On The Bay — Restaurant in Fort Myers Beach

A waste of time, money, and gorgeous fish. Be prepared to get ripped off.

Took twenty minutes for our waitress to even acknowledge us (after we flagged down other waitresses and the host for her attention). No apology or excuse from waitress, she actually gave attitude for our annoyance with her absence which continued the eternity we were there.

Every food item was frozen/from a bag (chicken wings, French fries etc). The coleslaw was disgusting-they simply seemed to have put pineapple juice from a can in it.

The beautiful grouper and snapper that was ordered (and overpriced for a fillet) was not blackened. They seemed to put butter and paprika on it and stuck it under a broiler. It was pale and red, not spiced and BLACKENED. Told waitress and she brought back the same exact cooked fish. Felt horrible not eating an animal but it was either not handled appropriately or frozen as well- as it was fishy.

I had to hand deliver my credit card just to get out of this restaurant. Waitress still very rude. There’s too many people that could use a job to keep this girl employed. She isn’t passionate about her job, people, food, or clearly the restaurant she works for (but I guess I can’t blame her on that).

I truly don’t know how this restaurant has the good reviews it does. This was one of the most horrible dining experiences I’ve had in awhile. And all my husband and I do is go out to restaurants.

I will never be back and am making a point to tell all my friends and family in the area and who visit.

It feels horrible to be ripped off and after reading a lot of reviews, I’m not the only one who feels this way. I hope the owner/mgmt does a 180 or goes out of business. Must feel good taking advantage of old people without taste buds and tourists who like ranch dressing a...

Absolutely terrible experience – do NOT waste your time or money.

Me and my party of 14 people (including myself) came into this restaurant because we had heard good things, and it looked like a nice place to sit down and eat. We even made a reservation for 6:30. When we arrived on time, we had to wait until 7:00 just to be seated – despite the restaurant not being full at all. To make it worse, they split us into two separate tables even though we booked in advance and were assured they could accommodate us. Once seated, no one came to take our order for another 30 minutes. We asked for drinks for the adults and a simple butter pasta for my 4-year-old. Another 30 minutes passed with nothing. Instead of bringing the drinks or the child’s food, the server finally came by to ask if we were ready to order entrées. We placed our full order, but our drinks did not arrive until 8:00 – an hour and a half after our reservation time! By then, my child was starving, so I had to leave and get her ice cream elsewhere because she couldn’t wait any longer. Meanwhile, our friends were so frustrated they ended up walking out and telling the servers they’d had enough. The service was painfully slow, disorganized, and completely unprofessional. We wasted nearly two hours, never even got food, and still ended up paying $50 just to sit around getting hungrier. This was honestly one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. Never coming back, and I highly recommend you don’t either.

P.s. I am not one to write reviews. But I could not go on with my night without speaking about our experience to other people. Thank you...

We traveled from NY and had our Destination Wedding in Fort Myers last week. Our wedding planner recommended Matanza's on the Bay to us for our rehearsal dinner & I have nothing but amazing things to say about them! First off, Anthony & Jodie were both super friendly & easy to work with. They had very quick turnaround and made the entire process very easy for us! We picked out our menu and they customized the menu with mine and my husband's names on it - our guests loved this! The day of I called to confirm everything, and when we arrived everything was perfect! The setup on the patio next to the water was absolutely gorgeous! The wait staff was SUPER attentive and on top of everything! Our glasses were never emptied, and we always were being checked on. Every single person raved about their meals - Everything was delicious!! Half-way through our dinner it began to rain. You'd think this would put a damper on the evening, however, the Matanza's crew were all over moving us right underneath a covered area next to the patio. They were literally running our plates for all of our guests to the covered area. We were transitioned over to the covered area so quickly that it was almost like it was planned! I cannot thank them enough, because I thought the rain was going to ruin the night but it didn't thanks to them. Then once the rain was done, the Matanza's staff went back out to the patio, cleaned and wiped everything down for us so that we could go back out there to finish our night with dessert & cocktails! I can't wait to return to Fort Myers for our future anniversaries and come back for...