Sealand Restaurant — Restaurant in Fort Walton Beach

I had my first experience with Sealand and it will be my last. While the scenery inside was very welcoming the food however was not. First I'll start off with the escargot. Rather plain tasting and the chewiness of flavorless gum. The Burgundy mushrooms were decent enough, but not for the $18 price tag. Then there was the mozzarella sticks. Not too bad, but how can you screw that up. Next we move on to the salad and soup sides. The salad seemed like nothing more than a bag salad from the grocery store. The ranch dressing was delicious on the salad so I give kudos there. The French onion soup on the other hand was just luke warm. I'm sure it sat for awhile due to the slow service from our waiter. My girlfriend and I finished the appetizers and waited around for 15 minutes before being checked on. The waiter thought we weren't done because there was still some food left. I'm sure 15 minutes should have gave a clue or at least check up if we were done. After the side soup and salad came the entrees. My girlfriend ordered the noi's favorite and I ordered the bone in ribeye. The noi's favorite seemed thrown together and lacking some kind of wow to justify the $59 price tag. The breading was soggy and the flavor was bland. Not appetizing at all. My ribeye had a description on the menu as "the juiciness exceptional". I am not sure how they interpret that, but we are definitely on different pages. $69 for what seemed like a previously frozen ribeye is not worth it. I liked the charred flavor, but was not tender at all. Then we come to the dessert. I ordered a "brownie" a la mode. It was more like a chocolate sponge cake. I was hoping for a brownie, but still the dessert was not awful. Lastly we finish off with the bill. I've paid to eat at many places and don't mind paying for food and service. My girlfriend did not see it fit to be billed for her entree. Was not worth the price and couldn't even stomach eating such a poorly created dish. She offered to even speak to the owner, which happens to be the cook, and they declined to even discuss the issues with the dish. We were still charged for the soup that came with it which was fine. On their bill there is also a mandatory 20% gratuity for the server. Again, I don't mind tipping 20%+ for great service, but our server was not up to standards of even a $5 tip. Though he seemed nice at times, he had a snide remark to make when asked if the rest of the food was ready. What should have been an hour to an hour and a half dinner turned into two and a half hours with his lack of attention to the table. From what I read from previous reviews this was not an isolated incident or just an off day. This restaurant feels as if it belongs on a restaurant rescue or something. Normally I give places a second chance and normally I don't care to write reviews, but this place was worthy of writing a review. I hope others will read this review and take warning of what their experience may look like. I also hope this review gets seen by the staff and maybe some changes could come. I never want to see a local business fail and hope for the best....

I rarely write a review and I should write more on the positive experiences. So you can imagine what a disappointing experience we had at this place.

Summary: OK food, they’ll charge you as high as possible, threaten to call the police if you ask them to remove anything from the bill and they disrespect kids.

We parked and my wife went to ask if they had a high chair, and hostess mentioned they didn’t have any - which I can understand. The owner approached and said that the place was full - but it looked empty - and that they didn’t serve kids. The last part was a little bit odd because there were 3 different families with kids.

We spent 20 minutes in the car looking for other options but we already have been to other places and this menu looked really well. So we went in.

The hostess took us to our table, despite what the owner said. The waiter didn’t have patience and wanted to take a quick order.

My wife asked a filet mignon and I substituted her (included) side salad for a Caesar. First issue with the food, the waiter mentioned there might be an up charge and I said it’s ok. My bad, I didn’t ask how much. It showed in the ticket $7 for a small side salad. Full salad price was $8.95. I ordered stuffed shrimps with crab meat. I asked if my (included) side could be Brussels sprouts. The waiter said yes, no mention about the up charge. I found out in the ticket it was $8. And guess what, that’s the full price, so I didn’t get a side. We also ordered fries and 3 desserts that were ok.

Food wise it was OK, my wife was happy with her meal - but very sad for how they behaved with our kids. The stuffed from the shrimps tasted more to pepper than to crab. The rest it was ok.

Then the 20% tip was pre-included in the ticket. Since they didn’t want to modify those items from the ticket, I suggested they could lower the tip and they refused. The owner even mentioned that they had to deal with my kid running in the restaurant. My kids behave well, and yes, they are kids. All customers smiled at my kids. They threaten to call the police if I didn’t want to pay. So I paid, scratched the tip on the ticket and I’ll certainly dispute the charge on my card. I was with my wife and my two kids, I didn’t want to have a scene or waste my time any longer.

OK food, presumptuous etiquette, rude and disrespectful service. Please don’t waste your time and money here. Go to Magnolia’s a few blocks away and you have a...

I had one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had in my 49 years at this establishment night before last. It was my birthday and we decided to look for a nice steakhouse in Ft. Walton. The menu looked fabulous, and we were excited.

Unfortunately our server was a young man who clearly had no interest in being at work, much less that we enjoyed any aspect of our dining experience. It took him 20 minutes to greet us, 30 minutes to receive two glasses of wine, 50 minutes to receive our appetizer/soup. My friend ordered escargot for her main dish and I ordered a wedge salad with triggerfish. I’m not sure what would possess anyone to use processed cheese on French onion soup, but this establishment does. That I wouldn’t bother mentioning if everything else hadn’t been so disappointing. It took 1.5 hours for me to receive my salad, and my friend had been done with her meal for at least 30 minutes before I even received mine. We tried to flag our server down but he was never around. He never checked on us or asked us if we needed anything. It was clear that we were done long before my salad arrived and upon telling him that we were long done he asked me if I’d like him to box up my salad. I informed him that I don’t eat leftover fish, and that our hotel didn’t have a refrigerator. To which he stared at me blankly. I then told him that we’d been done for a long time and he responded with “Yeah well we’re busy.” and walked away. 3/4 of the tables in this restaurant were empty.

He then proceeded to charge me $28 for the salad. While I was in the restroom my friend spoke with the manager who blankly announced that since we’d ordered the salad, we were paying for it. And I couldn’t even use the restroom because the front of the toilet was smeared with poop.

Our bill was $102, and my birthday meal was an expensive disaster during which we were treated as nothing but a nuisance. I strongly feel that others should be forewarned about this establishment so that they don’t suffer a similar experience while shelling out over $100 at the same time.

My friend and I have been in the service industry in Nashville for over 20 years. There is absolutely no excuse for this kind...