The Oceanaire Seafood Room — Restaurant in Indianapolis

I'm visiting my aunt and uncle in Indianapolis this week. We went to the Oceanaire Seafood on Monday night, as they felt it is one of the excellent seafood restaurants in town, and they had dinner there several times (usually the food is good, service sometimes not good). We reserved and arrived there at 6 pm, and there was empty (about 3-4 groups). Then the nightmare came: we all like oysters and feel the west coast tastier. We ordered four different kinds of oysters that came from Washington. The waiter (if I remember correctly, Patrick) said he had worked there for over five years and suggested a special came right that day: grouper fish. My uncle and cousin trusted him and took his recommendation gladly. We also ordered 3 cocktails while waiting for our meals. The appetizer and oysters came okay (the oysters are good, but the waiter cannot say the number correct, we have 5 ppl, and he always mentions 4 oysters for each kind, that is just a minor issue if you read more). There were tons of fried lemon and fried jalapeno covered with flour and hidden from fried calamari. Do you think it is a reasonable way to improve the flavor? Without letting us know what they were before a bite? Not everyone is comfortable with Jalapeños and lemon, am I right? When we almost finished our appetizer, about 25 mins after we placed our order, the waiter told us there was a large group of 18 people on the 8th floor who ordered all the grouper, and they could not fill our order, but he reversed one for us, one other need to change the entree. My uncle left the grouper to my cousin and ordered something instead. About 5 minutes later, the waiter came back again, skipped us adults, and went straight to my cousin, whispered to him that the one left could not be provided to him either. Then this situation looked suspicious; we said, "when we arrived here, there was almost empty, but you could not even fill the order you highly recommended. The dish you recommended should have plenty of supplies." The waiter showed a whatever face and swung his head and said, "do you want to talk with the manager?" We didn't request to talk with the manager at that time, then the waiter left and never came back, does it because he realized he wouldn't have a good tip anyway? Could you imagine, during the long waiting, nobody took care of the empty cocktail cups and wine glasses! 45 minutes since we placed our food, we are still left without anyone serving us. As we didn't see any manager walking around to check if the customer needed help, my uncle walked to the front desk and found 3 managers staying there and chatting loudly. One of the lady managers came back with my uncle and talked about the situation; she was shocked when we said there was a group of 18 ppl on 8th floor and ordered the grouper fish (which the waiter told us). She said they only had 3 grouper fish today, and there was not such a party. The waiter lied to us!!! Large group? Reserved fish? And she said she would come back in one minute to know the whole story. After 5 minutes, she'd not back yet. My uncle walked to the front door again, wanted to pay for the bill, and left. They refused to accept our card, and the other two managers even didn't know this had happened. Then we left the restaurant. I can't believe a waiter who had worked there for 5 years cannot even know to check with the inventory before the recommendation and repeatedly lied to cover his mistake. The manager never walked around to check if people were happy with their food and service (at least we spent about 1.5 hours, and we didn't see any manager walk around). I believe the seafood is fresh, and the menu is printed daily. Besides that, I don't know if the steak is good or not (we waited over 1 hour, and our entrees were still not served!!) And it was kind of late to book other good restaurants as a replacement, and we drove back home to order some pizza. Is this a topical experience that we should get from an upscaled 4-dollar...

Oh I wanted so badly to enjoy this experience. My husband and I love some amazing food in a beautiful atmosphere and this was the first time we took our kids to something higher end than Olive Garden to show them the different experiences to be had.

Let's start with the good because every experience always has ups. It was stunning when you walk in. Almost a trip back to the1920s with rich woodwork and low jazz playing. You can feel the cleanliness and crispness. The gentleman at the host stand was well dressed and professional, and had things ready to go for us and our two girls. If you have picky eating kids while you like to enjoy more intricate food, their children's menu is all the normal favorites available. $12 was a great price for that level of establishment and came with enough food for 2 kids per plate easily. The corn dogs were crisp and the bite of shrimp I had was adult approved! The sticky toffee pudding for dessert was amazing, rich and flavorful, and the slice of key lime pie was gigantic. It was creamy and had almost the consistency of cheesecake. Bathrooms are a weird sticking point for me but these were incredibly clean, and had ridiculously nice monogrammed hand paper towels. The kind of touch that shows attention to detail and an extra fine experience.

