Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub — Restaurant in Longboat Key

Definitely caters to true dockside, beachside, non-highway clientele of a somewhat exclusive but definitely affluent area. Several large groups arriving soon after us literally came across a pier/dock bridge with young kids in tow as if they just deboarded a yacht. As for food, predominantly seafood but a few land lubber items available with an obviously long and well stocked/displayed bar and multiple drink boards. We had shrimp scampi. fish tacos, pork belly tacos, and the crab special. First restaurant I recollect with only a two not three taco serving. Fish taco above average and slightly unique ingredients (overpowered the broiled fish), not the best but also not chain restaurant variety. Pork belly ranked good flavor. For both taco dishes low volume if you are really hungry. The shrimp scampi had plenty of shrimp in angel hair pasta. The steamed crab was a 'pot' style with plenty of boiled young potato and fresh corn cob sides. Shared a chocolate cake which the icing was deemed good but for me the cake texture was pepperidge farm like freezer type firm/dey and cool temperature so hopefully really wasn't just thawed. A specialty double rum fufu tropical beverage was a tad citrusy so on the bitter sharp side with the most cherries on a skewer ever (must be a restaurant trend to give cherries lately and enough kickbuzz but not absolute single punch knockout so above average bar drink packing a little oomph. A lot of indoor walls openable glass door seating plus a lot more outdoor seating both under roof and open air. Unique and well laid out outdoor patio/waiting bench area plus seating I could see thus place as a local favorite for parties of all sizes including an area where some young kids turned the bench logs into a mini obstacle walking course. Off the main road and worth a visit. I can imagine the place could really have dome great large gatherings from family to clients and weddings, kudos to the proprietors a flexible and spacious multipurpose facility. Server was very courteous and pleasantly polite but increasingly busy so disappeared awhile but certainly did not forget us. We came off peak season and from so many patrons arriving just after us waiting for main dishes had the impression the place was a little short staffed for chefs. On the list to revisit now, potential for 5 stars someday particularly if cleanliness addressed as there was spilt food on the floor at several cleared tables early in the dinner hours we decided against using and the restroom, well, needs more regular attention. Typical conditions for a busy but understaffed restaurant if you can overlook it but yet hurdles you hope not to remember. Still, more positives...

Been here 5 or 6 times in the last year, the location and ambience are amazing and the reason we go back. Unfortunately we have been unlucky with servers not being friendly and actually making us uncomfortable. Tonight may have been the worse, he was almost rude and felt like he needed to school us if we had a question. It was very weird, everyone at the table commented on it. An example: when I mentioned that the spicy hand cut potato chips were plain and actually had no spice he said well some people think ketchup is too spicy!! Excuse me??!! We asked how much the catch of the day was and he didn’t know, and seemed displeased we had asked, said I’ll need to enter it in the system before I’ll know. OK do that then it’s your job!! There were probably 10 more inappropriate comments and responses. The POS system the servers have to wear on their wrist and enter everything on table side does not make it feel like a fine dining experience, more like a fast food restaurant (not the server’s fault but the owners, I don’t remember it last time so I’m assuming it’s the new owners). Overall food and drinks were good, with exception of the grouper fingers (which were actually bites), it was $18 for 5 tiny pieces and even worse only 3 were bites containing grouper, the other 2 were 80% batter:( Wish I had taken a picture because It was Really bad) Even though we love the location under the trees, and always take visitors there I’m just not sure I would go back, mainly because of the unfriendly, unprofessional servers we’ve encountered several times and also the food is just not that great compared to a lot of other...

So obviously, the scenery was great, and our server has a nice girl 0 issues there ... Basically, our dishes were unimpressive, to say the least. I had to assume the Tuesday cooks are not your weekend cooks, so maybe we caught the B team. The Garlic in pesto on the burrata was so raw and sharp it was pungent, the over use of the balsamic drizzle was to bitter there wasn't a balance of sweetness, the barrata chz it self desperately needed a finishing salt ... My Briskit taco was dry n powdery clearly been sitting to long in the steam well or heated 1 to many times the radishes from your farm your so proud of where under utilized and chips again salt very needed .... but the Octopuss really was the true disappointment holy crap it was so ver cooked it was mush instead of tender, the char was so over done and im sure the grill needed a good brush through out the evening cas that's what the tetincles tasted like literally the grill grates, Romesco was good only thing edible on the plate, fingerling potatoes over cooked hours prior to being served , they were the size of small baked potatoes and should have been cut smaller and again tossed in a nice herb oil and some seasoning would have went a long way. Just overcooked under seasoned 'eh dinning experience. I'd say at least your view is beautiful, but so are all the Restaurants and Bars in your area lots of competition. I recognized your locals so you obviously have a following. Maybe we caught your place on a bad night. Good...