Bud & Alley's Waterfront Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Santa Rosa Beach

For the past several years, while vacationing in Rosemary Beach, we make a point to visit Seaside and drop by Bud and Alleys. Our visit on March 23 in the afternoon was less than desirable and we will not bother to patronize Bud and Alleys again. In my opinion, our food was mediocre at best and the service was substandard. The hosts and servers weren’t very friendly or hospitable and we felt like our presence was a bother and hindrance to them. This was certainly a different vibe from what we had experienced in years past.

Additionally, my 25 year old step daughter who was sitting with friends at another table ordered a drink and then vehemently accused by her server of producing a fake identification; to the point that the server even threatened to bring a Walton County Deputy back to their table to take some sort of law enforcement action against her.

The server continued very aggressively, making all kinds of arbitrary claims and the situation was escalating rapidly. My wife and I were at a table nearby and soon made aware of the situation. We went over to the table to help diffuse the matter and to reassure the server that she was, in fact, 25 years old and the drivers license was legitimate. The server was so bold and determined, she even got confrontational with us. Of course, this became humiliating and embarrassing for our family and friends, because now much attention by other guest were directed at all of us.

The server continued the threats regarding Walton County Sheriff’s department so we encouraged her to produce the Sheriffs Deputy she kept mentioning and her manager, as well. The manger did return to our table but no sheriffs deputy (as expected) and now the manager, himself, became confrontational with us too. We quickly realized he had no intention of respectfully and politely reconciling the matter or apologizing for the servers behavior and our humiliation. In my opinion, his goal was apparent as he simply came to the table to support his server, her ridiculous actions and bad behavior, as well as, demonstrating his own. This became a lose/lose situation for us so we simply made the decision to pay our check and leave, NEVER TO RETURN! And, all the manager could say was, “I’m sorry.” Sorry for what??? Sorry that your food and service was poor? Sorry that you and your server humiliated and embarrassed our family and friends? What exactly are your sorry about? In my opinion, not a darn thing!

I know that hundreds of thousands of folks visit this area each year and Bud and Alleys loss of our future business doesn’t mean anything to them…that’s abundantly clear, in my opinion. However, I feel like others need to know that our experience and my opinion of Bud and Alleys can quickly become your experience too. ...

As the day on 30A unfolded, our small family found ourselves having both lunch and dinner at B&A today. I wasn't going to write a review after lunch, but after dinner I figured I probably should.

Lunch: limited lunch menu and children's meal (besides being an arm and a leg) was really basic PB&J with a bag of Lay's for $10. We got the burger and it was way undercooked and the side of chips too didn't do much for the accompanying price tag. My wife and I both thought, we should have dodged the upcharge and just eaten at the food trucks.

Dinner: wait staff was courteous, but understaffed. Jose was fantastic and extremely friendly. We ordered a children's grilled cheese and surprise another bag of Lay's and the kick to the wallet. We ordered salads (arugula and wedge): arugula was good, but the wedge was drowning in dressing and the beacon was greasy and made the salad more oily than I prefer. Also, I prefer my wedge salads to be cold and crisp - this was soggy and room temperature.

I ordered the fish special (grouper, rice and lima bean succotash). We said we would split it, but in reality the limited menu selection was to blame as all my wife really wanted was something from a food truck. Time passed. We were in our seats for a hour before the main dish arrived. Luckily we didn't split it because the portion was tiny. Also, the rice grains were tiny and soggy and the succotash was bland.

What's more, after the delayed delivery of the main course all four or five tables in the same section as us got their food at exactly the same time (even the very same serving tray)...so, the fish plate was room temp., too.

On our trip to Seaside/Seagrove we ate at Grand Southern, Mi Casita x2, The Big Chill, and a pizza joint by Santa Rita Catholic Church, and the hotdog food truck in Seaside. B&A was by far our least favorite restaurant.

Catching a sunset at Seaside? Skip the B&A downstairs - not worth it. Lunch? Go to the food trucks.

Sorry for the harsh review...spent $150+ at your place for two plus a toddler and yall didn't deliver (on the lunch nor the...

Bud & Alley’s is like the last 7-11 for the next 90 miles on a deserted highway in Wyoming… It costs a lot and you wish you would have stopped somewhere else sooner to eat and fuel up. Sitting down, the first thing you’ll notice are your average bar drinks for above average prices. An Old Fashioned cost $32! Now, I love a good craft cocktail, but let’s be real here: This place is not pulling eccentric recipes from the finest restaurants around, let alone spicing up the simplest classic cocktails like the Old Fashioned. The “special” reason for this $32 cash-grab menu item is that it’s made with Blanton’s Whiskey. Of course, Blanton’s is of great quality (and I’m sure the Old Fashioned tasted wonderful), but do yourself a favor and enjoy the flavor of the whiskey without it watered down with sugar and ice.

Now compared to the drink menu, the food menu doesn’t fare much better in terms of price. There are restaurants in the area more akin to fine dining than Bud & Alley’s with the same menu prices, but those restaurants give you way better service and higher quality food. The Iceberg Wedge salad I ordered was warm and drowning in bleu cheese dressing, and the rest of the dishes didn’t look better. Part of this may be due to the types of lights they have on their rooftop, which suck out all the color. I know they may have these lights to help with turtle protection, but it really does not help food presentation at night. Overall, the food was decent, but it’s so hard to justify “decent” food for the price listed.

In the end, Bud & Alley’s feels like it’s only interested in squeezing as much cash out of its customers as possible without even feigning any effort to create a satisfying experience that’ll draw customers back. Customers deserve to have a satisfying dining experience, and, perhaps more importantly, the employees that depend on this restaurant for income deserve to have leadership that will do what’s necessary to build a loyal and sustainable customer base....