The Palms Bistro & Good Vibes Bar — Restaurant in Destin

Like most people, I never write a review unless our experience is either above-and-beyond amazing or unbelievably bad. Unfortunately, our experience was the latter. We are locals and have visited this restaurant many times in the short time it’s been under new owners/management. Although admittedly the food is average and the service is hit-or-miss, we loved the dueling piano show and thought it was a kid-friendly environment. During our visit last week, we were pretty much shamed for having brought kids. A manager told us she “got a call from above” stating a laundry list of things we were doing wrong - our kids were playing darts, were playing with pool sticks, sitting on top of the bar... basically how we were the worst parents letting our kids wreak havoc unsupervised. Meanwhile, all of the parents were right there playing with our kids! We were bewildered about how all of these complaints seemed to have come out of nowhere. We invited the manager who made the call to come down and speak to us directly, but it never happened. We also left phone numbers for them to contact us, but we still haven’t heard from them. It also should be noted that we were the only group in there as a party of 20+. Had we not been there, it would’ve been empty on a Friday night! It’s appalling and sad that an establishment that claims to be kid-friendly doesn’t seem to want to cater to families at all, and they don’t care enough to reach out to try to remedy the situation. As I said, we are locals and we have told a lot of people about this place and gave them a lot of business. It’s a shame and unfortunately we will...

First off I’d like to say that I work in the service industry and have to respond to negative customer feedback so I absolutely hate leaving negative comments but I feel like it needs to be shared. My husband and I love the palms resort and have always had a great experience but the bartender at the Good vibes bar with the nose piercing was horrible. I stood in line for 20 minutes waiting to order a drink because nobody ever came to the table. I then get up to the counter and waited. No acknowledgment or I’ll be with you in just a minute. Nothing. I then went inside to see if someone could help me but the waitress said the bar wasn’t open until 9 and walked with me outside to try to get me help. She shared with them that I’ve been waiting, although they all saw me standing there for over 20 minutes, they still didn’t even look my direction and dismissed the girl. There was 3 people back there! I finally walked away and had to get my husband to go there just to wait another 20 minutes to get a drink. She was extremely negative the day before and not friendly but we thought we would give her another opportunity. Everyone has a bad day but after this experience it was ridiculous. The guests were literally having to go get their own drinks because the wait was so long. And this was ladies night?! A simple hello or I’ll be with you in just a minute would have went a long way but just to not even care that you have a customer who has been standing there for that long was...

STEER CLEAR OF THE SPORTS BAR AND OUTDOOR BAR FOR FOOD!!! To preface, I am a local and understand the drastic understaffing of most restaurants and bars around the area. I never have left a review of a restaurant before because i usually have some grace and understanding for anyone in the service industry. But our experience was so bad that I felt the need to write a review. When we came into the lounge, we should have known from the start that it was not going to be a good experience. We were the only people who wanted to dine inside. The employee who works at the COFFEE portion of the inside space came over to us and said “Let me know if no one comes over to take your order and I’ll take it for you.” That should have been red flag number one for us. After waiting 10 minutes and having every employee look at us but not serve us, we decided to place an online order. Our order took approximately 40 minutes to come out, and it was totally wrong. We have simple asks like no tomato or lettuce on a wrap and to put a sauce on the side, and none of those instructions were followed. They are the most disorganized, poorly managed establishment that I have ever seen. It’s such a shame because the vibe of the sports bar and coffeehouse are awesome and there’s so much potential to make it right. To make people nearly pay $75 for food that is at best...