar and there was a party going on, TVs everywhere, was just unbelievably loud. The loudest I have ever heard in a restaurant. If you have PTSD or noise bothers you this is not the place for you. Now the young lady is very nice and understanding she takes us outside through one outside area that's covered then to another outside area that just has umbrellas right on the river. Absolutely spectacular views and the noise is very subdued. Now at this point I'm starting to feel a lot better. You understand this is very much a bar with bar food. You're not going to get amazing meals here. It's a bar. Now that being said we had seen pictures of this place so I knew what I wanted to order, one of which I didn't even see on the menu. All the young ladies that work her are scantly clothed but they're all beautiful young women, one of which waited on us. Her name was I believe Alexa, Alex or Lexi something along those lines. She was very nice. I did not see draft beers on the menu but she verbally told me what they had. I got an amazing Johnny's lager draft beer. My husband got happy hour old fashioned. Then we ordered Mexican street corn which I did not see on menu, KFC sesame wings, and shrimp tacos that came with taco chips and salsa. The wings were a huge portion. The corn was my absolute favorite. So the food was very good bar food. We enjoyed our time here, our drinks and our food. I would definitely come back but I would sit outside especially when it's cooler and with a nice breeze. I would recommend this place and we will be back, but sit outside unless you...

I want to speak specifically to the service at Riverside Johnny’s. We walked in, they only had outdoor seats available, which was understandable given the 90+ degrees evening. So we were seated on the back porch- fine. But the host didn’t ask for a drink order or bring waters or anything. We sat in our seats for 20+ minutes, sweating in the heat, until we finally left because not a single person on the waitstaff even acknowledged us. Several different servers walked near our table, asking other tables if they needed anything. I tried to wave or signal to them that we needed our order taken, but no one ever even looked over. This was veryy disappointing as we had researched the menu and read reviews before driving over there and we were excited, as the food did sound delightful. I should add that this was Monday evening, not even a busy weekend. I gave the food a neutral rating because we unfortunately never got the opportunity to get a single bite or sip- but all the pics of food and the food at others’ tables did look good (those of them who were given attention). I did see a few other tables near us who at least had drinks- not sure if they had ever put in a food order yet, but they seemed hot and annoyed as well. I’d like to think it’s a fluke but it was still very upsetting. We were sat right away, but we were just never acknowledged once we had been sat. If someone had just stopped over to offer some drinks and let us know that they were swamped and needed a few more minutes, that would’ve been fine, but it never happened. While the indoor dining spaces were full, the back patio/dock spaces had plenty of open seats, so I wouldn’t say they were really swamped. (This was on Monday, July 28, 2025...