Ovide — Restaurant in Florida

I made a reservation here at least a month in advance for Easter Sunday. I was very excited to check out the new restaurant in Sandestin. I looked at the menu in advance and although it was a little pricier than we would normally spend on breakfast since we have small kids, the food options looked amazing and seemed to be reasonably priced given the location and general vibe of the restaurant. As it got closer to Easter, I monitored their reservation availability because I wanted to make sure that we would be able to eat off the brunch menu which looked like it had more options (I was looking forward to trying the Sweet Potato Hash). I even posted a comment on Ovide's Instagram page asking about Easter Brunch times, but no one from the restaurant ever responded (despite posting subsequent posts). We arrived for our reservation and were seated without being told that the menu was buffet only. We did not find this out until after we were seated and ordered drinks from our server. I asked our server if the buffet was the only option and he told us yes. Given that we had already been seated and ordered drinks, we stayed despite the fact that I'm generally not a fan of buffets because of the number of hands that touch the serving spoons and I just don't eat that much and rarely go up for seconds. Shortly after we received our drinks, a large family of 10-12 was seated behind us. They ordered drinks. Shortly after they received their drinks, they all got up and left without eating. When our bill came, we figured out why the family left. The buffet option was $125.00 per person. Although my 5 and 3 year old were "free", they didn't really eat any of the food other than the fruit and bacon, and their orange juices were $8.00 a piece. I will say that the food on the buffet was good and the smoked salmon was quite possibly the best we've ever had. With that said, the options were very disappointing typical buffet options (other than some of the seafood and meats) and they didn't feature any of the interesting things on their menu like the sweet potato hash, stuffed french toast, buttermilk pancakes, etc. The bottom line is that we should have been told upon arrival that this restaurant was a buffet-only option that morning and we should have been given the courtesy of knowing what the buffet cost per person before we received our check so that we could decide whether it was worth it. We might have stayed, we might not have, but we were never given the option. The frustrating part was that I even asked in advance on the restaurant's Instagram page and no one bothered to respond! Even if my husband and I had ordered the most expensive dish on the brunch menu ($32 a piece) and a side ($10), and my kids split the pancakes ($16), our bill would have been $100.00, plus the cost of our drinks. Instead we paid $250.00 for the buffet plus drinks. I can't wrap my head around why we weren't told up front that it was buffet-only that morning and what the price would be per person. The honest truth is that I want to go back to this restaurant when we return to Sandestin because the food was good and I STILL want to try their Brunch menu, but I feel like I have to call in advance to make sure they are serving the menu that their website advertises! Although the food is good, this restaurant needs to communicate better with its customers and it was a disappointing...

My wife and I were excited about our reservation to Ovide for their New Year’s menu, but the experience ended up being terrible and I cannot in good faith recommend this restaurant to anyone.

We showed up to our reservation and were seated immediately. Then we waited. After 10 minutes had passed, I flagged down the floor manager who seemed to know exactly what I was going to say before I said it and got us our server. We had questions about the items on the menu, specifically about the quail they were serving and the wine pairing options, and (I can’t make this up) to answer them he leaned over my menu and read the description. There was also a question we had about the online menu’s offering of a “BEET tartare” versus the printed menu’s offering of “BEEF tartare”. He assured us that it was beet and not beef, but in hindsight while thinking about his apparent knowledge of the menu I can’t be certain. Either way, proofreading the menus before sending them out seems like a good idea but wasn’t in the cards for Ovide so we had to deal with that confusion. I also wasn’t impressed with the fact that some of the menu items weren’t available. It seems like piss-poor planning by the restaurant when they take reservations and should have a good count of the number of menu items they’ll need.

When we got our first course, they brought my wife a bowl of soup but didn’t give her a spoon. We waited a little while for our server to come back, but then I had to flag down someone else from the waitstaff for the spoon. When this server got to the table and we asked for a spoon, he took a look at our food and took away my plate because it was the wrong menu item for the course we were on. I had been so preoccupied with finding someone to get a spoon for my wife that I hadn’t noticed. From that point on, it seemed like they were rushing us. When they brought out the third course, I was still eating my second course. I had to ask them to take it away and bring it back when I had finished the second course. I appreciated that the server then came back later to ask if we were ready for the third course. We thanked him and indicated that we were ready. A few minutes later, one of the other servers brought us our fourth (dessert) course. She asked if there was anything else she could get for us, and seemed surprised when I said “the third course”. She was very polite and got the problem fixed right away. When our server came back, we asked for our dessert course to go. Both my wife and I were fed up.

I will say that some of the food was fantastic, some of it was just okay, and there were a couple items we didn’t care for. I enjoyed the foie gras, and although it seems like a strange thing to point out among all of the other menu items we had, my wife keeps talking about the celery root soup.

Despite the food being okay, it was overshadowed by the absolutely terrible service. At $500 for the food, premium wine pairing, and (mandatory) 20% service charge, we definitely expected something special that we didn’t get. I wish that we had gone to the Olive Garden for New Year’s Eve instead. Don’t waste your time and money on this “fine...

Breakfast is Mid, Dinner slightly Above Average!

Did my headline catch your attention? This was my teenager’s balanced response when I asked her to rate the food at Ovide. During our stay at Hotel Effie we tried nearly every food item on their small, yet well-crafted breakfast menu (excluding seafood dishes). Their well-crafted small menus limited us at dinner, so we chose not to dine their again after the first night. Overall, I rate the restaurant 4/5; see the pros and cons based on our spring break experience.

PROS: Generous portion sizes and reasonably priced. Food is plated beautifully, and the staff is attentive and professional. We were warned by the front desk that Ovide fills us fast, so it was imperative that we booked our dinner appointments early if we wanted to dine; however, there were less than two other families there when we arrived at 6:30 p.m. We were able to book reservations 15 minutes before we decided to eat for the remainder of the trip, with rarely many guests in the restaurant during those times. The restaurant is elegant and quaint and provides a relaxing ambiance to dine. The full gulf breakfast is a no brainer and should be everyone’s go to menu option! Food Highlight/Standouts: Mimosas, coffee!!!!!, and bacon.

CONS: Flavor. The food descriptions listed on the small, yet well-crafted menus read better than they taste. The food is not terrible but does not hit the palate as expected. I found myself adding salt and pepper (as did my teenager) to every meal. Their dinner menu lacks a vegetarian option and one of the only two pescatarian options has pork sausage in it (Shrimp & Grits). I should note that the chef was able to prepare this dish without pork, however I’m sure this negatively altered the intended flavor of the four ingredients dish. Their breakfast menu inadvertently has corn beef listed as a vegetarian option; however, it is NOT VEGETARIAN! The biscuits are bland and the French toast unsatisfactory. Based on the well-crafted description the French toast (my go to breakfast item) should have tasted amazing but not theirs; adding syrup could not fix the flavor. Last con, their menu is reasonably priced, however additional side items are pricey. Food Lowlights/Don’t Waste Your Money: French Toast, “well renowned” biscuits.

Some of their dishes are seasonal so the menu changes according to availability. The octopus that others have posted on their review was not available during my stay. Would I dine here again? Sure, with my Amex Food and Beverage credit. Would I dine there again using my own money?...