Lorelei Restaurant & Cabana Bar — Restaurant in Islamorada

Had to google how to write a review for the place. Atmosphere is very nice, beautiful views, and pretty decent service given the number of customers.

Ordered the “catch of the day” snapper, and received something disgusting. Completely misshaped filets to be yellowtail snapper (typically a longer fish with respect to their height from belly to top of the back, this filet was wedge shaped and about as long as it was tall). I’m 90% sure it was tilapia due to the shape, muddy taste, black veins running through the meat, and the parasitic worm in the tail section. I have eaten tilapia once before and this tasted the same. Fully regret not taking photos, but didn’t decide to write my first review ever on google until we had been gone for a little while and I just couldn’t get over it. Brought it up to the waitress and asked if it was tilapia due to the awful taste, but she said it was yellowtail snapper and they don’t serve tilapia.. okay. I can put up with poorly cooked food and have never complained to anyone at a restaurant unless the order is just outright wrong, which is usually just a mixup between tables.

Despite the clear disappointment, we were never offered any sort of resolution or explanation. It was just ignored after the server alerted a manager within sight of us. I have eaten snapper, I would think close to 100 times in my life, most of which I caught myself, and none tasted this way. That’s not limited to species of snapper either, I have had yellowtail, American red, vermillion, mangrove, lane snapper, and mutton snapper. They share many similarities, none of which this had. If it was snapper it had to be weeks old, but really didn’t taste that old or spoiled at all. Just wasn’t snapper. Wife’s crab legs were overcooked and wouldn’t come out of the shell either.

Appetizers and sides were really good. I’m sure they have great food otherwise, but I would not trust the species they claim their fish to be. Learned that 20% of fish you buy are mislabeled after this situation, and know that I just fell victim to it. Just wish it wasn’t such a blatant switch up! What I ate was unlike any saltwater fish I’ve consumed. $120 spent to feel sick to my stomach for the rest...

I’ve been coming to the keys for 10+ years and I’ve been to this restaurant multiple times but after tonight I would never stop and visit again. Id have to rate this experience as the worst service in all of the Florida Keys due to the male server with the mangy long hair to his waist. It was my boyfriends birthday and we were told to sit anywhere we’d like and a server would be with us, we sat down and waited for about 15 minutes for our waiter to even greet us. I tried to order an alcoholic beverage and once I showed him my ID he stuttered over his long explanation as to why he couldn’t accept my legal Florida ID because it wasn’t a sideways ID and claimed it was due to a law that is not even in effect. We put our appetizer in at this time and waited for another 15-20 minutes for him to come back and take our food order and bring the waters we ordered. We ended up receiving our main meals and the waiter was still no where to be found as he wasn’t the person to bring the food. We watched him serve the rest of his tables in his section but he didn’t come to our table for another 10 minutes after we received our food (we had to flag him down). My boyfriends blackened snapper came out grilled, and my impossible burger came without the cheese I ordered and resembled a public school burger. As a vegetarian who eats many impossible burgers, I’m not even exaggerating when I tell you a theme park impossible burger is much better than the one I received tonight. We tell the server we never got our appetizer after we had to flag him down and he didn’t even realize we never got it, frustrated we took it off the check. As a former server it was obvious he forgot to put the order even into the POS. We ended up having to flag another kind server down to tell our server we were ready for the check, as we were waiting for another 15 minutes and a storm was coming in. Worst service, nasty food, and silly alcohol rules. Would not be returning, only thing it has going for them is a nice view but we are on an island… everywhere is a...

As soon as I arrived, there was no inside seating. There were no large tables, so my family of 9 had to separate into 2 tables. This was a struggle as it was starting to rain. There were so many bugs, and we had nothing to keep them away. We got there around 6:30 and we didn't get to order until 7:20 ish. Our food didn't come out until 7:50, which wasn't too bad. It was hard to wave down our server. The sunset was nice, but the environment was ruined by the overly loud band, and we could barely hear each other or our waitress speak. At one point, my sister was drinking her water, and it was ripped out of her hand/mouth by our waitress to refill it. My friend got the pulled pork mac and cheese, and the mac and cheese was watery and tasteless with a slight taste of milk . The pork on top was very dry and needed barbecue sauce. Around 8 pm, right after we got our food, a guy came around to remove the umbrellas, and since it had just rained, he got water all in our food when he removed it. The water also went all over my parents. This ruined our food. My dad and I shared the 2 lobster tails, which was $35. I thought we were both getting a whole lobster tail, but i was mistaken. We actually got 1 lobster tail split in half. I am still hungry because I only got a little bit of lobster. When we brought up the issue, the manager was cussing us out, yelling at us, threatening to call the police, and was yelling at us to leave. Earlier, as the guy was grabbing the umbrella, my dad grabbed it from him and said that if he got water on our food, he had to pay for it and he said he was ok with that. Then, when we got the $350 bill, he refused to pay. Since we were a party over 6, we were required to leave a tip. I do not recommend going to this establishment, and my family and i will...