Sea Sea Riders Restaurant — Restaurant in Dunedin

I decided to give this place one more try as I had a bad experience my first visit. I'm a long time local, so it becomes quickly obvious which local restaurants are the tourist traps. In my opinion backed by 45+ years of local dining and food exploration, , this restaurant checks every box for a "Florida Tourist Trap". I Wouldn't be surprised if its not owned by the City or a government official. Here is a detailed walk thru my 2nd visit: We arrived an were seated promptly. Lots of seating available as they were not too busy even for a Friday night. 15 min. passed before the hostess came by a second time and asked if our server had stopped by yet. We said "no they have not". We continued to stare at the various walls and watch other patrons sip a cold wet drink. 10 more minutes pass and a server finally arrives, throws two paper menus and a bar-code menu on the table so we can see what the drink options are. She was obviously in a hurry and didn't have the time for us to make any decision right then. So, using my phone it took 3-4 min to download a 3.9 MB PDF file of a drink menu on Verizon 4G with 4 bars of service. Painfully slow for some reason. I just wanted a beer for Gods sake! The very second the drink menu finally popped up the waitress was back asking what I wanted. I had to send her away again, since their non-html menu took so long to download, process and open in a pdf viewer. I had not had a chance to even read it yet. Another 6-8 min later she wandered back and got the drink order to ultimately submit to the bartender. We are well over 30 min into this charade and we still do not have a drink in front of us yet, not even a courtesy water! But wait there's more... My friend ordered a water with extra lemon when the server took the drink order (yes,it had to be specifically requested) and when it arrived, I laughed hysterically and immediately pictured the owner rolling on the floor covered in penny pinched cash giggling to his hearts content. Why you ask? Because the lemon slices are portion controlled. I've actually never seen this. I think they are sliced on a mandolin, or maybe with a laser or some other high tech gadget. They were so thin you could read a news paper thru them. Not exaggerating. The "extra" lemon we ordered amounted to a total of 2 razor thin slices, that when stacked on top of each other may have amounted to 1/8 of a normal lemon wedge at any of the other restaurants on the strip. The Food: Note that they have only 4 entrees, and are basically dialed down to one type for each flavor profile. A Chicken, a beef, a fish, and a vegetarian option. That's it! The rest are simple sandwiches, and just full disclosure here...Fries would be an "Upgrade" in this establishment, however that is not the case at our local McDonald's.

After ordering food it was the last time we would see our server until it was time for them to bring the food. Mean while our drinks had dried up and you guessed it...now the food arrives and we have empty drinks. We have to now wait to have a drink with our meal since we were such important guests that no one bothered to pay us any attention unless they absolutely HAD to.

Food was average, for a place of this type so there was no justification for the extremely high prices of a typical burger and "upgraded" fries. The atmosphere is one where you have to yell to be heard. Very loud!

In Summary: 1 - Burger and Fries, 1 - Fish Sandwich and Fries 2 - Sangria's 2 - Beers 2 - Hours of torture

$72.45 = Tourist Trap.

My next meal:

2 - 1.5" thick center cut rib-eyes 2 - baked potatoes 1 - Zucchini 1 - squash, 1 - onion 1 - batch asparagus 2 - bottles of wine.

Less than $30 bucks

But that is just my opinion. You try it and leave your review. I wont be going back. Ever! There are too many other fantastic options on that strip that we locals know about who consistently deliver a...

No Reply Slyvia? Owner Can't Handle the Truth?

DONT EVER HAVE BIG EVENTS HERE!

Pt 2 from Previous Post...

In the owner's response to my brother in-law Adam (see below) she also lied multiple times. She said

“Both sets of parents, from the bride and groom, personally expressed their gratitude, praising the beautiful setting and delicious food.”

First of all this is a complete fabrication. My mom has passed and so has her dad (not that she would care). My dad never spoke to her and my wife’s mom never spoke to her (who she had met so she knows what she looks like). The only person in our party that did outside of Adam that did briefly speak with her was a family friend Michelle who was in charge of set up. She complimented our waitress Sydney who was fantastic with all of our guests. Sylvia you can’t talk to deceased parents and lied about the other two!

