Longboards Oceanfront Grille — Restaurant in Melbourne

Edit: reached out twice more since I never got a call from the GM. Was told he would definitely call me back, but never did.

Awful experience bringing a group of business partners from overseas to this place. Called the sales department and spoke to Dan and Erin (on separate days), being assured they can handle our 25 person party on a Tuesday night "no problem."

During the course of the evening, we had one waiter. For 25 people. He started off rude and continued throughout the night, bringing drinks and plates one at a time from the bar and kitchen; actually walking back and forth for each one, not using a tray.

We finished ordering at 8. The first meals came in 30 minutes, the last meal came out at 10 pm. Ryan, the manager, told me they were "fully staffed" and looking around half the tables were empty - but he still kept this one waiter doing all our orders. We watched tables who came in at 9 order, eat, and leave before we left. My coworker and I ordered poke bowls at the same time. I got mine 45 minutes before him... he sure had fun watching me eat.

There were at least 5 other servers besides our waiter; I know because we had plenty of time to count. However, they were doubling and in one case, tripling up to serve the smaller group of 10 on the other side of the deck. It was pretty infuriating. Then the checks took an additional 20 minutes just to come out and Ryan gave us the "vip" discount of 20%... which cancels out the automatic 18% gratuity. Gee, thanks I guess? Knocked 5$ off my bill.

It was embarrassing to bring our international business partners to such a bad experience. It's apparant this place can only handle small groups, even when fully staffed and at half capacity. But when 2 different sales people assured me they were ready, I felt safe bringing the group there. Big mistake.

I feel for the waiter, regardless of his poor attitude or inexperience. His management put him in a spot way over his capacity and it was tragic. I had to leave at 10:15, before the last of our group left, but I heard the waiter broke down and I feel bad about that. Ryan really left you out to dry my man...for that I apologize.

I was assured by Erin I'd be receiving a call from Alan, the GM today... but nope, still waiting. Will update this review if I...

To be fair, I will begin with the positive. The view from the patio is amazing. The breeze coming in from the ocean is perfect. However, I believe staff and management bank on these two facts. I was on a tight schedule today with my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. I wanted to have a quick lunch with them before we set up for the party. I live in ATL, and only get a few days a year to visit. This visit was a special visit. We arrived for lunch at 11:45am, and the restaurant was completely empty. We did have a large table with 10 of us in total, however we did not order appetizers, or anything complicated. ..and we ordered food within 15 minutes of being seated. We were served HALF our order an HOUR LATER at 12:45 and the rest around 1:10pm….25 minute discrepancy. When we asked the waitress about the rest of the order, she was less than concerned about the discrepancy in timing. …I was honestly embarrassed for her. The manager swaggered around the tables at that time and asked about our experience. …he was not pleased with our report, and despite the fact we arrived when no one else was there, he excused the poor service to Memorial Day weekend. In other words, the fact that we were sitting at our table for two hours was inconsequential to him. …In his words…It wasn’t the restaurant’s fault, it was the fact that it was Memorial Day weekend. I ran every scenario through my head, however, …why wouldn’t the waitress want to clear the table and get more customers in…make more tips…more money!?!? …last thought …you are forced to walk across the street, climb a STEEP stairwell to cross A1A, and then descend a very steep stairwell. The parking signs all said “for valet only”…so we had to drive up to the hotel, figure out parking, drive BACK over A1A and finally park. It was a beautiful view, but the food was mediocre, the service was AWFUL, and trying to park and arrive to that AWEFUL experience is just not worth it. It makes me sad that they are clearly taking advantage of their beautiful view. If they had better service (despite their mediocre food), they could be world class. Instead, they choose to be low class and low rent among...

We went to the beach and decided to stop here for dinner based on the 4.6 review. We were seated and then told that they were only accepting cash because their systems were down. They stated that there was a ATM in the lobby. They said they would take off the ATM charge of the bill. Since we were seated we figured we would stay. We ordered our drinks and it took a few for server to take our order. He finally did and I would say about 10-15 mins he comes back and states that crab cake sandwich was no longer available, they ran out . It was 6pm on a Saturday and it wasn’t packed. With such a small menu we were surprised and not happy because thats one of the meals we wanted. We were forced to go with blackened mahi mahi. We got our calamari appetizers and it wasn’t great. It seems refried or overcooked. They were really dark and crispy. My sons pizza didn’t look fresh. Picture was maybe 10 mins after being served. My daughter and I had burgers, different temps and her was plain. Both of ours came plain. I received my other toppings on the side after. After biting into it, she had mine that was medium cooked. The mahi taco was blah. The server seemed stressed. He came to refill our sodas but instead of getting us new cups or taking our cups and refilling. he brought two big cups with soda and filled our current cups with them. Our current cups were already water down since this is an outdoor restaurant. So mixing soda with watered down soda wasn’t a good idea and did not taste well. I informed him and i don’t think he understood, he seemed confused. We saw the manager stopping at a table and thought she would be stopping at others and thought we would share our thoughts but she didn’t.

overall...