Farlow's on the Water — Restaurant in Florida

First of all we made reservations for a booth a month prior. They sat us in what they called a half booth. A whole wall bench crammed next to a party of six. There was a foot and maybe a half space to turn sideways and get through to sit down at a 3×3 wood table crammed in a corner. The people next to us, a old woman lost control of her swizzle drink straw and it shot out of her glass and hit me on the arm along with drink drops. We also had to squeeze by a man in a motorized wheel chair to get into our "half booth". There were two booths open in clear sight. We were told we couldn't have those. They later sat 2 people in one of them. While our larger party sat at basically a table for 2 at a greasy spoon. They have better seats at Dennys in town. A waitress dropped a big red colored drink which smashed on the floor and shot drink, glass and ice under three three tables. People had to get up so they could clean up. This was Easter Dinner mind you! Then comes the over priced food. The Easter Ham dinner was a less than 1/4" sliver of ham, that in my opinion would not make a good sandwich, with what looked like pancake syrup on it with a dollop of mash potatoes and 5 or six pieces of broccoli. I have gotten a bigger piece of ham with my Moons over my hammy breakfast at Dennys, seriously, no lie! Easter Dinner! I would refer you to almost any other restaurant in the Englewood area, The Waverly, The Cape Haze Tavern, Englewoods on Dearborn, The Lock and Key, The Placida Grill, The Pink Elephant on Boca Grande. Fins is great or even Sharkey's on the pier in Venice. I heard Landy's is good but never went there. The only good thing about Farlows is the outdoor seating on a night with good weather. It's on a dark water inlet off the bay, not on the beautiful Gulf of Mexico waters. But I wished I sat outside the whole night, while my party of 4 sat at a small table crammed in the corner (half booth). I was embarrassed I brought my vacationing visitors there. Whatever you do don't let them sit you in a "half booth." if your making reservations or even walking in. Sit outside if you have to. And if you want a good meal you'll have to pay up for the most expensive things on the menu, 48, 50 dollar range otherwise you get a mediocre meal that wouldn't compete with your local, table for 2, strip mall restaurants. I live here and know all the restaurants and you'd be better off going to Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, or Red Lobster in Venice, or Port Charlotte, for your money. And I don't normally go to those places but I have, and never got put in a "half booth" crammed in the corner and felt so uncomfortable. Good...

Came to Farlows on the Water and my expectations were completely shattered. First started off waiting 20 minutes for a table when we had a reservation, not a big deal so we carried on. The atmosphere was a 10/10 and the aesthetic of the restaurant is on point. We ordered the pork corn bread and it was pretty tasty although I didn't really taste the pineapple in the pineapple coleslaw. Even though we did have to wait about 10 minutes for the waiter to realize we did not have utensils. Our pre-dinner salad then arrived which I did ask for no tomatoes on my salad, but as i poked around I did find some tomatoes in my no problem I just picked them out. Then dinner came, and if I have to give you one word of advice don't order the St.Johns steak. The flavor was underwhelming and the steak was as tough as rubber, even when ordered as medium rare. I was also only given a butter knife to initially cut the steak which led me to shake the whole table when trying to cut a piece off. I brought this to the attention of our waiter (I believe his name was Robert ). I pointed out how my steak appeared more as rare instead medium rare and how it was extremely tough. The waiter completely ignored the fact that my steak was slightly underdone, assured me that the steak "is tough because it was marinated, you just need a steak knife". I passed the steak around the table and no one could bear to swallow a piece as it was equivalent to chewing a piece of a tire. A good marinaded steak should be TENDER and FLAVORFUL, to which this steak was neither. Save your $31 and go to Texas Roadhouse at least your jaw won't hurt when you're done with your plate. Skipped out on dessert due to the underwhelming experience. Waiter also complained about the amount on his tip, after hovering over my friends shoulder watching him click the tip button. Unbeknownst to him, we WERE going to tip more cash. I'm a waitress and I know most restaurants have a tip out system, I would've made sure he was taken care of regardless of what my friends tipped him. Instead he berated my friend (the birthday boy) "did you mean to tip that much? I have to tip out you know". After so many disappointments and embarrassing my friend that was the last straw. I did talk to a manager who seemed to be concerned about the encounter. Completely ruined our night. Will not...

My mom and I had a wonderful experience on New Years' Eve thanks to JOEY G.! We just so happened to be seated between an early transition from lunch to dinner. Our hostess and waitress (I regret that I forget her name!) both were very informative and accomodating while we weighed our options. As we would've had to order lunch quickly - and, more importantly, wouldn't have had access to the New Years' Dinner specials - we opted to wait a little longer for our food soon after being seated.

Several minutes, drinks, appetizers, and a reseating (to no fault of the crew; it was for a big party of some sort) later, we met the aforementioned Joey G. At that point, it had been awhile since we'd last seen our waitress, and we had also yet to receive our coveted Specials Menus. Joey went above and beyond for us; he was very apologetic about the blip in communication, took over for our waitress so that she could finish helping us and go home, got us our Specials Menus, and kept us entertained and engaged throughout the whole experience; which only improved from there!

To ensure I don't skip over my compliments to the chefs, the food was delicious! Prior to dinner, we'd feasted on our salads, bread, and the delectable house butter, and what we ordered for dinner was worth the wait; my mom ordered the swordfish off the Specials Menu, and I ended up going with the St. Croix Seafood Pie off the regular dinner menu. Neither of us had room for dessert, which was a bit of a shame; I can't speak for my mom, but I think we would've stayed for the bread pudding and for the extra conversation! I don't think it's hyperbole to say that our lunch at Farlow's ended up being the best experience we've had at any restaurant in quite some time; thank you, Farlow's crew, and thank you, Joey G!

(While the attached photography was on-location, I unfortunately don't have any pictures of our food to offer. If they were paying me for this review, I might say that it's because we devoured our dinner so quickly that pictures were an afterthought...but in all honesty, I just forgot that that was the norm until I went to write this. Darn; yet another reason to come back...