Yard House — Restaurant in Dr. Phillips

On 1/18/25, my son's hockey team played in a tournament in Orlando and had a second game in Kissimmee. My family planned to stop for lunch at a halfway point in between the games, and we came across ICON Park on google. We decided to try Yard House for the first time. I then reached out to the entire team to let them know our plans in case anyone wanted to go as well. Several families agreed to meet there, so we were looking at head count of around 35 people! Knowing they don't take reservations for large parties, but not wanting to show up and bombard the staff, I gave a courtesy call at 12:45 pm letting them know our team was heading that way and would be there at 1:30. I let them know how many to expect, and that I knew we would not all be able to sit as one group of course, but it would be great to group some people together in the same area or section. The hostess told me over the phone that she would let the manager know. People from the group started arriving at around 1:20 and texted me saying they were told they could not be sat together, and not even in the same section. More families started to arrive, and at 1:35ish, a friend called to let me know that they would only sit her (group of 3) and another group of 3 at the same time, but that there was an open table right next to them that the hostess said they could probably sit us at. My family was literally in the parking garage looking for a spot, so only 5-10 minutes behind them, which my friend told the hostess. We walked over and when I got to the hostess stand, she said they had already given that table away. She said they could seat us (party of 4) on the patio, but on the complete other side of the patio that wraps around. Then I mentioned that I was the one who had called 45 minutes prior about our group, and the hostess was very cold and saying there was nothing she could do to sit us by each other. REALLY?? So the other people they just sat at the open table by our group couldn't have instead gone to the other side of the patio at the open table?? Honestly, the hostess came across as spiteful and nonchalant. Here is the best part, though: We were the ONLY people sat in the ENTIRE section we were in, aside from a couple with a baby. Yes, there were dozens of empty seats around us. I understand that thre are servers assigned to sections, but you mean to tell me there is NO WAY you could seat us anywhere near anyone from our group, or put anyone near us, when that section was empty? When we had called 45 minutes prior with the accommodation request? I'm not one to normally complain about places bc I do believe people typically do their best to be courteous and helpful, but I would have much preferred being told on the phone when I called that ZERO effort would be made for a group as opposed to her acting like she was going to talk to the manager to help us out. At least BE HONEST. So, at some point tables on the other side of the patio must have opened - I couldn't see any of them for the entire meal - but when I got up at the end to leave, I saw parts of our group had congregated at the initial section we had asked to be sat in. So while I was the one to organize the group, we sat alone in an empty section for the entire meal. When I called to give the heads up, the hostess should have said "There is nothing we can do, you will all be sat separately regardless" and we would have went elsewhere. But the fact that ZERO accommodation was attempted when they easily could have sat us next to part of our group when there had been an open table was just unbelievable. A few other people from different families also said the hostess was very rude and dismissive. Obviously I completely regretted bringing this restaurant an extra 30+ people for business after seeing how little they value their customers. The food was decent, table service was average and fine. But the hostess being passive aggressive to our entire group and isolating us from all the other people we brought there, left a...

While it's a nice place in probably the ideal location of this little tourist area we were in, the experience itself was rather disappointing. We were there on a Tuesday night and wanted to eat outside, and we were told that it would be at least a 45 minute wait. That was frustrating for us because we wanted to sit down and we saw plenty of open tables outside. We decided to be seated inside. Unfortunately that was also out of our control as we were told that would be at least 30 minutes. The only option we had was to fill-in around the bar.

We stood around the bar and got some drinks, when conversation started in my group about how there were a plethora of open tables inside and out, and yet we still weren't allowed to sit. Someone seemingly in the know assured us it was because they didn't have enough serving staff available. That didn't really bother me, I could get my drinks from the bar, but I have back problems and would prefer to sit if I could. I sat down in one of the clearly not being used tables and it was about 3 minutes before I was told I wasn't allowed to sit there. I guess they had enough staff to hall monitor, though not to seat, serve, and or clean.

