Fish City Grill — Restaurant in Lakeland

Skip the Fish City Grill

Most of the restaurants I've visited in the past few years have been pretty good. They either had amazing, friendly, and professional service or a kitchen that produced food that you think about three days later and will never forget. This is not the case with Fish City Grill. Our waiter Robbie did an amazing job, but management apparently thinks that the wait should clear and clean the tables between seatings which slows down service. But, my biggest complaint was the food. The menu has many items that I thought might be tasty, but I prefer the simple to the sublime. I ordered simple fish and chips. This would be an opportunity for a kitchen to show how they could take an ordinary dish and dress it up, adding extra flavors that would tickle the pallet. But not here. I think they had frozen commercial food that they just dumped into the fryer and served with a smattering of ordinary frozen fries. Then they charged $10 for the plate. Worst yet, the fish was undercooked. The fish is supposed to be crispy, and crunchy with every bite and seasoned so that one plate isn't enough. You can serve this with french fries, but waffle fries are more traditional. I would expect this plate from any hamburger stand but from a restaurant with "fish" in its name, I was hoping for more. Even the tartar sauce tasted like plain watered-down mayonnaise.

Then there was the beer. How do you mess up a draft beer? Overcharging the customer, and serving seconds in the same glass. I ordered a Mich Ultra. The sign said that the price was 4 / 5 which I've always thought was $4 during happy hour and $5 outside those hours. There's even a sign that says $1 off during happy hour. But they charged me $5 all the same.

Lastly, was the bill. I looked at the bill in shock. Not only did they charge us $50 for three fish tacos, a terrible plate of fish and chips, a daiquiri with too much alcohol, and the aforementioned beer. They also overcharged us for the tax. In the state of Florida, there is no food, alcohol, or beer tax. For table service, you just pay the standard sales tax, which can change based on which county you're in. Yet, there it was and slightly more than the 7% for Polk County.

Towne Center has many restaurants and my wife and I have visited several that have left us with a fantastic experience. Good food, great personable service, and a reasonable bill. This place is not one of those. If you're out on the town and looking for some good eats with a little libation, skip the Fish City Grill. It'll take away from the good times...

I had a party of 11, and I thought I had made the right choice bringing them to eat at Fish City Grill. Yes the staff is friendly and the food affordable, however, when a restaurant uses salad dressing to season their foods, that is not acceptable for these types of restaurants. You can expect that in a fast food place, however, here it shouldn't be allowed. All of us were surprised to see the limited many entries on the menu that was presented to us when we were seated, and when the waitress came to ask if we were ready to order, we asked why so few items, and she pointed our to the walls where more choices were hand written on paper. We found that in bad taste because we had to get up from our chairs to look around to find something interesting or exciting, which of course, when we got what we ordered, most dishes came with salad dressing for seasoning, and some with so little that, you couldn't tell. Additionally, I intentionally decided to order the the fish sanwich, and when I cut it to eat half, the bottom piece of breard was so wet that I couldn't eat it. It looked like if it had fallen into a water pot. Also, what happened with your water filtration that the water tastes like Clorox? I certainly did not drink it, and ordered bottle water. One last thing: My wife ordered a virgin Piña Colada, and that was not available. Maybe it will be a good idea to add these types of drinks for those like us whom don't drink alcohol. You will get the opportunity to earn 5 stars when you get to know if your staff is taking short cuts not following any SOPs you may have in place, or when you stop using salad dressing instead of spices to give taste to your foods. I wish I could have taken a picture of my sandwich so you could see how it looked like, but I was too embarrassed to do that with my group I took to your restaurant. I invite everyone reading these comments to try instead Asian, Italian, Indian "From India" Mexican, and all other tasty foods, then make the comparison with...

To a fault, my husband and I are food snobs. It takes certain things for us to recommend and return to a restaurant. It takes a great deal to impress us. Yesterday we decided to try Fish City Grill and we were surprised by how much they were able to impress us. We went for a late lunch. We were greeted and seated immediately. The lunch specials on a large board were pointed out to us. Amy was our server. She was a delight; extremely friendly and helpful. The crab and shrimp queso appetizer was loaded with meat. I only wish it was creamier, but the flavor was very good. My husband had the lobster grilled cheese sandwich. He said he is ruined and will never be able to eat a normal lobster roll again. It had a good amount of meat, bacon and gooey cheese on garlic toast. It was fantastic! He had green beans which also were crunchy, tender and a great flavor. I had the fried catfish and shrimp. The batter was perfectly crisp without taking away from the taste of the fish. The catfish was the cleanest tasting we'd ever had. Their Cole slaw is the perfect combination of vinegar and sweet. I'm a sucker for hush puppies and these are the best I've found in Polk County. Hubby found a small piece of shell in his lobster; perfectly ok and proved it was real meat. The owner (who was also expediting the kitchen) saw him hold up something. He came to our table and made sure we were ok. Really?!? Not only is your service perfect, your food is fresh and delicious, you are expediting every order and you noticed what might have been a problem and immediately came to check? OUTSTANDING!!! Also the prices are exceptionally reasonable. We've paid a lot more for a lot less. This will be our go-to from now on. It is more than worth the 45 minute drive for us. Kudos to this...