Big Fin Seafood — Restaurant in Dr. Phillips

I always scour all the Magical Dining Month menus every year to see who's putting forth effort into attracting new business and who's just phoning it in and putting chicken and pork tenderloin dishes on the menu to check a box. Well, Big Fin Seafood made it into my top five this year, so we made reservations and in we came.

The outside was confounding. I don't have a lot of experience in this part of town, but it was in a strip mall that was very fancy, but also a depressing ghost town. Interesting. The inside, however, was very fun and grandiose. Giant ceilings covered with seafood art, a nice little oyster and seafood window when you walk in, and a big spinning Scarface-esque globe in the middle of everything. Great ambiance.

The service was also nice. I forget her name, but she was very friendly, kept my bread and butter flowing, and knew the wine list pretty well. I appreciated her service.

As for the food, we both got the Magical Dining menu and shared.

Apps:

Grilled Florida Shrimp (ponzu beurre blanc, grilled lime, crispy onion). Perfectly cooked, huge shrimps, the sauce was one of the best sauces I've had in a long time. I sopped up every drop with the bread. And the crispy onion was great for a little texture.

Smoked Florida Blue Crab Dip (red pepper jam, sesame lavosh). This was good. It was actually like 90% crab in this dip, I wasn't mad, and the jam added a little kick of brightness. I kind of wish there had been more of it.

Mains:

Salmon Rockefeller (roasted salmon, bacon & rockefeller crust, green beans). This was the dish of the meal for us. Salmon was a nice big filet, cooked well, and slathered with a magical Rockefeller concoction. Very creamy and bright with spinach. It also came with a an unlisted side item of little roasted potatoes. It was just an excellent dish. It's the reason I bumped this place up from for to five stars, honestly.

Big Fin Swordfish - Fort Pierce (blackened 14 oz. center cut fillet, citrus brown butter, crispy capers, potato puree & steamed asparagus). Wow. So good. A very hearty swordfish steak that was proudly caught in local Fort Pierce, and it was cooked to perfection, not dry at all, yet seared very well. Capers on top to add those needed pops of salt, just really yummy.

And desserts:

Florida Key Lime Pie (fresh house made). Standard. Nothing too extraordinary about this pie.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake (tableside flambe). Also nothing too crazy about this dessert. This place focused on and excelled at the savory stuff, that's ok. But know that they pour a large amount of booze on this, and the fire does not cook it all out, so make sure your DD isn't a lightweight if they eat this.

Overall, I think this was an overall very good MDM menu. I had never really heard of Big Fin before, but now they are definitely...

Made reservations for a party of 16 on a Wednesday evening for 8pm. We all arrived prior to 8pm and were seated in our area early which was great. From that point on everything was horrendous. It took over 30 minutes for the 2 servers for our group to come around and take our drink orders. At this time they did not take any of our appetizer orders, just the drink orders. At that moment I went to try and speak to a manager to ask for some assistance since I felt like it was already going down hill. I was calm and even tried to calm the group down by ordering shots for the whole table to at least get us something until our original drinks came out. At 8:45 our initial drinks finally came out, a couple were messed up, but they fixed them. At that point we finally stated that we just wanted to order, and we skipped the whole appetizer part of the meal. We all ordered our meals, they finally brought out some bread for the tables at 9:15pm. An hour and 15 minutes after arriving. The meals finally started to come out at nearly 10pm. There were 2 steaks that were drastically over cooked, and 2 meals that didn’t arrive with the groups. One was to be a whole lobster that was chilled on ice, and the other was a catch of the day special. Something that should be fairly easy to do since it was the special. By 10:45 the whole table had finished their meals and still these 2 meals were still not out. I do not know what was going on between the wait staff and the kitchen, but at this point the chef came out addressed the table and said he was sorry and took responsibility for this mishap. He offered to give some extra meals to the two people who never received their food, they accepted and we all remained calm and respectful, but really it was an embarrassment at all levels. When it was time for the checks to come out it took over 45 minutes for them to get the checks out. Mind you now the restaurant is now closed and we are the only party in the place. I think the biggest slap in the face for the whole evening is that all they offered to do on our bill was offer 10% off of the meals, and to comp the 2 meals that never came out until the very end. In my 20+ years of having business dinners at restaurants I have never even remotely had the type of experience that I had that night, and for them to say we are sorry and offer 10% off was comical. Never once did any management reach out to myself or anyone else that left out contact information for a follow up. I would not recommend this business for any sort of event you might be holding. Everything from the lack of attention, to the communication through the meal was something I wouldn’t even fathom would come from a restaurant with zero star reviews. I...

After a very long & daunting past few days (hurricane flooding & electricity loss), lastnight I/we reserved to dine here & needless to say it was definitely a mistake! The customer service experience we received was unquestionably subpar due fully bcs of our interaction with the General Manager Drew. I ordered an entree/meal from the OMD menu (double chicken breast) which, after receiving my cocktails and oyster appetizers (took over 30mins), I was told by Drew wasn’t available bcs they had ran out. I asked what cld be a substitution and bcs I was left with no real options, I chose the Mahi (pictured below) which Drew rudely stated I’d pay full price for & I agreed to. Less than 10mins after requesting it, I received the Mahi and it wasn’t cooked throughly, was fishy, very bland in taste and the meaty portion of the Mahi had a super soft consistency. I mentioned this to Drew in which he seemed offended responding argumentatively, brass and just downright rude. Drew basically stated that he cld not replace or substitute the Mahi for another dish and that I’d still have to pay for the Mahi in which it’s poor taste wldnt allow me to eat it. He did offer salt, pepper, sauce (I’d have to pay for) however, being a foodie, this wasn’t satisfying bcs the Mahi was undercooked ntm such an entree shldnt need to be dressed up to enjoy. Afterwards I spoke with the assistant manager Darren whom was very professional and apologetic however, he was unable to override Drew’s decision. Prior to this, we watched Drew deal with an unhappy party in which he was overly attentive and accommodating however, when dealing with us he rushed and quickly disregarded us leaving us feeling very uncomfortable, insignificant and neglected. Drews interactions with us verses others made us feel very much so racially profiled. We left abruptly with a $140 tab and myself angry, hungry & feeling disrespected! As a customer we’ll never forget this experience & needless to say Drew assured that we will NOT return to Big Fin nor will we suggest this restaurant to others. Btw the two stars are only bcs of our interactions with asst. manager Darren and the waitstaff (hostess Sara, servers Christian & trainee...