Recess Southern Gastro-pub — Restaurant in Gainesville

The first time we ate there it was mediocre at best. The service was fantastic but the food was forgettable and bland. However, a year went by and we decided to give them a second try. BIG mistake. We showed up an hour before they closed and we were treated like we were holding them back from getting out early. It smelled terrible and the employees had the personality of someone with a frontal lobotomy. Then, the food. TERRIBLE. We ordered two appetizers and they were ok. For the entree I ordered a burger, medium well and my wife ordered the crab cakes. What we received was charred to a crisp hockey puck placed on a burned bun. Burgers are not supposed to crunch, this one did. The crab cakes were soggy and still wet and cold in the middle. It was sent back and all that was accomplished was cooking the same crab cakes for a little longer. This left them burned on the outside and still soggy and cold on the inside. We swallowed down what we could and tried to get the heck out of this terrible money pit disguised as a restaurant. However, it took our server forever to bring us our check. Just as we were about to believe we had been forgotten, even though we were the only ones in the place, finally someone was coming towards us. But, what was approaching was far worse than the disgusting meal we received, a 3 to 4 inch cockroach. After several minutes of watching the giant prehistoric looking dino-roach, I was almost ready to put a saddle on the beast and ride it out to our car. Those plans were thwarted by a less than enthused server that smashed the behemoth insect and took our check. Finally, after several minutes of processing a card payment, obviously this too was a difficult task, we were able to escape this terrible, horrible restaurant. I advise that if you want to eat great tasting, well cooked food, go anywhere, even Taco Bell, but please don't...

I am very sad to have to give Recess a one star rating. I am a long-time customer and this has been a place that I have frequented many times over the last several years and have recommended to many friends and taken clients and customers for great meals. I just had the worst experience in service I have ever had while dining there for lunch today. I was with a group of co-workers, a party of 7 and we arrived at the time that the restaurant opened today at 11:30am. We were one of two groups who were there and were seated pretty quickly. It took 15 minutes to get our non-alcoholic drinks, an hour to get our food, and an additional 25 minutes to get our checks. We complained to the owner who rudely asked us "What would you like me to do about it?" No one ever checked on us after we got our food, so there was no opportunity to tell them the fries were cold, the burger overdone hand the salads overdressed. When we complained to the owner again when it was taking so long to get the checks, he rudely repeated, "What would you like me to do about it?" and walked away while we sat there stunned. We did ask the server if the meals could be comped or a discount given and she said the owner would not allow it.

All told, it took us an hour and 40 minutes to get our food, eat and pay our checks. Sadly, only 10 minutes of that time was spent actually eating and an hour and a half of it was spent waiting. Not one person apologized to us once. I know this owner also owns Yellowfin next door, so he has lost my patronage...

I coordinated an staff event for 15 pp. I received a confirmation call the day of...check. Arrived to find the entire street for this address is under construction and completely blocked off, therefore everyone had to walk a minimum of 1 city block to arrive at the restaurant. The tables were ready when the team started arriving...check. Server took drink orders 15mins after confirmed reservation time which included 6 bottles of wine as well as specialty drinks and tap beer....check. Shortly after drink orders, we ordered appetizers....9 plates, 3 varieties....check. Here's when the service took a dive. The appetizers were small and therefore went fast. We also had to call her over to ask her to take dinner orders. Considering we had 15pp and 80% ordered steaks....the food delivery was impressive and the diners were very pleased with the preparation of their steaks. Waitstaff never retrived the empty plates or beer mugs, wine glasses or bottles. When asked to remove dirty dishes when serving entrée, it seemed to annoy the server. Additionally, one of our staff did not receive his steak. It took another 30 minutes before he was served. The meal was removed from our bill. Perhaps the large group was a challenge for the servers, though she seemed skilled...