Tiki Beach Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Galveston

Oh my goodness. Where do I start with this awful place. We called at lunch asking about reserving for our large family of 20 at 3pm. Gave my word that we would be there on time and would not waste theirs. Well, they indeed wasted all of our time.

We arrived at 2:45 and waited patiently for someone to seat us. Waitress came up with an immediate attitude and accused us of not knowing if we were actually going to show up. Told me they basically were not prepared. I said it was fine as she pointed us where she wanted us. I was going to split our large family up at the different table all by each other. But no. My son sat at a separate table waiting for his cousin when she rudely came over and told him to get up. Then my oldest son offered to help her put the tables together where we heard a smart reply about at least some help would be nice. 🙄

Fast forward to when the rest of my family showed up. Not enough table were put together so we snagged another one. Then another waitress jumped all over us for doing that when they didn't make enough room to begin with. Then as my oldest niece barely sat down the original waitress demanded (not asked) DRINK?! We had no idea what drinks they even had at this point and she asked for a minute and the waitress rudely told her it's not complicated.

Also we were all paying separately and they tried to force us to pay via card on a single ticket.

At this point I had enough and stood up and said were leaving. Even though we had not received half of our drinks they charged me for every single one. I paid and we left. As a Texan who come yearly here, it's appalling how awful this restarts to us when we did nothing wrong to begin with. Nor were we rude in any capacity.

Do not come here. Spare your family the humiliation. What's even more sad is the locals who sat in there and thought this behavior was appropriate.

If it wasn't for the fact that this town is considered a tourist destination then they wouldn't stay in business. But I could be wrong. It was just very unprofessional how we were all treated. Again I do NOT recommend this place at all.

Now Jose's down the road took great care of us. I highly...

Walked in, waited at the front for 15 minutes, so we decided to grab someone ourselves. Mind you this is our first experience. We didn’t know rather to seat ourselves or not, would be helpful to have a sign saying seat yourselves or please wait to be seated. Waitress was to comfortable, enough to be rude. I watched her cough in her hand, put her pen in her hair then take her earring out and hand it to what seemed to be a regular customer, all without washing her hands. dr.pepper was flat, very generous portions of alcohol even in a highball drink. The accomplish making you feel very unwelcome and out of place. It seems to be the owner behind the bar. Who proceeded to tell us when we finally sat ourselves that we were in the smoking section( we have to children under 3) but didn’t tell us how to get sat elsewhere. Kids menu is a sharpie made menu. Just seems to be if you don’t know them you aren’t as important as customers. Side salad served on a plate. With only cheese tomato and lettuce. Fries not salted. Asked for chicken fried steak gravy on the side. Got extra gravy on the steak instead. Chicken fried steak was AWFUL. Baked potatoes not hot. The restrooms smelled like pee had dried in there ten years ago. Concerned she over charged us. Then when asked we were told “I wouldn’t fu** you over” as if. I tipped her 15$ and it was more than she deserved. Very hateful. Also no itemized receipt. no point of sale system. Just guest checks with hand written items and prices. Not very comfortable paying this establishment. Threw our to go food away before we even left the table. FOH looked like a dump. WILL NEVER BE BACK. Unfortunately it was the only place on the island open. Aside from food trucks. No organization what so ever. Extremely disappointed. UPDATE=...

I'm SHOCKED at the lack of customer service. We went in with our family of five, no host or signage instructing what to do, so I politely asked at the bar if we were to seat ourselves, only to be told in a rude tone, "You'll have to be patient, I don't think there's any tables available." Our question wasnt actually answered, but we assumed that yes, we should seat ourselves when a table became available. We looked around the dining room and saw a table that had four chairs on the ground and one chair on the table, with two wrapped silverware settings on the table as well. It was reasonable to assume that it was an open table. We sat for about 5 minutes with our children, when a waiter came by and gave us menus but told us that the table we were at was in a closed section, "that's why all the chairs were up". We politely tried to apologize and say that all but one chair was down and there were place settings on the table, but the waiter interrupted us and dismissively waved his hand at us as he walked away and said "Yeah, I know." At that point we decided to leave. I always try to give people in the service industry grace and the benefit of the doubt, because I know it's not an easy job and people in general can be terrible. But to have not one single pleasant interaction within the first 10 minutes of being in the restaurant was a little astounding and we genuinely did not feel welcome or even comfortable with these people preparing and handling our food. Leaving a restaurant before ordering is a first for me, but I surely won't be spending our hard earned money at an establishment where people feel so...