Turtle Rock Beachside Cafe formally Tortuga’s — Restaurant in Gold Beach

My wife and I have both worked in the food industry at various levels from fast food to nicer but not 4 star restaurants so we very very seldom leave a negative review, but here we are. (Edit: I just checked and ive never left a bad review on google before, just positive ines)Judging by others reviews I thought we may have hit on an off night, but I don't know. Waitstaff was friendly enough and anything that didn't have to come from the kitchen came out ok. The bartenders were friendly and prompt. Where the train came off the tracks was anything coming out of the back of the house, unfortunately. An order of chips and guacamole took I think about 40 minutes to make it to the table, and for $8 was pretty small and poorly mixed (the surprisingly small bowl even had lettuce on the bottom as a filler I guess?) My wife had a chicken and shrimp fajita combo, and the chicken was very bland, shrimp was the frozen you tend to expect in an inland Mexican restaurant. My wife can't have flour Tortillas (celiac disease, not a fad preference), specifically ordered corn tortillas and received flour. Not uncommon, usually a quick fix but she was at almost all the way through her meal before they were replaced. Rice and beans were bland, nothing to write home about, and not a salt shaker in sight.

I had the locally sourced rockfish tacos, which did have good to great flavor but were very light on the amount of fish. Had I not been eating the last piece of my little girl's quesadilla I might have walked away hungry. Great flavor to build on though, and personally I would serve them with a couple lime slices.

My little girl appreciated the cheese quesadilla, and ate well. I would also like to say that all of the waitstaff were super friendly and nice to our tired little girl, she had a great experience.

When the obligatory "How was everything?" question came up as I paid the check I tried to be polite but honest, and the response I got was the usual "its the slow season, the cook is by himself, hard to predict scheduling in the winter, come back in the summer its great, etc". We weren't looking for a handout or anything comped, but if a customer had told us any of the above my wife and I both agreed we would have at least comped a drink or two. Overall for $80 before tip for two margaritas, one appetizer, two meals, and a kid's quesadilla we were disappointed. Full tip for the waitstaff and bartenders, but I hope they didn't have to share it with the back of the house. If they had been able to try and throw in a desert, comp a drink, or tried anything to make up for what could have just been an off night we might have given them a second chance, but I doubt we will be returning. I hope this is helpful for the management, and if I still worked in that industry I would be tempted to try and hire our waitress to give her a...

Update:7/2/23.. Complained to Resort Management, who looked into our incident. They apologized for the actions by their restaurant. We rec'd a great meal, delivered to our RV space , along with a sincere apology from the restaurant manager, who delivered the food. We appreciated the apology and have put the restaurant back on our "Recommended " list!!! Thank you! So, have NEVER had this happen before, ever! Got there at 5:20pm, ordered drinks inside, and asked to wait for an outdoor table for 4. No problem. Approx. 20 minutes later they moved us out to our table. A waitress (Lucy) came and took our two orders. No problem. At 7:00pm, we noticed that 3 tables that had been seated after us, were all receiving their food. We attempted to get our waitresses attention several times, to no avail. She seemed to be ignoring us. I went to the servers door, rapped on the doorframe and asked the employees who looked up, if someone could check on our order. The blonde bartender, who stated loudly that she was the manager, came rushing from across the kitchen, asked what table I was from, and asked me to return to the table with her. I did. But, when we got back to the table, she told me to sit down at the table before she would talk to me about the order. Her attitude was VERY disrespectful! I said, no, that I just wanted to know about our order. She then threw her hands up, and asked us to leave! I tried to say that we hadn't paid for our drinks, and she said that they were on the house, and to leave! I am completely at a loss to understand what happened! I believe that we were pleasant, respectful, and used "please and thank you's" when we ordered. I have been going to Turtle Rock RV and this Restaurant for years. Have always been treated well, and the restaurant has always been friendly, and had good food and good service. I have gone over the whole episode over and over in my mind, and can still not figure out what happened. I will note that as a Veteran (& American Legion Member), I was wearing a "USAF Veteran" ballcap. They don't like retired veterans? You tell me??? I'm at...

We visited this place twice and sadly had completely opposite experiences. Both times we were greeted by a nice waitress, whom never ended up being our waitress. The first time was Sunday shortly after we arrived at the campground. When we checked in, they told us about the happy hour and said they had goid drink.... so, we checked them out. They were busy and had music playing. The bartender ended up waiting on us. She was superb! Checked on us frequently, made sure our waters were filled, made amazing drinks, and had little conversions with us. We started with the happy hour margarita that was good. Then we asked about the Bloody Mary and she said it was really good and a fave by many... so we tried that and oh my that was one of the best ones we've had. It was superb! So much so, that we looked forward to returning before our departure. We had also split a nachos with carne asada. That was good and filling.

They were closed on Monday and Tuesday, so we returned on Wednesday.... but we're greatly disappointed. The bartender was not working, we didn't get the friendly waitress... ended up with someone who wasn't wanting to work and the manager (tending the bar) that was phony and made us feel like we were an inconvenience. We watched how she treated other staff members and were highly disappointed. The Bloody Mary's were awful. Nothing spectacular like on Sunday. For there not being many people, it to forever for her to make these awful drinks. Our waters never got refilled, although they did refill the chips & salsa. The tables weren't being cleaned as well as they were on Sunday. I could continue with other disappointing observations made on Wednesday, but will stop.

If this would have been rated only on Sunday, this would easily been 5 stars.... but with Wednesday's experience (which I would rate 1 star) I rated the average between the 2 experiences.

I doubt that we would go back only because of the...