OCEAN2000 — Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

I had to convince my husband to eat out for Father’s Day because he did not want to be bothered with the typical hustle and bustle of the day. I chose this restaurant because it came highly rated and was off the water with a fantastic view. Little did I know I would have gotten better service at McDonalds drive thru.

When we walked in the presentation was below standard. There were literally flies buzzing and rubbing all over the food. The eating utensils were caked with food and looked as if they had been sitting that way since opening. When I went to the bacon table there were no tongs and I had to hunt someone down to bring them to the buffet table. The omelet/ pasta station was disgusting. I literally watched the cook grab a rag from the table (which I just saw him wipe his dirty hands on) and use it to clean leftover food from a pan to make my pasta. I respectfully declined and moved on. When I made my reservations I specifically asked for 2 high chairs. Upon our arrival, they could only spare 1. We told them we could not use 1 high chair with 2 kids and dismissed it. After the children had eaten we decided we needed them to enjoy the remainder of our meal. The server questioned why we wanted them now and was also hesitant to replace the fork my son dropped on the ground. The mimosas being served were bottomless. Our glass remained empty on several occasions, but no matter the amount in the glasses of the family beside us, the server always topped their glasses off first. Then when he decided to make his way to our table he would only fill our glass HALF way. My reservations were for 4:30 as booked on Open Table. I called and spoke to a hostess who said children under 4 were free and food would be served until 630. At 5:15 the server came to announce last call. We were rushed to make last minute fly filled plates and was promptly brought our bill. The server then indicated, in an “I did you a favor voice”, I only charged you $37.50 for one child since they didn’t eat that much. I asked him to remove it from the bill because we were told children under 4 were free. As we were leaving, all the servers were congregated in one area discussing their tables! The other servers were poking fun at our server because he was complaining about his work load and only had 2 tables. He called us the “late tables” and was clearly disgruntled. The lack of professionalism was a disgrace. In all, I will NEVER return to this restaurant and would NEVER recommend it to anyone. I was utterly embarrassed and my husband was beyond disappointed, as he did not want to leave home to begin with. I don’t know how this place has such high reviews. It’s almost as if they asked random people on the street to come to their restaurant and work Father’s Day weekend. DISGUSTING. We deserved better for...

Do NOT waste your time or money here

This was a recommendation to us while we were on vacation and we made sure this was our one nice, romantic dinner out - man did it disappoint.

I will start off by saying the view is incredible. If only the service could amount to the views this place would be in top notch shape.

When seated we had the best seats in the house down close to the water and it did seem like it might rain and we understood we would probably end up moving at some point.

We were NOT greeted for 15 minutes and when we were it’s because I had to notify the hostess that we didn’t have anyone come over to us yet. She seemed confused, but made sure to get us a drink menu and our server. Once our server John did come over he was OK. We got the bread service to start that might I add had rock hard bread - ate it anyway because we were hungry. I should have known right away that not being greeted for 15 minutes was going to set the tone for the rest of the night.

Like anticipated we moved our seats because it started to rain the hostess felt bad and helped us move our menus and drinks with us. Our drinks were good - dragon berry mojito. We put our orders in and my partner got a Caesar salad to start before her meal. It took them 35 minutes to bring out her SALAD... and you know that’s a long time when the server has to apologize for the wait on a SALAD.

Now for the food - it was great. I had the chicken dish and my partner had the shrimp scampi special with mashed potatoes - she loved it.

We of course had to move our seat again because of the rain and getting us wet - totally okay. The hostess happened to come by to check on everyone outside and helped to move us to the table next to us away from the rain. She saw that we were just not having the best experience and offered us drinks ON THE HOUSE, I gracefully declined as I was driving but my partner requested a moscato. She said she would be right out with that drink and apologized.

This was the tipping point we waited 15 minutes and she never received her drink. You cannot say that you are going to give a drink on the house and NOT deliver. That was just the icing on the cake.

WE WILL NEVER BE BACK HERE EVER, our check with the 18% tip was $150! I could have received better service at Buffalo Wild Wings for a $26 meal -...

The food texture was spot on, but it was missing the marks on flavor. We had the traditional eggs Benedict. The English muffin was toasted beautifully, but bland - I would recommend toasting it with either butter or a flavorful fat, like prosciutto or bacon. The poached eggs were perfect. Absolutely perfect runny yolk. The hollandaise sauce was whipped to a perfect sabayon texture (light and airy) but the flavor really lacked and I would have preferred just a bit more of it! Adding a touch of tarragon vinegar before beating the eggs, then after the butter is incorporated, add another squeeze or two of fresh lemon and more salt salt at the end would really boost the flavor. Again, the technique is there, just not the flavor but that’s the easy part!

Okay - so now the experience. We were seated with a beautiful view of the ocean for brunch but we waited in that morning sun beating on us for quite some time before a server even noticed us. I ordered iced coffee and a lemon with my water. The coffee took 30 minutes and the lemon never came. Which turned out okay because my husband ended up having to down my water since our waters were never refilled at any time. I felt bad for my husband because he was so thirsty and it was a very hot morning.

Our food finally came after a long wait. I’m not too upset about it as I have made eggs Benedict several times myself and it is a tricky dish to make as there are far too many opportunities for things to go wrong - sauce can split or curdle so easily and poached eggs can overcook in a blink of an eye. However, that being said, it was still a long wait compared to other restaurants that I’ve had eggs Benedict at.

Side note - they charge a 22% hospitality fee that is 100% retained by Pelican Grand. This is not to say that the servers are not well paid, but instead increase the charge to the customer so that Pelican Grand can increase the servers wages, which I prefer. We did not tip above that due to the condition that the servers are paid well and our experience was disappointing. All in all, I would come back again just for the luxury of eating brunch on a beautiful porch in front of the ocean, but I would be hopeful to receive better service and a shorter wait time on food as perhaps this...