St. Augustine Fish Camp — Restaurant in Florida

It's not the “slow food” experience diners are hoping for. I made a reservation at the Fish Camp for my wife’s birthday – RESY asked if it was a special occasion – and I responded, “it’s her birthday!” It didn’t matter. As far as the FC was concerned, we were a number/table to be expedited. Look, we all work hard, and when we go out to eat, we want to enjoy our meals and unwind a bit. We certainly don’t want to be treated like cattle on our way to the stun gun pen. We may not be special, but we would like to feel special, as if our patronage matters. I wish the FC understood that. Upon arrival at the FC (we had a 630 reservation), we were told our table wasn’t ready. No issues there. We went to the bar and had a reasonably priced glass of Oregon wine and a decent local beer. The bartender was nice (I remembered him from our last visit). Eventually, we were seated (645 for a 630 – also fine). When our server arrived, I said we’d like a bottle of wine with our dinner as we had something to celebrate—no inquiry from the server about what we were celebrating. I ordered a bottle of pinot. The server came back with the bottle, poured two glasses, and took our order: fried green tomatoes (to share), a Greek salad and a wedge salad, and the flounder special and shrimp and grits. I made clear we wanted to start with the fried green tomatoes, then the salads, and then our entrees. I emphasized we were here to enjoy a leisurely meal (another subtle hint ignored). At 7 pm, our appetizer and salads arrived simultaneously. I let it go. At 7:05 pm, our entrees arrived. I did not let that go. I said to the runner, “This is not acceptable; please send our entrees back.” The runner looked confused (as if five plates of food on a table for two that had just been seated was a normal thing). I said, “McDonald’s doesn’t serve food this fast.” Again, a look of confusion. The runner took the plates back to the kitchen. No apology was forthcoming. As for FGT’s, the breading was soggy (ugh). There was little delineation between the tomatoes and breading (it was like eating a stick of green gum, with goat cheese). The salads were passable but unmemorable (the salads were appropriately dressed, and the greens were fresh). That said, it was not food I would order again—any of it. When we finished our apps and salads, they cleared our plates, and out came our entrees, which had been sitting under a hot plate. It’s hard to ruin fresh flounder, but a hot plate will desiccate any fish. As for the shrimp, well, they were a little RUBBERY. The flounder sauce was pasty. The grits were OK. Again, it’s not food I would order again. They came to clear our plates at 7:20, asking if we wanted them packed up (there were leftovers). We declined. They did, however, pack up our wine very well, which we took home. We were ready to leave one hundred fifty-three dollars later, forty minutes after we had been seated (a quick table turn, in restaurant parlance). Upon leaving the FC, I went to the hostess stand and asked to speak with the manager. The man at the stand said he was the manager. I politely explained our disappointment. He was disinterested. As if he didn’t care. At all. There was no apology, no offer of a drink at the bar, no happy birthday, nothing. And that is how we came to have our last meal at the Fish Camp. PS: I still tipped 20 percent because this is not a staff issue but a management issue. You need to do better, Fish Camp, and treat customers like...

There are lots of overinflated reviews in St. Augustine, this is no exception.

Food - 2 stars Service - 5 stars Atmosphere - 3 stars

This is maybe slightly less quality food than Bonefish Grill or one of the bigger seafood chains. Nothing special here at all. Not a good value in general.

Tuesday evening around 7:30. Party of 4. Came in and were seated immediately.

Grilled octopus and white bean salad had a sashimi sized piece of octopus, sliced up and sprinkled a top about a quarter cup of white beans on a giant plate, which was filled the rest of the way with spring mix. For $11, not a good value.

The Greek salad with olives and feta had literally five olives in it and maybe a teaspoon of feta cheese sprinkled over the top of the same spring mix that was with the octopus plate. This is basically a side salad more or less. For $11, a bad value.

The broiled seafood platter had an average sized cod fillet that was overly salty. There were four broiled shrimp sitting next to it and 4 small scallops. This dish also included a heaping mound of potatoes and a nice little serving of some sautéed veggies with zucchini. That was the best part of the meal actually. The fish fillet was too salty as were the scallops. The scallops had some grit, which is usually something that comes from improper preparation. A large side of sautéed spinach was ordered as an accompaniment to this dish, and that seemed to apparently receive the brunt of the chef’s salt aggression. It was so salty it could barely be eaten. I tried rinsing it in my water, but that only helped a little bit. Lol. Stop with the salt already.

The salmon came out hot, but the potatoes underneath it were cold. This had obviously been sitting under a warming lamp, waiting for the salmon to be finished cooking before it was brought out. The waitress was informed of this and she was accommodating. She asked what we would like her to do. Some new warmer potatoes were requested, but at this point, the wind had gone out of the sails. The salmon was eaten, and the other giant mound of potatoes was left behind. The salmon was tasty and thankfully, not as salty as the rest of the food.

The fish sandwich was also as you may expect, overly salty. It was however, well prepared. It had lettuce, tomato and tartar sauce spread on the toasted bun. The fish sandwich was pretty tasty, albeit it was deep fried. The kids, fish strips and fries were exactly what you would find at any of the coastal beach deep fried seafood restaurants. Deep-fried pieces of fish and wedge fries also deep-fried. Nothing strange here.

The service was decent or I guess exactly what I would expect. Waters were filled, and she checked on us a couple times.

In summary I would say the food at Bonefish Grill is probably slightly better than this place. Here they went way overboard with the salt and it made the entire experience a very forgettable one.

I would not recommend this restaurant and we will not...

I originally planned to go to Funkadelic Food Shack for some live jazz, but parking was a hassle—no dedicated lot and a confusing setup where someone in a golf cart directed me to park way off-site. That’s when I decided to head over to Fish Camp instead, and honestly, the vibe felt much more like my speed.

I asked for outdoor seating at the ground level and was immediately blown away by the view. It was absolutely stunning—worth the visit just to take that in. Once seated, a woman handed me a light but didn’t explain that it could be mounted on the table pole. A server named Nick later came by and set it up for me when I informed him the light was out. Nick was attentive, which I appreciated after a long wait where several servers passed by without acknowledging me.

Once my food arrived, though, the experience started to decline. Nothing on the plate was served at a consistent temperature—the potatoes were especially cold and arrived as large, intact pieces. I asked for a replacement, and while they did bring another order of potatoes, it was a mix of intact pieces, chunks, and some mushy bits. The salmon itself was good, but the sides were disappointing.

I had also ordered four to-go meals. When I got to my car and put the food in the back seat one of the meals (in a circular aluminum container with a clear lid) had spilled in the bag—the lid hadn’t been secured properly. The other three meals were in standard white containers, so I’m not sure why one was packaged differently(3:1). I returned to request a replacement. The manager said the kitchen had already broken everything down but he checked with the cook, and they agreed to remake the spilled meal. That was appreciated, but the original mistake shouldn’t have happened.

In short: the view was gorgeous, the salmon was solid, and Nick provided good service. But inconsistent food quality, long wait times, and poor to-go packaging really brought what could have been a 5-star experience...