Sam's Sports Grill - Blue Turtle Bay — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

I'm a new Orleans saints fan, live in Nashville so have to go somewhere to watch the game unless it happens to be broadcasting, which is rare. The problem is I'm a single mom of two small kids, don't like taking them to a bar. In good weather, though, I find myself here one in approx every third Sunday afternoon during NFL season. It's the rare place I can take my kids AND watch the game at least a good portion of it . There's lots to like here... It's situated alongside a marina on priest lake. A little hard to find the first time, it's not a spot you're initially expecting a sports bar. Unique dining experience choices: if you get there early enough, you can get an outside seat which is literally on top a floating wooden dock. Infinite flat screen at every angle, showing all games, so no one fights over the tv channels. A real mixed and fun crowd. The indoor seating is like a classic Paris cafe, they can retract the windows and you feel the breeze on a nice day it's the next best thing to outdoor seating, but when it's cold or rainy they seal the windows and place space heaters around. Lastly, there's this pavilion atop a somewhat long metal stairway, a wooden structure with five more flatscreens and about 10 big tables. The waiters don't walk food up there to serve you, but on a typical busy Sunday,you're free to order at the and and carry your meal up there to eat it, where it's much less crowded and you get a great view of all the docking and departing boats. Perfect for the kids, inorder the food and set them up with iPads, and there's room for them to run around and play but they're within my sight at all times and can't get lost in the crowd below. This place also has an artificial pond stocked with ducks, which surrounds the front of the restaurant; it's a lot of fun for little ones, offering a 25¢ per cup duck food serving gumball type machine, provides hours of entertainment. The last seating option (aside from the bar itself)is actually my favorite one if it's a kid free visit: behind the outdoor seating and running along the boardwalk that circles the restaurant, there's a counter that is standing room only, for when the bar and seating is filled to capacity... You can order drinks and food at the bar, and watch the games with a still really good view, from out on this deckside counter area. Right behind you is a part of the marina where boats can dock; on a sunny day, many pull up their speed boats and even jet skis and tie up the boat, then just have a few drinks, intermingling between tail gate like festivities on deck of the boat, and hanging out chatting with the rest of the crowd watching games and drinking. Lots of interesting characters, a real mixed crowd, and not at all unfriendly to those with children. I've had a lot of fun just hanging out there on the waterside on sunny days, even when the saints are losing, chatting with strangers , occasionally asked onto a boat! Lastly, the prices are really good here. I dont go here for the food, but its perfectly decent and generous portions. The one, single minor gripe, is that the bathrooms in here are absolutely teeny and hard to manoeuvre. Especially with kids in tow. Expect a huge line and wait on weekend especially with nice weather, but like I said above, no need to wait in the line for a table when there are so many perfectly pleasant alternative spots to park and eat, drink and watch football once you...

If I could give the service a negative review, I would. We had our first unpleasant experience here tonight. We got stuck with a server named Reginee. From the moment we came in, she was on her phone. She came to our table and I had to tell her multiple times that I wanted an unsweet tea and needed more Splenda. She never did bring more Splenda and I asked her again and she said she had just come off of a break and couldn’t get to it. When she took our order, she didn’t write anything down and had to repeat our order to us 3 times. Our food was brought out to us by one of the food runners. We were at least halfway through our meals before Reginee got off of her phone (from rolling silverware) to ask us how everything was. When I finished with my dinner, she came back and asked, “Everything good?” We just nodded and said, “Yes.” We were over it at this point. The entire time, we are watching all of the other servers running around checking on their tables and here we sit, miserable because our server has no business working there. When she left our table, she left my dirty empty plate at our table. That was it. We saw the manager, Tawny, and talked to her. Food was great, but our concern was that we wanted the tip to go to everyone else who waited on us, not her. We expressed our concerns to Tawny as we have been coming to Sam’s for almost a year and this was the first time we have ever had an issue. Fortunately, my husband had cash and we gave it to Tawny for everyone else who is working. Tawny ended up taking our dirty empty dishes from our table. Then, Reginee brought us the check, my husband looked it over, and then put his credit card on it. Probably 10 minutes went by and now, I’m just done, so I get up and go looking for someone who might now be too busy and then, I go to the bar and stand there patiently waiting. Reginee comes up to me and asks, “Are you ready to check out love?” I told her, “Nope, I had to get up, so you can go back to your phone, I’ll wait here for the bartender. Bye.” She goes looking for her manager and then goes to the manager’s office and starts knocking on the door. I then see Tawny coming from across the way and ask her if she wouldn’t mind checking us out because I’m just done since Reginee was too busy on her phone (again rolling silverware) to ring us out. Tawny was happy to ring us out. Tawny apologized for everything again and even surprised us with $20 to use on our next visit. We asked her to take those back, but she insisted. I have been a hostess and a server. My husband has been a server, a cook, a manager, and a bartender. We come from the industry and it’s not for the weak or the ones who can’t put their phone down. We highly recommend letting Reginee go find a different place of employment where she can get paid to be on her phone. She has zero work ethic and is not an asset to...

Just left here, it was packed inside but we didn't have to wait. The food was amazing as always. The waitress who took care of us was nice and got us everything we needed. My only two issues were the booth we were sat in, which was right behind the host station, was only meant for people who have never eaten food and are skinny as a string pole. All the other booths we saw were fine but ours was way to small. My wife and I both spent the entire meal with the table pushed into our guts and we aren't huge oversized people.

My other complaint was about how our food was brought out. A couple was sat in the booth across from us. They ordered after us. They got their meals before us, which is totally fine. But then I noticed their meals looked like our meals. And they were eating them. I told my wife it's nuts that that couple ordered the same thing we did considering she got a salad and I got the pasta. Then they brought out the food our kid ordered and nothing for us and we were asked "do yall need anything else?" I said no and figured our meals were on the way. We sat there for a good while and then I heard the waitress go to the table beside us and ask them if they needed anything and they said the meals they ordered weren't theirs..... as they were eating them...so we continued to wait even longer and finally someone brought out 2 more plates to the table across from us which was their actual meals. We continued to wait. And finally our order was brought out and the only thing that was said was "sorry for the table mixup". The other table ended up eating our food that was given to them, and then took the meals they ordered home. 2 meals for the price of 1 is pretty sweet, I don't blame them at all they didn't do anything wrong. I was a little shocked when we weren't offered any sort of discount considering how long we waited when I order was given out incorrectly. I should have asked for a manager but we had been there so long and the booth was so uncomfortable I just wanted to pay my bill and leave. We have gone to Sam's at the marina several times and never had anything remotely similar happen. I probably would not come back to this location and based on my experience today will probably avoid both locations in the future if that's what I can expect to go through when a...