Marina Cafe — Restaurant in Destin

We had 5pm reservations and arrived 10min. early. It was a bit ODD that we had to wait outside in a line with the "first come, first serve bar people of happy hour," instead of a separate "reservations line" with access to an actual employees or even a Server to instruct us of their purpose for 5pm. lines (Customers gave us this info. of expectations.). We wondered the point of having a 5pm reservation without access to availability INSIDE the actual premise to sit until they open for that table time. It would be nice to have a separate line meant for those who had made early reservations for a dining room experience.

Thankfully, it was nice to finally enter the building as doors opened and see wait-staff lined-up to seat us; although, it was a bit awkward that the young man who seated us was not our Server for our dinner. Our server didn't even mention her name, nor did she say any unique specials for our evening; we overheard other well-trained Servers adding these expected details to their greeting. Therefore, we assumed our young gal server might be newer to this position. We are locals and CAN compare this evening to the old ownership/management of this restaurant. Sadly, our last 4 visits have been underwhelming. Our first revisit over a year ago included the accidental spillage of an entire glass of red wine onto the lap & cream colored blouse of one of our guests; she sat in a wet seat until we requested to move away for her sake to sit in a dry chair. (We had moved from our sunset window-view table.😔. ) Then, they cleaned up that chair and table, only to give it to other customers instead of reaching out to us to see if we would've liked moving back to that "premium reserved table" position. No apology was given to us by our male server; he simply excused himself by saying he "had NEVER done that before in his 14 years as a server" 🙄 (excuse?! INSTEAD of taking responsibility for his accidental reaching across our friend to seat a glass of red wine for another guest seated on her other side!). She was VERY gracious and didn't cause an upheaval or "scene." The women at the table behind us said they would've been MUCH MORE upset and made the general manager come to the scene for appologies. BTW, NOTHING of our dinner was "comped." As we left, the husband of our friend stopped to talk discretely with the GM to discuss the situation. He asked if they had any "wineout" in their premises to help his wife with stains on her light-colored slacks and her cream blouse. He suggested they go home and rinse out the slacks (which were "dry cleaning ONLY") & then go buy some Wine-Out to use on the stains 🙄. They have not wished to dine here since and are waiting for news from us on better attitude toward responsibility/ownership on behalf of the GM (We did see him still at this establishment on our most recent dining experience).

As for this recent experience, the food presentation was ornate but tasted saltier, and the fish was dryer than expected for fine dining. Our Server seemed distracted by overwhelming assignments of her tables, and even though we were the first to be seated, our food seemed delayed in order placement and delivery to our table; we watched several other servers return to their tables for attention several times as we waited for our table to "turn". And, just when we were ready to cancel our long awaited dessert, she arrived with it; we had a few bites and wished to box it for our home and it took another long 5minutes for her return to ask if we cared to box it and then took it and boxed it herself. Then, we awaited our check . Our box arrived after she took our CC to have it cleared and said, "Oh, I forgot your boxed dessert." By the time it came, we'd discussed about not returning for some time to see if the "continued kinks" of new management would disappear. We paid, gathered up our jackets, left, and planned the other restaurants of our beautiful Destin to gain our trust as dining clientele. Sad, but we may not be back 😢 for some time as we explore many competitive...

My husband and I are on our honeymoon and we got a lot of recommendations from the locals to come here, so we decided this would be the place for our “fancy” meal down here in Destin. I was VERY disappointed. We walked in and the music was booming loud. We got seated at our table which was beautiful and candle lit, but even farther away from the music it was still so loud because everyone’s practically yelling so they can hear eachother. Our server was absolutely amazing and he did a great job. The drinks were very good. Appetizer was again pretty good and a fun new thing to try. When it came to entrees, I asked to sub out the crab for my meal for shrimp and our server originally thought it would be a $2/$4 upcharge. I said no worries, totally worth it. He came back and the shrimp I’d be given is small baby shrimp, instead of the normal shrimp they served. If I wanted the other shrimp they served, that would be an upcharge. I told him that was okay. When our plates came out, the $15 upcharge I ended up paying later, was not worth it. $15 for 3 pieces of shrimp…. while they tasted really good, idk if it’s worth an extra $15 to the already $52 entree. The portions were pretty small (we’ve never been to a nicer place like this so wasn’t sure what to expect). Our filet medallions were pretty good. The risotto is to DIE FOR!! We were in heaven eating that. The asparagus was disgusting. It had no seasoning and tasted like it was boiled in water. Other tables around us also returned their plates with asparagus on it so it wasn’t just me. Overall I’d say this place was okay, but it was a let down when this was supposed to be the one fancy dinner we could afford and we left hungry and unsatisfied. While everything looked amazing, it still was a let down and I don’t think their prices were worth it. Also when we got the check, there was a facility fee added that was $5… I have NEVER heard of this from a restaurant and it seemed sketchy. Maybe we ordered the wrong things as again, locals rave about this place. But overall not...

The food was excellent, as always. The rest, incredibly disappointing! We were the first or second party in line with reservations for the early dining. We were taken ALL the way to the end of the dining room to the very last table. A feature of Marina Cafe is the wonderful view of the harbor. It's such a feature that the inside wall is a full mirror, so you see the harbor from every seat, either direct or in the mirror. At our table, one person had a harbor view, one looked directly at the blank wall screening the exit door, one looked at the kitchen door, and the fourth at the oven. When we asked for a better table, we were told we would have to go to the front and get back in line. So, we sat there, isolated. The entire time we were there, only one of the 5 nearest tables was occupied, and that not until we were nearly done eating.

We sat, ignored, for some time. Just as I suggested we leave and return another time, our server, Daniel, appeared. We like to interact with servers, but this guy took it to obnoxiousness; wouldn't shut up; kept talking even when we tried to tell him our orders. Huge contrast to our previous visit when Donovan was so friendly and engaging that I stopped at the reception desk on the way out to ask that the manager commend him for making our meal extra memorable.

Food service. One of our party ordered an extra side. Food comes; no side. Reminded the server. Side finally came about halfway through the meal.

All done, comes the bill. Oops. Daniel tells us someone made a mistake and he'll take it back to be corrected. One of the real draws at Marina Cafe is their buy-one-get-one special from 5:00 to 6:00. These are full servings from the regular dinner menu. Folks, this is the best deal in Destin. This is why there is a line at the door at 5:00. Everyone in the restaurant at the time we were there was there for that special. Whoever made up our bill forgot to add the discount for the second meal.

Will we be back? Absolutely!!! It's great food and usually...