“They were so delighted that they chose to extend their stay, indulging in cocktails and soaking in the atmosphere. The Bride and Groom also stayed later with a few of there (its actually their Sylvia) friends.”

My wife’s mom and family friends stayed because they were asked to not drink at our wedding or reception because it was a personal request of mine so they went to a different part of the restaurant to do this while they waited for us to change and finish our photos at the pier. My best friends also went to the bar and ordered drinks after because they honored the same request I had made to not have it during the actual reception. My wife and I went to take pictures at the pier and then came back to change. What would you like me to do kick all my friends out that drove/flew across the country after they honored my request which you didn’t and wanted to say goodbye to us before we left? After we left for our honeymoon my friends left and went to a real place that treated them right. Also learned that despite having the room reserved all night for the reception (until close) her staff was moving tables after my wife and I left and friends were still sitting there. It made them so uncomfortable that they left. One said 'didn't we have this for the whole night'? This was as they started letting people sit in the area we had booked all night long per my friends.

“Regarding the mix-up with the menu she wanted to offer our regular menu without the prices shown . I explained that we had the correct versions prepared and offered to rectify the error.”

This is partially true. The menu was not just supposed to have the prices taken off, but only certain items were supposed to be on the menu. This was not the case. She did tell Adam that she would print them AFTER OUR GUESTS HAD THE REGULAR MENUS IN HAND. Is that professional?

“Additionally, I credited the $250 room fee as a gesture of goodwill.”

No you credited us the $250 room fee because you said you would the first time we met as it was just a way to hold the room.

“We couldn’t set up the room until Your family members came and brought the decor.”

This is 100% false. They told my wife in advance they could not set up a U shape in the room for our guests, but would have T set up design ready to go when Michelle and our family friends got there after the wedding to put the decorations up.

In conclusion THE OWNER Sylvia did not live up to any of the expectations that she promised during the process for our wedding reception, did nothing to rectify it, and then lied MULTIPLE times online which I have receipts on everyone. In my opinion we should be compensated financially for all the distress this caused on our big day along with the extra cost of items ordered that would not have been on the menu that we went over with her!

(No Response from Owner because Sylvia can't...

I have been to this restaurant in the past and enjoyed the service and the food. Unfortunately yesterday, march 4, the experience was not so great. We went in upon my recommendation to my family since my experience prior had been so great. We walked in and were seated in about 15 minutes. The problem was not necessarily the service or the atmosphere. As we put our order in, there were many tables that were open although they said it was a 30 minute wait. Once the order was put in it took almost 1 hour before our food was delivered to our table. I did after 50 minutes go to ask for management. Once I asked for management, the owner Sylvia, came out and spoke to me. I explained the issue And she apologized. I also explained to her that my sister was acquainted with a family member of hers and that she was recommended to come here. (I backed up that recommendation earlier in the evening). Sylvia said how sorry she was and that she will take care of us. She even stated that the waitress should have put our order in a little earlier than what she had. She stated that the waitress waited a little too long for the order to go in. When we finally finished our meal, the waitress offered us dessert on the house For our wait. We explained that we have been sitting there for quite some time and did not want dessert but wanted the check. When the check was delivered to the table there was not even a cent knocked off of it considering we had complained and made it perfectly clear we did not want anything else to eat. I am extremely disappointed in the customer service that was given to me and my family. I would have recommended this place in the past, but my experience here last evening has completely changed my opinion. The waitress was fine, the music was great, but the wait was absolutely ridiculous for food. I would've thought that we would have had even a little something taken off of our bill due to the wait. My issue is that if as a manager /owner you state that your waitress should've put our tab in a little earlier, why would you have not taken a little responsibility for the amount of time we waited. I guess customer service isn't as important as I thought it would be for a place right in the heart of Dunedin. Even 10% off the bill would have avoided this review. Extremely disappointed and will not go back and do not recommend at this point. It's a shame because the food was actually great. I have a big problem with someone who admits that the wait was due to a error on the waitresses part but does nothing to try and make it up to the customer. I live in the Clearwater/Duneden area and love visiting many places around. This unfortunately is my last time to sea...