We planned on meeting some friends somewhere else but they finished early and ended up joining us. By then it was later and we had managed to "secure" a table at the now almost fully empty patio. I was left in charge of making a few orders for people having bathroom/smoke breaks. The server greeted me with the classic, "hello, how are you" and I responded with, "hey, can I get..." this seemingly set the server off and she did the, "let's try this again, HELLO! HOW ARE YOU?!?"

I was in disbelief that a restaurant that had all the tools to be a great place could be so aggressively incompetent. I was with a group from work so I chose not to make a scene about it but a part of me wishes I gave Katherine or Kaiytlin or whatever her name was (I tried to remember for this review) the reality check that her and her place of work are both horribly disappointing in their most basic expectations.

The food was pretty good. The boneless wings at least. Tuna Nachos were ok. The Korean Beef or whatever wasn't that great. What really made the experience bad was the staff. Other than this one black dude who delivered the food to the table. The guy had 10 seconds to do his job and was super polite, friendly, and dare I say funny and charming when he was around. Not sure why he's not dealing with customers and instead we're waited on by Miss Attitude.

Anyways, the whole area is a tourist trap. We skipped Yard House the first night because we heard bad things about it and were kind of forced into it this night due to lack of options. Impressively they lived up to their poor reputation. Bad attitude staff in a place that probably serves 95% tourists is understandable but at least let us sit down in open tables, even if we have to get our own drinks from the bar. OH, WAIT! The heavier black woman bartender was also a joy to be around. Sorry for my descriptions but I didn't remember names as well as I usually do. Hopefully if someone higher up reads this you can at least identify and appreciate the ones at Yard House actually putting...

We were there with 3 adults and 1 child. Our server Tiffany was well aware when we ordered, and one of our guests was vegan as my guest made Tiffany aware. She ordered the Gardein Chicken and Advocado Sandwich. The rest ordered burgers and mac and cheese with fries for the child. When the vegan received her plate, there was a slice(s) of American cheese. We had to tell the tall young man who carried out the food by himself to our table that the vegan dish was not supposed to have any cheese or mayo as described in their menu. He was very polite and apologized and said he would come back ASAP. Tiffany, the server, came back to the table after she found out that our guest had returned the dish due to the cheese and provided our guest with a very rude comment regarding if she orders any vegan style sandwiches or dishes she should speak up and say no cheese next time with a attitude next time and just walked away. I do not believe Tiffany bothers to read the restaurants menu where it reads, no mayonnaise, no cheese. She then smirked and walked away like a brat who tried to school the customer on what she believed to be on the menu. The no cheese and no mayo recipe or what is included in the sandwich is on their printed menu and on the table kiosk that I took a picture of what is included in the sandwich and what is not expected on the sandwich and I will provide a picture of what I am writing. Tiffany returned to the table with the correct sandwich the second time with a completely rude attitude and once again wanted to drive the point in how to order the sandwich the correct way next time and did it in a very rude and loud manner that was demeaning and very childish in the way she scolded my guest. I have been to this restaurant many times. This server needs to be retrained and made aware of what is on the menu. She also needs to have better customer service etiquette. We paid in full for our dinner. We did not see the managers at that time. Maybe they were in the back. Tiffany needs to speak to clients/customers/patrons in a more humble, respectful, and professional manner. We left that restaurant without eating our entire meal and our drinks. We paid in full, which was about $120+. We tipped on the table in cash because this behavior was not reflected on the host, tall gentleman, who was the only person that came to our table with the food and was very apologetic regarding the cheese on this sandwich. Due to this obnoxious incident, we as a group can not continue to accept this type of behavior or service. We will take our hard earned money to another establishment tomorrow. I can't recommend this restaurant going forward. Update. The two of us who did have the hamburgers ended up with extreme stomach cramps throughout the night and diarrhea. Same dish, same outcome. What is going on with this restaurant? and we only had half of the burger due to the...