The Fish Market Restaurant — Restaurant in Hoover

I have been patronizing this restaurant for a solid 3 years now and have held off on writing a review for it until now due to the nuances of my overall experience with it. As a previous poster stated, I also rate it a solid 3.5 stars. There are many reasons for this and I will explain. I would like to begin by listing all the positives of this restaurant. The food is always consistently good, hot and fresh. They offer many different options and varieties of food and every category on the menu is almost always a winner. There's not much that you could ever order from the fish market 280 that you wouldn't like. The desserts are INCREDIBLE. The owner's wife makes truly world class desserts. It's so good that I can honestly say they have beaten several local bakeries over the years with their recipes. ALMOST all of the staff is very personal and friendly. I think the Fish Market 280 probably scores as one of the highest local restaurants in this category, especially in this very tough labor market right now. I believe every person that works at the fish market 280 does their best, works hard and strives to take care of customers. I have never meet an employee there that didn't care about their job there or the customers. The atmosphere is always good, clean, well air conditioned and there's never a wait. The prices are fair for the portions and for what you get but not any great deal. A lot of this may be due to rising inflation. The restaurant runs very well operationally. It is hardly ever that they will make a mistake and the times that they have, it actually turned out to be a good mistake that I welcomed instead of frowned upon. The hours are always consistent and there is no mismatch between what Google says and the hours listed on the doors say. For the most part this restaurant has all of their ducks in a row and behaves very professionally. So if you have read this far down in my review you are probably wondering why I wouldn't give them 5 stars after listing all these positive things. Here's where I feel the Fish Market 280 falls short. For starters, the owners and management make no effort to build a personal relationship with regular customers. I could not list the countless times that I have been to this establishment and seen the owner's daughter or the manager walk right past me and not say a word to me. Not even a polite "Hello or how are you?" The business is way behind the rest of the industry in terms of rewards and loyalty programs which it has none. I get the sense that they really do not have a clue who their best customers are and are not willing to make the time or effort to find out which references back to the first issue I have already pointed out. The management is lacking and amateur in their customer service skills. Several incidents that have happened over the past 3 years have continued to demonstrate that they lack in providing a truly great customer experience. There's not a family like atmosphere with this business and it's management. It's too aloof and personally removed in that sense which always leaves the experience lacking for those of us that frequent the restaurant on a...

Arrived at restaurant today, May 14, 2023, and asked for seating for 4. Waiting to be seated, a couple that came in after us was immediately seated at a table that accommodates 4. We questioned why they were seated ahead of us and were verbally attacked by the hostesses. One in particular Marisa was verbally combative, and her counterparts aligned with her. One being identified as co-owner, Alexandria Drakos. We were eventually given an ultimatum to get seated or leave. We have eaten at all Fish Markets locations for as long as they have existed and have NEVER experienced this level of hostility EVER!! I am certain there will be no follow up, but doubtful if I will continue to support this location. Since when did rude and verbally combative behavior become prerequisites for attacking patrons? In response to the owner: Your account of yesterday’s event are not totally accurate. Yes we were told the entire party had to be available prior to seating. You were told one individual was finishing a call in the car in the parking lot and didn’t want to appear rude to other guest. You are incorrect that the “party” yelled at you. We asked about seating options and management admitted they did not inquire what our preference was, booth or table. Remember? It was at that moment that staff begin to speak in an inappropriate tone. I made the statement we were not being confrontational and to take a deep breath. Marissa retaliated in a hostile and verbal tone that I needed to take a deep breath not her. We are accustomed to the Fish Market’s Mother’s Day crowd. We were there last year on Mother’s Day and several other Mother’s Day prior to the pandemic. So your flow of traffic on this occasion is nothing new to us. We frequent the Fish Market so regular that others have teased us saying we must have stock in the company. So please don’t attempt to divert from the reality of our concern. Just know your response and tone was NOT professional, appreciated and disrespectful.

I later asked Marissa as we were dining if the manager was available. Imagine our surprise when she advised “she was the one you were...

After pleasurable visits to this establishment over the last couple years, today's visit is my last.  I was appalled with the service, but shockingly it came from the owner and not her employees.  The employees were most caring, trying to help understand what was happening and resolve it. After waiting over 30 min the final of 4 orders was delivered. The problem:  the other food had been sitting on counter in to-go Styrofoam boxes for 15-20 min.  The items were checked and deemed not acceptable in that manner. The owner came over (this is the second time, so she was aware we were waiting...she was also sitting at a table next to us having a break while eating with an employee. Her first involvement was when the cashier was asked, "what are they waiting on"). We explained 3 of 4 orders were cold and or unacceptable as a result of the wait. She insisted they weren't, so we invited her to check. Not willing to do so, she immediately moved to refund and asked for the card used. She then proceeded to kitchen with card to instruct them to NOT redo food (the employees aimed to please and took it back to redo the 3 orders). She returned and I said it wasn't appropriate for her to take my card out of my presence and into the kitchen. She said she's been in business for 30 yrs and knows as if to read me her resume. My wife asked for a supervisor and this is when we learned she was the owner (she made it very clear by saying she answers to no one and soliciting confirmation from a gentleman that appeared from the back).  The gentleman that came out asked us to lower our voice, but we never raised our voice. The owner Kiki created the scene with her elevated tone.  My wife said if you're having a bad day, you shouldn't allow it to impact customers. She said her day was fine and we were bad customers.  We stated we weren't going to be back and we would write a review, she encouraged it and said she would respond to it (yelled from across room nearly 30 ft away). I have never experienced an exchange of this nature and wouldn't have guessed it would come from an Owner.  Zero customer service! #WorstMother'sDayEver....