Bunky's Raw Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Melbourne

I can't even remember the last time I wrote a review but today I felt compelled. We used to frequent Bunky's often but moved a little farther south so haven't as much. We were beachside today and were excited to come in for lunch. We were greeted fine, sat quickly, ordered mimosas which took about 10 minutes but were still fine with just enjoying being out. Ordered appetizers and entrees at the same time a few minutes after. 35 minutes after the server came back to the table and told us there are only 2 cooks in the kitchen so they are really backed up and would it be ok with all our food coming out at once.....well I guess we have no choice so we said it would be fine. 50 minutes into sitting down our two small and easy to make appetizers came out. We ordered oysters which were smaller than a penny (the oyster part) which was a bit disappointing. 10 minutes later our food came out. Someone walked by and asked if we were ok and if we needed anything which we replied no. Once we were finished eating the server immediately came over and handed us the bill. I politely asked if there was maybe something the manager could do as it clearly took an extensive amount of time to get our food. The server left and came back a few minutes later and said " my manager said she hasn't done anything for anyone else that had to wait so she isn't going to do anything for you. Sorry"....WHAT? I work as a manager in the restaurant industry and would never ever instruct my servers to say such a thing. I asked to speak with the manager directly....a few minutes later the same person that came by earlier showed up the table (which is what she should have done immediately when we asked for some type of compensation). She then further explained that she can give us a free dessert but that's all her boss has ever told her she can do. Continued to justify that there were only 2 cooks and she was helping in the kitchen also...followed that up with multiple people quit this week because they found out how busy the kitchen gets and didn't want to do the work ?!?!? WHAT again ??? She then thanked us for coming and said I hope you still had a pleasant experince. Wow just wow. We will not be back again I assure you as I would never let a customer leave that waited almost an hour for their appetizer and was clearly disappointed. Not sure who her boss is but praying that truly is not his/her policy and this manager just didn't want to have to justify her comps for not having adequate staff. So sad as this was one of our...

[Overview]: Overall 10/10 experience! Everytime I come here it’s always have a great experience. It’s a clean establishment conveniently located near the beach. The restaurant has big windows letting in natural lighting which is always nice in my opinion. Our waitress today was Cheyenne, she was very pleasant and sweet. SUPER knowledgeable about menu items and drink selections. She made great recommendations, I would definitely request her next time! The food is great every time, I always highly recommend this restaurant!

Food Details Below: I ordered the [coconut mojito] and the [whiskey thistle] mixed drinks, both were very good and well balanced in alcohol to mixer ratio.

[Baja Tacos] 10/10. Perfect tacos! Savory, buttery, crispy beer batter fried fish with sweet slaw served with a tangy/zesty sauce. Very simple but amazing in taste!

[Shrimp Platter]: 10/10. Perfect meal to have after hitting the beach, you can leave feeling good and satisfied. The shrimp was fresh and cooked well, the slight char from the grill added great flavor. The grilled zucchini and asparagus are always awesome!

[Addon Crab Cake]: 8/10. This was very fresh and I appreciated the large chunks of crab throughout! It was not dry the only thing I would nitpick is it could have used a tad more seasoning, whether it be butter, old bay, etc. I did squeeze lemon on it and that helped. But overall it was still very good!

[Pretzels] 10/10. Accompanied with great dipping sauce options. Crispy with big chunks of salt on the outside and super soft and pillowy on the inside, these are a...

What a shame! This place WAS the best seafood in the area. The quality has since gone down hill :(

So the servers should not tell the customers they have never shucked an oyster. We ordered a dozen oysters and they took quite a long time. To find out the waitresses have to shuck the oysters. Unfortunately if you don't do it right the customer gets a lot of shell pieces with the oysters. I took quite a bit out of my mouth.

I ordered the ahi tuna sandwich with coleslaw. Hubby got the grouper sandwich with fries. The waitress takes your order and a runner brings the order. Yeah she brought our meals to the WRONG table. She set both down at that table and the lady was touching "my" plate wondering what it was. She picked the plate up and handed it back. The runner then tried to bring them to our table and set them in front of us. I watched it since we were sitting at the next table over. I refused the meals as they were touched by other customers. SERIOUSLY I should NOT have had to tell her how wrong that was. The man at that table kept coughing and wiping his nose. I offered to have the manager stop by and talk to me. She said it wasn't necessary.

The waitress came to the table and apologized and said new meals were being made.

My tuna was thin strips. It used to be an actual tuna steak. My hubby's fish was over cooked and not served with tarter sauce. The waitress acted like it was an add on to the meal. But she went to get some.

I am so disappointed that this place has went down hill so much. But good...