Chart House — Restaurant in Longboat Key

On 1/28/25, we ate at the Chart House Seafood restaurant on Longboat Key, FL. Although it had been over twenty years since, on several occasions, I had eaten at a Chart House restaurant in Chicago, I had good memories of great dining experiences. Therefore, I looked forward to providing a treat to my better half who had not been to a Chart House. It quickly became clear that since Landry’s 2002 purchase of the Chart House restaurants, there has been a dramatic lowering of its operating standards and a directional change in the type of customers it must be trying to attract. To be fair, maybe it’s only the Longboat Key, FL restaurant that is in need of vast improvements. Regardless, we will never again eat there or be inclined to visit any other Chart House restaurant – what a disappointment!

Immediately upon entering this restaurant I was surprised to find loud music with its genre oriented to appeal to Gen-Z. This wasn’t yesteryear's Chart House atmosphere that had been so inviting to everyone. But times change and I get it that this must have been an intentional shift in direction to appeal to a specific segment of the population. However, our poor experience went well beyond any target market change(s).

The hostesses were non-communicative and unfriendly. After making them aware we had arrived on time for our reservation, we waited ~10-minutes without knowing what was going on. I finally asked if there was a problem that we should be aware of, but didn’t receive a response. The two young gals visited with one another and never looked up at me before finally proceeding to print a ticket and usher us back to a table without a word being spoken to us.

The server was brash, self-absorbed, unaccommodating and inattentive. We waited for nearly 10-minutes to receive a refill of our water that we had specifically requested. When she finally came back around, we again asked for water and received a comment that she was just on her way to fetch it. No apology for the wait or admitting to having forgotten it.

I have several food allergies and it became extremely difficult to find anything on the menu that didn’t already have garlic and/or onions prepped into it. Even though the kitchen had rice and pasta available, I was told they provide no substitutions even when they run out of baked potatoes. A simple thing as pasta with olive oil or to boil white rice to offer a starch was out of the question. I guess this restaurant must not have a true chef on duty or a high-level objective to satisfy its customers.

Upon leaving we walked past forks out in the open (not near a table) on the carpet. Those forks stuck out like a sore thumb and should have been obvious to any employee, especially by the person who dropped them. In other words, there was a lack of observation or attention to detail throughout this restaurant. To cap off this unpleasant dining experience, there was no ‘thank you’ provided by the hostess staff.

In short, the Chart House Seafood restaurant is a far cry from what it used to be, and that’s too bad. I recommend you think twice before dining at this chain restaurant, and definitely stay clear of the one on...

The WORST experience ever at a Chart House !!!

As a regular traveler across the Country, anytime that I find myself in a City which has a Chart House restaurant, I always choose it as my go-to place for either business dinners or simply for personal meals with family and friends. Primarily, because of the Service & Quality of the establishment.

However, this was "The Worst" ever experience for myself and my wife, who were in the area celebrating our anniversary. Let me explain in detail.

So while spending the day driving around Siesta Key, Lido Key and Longboat Key in search of property to purchase, we drove past this location around 1pm. I immediately decided that we would go here that evening 05/20/17, to celebrate our anniversary. I called and made reservations for 7:15 and informed the lady that I would like a "window" view, since this was a special occasion. She replied in the affirmative, and said that it was all taken care of.

From the minute we arrived 7:15pm, almost immediately it began to feel like we were not at the Chart House's we are used to frequenting. There was no hostess, so we stood by the desk waiting. After approximately 5 min, a female who had been carrying on a personal conversation with a couple a few feet away, turned and finally noticed us waiting and she approached.

I gave her my name and said that we had reservations for 7:15, she grabbed the menus and led the way to the back of the restaurant, passing up 3 tables that were directly next the windows facing the water.

I then asked her if we could have one of those and she responded saying no, because they were reserved. I then stated that my reservation was for a window table. We then walked back to the hostess desk, where another young lady looked at the computer and keyed in something and said it would just be a moment.

During the next 15 minutes other guest's which had arrived after us, were seated at various window tables that had also become available. Finally I spoke up and asked why we were not being seated? The same young lady then grabbed 2 menus and with a bit of an attitude said come this way. We were seated.

Another 17 minutes passed before anyone even came to our table to take our drink order. Once that happened, we ordered 2 drinks and an appetizer "hummus" the drinks then took another 13 minutes to arrive. 10 minutes later the bread finally arrived, and the hummus 10 minutes more after tgat . I mean Come On it's Hummus.

Finally a total of 50 minutes passed between the time we were seated and our drinks and appetizers arrived. So we decided to order dinner which took another 25 minutes to arrive.

Well what can I say except Highly Disappointed...

OK, so I'd like to give this place a little slack first of all, because the truth is we did walk in at 8:30 on a recent Sunday when we knew they were closing at 9, but the plan was to sit at the bar, order one drink and some food and get out quick so as not to be bad customers and make the staff wait for us to close down. We (wife & I) got to the bar, and there was no place to sit. Not because there were a lot of people-- there were only 4 people sitting at the massive bar, because the entire length of the bar was covered in used glasses and dirty dishes--there was literally not one place to sit that wasn't dirty. I asked the bartender (who resembled Billy Joel--current not 70s haha) if the kitchen was still open, and he answered "is it 9:00?" in the rudest tone of voice. We grabbed a table near the bar, which was also dirty but less so than the 8 or 9 available ones. This is especially mystifying as there seemed to be tons of wait staff hanging out, chatting in the dining area. Couldn't someone ask them to help bus the bar and bar tables? It was downhill from there--our waitress seemed poorly trained although doing her best I guess, we had to ask for the table to be wiped down, my wife's drink took 20+ minutes even though it was clear that the two bartenders were not very busy as dinner service was winding down. The waitress apologized and said that happy hour had been particularly busy, but happy hour had ended two hours before we walked in. I received an appetizer portion of coconut shrimp even though I had ordered the entree. After pointing this out, a waitress returned some time later with two sad shrimp and rice on a plate to make up the difference! My wife's trout was so salty as to be almost inedible--she had to scrape it with a knife in order to render it edible. Again, I'll give them some slack for it being the end of the evening, but if a place is open until 9, you have to make the dining experience pleasant for your customers even at closing time. And this was super unpleasant--at the very least, show some pride in your bar area and clean it. As a former bartender, that really should be job 1! If you want great food and great service (and clean tables) go literally a mile from here to Dry Dock Waterfront Grill--that place is awesome and 100...