The Old Fish House Bar and Grill — Restaurant in Grant-Valkaria

Found this place searching for moderately priced family places to eat near me. Thought it had some good reviews so we tried it, 3 adults, one kid age 5. It was late afternoon, 4ish. We walked in and was told we could sit anywhere outside, so we went out and sat down. One waitresses comes out, looks at us and goes to another table. Second waitresses, same thing. First comes out again, quick glance and different table, same with the second one again.... and again. A third one comes out, and nothing. So we sat there waiting, not even an acknowledgement of hello or someone will be with you, just glances, like each was waiting for the other to do something. My husband finally catches the attention of second waitresses and asks for menus, she says sure, walks back in the restaurant and comes back out and goes to a different table to take an order. Finally the first waitresses comes out and gives us menus then drinks. 10-15 minutes later takes our order. Brings salad out and no silverware, I had to follow her back into the restaurant and ask for some. While we were waiting for our food I was walking around the back/side deck that's over the water and overheard another server telling a new table about todays specials... crab legs etc., would have been nice to know there were specials. We just felt like we were in the way! One of us got blackened fish over rice, which he liked. I got a burger, can't really go wrong and my husband got the blackened shrimp with hush puppies which was about 7 medium (?) sized shrimp, small sized for a "dinner" and 4 hushpuppies. Should have been bigger sized shrimp or had more of them. We frequently visit Palm Bay area and are always looking for new places to bring friends and family, this one will be scratched off the list for the service since there are hundreds of places like this along the river and have much...

First time visiting, a place that was highly recommended by several people I have spoken with. I knew it would be iffy to go on a Saturday night, but I thought we would try anyway. The wait for a table was much shorter than we were advised. Which was a good thing. We asked to sit outside, which was a bad thing. The temp outside, along with the wind off the water, was so cold that it made it difficult to stay throughout our meal. Which was our own fault for choosing to sit outside. Our server was Jose, and he was very attentive and provided good service. The issue I had was how long it took anything to come to our table, including our drinks. I am not a big fan of being served on paper plates and disposable plastic cups either. So this added to frustration because everything was blowing away. Again, I'll say it was our bad for choosing outside.

Now for the food. Apps - Fish dip was good, a tad salty. Fried green tomatoes with gorgonzla and bacon were very good. Thick tomatoes and good breading. Would recommend these.

Entree - Our party had the old fish house special with Mahi, Gator Poboy, and the Fish house salad. Gator was tough, the fries that came with it were good, but it came out cold. Salad was good, but the chicken was a little dry, which made it tough . Mahi special was good, but that and the rice were also kind of bland. The best thing was the plantains. In addition, neither one of the drinks we ordered even tasted like they had any alcohol in them. One was a margarita and the other a huckleberry. I may go back, but choose a warmer day. But we were not overly impressed with the food or specialty drinks. Everyone raves about the shrimp and fish days. Maybe I'll try one of those. The service, for the most part, was very good on a busy...

Update* change to 4 stars ** After not visiting for over a month, our family gave our once favorite family restuarant another shot. Wow! We had an amazing server, he is new since we hadn't seen him before and he was great! The food, coconut shrimp for starters, I ordered chicken tacos, my husband got the steak sandwich, and my son got a grilled cheese (we appreciate you making it custom for him) was amazing and it came out quickly. Our service was so good! I had 2 painkillers, and he was quick to refill my husband's diet coke and my son's OJ. We're really glad to see this place running like it's old staple self. As long as the service remains good and the food great, we'll keep visiting.

Our family used to love this place but they've gone down hill. The food (muscles and calamari specifically) used to be amazing. Our past visit we had several dead muscles and the seasoning was different. The calamari was rubber. The service has majorly declined. We waited forever for drinks. Then, after putting in an appetizer, took forever for the waitress to come back and take our main order. I ordered one painkiller it was good. I would have had more but due to poor service (the waitress not coming to check on the table) I didn't bother. Our food took almost an hour and there were only a few other tables. The waitress kept disappearing so we had to wait for extras, like salad dressing and ketchup and even the to-go containers. We waited quite some time for the waitress to come back with our check after asking for the to-go containers. We used to love this place, their food, and their service, but they've majorly dropped the ball the last three times we were there. (One visit was just last weekend). We won't be back for...