Half Shell — Restaurant in Memphis

My husband and I recently ordered to go for lunch and it was over $54! I got a soup and salad ($14.99) and my husband got a grilled chicken salad (14.99). He tipped $2 even though he was shocked at the price. I looked at the receipt too because I was perplexed at the cost and low and behold, there was an $8 gratuity added to a lunch to go order even though the bottom of the receipt said gratuity is only added after 5pm. Gratuity for what? We did not receive any service! My husband walked in and paid at a register. Half shell employees failed to tell us this so we tipped $10 on a $35 to go order! I think this is a sneaky and deceptive tactic. How can you force customers to pay for a service they did not receive? Not even that, they charged us over $2 for a to go fee and another $1 for the to go containers that no doubt only cost the restaurant a penny each. Our meal was $36 and ended up being $20 more with all the hidden charges they failed to disclose. It just feels like they are trying to make a profit on every single thing they can. Why not pay your staff better wages? Oh they don't want to do that, they'd rather charge customers gratuity when no services were received. It just feels like a really dirty, Car salesman experience and as much as I used to love getting lunch there a few times a month (usually dine in), but now, neither myself or my husband will be returning to half shell. Especially when there are so many other great seafood options in the Memphis metro that don't have hidden charges and force you to pay them. Tips should always be optional, never forced....

Last night was my first night at the Half Shell. This was not a great experience at all. Me and my wife order water with lemon for our drinks. As we look at the menus to order our food. The sever brings our water... I put the straw in my water and drink some it was a long strand of hair in the inside leading to outside of the cup. I was disturbed and asked the server may I have another glass of water due to the hair. The server did not change my glass she just rinsed it out. So need to say I still did not drink that water. As me and my wife are drinking out of her water glass since I refused to drink my cup. We noticed black stuff on the ice. So we are sitting with nothing to drink. My wife noticed the hostess notice something in the ice container and got it out with no gloves or even washing hands. We got our appetizers which was gumbo and fried shrimp egg rolls. The appetizers was delicious and that is where we should have stopped at. For dinner my wife ordered cajun blackened bow tie pasta. The pasta was very blend and was very nasty. I ordered fried breaded shrimp with a stuffed baked potato with bacon and cheese. First the shrimp still had the vain in it. Which to me is very disgusting. The potato had a slice of cheese melted on top of the potato. They are charging high dollar prices for low quality food. My bill came up to be $50.21... The only things that was worth paying for was the gumbo which was $6.99 and the fried shrimp egg rolls which was $8.99. This was my first and my last time at Half Shell. Low quality food with...

Instead of the bartender focusing on service, she spent time discussing her son who his in High Scool who is on Focalyn and has been on it for 4 years and now is in High School and still on it. She discussed this with a customer who asked what should their grandson be on because he can’t behave in school and is now in a different class. Now the bartender is a Psychiatrist because she suggests that the grandson not be on Vyvanse because it is too strong. Also discusses Adderall as not being a good choice. She than suggest the dosage of Focalyn to be 10mg and that her son has been on a dosage as high as 15 mg but suggests 10 mg. All this is going on while customers require service. She than wants to see pictures of the grandchildren. All I wanted was my to go order and another drink while waiting. She became upset when she finally finished diagnosing and prescribing meds that I asked for another drink. A previous bartender made the first one and I assumed she could do the same. It was totally different and I did not like it and asked for the forts bartender to make it and was told he was on break. I did not ask for another one from her but she brought one and I told her I didn’t want it. She became angry brought my food and ticket slamming it on the counter and never came back. I than obtained assistance from another staff. Please understand that customers come in for service and this is shameful. Terrible...