Now, my husband has been managing in fine dining restaurants for years. We are no strangers to the level of service expected, as well as the things that can just go wrong behind the scenes. I do not know if Tiffany was having a bad day, the day was just an off one where the staff needs to constantly puting out fires, or how things are run in general. I do know that our reservation was at 630 and we were sat shortly after. Our waitress stopped multiple times at the table just next to us where some mix up seemed to have happened with their bills and cards, again that happens, we're human and I have done it myself by accident after years in the industry (its much more common than you would think!). We did not receive our first drinks or order starters until almost 10 after 7, we were asked about starters when ordering drinks but had not made a decision only a few minutes in to our seating. We went ahead and ordered our appetizers and entrees at the same time based on the time frame that had been established for check backs. Keeping with pace, we were able to stack our bread, appetizer and soup bowls on top of each other as we were running out of room on the table. This would not be consistent with the coursing/ bussing routine you would find when pacing. When we recieved our dinner well after 8, the girls got theirs first. I had enough time to go upstairs, wait a minute for a stall, finish up and head back down as mine and my husband's meal was being served. Was that a courtesy for the kids? Usual standard of practice is all food goes together. It was all piping hot and plated well. The Opahl fish I had was ok. I'll chalk that up to not being familiar with that fish and I was wishy washy between 2 dishes, so maybe I was feeling more like the other dish. My husband's seabass was overcooked but you could tell the flavors were there. Our bill was $364.00, we tipped $60 as a consistent bare minimum. I will tell you that the fastest part of our meal was from the time we ordered desserts until the check was picked up from the table, about 20 min total while I was still finishing the last of my wine.

I tell you all of this not to deter you. Please go! I saw a multitude of other reviews that were wonderful! A lot of this could have just been an off night that even the best of establishments have. But after spending more than $400 for an experience, I feel it was not many steps above what we just deal with at Texas Roadhouse because that's just the basics that come with a $20 steak. I am happy to spend the money in accordance with the level. I hope this will flag those who need the info to review the situation and see where corrections...

I had hoped not to have to right this review, but I am left with no choice. First, I want to say I have always really enjoyed my visits to Oceanaire. This is why I selected Oceanaire to host a business dinner for a tradeshow we were attending in January. We had 30 people in attendance. We preplanned the event with Oceanaire and had everything set up well in advance. First, on arrival we found getting drinks was very slow. The manager told us that their drink order system had gone down. Next, we did have our appetizers right away but our meals took nearly two hours to arrive. When they arrived, they were luke warm to cold depending on the selection. Some orders had their sides missing or in very small quantities. We had ordered an upgrade to additional lobster mac and cheese and it never arrived, we mentioned this and it was finally brought with the desserts later. As the end of the meal approached the wait staff notified me that we had not met our minimum total spend for the meal. We had already made a $1,500 deposit and the minimum was supposed to be and additional $3,000 more. I was distracted with our clients when given this notice so did not ask for the current total. The wait staff recommended making up the difference with togo bottles of wine. I approved of this thinking it would bring our total to the $4,500 amount we contracted. When I received the bill it was for over $6,000. Well above our contracted minimum. The togo bottles of wine was nearly $1,000 added to the bill. When we asked to speak to a manager again we were told that he had already gone home for the night and would have to come back tomorrow to talk to him. When we went back the next day to talk to him we asked for a portion of the bill to be refunded. We were told that because it was the next day he couldn't do anything and they would have to take it up with the regional manager. The next week we finally received a response from the event coordinator and were told that the Regional VP (Hal Heck) said that we would not receive any kind of refund because all food and drink were consumed. All the wine was taken home by our customers before we received the final bill that night, so we were unable to give it back. We tried reaching out directly to the Regional VP and never received a response. We also made inquiries through their corporate office and never received a response. We have finally exhausted every avenue to pursue any kind of correction to this experience. This is why I am finally to the point I must leave this review. Sincerely, Brandon Shelton VP Standard Equipment Company

Dinner Date 1-24-24 Original Complaint at dinner 1-24-24 Second Complaint 1-25-24 First response 2-1-24 1st attempt to reach Regional VP 2-2-24 2nd attempt to reach Regional VP 2-9-24 Attempt to contact Oceanaire Corporate 2-9-24 Dispute...