Marina 27 Steak & Seafood — Restaurant in Lake Lotawana

It is lamentable that I am compelled to write this review. We have been Marina people since the Grog and Galley first opened; but we never will be again. This evening, in support of KC Restaurant Week, we drove an hour to fine dine at Marina 27; it was a NIGHTMARE experience. The “Hot” Crab Dip came out ice cold, so I sent it back. It comes to our table again and it was ice cold. The steak in the steak soup was so tough that I could not eat it. And the Grouper with Broccoli I ordered came out ice cold too. In addition, they brought my colleague the wrong entrèe. To make matters worse, when I expressed our dissatisfaction to our waitress, Dusty, and then to the manager, Amy, their response was egregiously unprofessional, condescending, disrespectful, and outright offensive. Amy said after the first mistake:“that’s bizarre. Hopefully it’s uphill from here” as she’s walking away dismissively from our table–like this incompetence was my fault! No accountability, no initial apology or offered corrective action. Dusty had the same unpleasant demeanor with her flippant and curt remarks and eye-rolls. It wasn’t until the owner Lance came to offer an apology and to comp our bill that Dusty and Amy changed their deplorable behaviors. But by then it was too late. I sent everything back and left without eating. I offered to pay for my small steak soup and for my colleague’s dinner, but Lance insisted since it was all the restaurant’s fault; I actually planned on spending a lot of money tonight! My family has been in the restaurant business in KC since the 1940s. Having grown-up in the restaurant business and been a restaurant owner myself for 25 years, I could not imagine treating customers the way we were treated tonight. I actually empathize with and feel sorry for Lance. Having such incompetent and hateful staff really tarnishes the standard of excellence that Marina 27 proclaims to offer. After tonight, not only will we never return, but our family, friends, colleagues, and employees will not either. Marina 27 would have to get better to be terrible. Thank God there are plenty of other Steak & Seafood Fine Dining restaurants who treat customers with the respect and dignity...

I had heard good things about this place so i made reservations for our anniversary dinner and was really disappointed. I would have given 2 stars but our waitress did a great job and I'm assuming they are very short staffed or have inexperienced staff so I'm trying to show grace. We had indoor reservations for 7:45 but it still took over 30 minutes to be sat even though there was an abundance of tables open. The food was nothing special for what I was expecting for this supposedly being a fine dining establishment. I can think of at least 20 places in the metro you can get better steaks and seafood as well as service for half the price. The asparagus was undercooked, lobster bisque was meh, the steak was decent but my wife's steak which she ordered medium well came out more rare then my steak which was medium rare, her baked potato was very underwhelming, you can literally get a better baked potato at texas roadhouse. When my wife sent her steak back the manager (im assuming) came over and was apologetic, again im assuming new staff or maybe an off night because she seemed frustrated it was the 3rd steak that had been sent back in the last 10 minutes in the restaurant according to her. When you make a reservation they ask if it is for a special occasion which I don't know why because nothing special was done. We don't expect anything special for a special occasion but when they ask if you're dining with them for a special occasion it's almost implied they'll try to make the experience special. Every other restaurant we've ever been to on an anniversary has brought out a cheesecake or champagne toast or something to make the occasion special but not this place. Another final note is they charge a fee for using a credit or debit card which would be understandable if it was a small purchase but not on a bill that is over $200, most retailers only charge you that fee on purchases under $5 so it seems a little tacky to do so on purchases above that. Luckily I had cash on me to avoid it. I wanted to like this place but it will be our first and last...

So, 2 of our mixes drinks were not mixed correctly, a lobster bisque was forgotten about and brought out late, and there were bones in the fish and chips. While our starters were ordered, it took a while for our entrees to be taken. When my friend found more than 1 piece of bone in her entree, our server whisked the fish and chips away without giving my friend an option to either have another order brought out (which it was a bit later) or a completely different entree. He apologized for it, but again, he didn't make it, he just served it to us. When a lady came to out table to do the courtesy "how is everything" bit, our concerns were completely dismissed, no apologies were given. A while later, as we were finishing up our dinners and boxing up our leftovers to take home, same lady comes back and asks if we're able to square up with our server because she has people waiting to be seated at our table. Our faces, if you could have seen them, because she did and quickly tried to remedy her words with I could offer you ladies some after dinner drinks out on our patio? Again, no apologies given. Now some of my friends have been here many many times and have spent a generous amount of money here. Not once have they ever been asked to leave. Were there other tables she could've asked to leave? Yes, but did she? No. (there was a table of 6 seated adjacent to us and were seated way before we were, they could've been asked to leave if they were done). We felt disappointed and slightly angered by the way we were treated. Are you not supposed to say something when your orders aren't correct? Since when did speaking up for yourself result in being rushed to leave? Lady's name is Amy, by the way. Our server was great with it being a busy Saturday night, none of this was on him. Amy ruined the evening by being as unprofessional as one could be in food service / hospitality could be. Unfortunately,.this evening's interaction with Amy will not be bringing any of us back to the Marina 27...