Snappers Oceanfront Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Key Largo

Rude staff, skip this one!

Sometimes while traveling you go with the seafood restaurant that comes up first and doesn't have terrible reviews. I suggest you keep driving and don't make the mistake we did wasting time at Snappers!

The staff at Snappers created a real low point on a nice day. We were told 20-25 minutes for an outdoor table. We had no problem waiting, keeping our kids entertained quietly. 45+ minutes later no staff had bothered to update us, even when we were the only ones in the waiting room with them. Finally I politely approached, just smiling and saying "any luck?" They were oddly unpleasant, shrugging and avoiding looking at me, although three staff were standing there. It was baffling - the staff behavior was really a much bigger issue than the wait.

Eventually one of them said something to the other one like, "Just put 'em here" in a throw-them-anywhere kind of voice. "You'll have to add another chair."  A few minutes later we followed a waiter outside, where he led us to a little table literally a couple of feet from the very loud band. We all like live music, but our kids all had their hands covering their ears saying "it's too loud!!" and it clearly was absolutely deafening there for any age.

We walked back to the lobby, letting the waitress know as we passed (she just shrugged not caring), and stopped at the front desk where we very momentarily and calmly let the "hostess" know that it was way too loud.  The lady there instantly became aggressive in demeanor and tone, raising her voice at me saying something like "Well that's too darn bad!" or "Well that's all I'm doing!" Very aggressive and confrontational behavior to customers who had simply walked into their restaurant, quietly waited for an hour at that point, and had no other interaction with them - totally bizarre.  (We're just a typical, clean cut family with young to middle age kids.)

We weren't going to engage further with someone so weirdly confrontational with our kids standing there very hungry by now (not that I think it would have done any good if we had!), so we just kept walking back to our car with them. Thankfully we found a good place to pick up food en route to our next destination, and even had time to stop at a delicious Key Lime Pie specialty place 5 minutes away (a place I highly recommend).

But what a negative experience and huge waste of time at Snappers! We are not picky people, we expressed ordinary preference for outside vs inside when we checked in, but just to be clear and emphasize -- MADE NO DEMANDS ON THEM AT ALL! That's why I say - it could happen to you too! It seems obvious from staff comments to each other before seating us that they knew exactly what kind of situation we would find when seated. At no point did they simply say "Hey, sorry, but the wait is going to be longer than expected" or "We have a table but it's on top of the band" so we could make a decision with that information. They just clearly didn't care at all about our family as customers!

It stinks wasting so much time waiting for nothing, and being randomly mistreated by a rude, very aggressive and confrontational staff. This could happen to you too - huge waste of time and a downer to your day. Just keep on driving to a better place! Lots of friendly...

1 star - Horrible Service, Okay Food

My first ever review - This place was recommended by a local friend, and what a disappointment it was. We stopped by on a Saturday afternoon around 2:08 pm, with my family, and the experience was soured from the moment we walked in. The greeter was incredibly rude and unpleasant, a truly terrible first impression, for sure the wrong person to be your first contact at the restaurant. We initially requested an outdoor table and were told it would be a 25-minute wait, which we were fine with it. After 10 minutes, with hungry kids in tow, we opted for an indoor table. We were seated immediately, couple of minutes later another family of five was seated nearby and promptly greeted by a manager and served drinks by a server. Meanwhile, we sat and waited. After a while, I approached the greeter again, asking for service. His dismissive response was, "Your server will be with you in a minute." I then inquired about outdoor tables opening up, he told me he'd have to put us back on the list, told him not to worry about it, we will just stay inside. Another 15-20 minutes passed with no service. I then sought out the "acting" manager. When I explained we'd been waiting and just wanted to order, he became defensive and argumentative, saying we'd only been there 15 minutes, which was true, but others were tables were getting served but not us! He said he’s trying to get me a table outside, I explained it doesn’t matter can we just get service, he just won’t listen (communication between host, manager and customer). His condescending demeanor was shocking. At that point, I just wanted to leave. Coincidentally, a table opened up outside, and he acted like he was doing us a huge favor by offering it to us. Seriously, who trained this guy?! Our one-hour meal ended up taking an hour and 35 minutes, all thanks to the poorly managed host and the inept manager. The food itself was okay – it's hard to mess up fried food too badly. Our server was actually quite nice and seemed to be trying his best despite the chaos. We never saw the manager again after his initial outburst. He didn't even check on us; he just sent our server with a dessert, which I declined (though my wife really wanted the key lime pie so she got it). I suspect they get a lot of tourist traffic and therefore don't really care about repeat business. Regardless, I've already shared this terrible experience with friends in the area, and I certainly won't be recommending this place to anyone and won’t be stopping here again...

**Response to owner: reservation for 5 at 6pm on Thursday, May 8th. The “host” was a black man that I can tell wasn’t the normal hostess- seemed like a fill-in, in a jam. He was angry & didn’t say goodnight as we left after dinner either. Our server was a taller, Hispanic male right at the back door, main level- the round table to the right, on the deck looking at the water. A female took my call at 4pm after reservations were attempted online without any response from the restaurant- so I had to call. See pic below of texts from Google not getting a response from the restaurant multiple times. Clearly the 8th was a very bad day here. And the link wouldn’t allow to share my experience after dinner either.

Not sure what we walked into when we visited this place for dinner… but the place was all locked up, despite being open. We had a 6pm reservation & couldn’t get in. A large group started accumulating outside- all confused ab why we couldn’t get in to our dinner plans… Once the host unlocked the door he didn’t greet us & was very off-putting, it felt aggressive… we all knew something had/was going on but weren’t aware of specifics. Our server was super rude, he stood very close so as it felt intimidating & gave an attitude. I considered leaving but w a party of 5- I just rolled with it. Multiple times our server seemed to get into it w the host. And several guests who were brought out were very put out w the guy host. On the whole- food was just ok, the experience was horrible & felt as if we were an experiment for a hidden camera show. Bizarre & extremely uncomfortable. Felt like we should’ve been paid to endure that meal… something this explosive feeling, where it seeps out of the male staff (so many males working here- and they must have had a BRAWL!!)- was volatile feeling/unsafe....