Cedar River Seafood — Restaurant in Inverness

Just got home from Cedar River Seafood in Inverness. Myself and 2 friends went after a day of working on my house and we were starving. I Love the food at Cedar River and have been there several times. This place was packed standing room only. I only ever saw 2 wait staff working. It took us over an hour to get our food. Most likely because there were only 2 wait staff on the floor of a packed restaurant. Our waitress was running like a chicken with her head cut off. I initially felt bad for her as she was really working very hard. My sympathies quickly evaporated as soon as she spoke to us. She was very short with us, cutting us off several times as we were talking to her. I've NEVER had to send food back at Cedar River until tonight. I had the Gator Bites as a appetizer. They were way too salty. When the waitress approached, I told her that the Gator Bites were too salty and I wanted to send them back. I offered to let her try one so she could taste how salty they were. She snapped back No ! I'm busy ! Do you want something else ? Or you want me to take them off the bill ?? !! I told her that I would take the mushrooms instead please. Her reply after snatching the plate of Gator Bites away was "Some people just don't like alligator" ! as she was walking away from me. (It's very rude to speak to someone as you're walking away from them). It took my friends awhile to get refills on their drinks. (Again, probably due to only 2 servers that I ever saw on the floor). Then came the best part. I had ordered the All You Can Eat Fried Shrimp. After 2 reorders.. (I was hungry) , I had finished all but about 6 or 7 small shrimp on my plate. My companions and I asked for to go boxes. Our server promptly informed me while pointing at the few shrimp left on my plate .. YOU CAN'T TAKE THOSE ! I asked her why ? She told me that no re-orders can be taken to go. I completely understand this if I was trying to take a lot of food home. I even agree with that policy. However, I wasn't trying rob or scam these people. There were only 6 or 7 small shrimp left on the plate. So I asked the server .. "You're gonna throw them out" ? She said yes we will. I said.. "So.. instead of me taking them home, you're gonna throw them in the trash"? She said .. Yes. I said "That's ridiculous" . She replied... "Fine" ! and snatched the to go box from in front of me and was gone ! When we finally got the bill, I paid it and left a minimal tip. Let me clarify that I am always a big tipper as I know how hard these servers work. Especially being short handed as they seemed to be. I left her a minimal tip only because the way we were treated and had been spoken to by our server. I Love the food at Cedar River. The wait staff has until tonight always been friendly and pleasant. I am a very understanding person. Sometimes too much so. I get it that she was very very busy. But that does not give her free reign to talk to and treat customers the way...

We visited Cedar River Seafood for lunch on a weekday, in January 2025. We arrived before noon which avoided possible crowding. It worked and they were not busy when we arrived. Cedar River Seafood is not a large establishment. But they are not tiny either. So they have a fair amount of room and tables. We were seated right away. After a quick view of the menu, we ordered. The food arrived fairly quick. The food itself was mostly decent. It was not the best seafood that we have ever had by any means. But it was decent. I will say that some of my food was not hot. I would say barely warm, would be more fitting. This would include my main entree’ and one of my two sides. One side I didn’t eat and just took home where I could warm it up. I do not send things back or complain about food. If I did say something, it would not be until after we ate. But that’s a rarity that I would say anything. The second side and a soup that I had were hot and very good. So I guess it was hit and miss for me. The wife was somewhat similar. But she did not have temperature issues. But I could have been a rarity. So don’t make any decisions based on my food. Try it for yourself. The prices are subjective to one’s opinion. But I found them to be somewhat on the fair side for what we had. No it’s not the cheapest meal out there, but seafood rarely is. But like I said, I found it somewhat fair. Again, folks opinions differ. I did include pictures of the menu for your convenience. Our lunch cost us $45, plus tip. But that was two lunch special entree’s, one cup of soup, one soft drink, and a water. The added soup makes it look more expensive than it really was. The wife said the ladies room was clean. The restaurant itself seemed adequately clean. Service was good and fast. Again, we visited for lunch and they were fairly quiet at the time. I have heard that they get pretty busy later in the day towards dinner. So plan accordingly. All in all, we found Cedar River Seafood to be decent. Some is better than others pertaing to the food. Nothing we had was bad. But most was good but not outstanding to us. But, if we were in the area again, we would...

This was a huge disappointment. We'd not only read rave reviews, but had also had people tell us directly how good Cedar River is. Nope. First, it took quite a while to simply get seated. We arrived, with three parties ahead of us, and no sign that any of the servers (or anyone else) had noticed the growing line. After a while, one waitress finally came by, and slowly worked through the line, though when we were seated, it had built up behind us again. Once seated, it took far too long to give our drink orders, and a surprisingly long time to get our water. Then giving our food orders was slow, and it took a while for the food to arrive. We thought maybe the kitchen was also overloaded, but the food was just warm, so it seems that it had sat for a while before being delivered. The appetizer, crab-stuffed mushrooms, was OK. The mushrooms themselves were good, but the crab stuffing minimal and bland. The dip was tasty, and enough for far more mushrooms than in the appetizer. My fried scallops were OK, but not great. The side of collard greens was good, though there's not a lot to get wrong with those. The fried okra was OK, not nearly what I hope for. The hushpuppies were overly sweet, but that's apparently a new trend. My wife's fried oysters were more coating than oyster. Her baked potato was very good. Her coleslaw was extremely sweet, essentially inedible. The prices at Cedar River are consistent with a high-quality seafood restaurant, while the food itself is more in line with a seafood fast-food joint, and the service a combination of slow and inattentive. They clearly need either double the number of servers, or a much smaller dining room, though while we were there, a lot of the...