The Famous Flame Steakhouse, Italian & American Food Restaurant — Restaurant in Florida

DO NOT EAT HERE! This will be a long review, but it has to be specific since this was hands down the least enjoyable eating experience I've had in 32 years. So my family and I (5 adults) came to eat on Sat. 07/04/21. The parking lot was pretty vacant, and I saw a total of 4-5 other tables eating. We were sat promptly and the server greeted us, I made a joke about leaving my toddler home and this is where things got weird. My server Alyssa (she was nice and friendly, bless her, but had no etiquette). She starts to tell us about her pregnant friend who is trying to have a natural birth but just had a C-section 13 months ago. The C-section conversation kept going, as much as we laughed at the inappropriate topic and shook my head in disgust. You didn't even get our drink order yet and managed to put a disgusting image in our head, that's absolutely not ok for table talk. I should mention, at one point she randomly brought her pregnant friend over to our table and introduced us at some point, where the topic was brought back up. I'm not trying to eat and hear about placentas. Going on, the drinks were brought to our table one by one, with the 5th being forgotten about until we reminded them. My brother is a bartender and could NOT drink the old fashioned he ordered. It was orange in color, and must have been way overpoured with grenadine, as the taste was so gross and sugary, he tried to get it down but just wasn't worth it. My long island was good, but it took way too long to get here. The host came to our table and asked my brother what salad he wanted, because "the server can't read her own hand writing". He never got that salad by the way. Our server came back and randomly told us she has a medical marijuana card and has to get high before coming to work. SO we finally get our food. The nachos were pathetic, you can tell the cheese, beans, and Pico came straight from a can, and there was barely any meat. The wings were so-so, very dry even with the sauce smothered on there. I would compare them to 711 wings. Then the food comes out, and it was just a joke. My brother ordered a $30 NY strip, but it was somehow undercooked and too chewy at the same time. The server could not tell him what came on the "famous flame soup", and guessed that it was Bolognese. We could not identify what was in there, it was a weird cheesy broth soup that had no real flavor. I got the tri-pasta, which was marked down from $17 to $9.99. I can understand why now, and note that this was advertised as an "Opening Special". They told me they opened in January, but you would think this was the first day. I couldn't touch the lasagna, as it was COLD. The alfredo tasted like it came from a jar, like Prego or Ragu, and the chicken parm was just full of breading and no flavor. Things just kept getting weirder and stranger, and I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone or on some TV Show. We expressed our disappointment, and when asked about the food, we were asked "Is it nasty?". Not "hey how is everything?", implying they know the food they serve is not good. I just didn't see any effort, and don't see this restaurant staying in business long. I LOVE food, and this has been the only place I did not use a take out box and barely touched my food. I wish we could take it all back, but at the least we had some very good laughs about it. Save yourself the time, money, and stress, and STAY AWAY! Lol even with the Groupon, it was not worth the money.

*edit- We came here because I found it on Groupon, which was my first red flag, but hey restaurants are still recovering from Covid and maybe they needed the marketing. Looking at the menu, there is a HUGE SELECTION (too much, makes you get lost in the menu and there is no theme or target demographic). I want to say, they ARE NOT ITALIAN, and I doubt they even have a grill. All the food clearly came from a can or frozen food bag. I never leave reviews but this was Just THE ABSOLUTE WORST, and I am still in awe of the experience and...

