Hard Dock — Restaurant in Decatur

Ok so this will be a long review and I hope it gets read by the owner at the very least. My husband along with my 4 kids came from Chelsea, Al for a one night vacation to go to Point Mallard. We had worked all day today and drove up when we got off at 4. We saw a restraunt at the marina as we went over the bridge and came to quickly check into our room and hurry back for some good food. We got to The Hard Dock @ 7:30 and sat down and ordered. We were waiting for awhile and then at 8:30 had our sweet waitress to come and tell us that she had accidentally forgot to put our order in. It was extremely aggravating, but people make mistakes... I thought surely I would have a manager come around to speak to me after time went on. At 8:50 I told a server that my kids were getting tired that we would cancel one of the kids chicken fingers. At 9:30 our food is finally brought to us, except none of the kids chicken fingers are there. They said you asked us to cancel them and I said no I said cancel one of the orders. They came quickly to bring out another order and we ate. The new waitress immediately came and asked my kids who wanted a brownie and of course they went crazy. I asked for the ticket bc I had lost my appetite by now just from the frustration. I wasn't too upset at this point. When we got the ticket it read $65, the waitress came by and grabbed it from me and and said sorry this is the new one since you added a kid chicken finger back on...I thought ok, it read $69. When the waiter came back I asked her with my card in my hand, is the manager planning on giving any type of discount for everything that has happened and she said well she is working on a gift card and we gave you free brownies. I told the waitress " we didn't ask for brownies and we don't live here. We are just in a 1 night vacation". She said hang on and let me fix that then. I had my card in hand with receipt and when she grabbed the receipt I tried hanging on to my card and she said "MAM, I will NOT charge card until I give you total". In the meantime my husband puts down $70 bucks cash and WHILE WAITING... A different waitress came up and said "when will you guys be leaving? You have kids here and they can't be here after 9pm. We could get in trouble, so we need you to wrap up". I swear I thought I was on candid camera!!!!!!!! I said well they forgot to put our order in mam. At that time the older lady that was manager came with my card and had of course charged the $69. I asked her why that was done and that I was told my card wouldn't be charged. She said well then why did you give your card to the lady. I said I didn't!!!! She took out of my hand and my husband has already given cash, I thought she was going to speak to you about changing gift card into discount for Inconvince and she smiled sarcastically and said no mam I'm not giving you discount. I told her and on top of that this lady is asking me when me and my family are leaving?!!!!! We don't want to still be here, we were just waiting on our food. She then said mam have a good night and walked away from me. We left at 10:04 pm. I am a previous server and very laid back person. I sincerely thought someone was going to jump out and say I had been punked. This is bar none the worst experience I have ever ever had at a restraunt. From the manager to the second waitress. The first waitress was to blame, but it was human error that could have all been made better with good customer service by manager. We would have never allowed a customer to walk out with at the very least a discount or even no ticket. We didn't go looking for a free meal. We went looking for a great dinner and go back to our hotel with our family and swim at the hotel pool, which we didn't get to do bc the pool closed at 10pm. I feel like this has been a terrible start to a very short vacation with my family and just makes me so sad. I hope someone sees this and will respond to how we were treated and how we came out paying twice!!!!! One of the waitresses got a...

I showed up at 6:00 p.m. and ordered the kids chicken nugget baskets. They were awesome. The crab balls were amazing and hot and melting. I waited 45 minutes for my friends to get there and we ordered the seafood platter entree. It took 20 minutes to come out and tasted like garbage. The rice was hard and crunchy. The sausage chunks were dry and old. I thought someone scraped out of the bottom of a bucket some leftovers served us on a plate. My friends that showed up late ordered the same thing and had the same gross nasty disgusting meal. We asked the waitress to refund the money for the meal and just pay for her kids meals and appetizers which they did. But I was so disappointed in what they offered. It was nasty and horrible.

I wanted to ask for a better meal but I had sat there for 2 hours with only 2 waiters assisting the crowd. Rather than wait there for another 40 minutes for food we just asked for a refund and left.

I had to drive home to Huntsville but they went to a different place that offered a crab entree platter as well. They said they would rather go to that hole in the wall any day. I'm just sad I'm hungry and missing out and I wished I could have had a good time but I didn't get that.

I do want to say the view was amazing. The waiter was amazing. She was very kind and awesome and even brought My kids fish food to throw towards the fish with them being autistic this was amazing and she was so kind. There is nothing wrong with their hospitality It was just the cooking and the poor food quality that made this horrible and made my friends never want...

This place is an old school on the water restaurant/bar and marina with its own maintenance shop and more.

Some people may come in and not think much of this place because it's very small and hidden if you don't know where to go, but It's a place people have been coming to for ages and as a north Alabama native this is one of the places I stop and have a drink at from time to time when possible.

The service is great but be prepared to wait a few minutes due to how busy it gets sometimes but there are times even when busy that I've never had an empty drink due to how great the bartenders were.

as for the food service they are short staffed last time I went and I had to wait over an hour and half for some wings but they told me beforehand that it was going to be a while because of so many orders ahead of me and only having 1-2 people to run the kitchen (I honestly forgot I ordered them) but they were some of the best wings I'd ever had haha and they did warn me prior so no hard feelings there and it worked out perfectly to be honest.

I wished they served like raw oysters, crawfish, and stuff like that which they may sometimes but I haven't seen them do so the times I've went.

I will be back for sure with family and friends this is a great spot for a summer night to just unwind and check out the nightlife...