Barbara's Family Restaurant — Restaurant in Florida

Jeeze where do I begin...my husband and I drive by this place everyday and decided to check it out bcz we like to support these lil moms and pops places, it all started with a waitress who took our drink order and it went downhill from there, it took her 15 minutes to comeback for us to order and it wasn't busy as we noticed why. My husband ordered the "BIG" clam strip dinner bcz he's a larger dude(which it wasn't even large enough for a child nevermind a big dude like himself) I ordered the regular clamstrip meal figuring I wouldn't be able to eat a large clamstrip meal, boy was I wrong, it probably had one or two less pieces than what my husband ordered and was able to eat it all. Then if that wasn't bad we overheard a sweet older couple sitting behind us order their meal and the wife ordered her meal and then gentleman ordered his meal and bcz his came with a salad he didn't want it and the wife said if you don't want the salad that she'd take his since it came with it and the rude waitress said NO we're not allowed to substitute so he said as nice as could be i'll order the salad and she refused to let him have it knowing it was going to be hers. After all of that said and done when their meal came he had asked for sour cream for his potatoes and went back to the little kitchen area which you could actually see them cooking and loudly threw a fit about him asking for sour cream and said to the chef he can wait I have other customers and he should of asked for it with his meals. By the time he ended up getting the sour cream he was all done eating. If you're going to complain by what your customers (that pay you) maybe you ought to NOT say it so loudly that everyone that was dining could over hear you. Then as we were leaving I had to go to the bathroom and you had to have a key to it which is outside of the building and I was told no bcz after we paid for our lousy meal that I was no longer a customer and I refused to use it. So to say the least not only was the meal expensive by what we got the waitress was nasty, I wouldn't even allow my dog to eat here! Pretty sad we left and bcz the meal wasn't even big enough for a kids meal we ended up going home to eat. What a waste of money and time!!! Never again...

Was very disappointed with the food. In fact, everyone in our party was. I'm sure if the food was cooked right, meaning that they actually timed everything to get done at the same time, then I'm sure it would have been better. For starters, the fries were soggy, limp, and luke warm at best. You can tell they cooked them first and let them sit out until the rest of the food was ready. I only ate 1 fry, it was that bad. Then the fried shrimp was also cooked the same way, but they were actually good but the breading was soggy and basically fall off. Not really fried shrimp by the time you eat it. Oysters were very softly fried, and couldn't hardly be eaten. Crab cake had like a 1/2 inch thick breading coating, and then crab inside of it was ok and had nothing like traditional crab cakes.

Granted we could have complained, but what would we say, "All this food is trash and we aren't going to pay for it."? I will say the service provided was excellent and she was...

Barbara's family restaurant is a hidden gem in the Riverview and Apollo Beach area. The service from the staff and the owner was friendly, personable, and timely during my visit. The catfish was not overcooked and seasoned just right, and the collard greens were exceptionally good coming from a restaurant. The beverages are standard, but the sweet tea reminds me of the tea made by Bojangles chicken and McDonald's. I would drink this over a soda any day. Some would say that the prices are high. What they don't tell you is the amount of food you receive. I ordered a fish plate and had to take what I couldn't eat home. Fridays are all you can eat fish, and you better get there early. The parking lot and restaurant fill up quickly. The one glaring fault is the size of the restaurant, and the bathrooms are located outside the restaurant. Definitely needs an upgrade in size to accommodate the great service. Aside from this, it's an awesome...