Uncle's Fish Market & Grill — Restaurant in Hawaii

You should eat here if you enjoy being IGNORED by your server, DIRTY water glasses, cocktails that LACK ALCOHOL made by PRETENTIOUS BARTENDERS that speak poorly about your party to other customers and an automatic 18% gratuity for large parties Our family went here to celebrate Father's Day and my in-law's 35th Anniversary. We chose this restaurant because we wanted to make sure that this milestone anniversary dinner wasn't a mediocre experience. The food looked spectacular and we were pleased that they were able to accomodate our huge party. However, the service from our own server was horrible. He was pushy and rushed us to put in our food orders, blantantly ignored our requests to the point where my husband became angry (which ultimately caused our server to begin addressing him as though they were best buddies to make up for ignoring us throughout the previous 2 hours of our dining experience) and insisted that my husband ordered his seafood pasta with alfredo sauce rather than marinara when it was the wrong order placed in front of him. Additionally, my glass of water came to me half full and with lipstick on it from a previous customer. An overly sweet blend of juices completely masked the alcohol in the beverage that I ordered. Also worth mentioning is the pretentious bartender that kept speaking (to the customers at the bar, but loud enough that our table could hear) about how many guys hit on her every day and didn't realize that the things she was saying about our table was audible enough to be heard by us. If I wasn't concerned about ruining the pleasant experience that we were trying to achieve, I would have given her and our server a piece of my mind. To top it all off, they added $70 in the form of an 18% gratituity to our bill which they really didn't earn in the least bit. Don't get me wrong, I'm usually a 20% tipper if the meal was pleasant and my drink was refilled without having to hunt down my server, but this experience was just ridiculous. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the whole reason why our table was treated with disregard was because they were certain they were going to get a huge tip. I'm upset that we feel short changed after spending so much money in their establishment and have been attempting to contact a Manager at their restaurant to address my concerns, but they're closed until 6/26 for renovations. I'm definitely going to call back and let them know my frustrations. **P.S. I spoke with the Restaurant Manager at a restaurant in Waikiki who informed me that an 18% gratuity for large parties is only a suggestion and it shouldn't have been automatically added to our bill as though it was owed. So don't let them fool you as we were. You have the right to ask a Manager to take it off if you don't think they...

Let me start by saying our waitress as well as the general wait staff were amazing. We were seated quickly and given drinks and appetizers promptly after ordering. Their truffle fries are quite good; the large lovely flakes of fresh shaved parmesean they added made us think I was in for a culinary treat. Did I mention our waitress was excellent? The problem here was the food quality of the main entrée and the awful manager afterward. I ordered seared garlic ahi, and my cousin ordered their fish tacos. Both dishes I've had before and loved. But today was an epic fail for cheff at Uncle's. The ahi wasn't seasoned, and the supposed garlic sauce was just cream and capers, negligible flavor. They gave me three pieces of wilted, poorly seasoned asparagus, and a giant mound of white rice. The fish tacos were BLAND! No flavor at all. All I could taste was the cilantro they used as garnished on top. Literally just cilantro, cabbage, charred fish, and tortilla. Then they had the nerve to give me tostitos crispy rounds as a side on my dish to apparently be paired with their boring ass salsa. Now, after my first bite, my heart dropped. I felt the failure roll over my tongue like a failed chardonnay. I was truly disappointed. I felt even worse for my cousin as he was only eating here with me at my suggestion. Betrayed by my memory of great cuisine, I watched him take a single bite and push his plate away. He then called for the waitress and informed her of the unimpressive meal. However, this angel convinced us to take another chance with this restaurant and try the fish blackened and not grilled. Realizing this very well may be the game changer, we sent back the failure and ordered the blackened fish tacos instead. Now we had intended to eat what was brought without incident, but the grind the ruins lunch showed up, without even bothering to introduce herself and plainly ask us to leave. Why? Because, in here opinion, "the blackened fish was the same as the grilled fish," and she didn't want us to send back the food back again. What type of an idiot manager admits she knows the food isn't that good, obviously generic, and lacking in quality. She even, that she dissuaded us from ordering anything else. Hinting, then stating, "You should just go." The unmitigated incompetence exuding from her was palpable. I've never experienced anything like it. The absolute worst part of everything is after the manager left, our waitress returned with our check, apologizing as if she did anything wrong! I paid for my fries and beer and we tipped her as if we finished our full meal so she isn't the one penalized for having poor management. I hope they do better...

Tonight we went to Uncle figuring on having a couple of cocktails . When we heard that they had changed some of the items on the menu we decided to have dinner. We started out with their Caesar Salad which was huge and so fresh . Followed by their Seafood Chowder. I got to tell you I’ve had the chowder before but this time it was so much better. Lots of flavor and so generous with the clams and fish. I told Melissa ( our waitress ) what did they do to it ? She said they make the soup to order. That’s when we looked around the room and every table was having soup. Can’t wait to go back to have it again. I’m a French Fries fanatic so had to try their Truffle Fries .oh man! I had to eat it slow cause I wanted to savor each bite. Now if your a Fish person I say you got to try their Blackened Fish tonight it was Opakapaka. Man that fish just melted in my mouth. I had such a big smile on my face. Told my friend “ man, you got to try this. I was sorry to do that cause she had to have more. Being such a good friend as I am I said help yourself( ( mistake one became two , then three times) But, it was ok cause the portion was so big I had plenty more even had to take home for my lunch tomorrow. Hey, I got to tell you the staff over there was just like family. Melissa our server was one riot . She had us rolling all night. She was the best! You like laugh look for her. You not going stop laughing. The only disappointment was that we were so full that we couldn’t have dessert. Next time I’m going to start with dessert. I suggest that you treat yourself and go check them out . They are under new management. I have to say from a point of view of a person that have worked in the food industry for over 20 years that Uncles has tipped the scales. From the chef to the front house crew they now have the passion and it shows, in their food So you guys out there give them a try! Life is to short , go out there and enjoy yourself. God knows we all deserve to treat ourselves...