Fishtales On 33rd — Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

I went to Fishtales last night with friends to celebrate a birthday. We were 7 women having a great time. We were seated outside and the band played inside. We ordered appetizers, drinks (2 bottles of wine) and more. When 5 went to dance inside and 2 of us stayed outside, watching our belongings, birthday presents, our purses, etc. (logical) the owner, along with another man came over and said something to the effect that she needed to slip the table not asking us if it was okay, just ready to do it. We said that we were a party of 7 and we were not yet ready to leave. She basically started with, "you have been sitting here for a long time and are not ordering any drinks, and there are people waiting to be seated." I had just finished a drink I had recently ordered and told her. She continued saying she needed the table and then things got a bit heated. I mentioned it is all about the money, basically implying we had spent money, but she screamed, "This is a business, the band doesn't play for free," and other such things. I get it, it is a business, but we had spent money and I never heard there was a time limit. We were seated at 7:30ish and this was around 11p. With a party of 7, celebrating a birthday it usually takes that long. Again, I have never been to an establishment that clocks us as if we were hourly workers. She was incredibly rude!!! She walked away and we took the time we needed to sing happy birthday to our friend, open her gifts, it was our right as paying customers. The staff was great, and the food was ok. Mind you she was seated outside in a table for four with another person. She should have given up her table. As we left some of my friends went to tell her how rude she had been and that is when the racist remarks started. Speaking to us in bad spanish and basically berating us. I will never, ever go back there! The owner should know that we are paying customers and when you go to a restaurant with a band, it is about the experience of the night. You never look at the clock. Obviously, she did. I get it is a business but there were no customers waiting to be seated and if that was the case why not give up your seat since you are the owner. I see how greed takes over and this woman is obviously a very greedy woman. I doubt very much it was on us if the band got paid or not that night. Just ridiculous. I was insulted and felt attacked. Will never step foot in this restaurant again. And advise others to be careful of the owmers greedy,...

Horrible experience that, unfortunately, put a bitter note to my friend’s birthday. We decided to go to Fishtales because of their good reviews and their live music; the place is advertised as a restaurant and a nightclub. We sat outside and got a table for 8, there was actually 7 of us. From 8:00-11:00 we ordered food -appetizers and entrees-drinks and birthday desert. We sat outside because one of our friends has a hearing impediment and loud music bothers her. Towards the end of the night 10:45ish, a few of us took turns to watch the table while the rest went inside to dance. Everything was ok, we were having a nice time until then, most of the food was OK and our two servers were very nice and pleasant. Suddenly, the lady owner and a friend of hers approached our table with a very rude attitude and started moving our stuff (birthday presents), without asking, from one extra chair while complaining that we weren’t ordering and going on about how much they had to pay for the band, etc. and started to split apart the table while continuing to be rude and making us uncomfortable. Keep in mind that all of us had consumed food and drinks. After we firmly told them we needed the tables and we weren’t done yet they backed off. The owner and her friend were also using a four-top table outside that they could make available to ‘other’ customers, -which there were none- at that time at night when the band was already wrapping up. In addition there were a few other tables with people that arrived about the same time as we did and they were not ordering anything else at that time either; however, they were not treated with the same disrespect. We were extremely upset, and confused by this treatment. The rest of our friends came back from dancing, we paid our bill, and on the way out we expressed our disappointment about the incident when another ‘friend’ of the owner, older American ‘gentleman’ screamed at us in ‘broken Spanish’ making it obvious there was some kind of animosity due to our Hispanic heritage. He yelled loudly ‘basura no vuelvan’, meaning trash/ garbage don’t come back. Obviously we responded accordingly, cursed at them and left. Needless to say, NOT RECOMMENDED, extremely disappointed. Minus one...

I have never been disrespected and treated as horrible as I was in my entire life - and worst yet, by the establishment owner. We were a party of 7 celebrating one of our friend's birthday. We ordered 2 bottles of wine, martini, spritz, margaritas, appetizers, dinners and birthday dessert. While 5 of us were inside dancing, the other 2 were sitting at the table outside, and were approached by the owners, who at some point sat at the table next to ours. The woman went on to take one of our tables away and an extra chair we were using to put the birthday gifts on without even asking if she could, my friends said "no" and explained the rest of our party were on the dance floor, then the couple "owners" went on to say we hadn't consumed anything and had been sitting there for hours, and that it cost them too much money to hire a band, etc. My friends, of course, got really insulted and argued with them about all we had already spent as the rest of us who, by now, had walked back to our table and joined in the argument in disbelief. We wrapped it up and left reiterating to them as we walked away how we felt. By the way, there were other people that got sat about the same time as we did and were still there, done drinking and just chatting and were not treated this way. Also, there was nobody waiting for a table. I just hope we weren't singled out because we weren't white. I say this because one of the owners' friends called us "trash, don't come back" in broken spanish. Bottom line, we will never go back to this place. No class, no business etiquette, horrible customer service. I feel terrible for the service, who were pretty decent, but have to work for these people. Do yourself a favor and spend your money where you're appreciated!!!!...