East Pass Seafood & Oyster House — Restaurant in Destin

This review is in an effort to help, not harm. Firstly, while the cost of goods has become more expensive and the supply chain is still not where it should be, the food we received for the price point wasn't fair or honest. This restaurant prices their oysters at roughly $3 per oyster and at the time of this posting, those oysters were literally the size of a quarter. We also paid $17 for a burger that was made with a frozen party and frozen fries. Although the fries were tasty. The "shrimp and grits", and I use that term loosely, had (7) shrimp (also frozen, not fresh) and about a cup of cheese Grits. The dish was primarily tomato and spinach garnish. This was $30. The ingredients simply do not match the price point. For a frozen burger party, 18 tiny oysters and a cup of Grits, we paid $133! Why so high? Because there is an automatic charge of 20% for the "service charge" AND another automatic 2.5% "Resort fee".

In today's world, we understand that there are some restaurants that are experimenting with charging patrons extra fees so that they can pass off additional benefits to their staff. However, in my experience with your company, this 20% automatic charge has created nonexistent service by your staff. On the night we visited, the restaurant was empty. Your bus boy, hung out with the host all night. Our server hung out in the bar area with the rest of the staff. Aside from taking our initial order, we never saw her again... Until we had to ask the host to get her so we could cash out, which was about 30 min after we completed our meal. The entire staff was disengaged. This is the result of not needing to provide good service for their tipped wages because they know people are not going to tip over the 22. 5% automatic fee that allegedly is to their benefit.

Your prices are already unfair and high for the quality of food you provide. You're literally a step up from McDonald's, maybe in line with Applebee's. If you actually priced your items correctly (I'd pay $11 for your burger) and add 22.5% to cover your staff wages and benefits, your menu would reflect a $14 burger and we would all be happy to tip an additional 20%+ for good service. Your staff would get more on your end and would have a quality wage based on merit rather than laziness.

When people like a restaurant in a tourist area, they will return every trip. People are creatures of habit. Your restaurant policies and food quality have ensured many people won't give you a second chance, which is sad. It's in a great location.

You can have terrible food if you have great service. You can have terrible service if you have great food. But, when you have both bad food and bad service...

Best of luck. I hope you guys make some...

I've never felt more betrayed by a restaurant in my entire life. I went to East Pass with high hopes, expecting a delicious meal and a pleasant dining experience. What did I get instead? A one-way ticket to Food Poisoning City, courtesy of their abysmal hygiene standards and utter disregard for customer well-being.

Let me paint you a picture of the horror show that unfolded after my ill-fated visit. An hour after consuming their so-called "food," I was writhing in agony, my stomach feeling like it had been used as a punching bag by a heavyweight boxer. It was as if my digestive system had declared war on me, and the weapon of choice was relentless nausea and vomiting.

But wait, it gets better! When I mustered the strength to call the restaurant and inform them of their culinary crime against humanity, do you know what they had to say? Absolutely nothing! Not a single apology, not an ounce of concern for the fact that their negligence had sent me into a gastrointestinal tailspin.

Instead of taking responsibility like any reputable establishment would, they chose to bury their heads in the sand and pretend like nothing happened. Well, news flash, East Pass: you can't sweep food poisoning under the rug and expect it to disappear.

So here I am, nursing my wounds and nursing a grudge against East Pass. Let this serve as a warning to anyone considering dining there: unless you have a masochistic streak and a penchant for playing Russian roulette with your digestive system, steer clear of this culinary Chernobyl.

In conclusion, East Pass doesn't deserve your patronage or your hard-earned money. Save yourself the agony and find somewhere else to eat – preferably somewhere that prioritizes basic food safety standards...

We came here honestly because we got gift certificates from staying at the Wyndham resort located here and I'm glad we didn't fully come out of pocket for our meal. We assumed it would have been packed since they just did a Mardi gras parade and festivities but there was hardly anyone in there. Whoever the girl was who seated people honestly gave the vibe of hating her job and not wanting to be there and was inconvenienced to have to seat someone else. The waitress we had was very sweet though (The bill says her name is Mari. I hope that's right).

We ordered two frozen drinks and I'm not convinced they even put alcohol in them. I don't think whoever was at the bar knew how to make a drink. It's hard to mess up a pina colada or a regular margarita but both lacked flavor.

As for the food we were actually pretty excited to try some of their appetizers, and just made dinner out of 4 different appetizers. We ended up getting fried pickles, fried calamari, fried ribs and dynamite shrimp. The fried pickles were probably the best out of the bunch. The best part of the fried calamari were the fried peppers that were mixed in. The ribs were tender but soaked in SWEET BBQ sauce and sogged down by the coleslaw underneath. The shrimp tasted like someone just poured a whole bottle of sweet thai chili sauce on top and called it a day. They were way too sweet as well.

They do have extra fees on top of everything as they are commission based but we already knew that going in as it says this on their website and the waitress let us know about it before hand. But our total bill ended up coming to about $105. We were just thankful we had the certificates from the resort because their food was NOT...