So let me start by saying that before going to this place I started checking the reviews...... I read all the bad reviews about how the food was bad. People didn't know what they were doing.... it took forever for someone to come to the table and do things.... the drinks not having any alcohol in them..... I read all of that and then read the good ones and then decided after all of it that people writing the bad reviews probably just had little one offs...... no I was completely wrong. This place is straight out of an episode of kitchen nightmares or bar rescue. Don't get me wrong..... the staff is very friendly and our server... the poor guy was extremely nice...... but I have no idea how this place is staying open..... literally no one knows what they are doing there..... my gf and I ordered our drinks first. I ordered a Manhattan and she ordered a Moscow mule..... the mule which came out in a huge mule tin was 99 percent ginger beer. I drink ginger beer by itself all the time and I took a sip of it and it had no other ingredients to make it a mule.. all ginger beer. The manhattan...... made with southern comfort..... not bourbon.... I was approached by what I assume was the assistant manager and we explained the drinks were not very good. So he offered to have his manager have the drinks remade. We decided to go with completely different drinks because we did not out of fear want to have the same thing happen. So this time I ordered an old fashioned and she ordered a mango margarita. Same thing happened. The margarita.... I don't know what was in it but yet again tasted as if there was no liquor in it..... my gf struggled to get through half of it..... I didn't know you could mess up a margarita..... the old fashioned..... terrible..... all syrup and barely any bourbon.... I chugged it down and let it go..... onto the food..... lemme just say the only good part of our meals was the soup my gf got with her meal and my salad..... she ordered the beef tenderloin..... with a side of Mac n cheese and mashed potatoes...... the tenderloin was ice cold in the center..... and the menu did not infact state that it came with mushrooms in the center..... only cheese. The potatoes..... practically liquid.... I guarantee they were instant mash from a box...... for my meal I ordered a 16oz ribeye with spicy mashed potatoes...... I ordered it medium after reading other reviews about how undercooked the food was and good thing I did too.... that steak came out for the most part rare to medium rare which is fine cause thats how I like it.... but the cut was horrible..... for 16oz most of it was unedible fat. The potatoes just the same mashed potatoes from a box but with hot sauce mixed into it...... you can tell by the color and then the taste.....the Mac and cheese..... woof...... again not sure how you mess that up but it was the blandest thing I ever tasted.....we were told the bartender was still training and hadn't quite figured out the right mixtures yet..... totally fine except usually if you have a bartender in training you have an experienced bartender there to help..... im fairly confident that everyone working there is experiencing their first time working in the restaurant industry..... the cooks the bartenders even the servers..... its almost like someone who had no idea what they're doing decided, hey! I really want to start a restaurant..... but I have no idea what I'm doing so I am just gonna open one and hire people who have never done this before...... again the staff very friendly and apologetic but this place is horrible.... I gave it 2 stars because of the staff.... we even made friends with the table next to us because they were experiencing the same problems we were..... along with 3 other tables nearby....... I've worked in this industry and I can tell you now, this place will not make it...

I would like to score a bit higher but they are going to need to work through some growing pains. I stopped by today for a lunch break from work. I saw this place driving by and stopped in. When I went in the door, there were approximately 8 to 10 seated tables that I could see and one person at the bar. After a few seconds the Hostess approached me and asked how she could help me? This seemed a bit off-putting but I just said two for lunch and was immediately seated at a high top at the bar. I was shown a QR code for the menu on the napkin dispenser and went there. It took a bit to find the lunch specials but I did. Some of the dishes could have far better descriptions or overall item detail.

I was seated at 1:02pm, had someone pass by after about 5 minutes and say he would be right back, at 1:14pm he returned, I only have an hour lunch break. He asked me how it was going and I did let him know that it had been over 10 minutes and I didn't even have a drink yet, the place was not busy. At that time I ordered the Bolognese Spezzatino and Ravioli lunch special. I ordered water because they are Pepsi. The server returned after a minute or so and told me I got a salad with the lunch, would Caesar be OK? I asked what else they had and was told I could get a regular salad, which I did with Ranch. The salad arrived quickly and seemed very fresh and nicely prepared. 3 dinner rolls and 2 pats of butter were dropped off then also, they seemed to be food service but fine. After another few minutes our server returned to let me know they were out of ravioli, he offered an alternative that was supposedly the same just differently shaped, I accepted.

At 1:31 my meal arrived and it was a huge portion. The meat was nicely cooked and the pasta dish seemed fine. It was a bit heavy on the salt but a pleasant meal. I finished my water and after a few minutes another was brought.

As we were eating I noticed another couple approach the hostess stand quickly followed by a server. I overhead the couple mention that they just had to go as they needed to get back to work. This is my biggest complaint and I do hope they can fix this, the area has a lot of offices that have a limited lunch period that may visit if they can get a special and get on their way. The lunch Specials are not cheap but very plentiful, the prices are between $8.99 to $10.99 for a lunch special with the exception of a lone burger for $5.99. If the food was amazing and faster, it would be worth it. As it was, I needed to leave the table to my dining partner so I could return to work, this was at 1:45. I don't know how long she waited to finally get...