It's taken me two months to write this review of the Hurricane Café, mostly because I'm so conflicted in what to say. Overall, I've had largely positive experiences here, but my main dish was so poorly prepared after the last visit that I haven't visited since. Ugh, what to say?
Overall, the last experience was fine. We ate outside and our server was a friendly, attentive young gentleman. Our small party of three started with a flatbread pizza. It was really quite tasty.
My main course, however, was the pits - something I never expected from this place where past dishes have been quite delicious and reliable. At the recommendation of our server, I got the large cut of the Prime Rib. It was a big mistake.
I don't really know where to begin but, and as you can see in the attached pic, it was grey.
Grey.
Given the look and overall texture, it appeared that the cut was steamed or warmed in a covered pan with it's cooking liquid. Any tasty crust that it had when it was roasted was turned to rubber in the reheating and it was fiercely overcooked and imperceptibly larger than the supposed smaller portion ordered by my one dining partner.
And the roast was obviously never properly trimmed before cooking either as the tail had a HUGE piece of fat attached. Normally, I'm all about the fat on a piece of properly prepared meat as it adds to the flavor and richness, but being so soggy, the fat was just greasy and disappointing.
I'll never order a daily special if I ever return.
Also, as a few other commentors have mentioned, there were flies... Lots of them! Especially after our main courses of beef and fish arrived.
Look, I get it, it's the tropics and the outdoor seating overlooks an asphalt parking lot. It's hot and the local bugs want their share, too. It was just too overwhelming at some point that I needed to throw my napkin over my plate so I could stop swatting the flies away. Even a visit from a local curly-tailed lizard didn't help. Perhaps it is worth looking into a Thermacell for your outdoor dining area to help repel the flying unfriendlies? Just a humble idea.
Unfortunately, this experience was enough to keep me away for the past two months. That's hard to admit when I consider that I used to eat here on an average of 3 times a month.
I know the restaurant business is hard. I used to work in it for 20 years. You can prepare 100 covers in one day and 99 can be perfect, but that one failure is going to ruin the entire meal of that one patron. I guess I was that guy that day.
On reflection, I probably should have spoken up then, but I was at the end of a long and difficult day. I was too tired to deal with the conflict, and frankly that dish shouldn't have gone out of the kitchen.
There's nothing like being disappointed by those you trust and favor. That's probably why it took so long to write this review and why I haven't...
Read moreI hate to write a bad review and was so conflicted because this has been our favorite stop to eat after the beach but here it goes. When we arrived we had to wait to be greeted for a while and a young lady was running around super busy and she was all that was out front. We sat outside. We ordered our beverages which came out no problem and a gentlemen took our order. Here is where all went upside down. We order the calamari appetizer which we normally love and it came out after a long wait cold, rubbery, and extremely oily. It took nearly 15 mins for anyone to check in again and our original server never showed back up. The kind lady who was running around like a chicken was kind enough to take the appetizer back and put in another order for us. We waited another 30 mins before our replacement appetizer arrived and I was extremely hungry getting a French onion soup. It was extremely watery and oily and gave me a sick stomach afterwards but in the moment I was so hungry and shocked at such a bad couple meals. I still had hope for our meals. Then my daughter got chicken fingers literally drenched on oil there was a puddle on her plate that took up an entire napkin to wipe off. My meal was not seasoned well and my husband had rice in his meal that was not fully cooked. The gentlemen waiter came over after another 30 mins asking if all was okay and when it was shared how terrible the food was he did absolutely nothing and even debated stating that the soup was "fine to him" didn't offer to take anything off, didn't offer to have it remade, and put his hands up like he was unable to do anything. After nearly 2 years of this being our favorite place we sadly will not return. So heart broken at this terrible terrible experience and our stomachs are still suffering from the poor quality of food. Gave it two stars because at least the sweet...
Read moreHurricane Cafe was a really disappointing experience for my family today. We came in around brunch time on Sunday. The restaurant was not at full capacity, yet we ended up waiting 1 hour just for simple food like eggs, tacos, and waffles to come out.
We noticed many of our glasses and dishes weren’t very clean, had stains or leftover food still on them.
On top of that, all of the dishes and drinks had something wrong with them such as: lack of salt, strange flavor, oily aftertaste, too dry, not the right ingredients, etc.
Bottom line is: none of the dishes were worth trying again. ESPECIALLY the biscuits and sausage gravy were disgusting. Please do not get this dish.
Even though our server was really nice (young blonde girl), the older woman with dark hair (staff) was very rude and had an attitude for no reason. Mind you, all of this after we have already been waiting for over an hour.
Lastly, the prices of each dishes weren’t cheap! We ended up spending about $25 each. It’s a shame because the interior is quite cozy and has potential, but we will not be coming back here again.
Edit after Owner commented:
First of all, the glasses were already dirty when they were brought out, before any of us touched them. It looked like when the dishes aren’t washed all the way throughly. Second of all, $25 per person was including drinks, entree, and small appetizer like the nasty biscuits and gravy. Seems like you “miss the mark” with a lot of clients, after reading many other similar...
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