Jimmy Hula's Saint Augustine — Restaurant in Florida

It was high time for lunch and so I walked on nto Jimmy Hula's down on Ponce de Leon Blvd/US1 in St. Augustine. I had not tried this place before though I'd driven by even several times a day in the last year. I was curious to finally stop in and see the menu!

I love that I could walk up to the counter and order very directly what my lunch would be. I easily found a menu at the front of their desk and plucked it up for further examination. I love that not just one but several staff seemed to be at attention from behind the counter upon my arrival. The young man who took my order seemed to know exactly what to suggest based on just one response about another tempting menu item.

There were many, many choices and the staff was able to help me sort myself out simply enough to select the perfect taco for my taste in hardly any time! By guiding me to look over the several variations of sauce and let one resonate to my liking, it became clear that the Treehugger taco had my name practically painted all over it!

I was asked if I wanted a side with the complimentary chips that came along with my Treehugger single taco. The question was Pico, Guac or Queso for my tortilla chips. I selected guac--though queso and I have always had an on-again, off-again love affair. Mostly I just felt like repeating that nick-name affectionately given to this restaurant's vibrant green guacamole chip dip, haha. Go ahead--try to say the word out loud a couple of times fast. "Guac, Guac." I can't deny I was channeling my inner duck to complete my order this way.

I had picked a seat at a table on their patio behind the restaurant. What a beautiful view of the water and marina nearby! The patio was a good space and I could easily imagine a party happening there or the Reggae Sundays that I learned about from Charles Bernard, restaurant owner of Jimmy Hula's St. Augustine. The November breeze coming off the water was brisk at lunchtime so perhaps a nice cozy jacket or sweater would be best for a longer meal to enjoy the view.

Guaranteed, Jimmy Hula's will load you up a generous helping of their fresh guacamole, almost more plentiful than I thought I'd need in proportion to the number of chips that were delivered with my taco.

"Never too much guac," I decided! I resorted to loading each chip with a copious chunk of that glorious green stuff and had no regret to dispel every bit of the luxurious guacamole with its lovely hint of lime teasing my taste buds every new bite. I might've added a bit more salt, but admittedly that would've only been an indulgence on my part if I did have access to a saltshaker during my meal. I enjoy salt a little too much on the daily and truthfully the taste of the tangy, smooth dip was just right without any modification.

The Treehugger taco was the perfect selection for me! With sauteed mushrooms, black beans, zucchini, red peppers, melted pepper jack, onions (which must have also been cooked not raw, thank goodness for my taste), Jimmy Hula's Crema sauce and cotija cheese to top it off! Wow! I enjoyed every single bite of my lunch! I was full for hours from just one taco and had plenty of fuel on board for the remainder of my workday.

Thanks for the good tasting bite to eat on the water here in beautiful St. Augustine, Jimmy Hula's. You'll be seeing more of me passing though to order up some righteous munchies in the future. Keep...

I'm disappointed. The only reason I gave 2 stars is because the place looks great. The atmoshphere, location and decor are fun and cool and I had to give a little slack because they're so new. That's where it ends. We walked in and were the 2nd group in line. We waited and waited and waited, there was one person in front of us. We waited some more. Probably at least 10 minutes standing in line with again, only one person in front of us. The girl behind the counter was very hard to understand because she spoke so quietly, so maybe that contributed to how slow it was. Anyway, while we were in line looking at the menu, a gentleman walked up to us to ask if we had any questions about the menu. We actually did have questions about a very severe food allergy that one of the people in our group has. The gentleman (we believe he was a manager of some sort) said that he would be happy to check on ingredients for us. We waited. He came back out of the kitchen and ran outside to take pictures of a boat going by, he stopped in the bar area, he talked to a bunch of employees and someone who he knew walking in the door...but he never came back to tell us about the ingredients or even acknowledge that he had even spoken to us. We ended up ordering something that we were fairly certain would be safe anyway. Our food came out fast and it was fresh, but one bite onto mine I got a fork full of long, blond hair. My hair is not blond, so I knew it wasn't mine. I took it back up to where I ordered, but the only employees who were there to address the situation were several very young teenagers, one of whom I am certain the hair belonged to. They took the food back and asked me to go sit back at my table. Oh and by the way...asked me to carry the rest of the food for the table back with me. Listen, I'm fine with carrying my own food, but I didn't even get a "sorry" for the hairy food. The replacement came out shortly after everyone else was eating and they seemed fine with their meals. We ordered cole slaw to share and it was terrible. Bland and tasted "off " like it might not have had fresh ingredients. I messaged the restaurant directly and never...

This is a nice place, with such potential. They just really blew it on my latest visit, with both service and terrible food.

You can eat indoors or out, but you must go inside to order. Majority of the staff seems to be younger, and they are really living up the faux party atmosphere. The only employee who pays attention to customers is the bartender. What the other ten are doing there, I have no idea.

You order, they give you a number, and a kid comes along a few minutes later, and deposits food on your table without a word. Not a here you go, can I get you anything else, everything correct, just nada nothing. Condiments are in tabletop bottles, but stored off in the corner of the room, not on your table. It looks like a waitress station, but no, it's where you grab some filthy bottle of ketchup.

My last item of complaint, the food. Ordered a Kahuna Burger, which is supposed to include American Cheese, Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Pickle, Ketchup, Mayo, Mustard. I got a tiny burger patty, with an unmelted slice of cheese, on a cheap bun straight from the bag. No bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, mayo, or mustard. Burger patty, cheese, plain bun. $12.

The patty was about the size of a McD standard hamburger. The bun was very out of proportion. This couldn't have been the type of bun they typically use though, this was not restaurant quality at all. My guess is they ran out, and went to the grocery across the street, where they bought the $1 bags to cover themselves.

My burger was wrong, and given both the quality of it and the general staff demeanor, there was just nothing going to be done about it.

Had it been great, I still think this would be a mediocre review. The food was served in a tiny paper basket, fries overly greasy and rather bland. That's not like making a burger, there's no room for interpretation for fries. They're either right and tasty, or not. They were bad, the presentation was bad, and with that, I lost all reason to ever...