Blackwater Siren — Restaurant in Key Largo

I wanted to love this place. The atmosphere was great, until the service and food ruined it. al

Honestly i wish we had given up on finding it,

Google maps fault i think. But it was also dark and the sign and place were dark.

We were greeted and seated quickly. I had a good feeling. Wanted conch fritters badly. Visions of the Bahamas and Key West ones dancing in my head.

First shock was the prices. And the change in menu from the one posted on line. We couldn't find what we wanted. And everything was about 30% higher than what i had seen on the menu shown when i clicked thru from Google. i feel that it is a restaurants responsibility to keep up with that and not blindside people who are on a budget.

The waiter quickly took our deink order and then vanished. There were few others tables and he was just gone. In wanted to ask about the appitizer sampler that we had come for.

It was on the old menu. But they agreed to make it. Awesome.

The drinks were great.. i would have given them 5 stars. I had the Mermaid Water. The appitizer platter was smaller than expected, but the jalapeno cheese things were huge.

The 2 cheese sticks were ok. A bit small, but warm. Not great not bad.

My son loved the sashimi. I was not a fan. Not their fault. I try to encoure my 16 year old to be more adventurous than his daddy and me are. He has always wanted to try it. Which is one reason I picked this place when i saw it listed on the appitizer sampler.

My stuffed jalapeno was really good. My son ssid that his wss too hot. I foolishly, thought he was being dramatic. Until i tried a bite - it was so hot that bit ruined my palate. No clue how the 2 could be so vastly different in heat. I would have told the waiter but we never saw him after he tried his at the end of the meal..

The biggest issue was the Conch Fritters. Hands down the WORST I have ever had. Greasy and way over cooked. Too dense. Tiny by fritter previous standards. The size of smallish hushpuppies. Mine was sitting in a puddle of sonething and wet on the bottom.

The conch was like rubber. Except harder. Even worse I bit into a piece of hard shell or something.

I did tell the waiter about them being so bad. I expected an offer of a replacement. A couple more cheese stick? A dessert? Maybe a couple of bucks off because i assured him that they were the Worst I have ever had. So something more than a half hearted responce and another vanishing act.

Awhile later I flagged down the other waiter to ask if there was anything else to go with the Tuna (this was pre fires of hell jalapeno) besides soy sauce and wasabi. He said "oh you didn't get the ginger and seaweed" and brought that to us.

Our waiter quickly checked in one more time, a few minutes per jalapeno.

By then were clearly almost done. But 15 minutes later my husband had to go hunt down the check. I don't think the waiter was happy that we ordered so little and shared food. So i felt like he basiclly ignored us.

Then we had to go find our own to go container for the little bit of tuna that was left. I thought that my mom might like it...

By that time I was frustrated with the experience. The hard rubber fritters eyeing me. Most of the 2nd Jalapeno left uneaten because one bite from esch of us was too much. I couldn't even finish mine bacause my mouth wouldn't stop burning. It was like a cruel joke. I planned to tell our waiter. Except that we never saw him again.

We had really wanted some key lime pie but gave up on that idea. Although why i would think a place that can't do fritters could do key lime pie I don't know... But missing out on that didn't help my opinion.

Writing this i am regretting leaving a 15% tip. Because he certainly didn't earn it!

My husband was going to take him the check but i was angry by that time and i told him "I'll be damned if we are doing anymore of his job, leave it on the table."

I didn't even wait to home to post this. We can rarely afford to eat out so this supposed to be a splurge except it left a bad taste...

Had really high hopes for this place based on the very thorough reading of reviews. Sadly, we were very disappointed. We were seated and waited over 20 minutes before going to the host to ask if we had a server. They were only about half full and it was 8pm so not a dinner rush scenario. We never did our server. The hostess who sat us ended up taking our drinks and later, dinner order. We were recommended the fish so 2 of the 4 of us ordered that and upgraded one to the grouper rather than the Mahi which is standard. We started with the clam chowder. One was hot, the other Luke warm. The hot one was good. Our dinner came and was probably some of the worst fish we've had. The batter is more of a soggy egg batter and the sauce that came with it was a thick and VERY overwhelming limey sauce. Not good. She asked if we didn't like it because neither fish had more than a couple bits out of it and we told her it wasn't to our liking. I thought maybe they would at least take something off the bill based on our disappointing experience but nope. Bathrooms were disgusting. Not quite sure how they get the...

5/8/21: my friend and I decided to check this place out before making our way to Gilbert’s (as we usually do) but heard this place had great food. We parked and attempted to go to the bathroom prior to going in as we’d been driving and needed the rest room before eating lunch- it was locked so we thought ‘no big deal we’ll get a key when we’re seated’ . Before we could even walk in the door, we were met by a tall man with gray hair blocking our way and telling us “I know what You girls are doing here. The bathroom is for customers ONLY” my friend said “well yes we are planning on being customers” he literally SHOOED us away with his hand to go away and said “no I know what You’re doing” embarrassed, shocked and mad we walked away and canceled our reservation for Mother’s Day which was already booked. Coincidentally my hair is braided and my friends hair is purple, we both have tattoos and I’m wondering if we looked different would ‘white man Dan’ have acted different? Either day, screw this place and y’all lost out on a ton of money and repeat customers. Good...