Surf Hut — Restaurant in Miramar Beach

I would usually not rate something low cuz I try to look at this as a very positive thing but every once in awhile you just can't let something go LOL I was in Destin Florida for work and I was staying up the beach at a hotel. I took my wife with me we walked down the beach until we ended up at this little local joint called the surf Hut. The best way to tell you my experience is to look at the pictures. It was such a wonderful day that my wife and I decided to sit outside in an area with umbrellas and tables where we were watching a few other diners eat. There's also an outside seating area under an awning. It was also an entire restaurant devoid of people except for three handfuls of employees. Immediately upon our entering from the beach entrance we were met by both servers, a bartender, and I guess who might have been a floater telling us that they will not serve us outside. Then, I watch this everyone who told me that they cannot serve us outside refuse to even enter into an agreement with us to give us a menu so we could order something ourselves, order to go, or however the surf Hut decides to take your money for services rendered. Needless to say they forced us to order through the bartender which is fine because they generally treat you a little better anyway. I ordered the crab and shrimp dip to go which was a huge mistake. We got a bowl of congealed cheese with one shrimp and I'm not kidding. The chips were so stale and devoid of any flavoring at all I felt like I was eating cheese toast off the bottom of a shoe. The only good thing was the $14 sweet, puckering specialty drink, and the $7 Miller lite. Joe at the end of the day we had one drink a piece and a to-go container filled halfway with empty cheese to be eaten with stale chips. All of this for $50 but that's okay I guess it was vacation LOL by the way, the picture you see is just two of the people who turned me down for service while they sat there big rumps outside and talk the entire time we were there. He may have been shift change because there was no less than 15 employees crawling around that place the service the 10 customers that were there. Two of us were refused service because we were sitting outside in a place that's located right smack dab on the Gulf of Mexico called the surf hut. Can you believe it? I would never go here again if you paid me...

I had a very bad dining experience at the Surf Hut. The restaurant positions itself as a popular “fun in the sun” beachside dining destination, advertising and promoting heavily in the Destin area. They serve a little of everything, from seafood to tacos, salad and burgers, to in my case, a large live insect burrowing through my food.

To be clear, my Beach Burger was delivered with a quarter-sized insect that looked like a beetle with wings, climbing in and out of the patty and fries. This is how it was delivered from the kitchen; I do not believe it flew in as my plate was being delivered.

My waitress offered to take it back to be remade. What she didn't offer, and this is an important point, was an apology or explanation as to how this even reached me. During the remainder of our meal, which was cut short because we mostly lost our appetites, no manager came by to apologize either. The restaurant did not remove a penny from the bill.

When I returned home, I reached out to Terry L., the general manager, and asked for an accommodation to the bill. At his request, I texted a photo of the credit card receipt. I asked that the cost of the burger be refunded and he promised to make things right. He has not done so, with my recent follow up going unanswered. I also received no response when I escalated the incident to Salt Water Restaurants Inc., the parent of the Surf Hut, or Nick S., the CEO.

You learn a lot about a business, in this case a restaurant, for how it responds when things go wrong. I don’t like publicly calling out restaurants but the Surf Hut’s failure to resolve what amounted to a terribly served entrée and a ruined dinner speak volumes. I personally will not dine at their restaurant again. Don't be taken in by their marketing. Their food in my case was lacking and there are plenty of better restaurants...

Our first time to this restaurant on our family vacation. We had heard very great places about this restaurant and decided to end our family vacation on a high. We ordered the captains platter with bbq sliders, my oldest daughter was under the impression she was going to receive a shrimp po boy, my youngest daughter ordered the taco trio. My daughters food comes out and we do not receive a shrimp po boy but a hamburger bun with shrimp in it. We kindly ask to have the shrimp I don’t know even know what to call it taken back and swapped for a burger. The manager swapped it, my youngest daughter receives her tacos and was not a fan of the huge pile of vegetables and sauce that was on it had it sent back and asked for a burger again. The waitress who was super sweet and kind stated that it wasn’t possible because they had already swapped out the other sandwich. I proceeded to ask for the manager and she kindly sent him in my direction. I spoke with the manager well really I argued for with the manager to trade out out my child’s food. At the end he finally changed it and said I was not right. An older gentleman is walking around asking how the food was and proceeded to ask me why I wasn’t eating and so I began to let him know of my experience. His response was an animal had to die to have this meal, I the. Stated yes I agree this is unfortunately the circle of life. He asks me on how things could have been handled differently I begin to tell him have your wait staff ask questions to the guests about the details of the food especially if a child is ordering. He follows up with well you should make sure your kid knows what they are ordering and not let them order. Needless to say we waited for the burgers and got our checked. I can’t believe that management staff here argues...