Turtles Restaurant — Restaurant in Florida

SEASON YOUR FOOD!! I recently visited the Turtles restaurant and I was actually quite dissatisfied. I did the 3 course $19.99 dinner, starting off with the Bang Bang Shrimp, a Caesar Salad, and the Surf and Surf which consisted of Grilled Grouper, Crab Stuffed Shrimp with Mashed Potatoes and Vegetables. The Bang Bang Shrimp was the only quality food out of anything I was given. I would honestly just eat that as my entire dinner if they gave more than 5 pieces for the appetizer. It was delicious and spiced just right with a beautiful flavor, then the rest of the meal was a train wreck. My Caesar salad was so watery it was like it had taken a bath, and then they forgot to dress it. Once I asked for some extra dressing on the side to actually put some on it, it had a redeeming quality of a halfway decent dressing. Then came the dinner, and I am going to reiterate what I said first thing, please season your food! Nothing on my entire plate had any flavor whatsoever, it was just a watery mess of food, slapped together on a plate, just like they threw my plate into the ocean, let it sit, then took it out and took all the salt out with it. The grouper tasted like water, no seasoning or flavor whatsoever. I never add salt and pepper to my food, ever! With the grouper I had to just to be able to finish what I had ordered. The shrimp was chewy, like a dogs raw hide, but the crab stuffing was actually a redeeming quality, but not enough to redeem the meal. I also think you all might want to change the sides name on the menu from mashed potatoes to scalloped potatoes. I don’t know if they meant to include whole slices of potatoes within the mashed potatoes, but they were undercooked and hard as a rock, and definitely not well flavored at all, as if they barley tried to even mash it. There were more whole pieces of potatoes rather than mashed potatoes. The vegetables tasted like water, just like they boiled them and then put them on the plate. They consisted of my favorite vegetables, zucchini, squash, carrots and green beans, but even though it just tasted like boiling water, they were very well undercooked and chewy, and had no redeeming qualities either. I was boasted to about their homemade key lime pie, but I couldn’t bring myself to order it because of it how bad the previous iterations of my meals were, and I didn’t want to be disappointed again. From someone who has worked in kitchens, you need to train some staff on how to thoroughly cook the food, actually mash the potatoes, season the food and it would be a great restaurant!! Until that day comes I will not be returning to this restaurant again, and I highly suggest you don’t either. No matter how good the view is, if the food doesn’t cut it, none...

Like many Snowbirds you look for that little out-of-way place to have some good seafood and enjoy some salt air. Well we found the salt air but the seafood wasn’t up to par. We had enjoyed the beautiful Turtle Beach for some fishing and sunning. By noon we decided to take in a light lunch before meeting up with our other party of one member. This was on the 25th of February. By March 1st we’re still feeling the ill effects of the food poisoning we got from the clam chowder we ate for lunch. I did a lot of thinking about the best way to address this issue...from calling the health dept. to calling the manager or to just leave a review. Let me just say that from the waitress that spilled my husband’s beer all over him when she set it on our table, without so much as a “sorry”, to serving us a $10 bowl of clam chowder that made us sicker than I’ve been in a very long time, I thought it appropriate to let others know if you go there not to eat the clam chowder. I’ve been in the restaurant industry for most of my life and I can tell you that there are events that take place that are out of your control. It’s my hope that the proprietors will respond to make their beautiful little piece of real estate a grade A establishment. We did enjoy the view, however it came with a hefty price. Lastly, I deduced the cause of our food poisoning to the clam chowder, one, the chowder was served luke warm, at best. Secondly, it was the only meal that we had where we both ate the same type of food. Thirdly, the third person in our party didn’t get sick and this was the only place we ate without that person. I only write this in the hopes that the response will be to take better care of their food...

Sadly I can't comment on the food or the service because we didn't receive either one.

We were greeted warmly at the door and immediately seated outside on a beautiful but not too busy Monday night around 7:30pm. We must have been escorted to the INVISIBLE table because for the next 17 minutes (yeah, I checked my watch a few times) no one saw us. No one stopped at our table, we received no water, no smiles... not even a wayward glance from the wait staff engaged in conversation with tables around us.... nothing.

My wife and 10 year old were becoming increasingly HANGRY, especially when they saw a table who was seated after us receive their appetizers. I thought it best to spare the yet-to-be-seen server my family's wrath. I sent them to the car and waited behind to politely mention to the nice hostess why we were leaving, but it appeared she had disappeared as well.

To be fair, we've dined here several times before. The food was good and the bay view is wonderful, but I suspect we won't try again.

And to those who suggest we should have summoned a manager or flagged down a server - you're missing the point. Diners are supposed to be valued GUESTS and should be treated as such. 'Forgetting' or 'overlooking' a table is an indication of failure on a much broader scope. If things are that bad on the floor, chances are the kitchen is equally as unorganized.

I've worked in successful restaurants and we ALWAYS had at least three sets of eyes (server, floor manager, busser) on EVERY table. We were trained to quickly identify and remedy exactly this type of situation.

Sorry Turtles - you swung and missed...