McKenna's Place NSB — Restaurant in New Smyrna Beach

Up until 2018, I was a regular at this place and would often get the buffalo chicken sandwich with fries, a side of bleu cheese, and a pitcher of sweet iced tea. One night during my one hour lunch break (I worked the night shift), I dined in and sat in front of a couple with a child who were very loud. The man (I presume the father) was riling the child up so that every so often, she would scream. They were just sitting there and weren't even eating anything. This much was acknowledged by the manager, who advised that they had finished and would be leaving soon. In the meantime, he offered me a chance to sit elsewhere. I didn't feel that this was acceptable because I felt that the couple's behavior was unreasonable; in my opinion, they were making noise just to make noise and it wasn't in the course of normal enjoyment of the restaurant. The manager didn't want to confront the couple himself because he didn't observe the behaviors I described and didn't like the idea of me addressing it with them directly because he didn't want confrontations between patrons.

I decided to confront the couple myself. I let them know that this was a shared space and that they really ought to be considerate of those around them. The man told me to turn around and the woman said "oh, come on." I told the little girl that her father was a jerk (at least, I think that's the word I used, LOL) and got the satisfaction of an awkward smile from the girl while the father was fuming over his obvious inability to do anything about it in front of the girl. (He had already set a bad example for her in terms of common courtesy.)

I paid for my meal and left without eating. In a phone call, Michael McKenna said that he stood by his manager on this and that he likely would've handled the situation the same way. I let him know that I would be considering disputing the charge; he offered to refund it, but I decided to let it go. Rather than pursue it any further, I swore that I would never eat at McKenna's again - and it was a commitment that I've made good on the past four years. I've probably spent hundreds upon hundreds of dollars on this place, and it was my ideal spot to hang out with friends, but sadly, all of that money has gone elsewhere. That's a shame, too, because their buffalo chicken sandwiches were probably among the best I've had, and the sweet iced tea was usually also very refreshing.

They were among the pricier places to go, though, unless you caught them during their "Customer Appreciation" time period when prices were much lower. Outside of that, I rarely found myself spending less than $20 (inclusive of tips) per visit. With inflation being as it is, it's probably...

3rd time I've had a meal here, not really a fan this visit.

The atmosphere is good, bar on one wall, tvs on all the other walls. The restaurant was clean, wait staff kind and courteous. Parking is fine, plenty of space.

I stayed trying the squirrel soup, a conch chowder. It actually was pretty good, I enjoyed the flavor.

Next, I ordered the same meal I had one time before in the past-and the serving size was shockingly less. This visit, i ordered the Thai shrimp wrap. The wrap was only about half full, and at that it was mostly spinach with some coleslaw with the outer wrap being most of the meal. I think there was only 3-4 pieces total of shrimp in the whole thing- and although it was a good flavor, it was just very skimpy on ingredients for an $18 wrap! Unfortunately not at all worth the price.

Additionally, I ordered sweet potato fries and there was probably... 10-12 fries, Max? I've never had a small serving here, it was so odd. I did mention to the waitress it looked like some of my food was missing 🤦‍♀️🤣

The sweet potato 🍟 fries were good. They were well cooked, firm, not soggy at all. Wish there had been more than a few!

I ordered dessert, the peanut butter pie. It honestly was terrible. I took a few bites and it just tasted like a boxed pie. It was heavy, and lacked good flavor. Peanut butter pie should be light and fluffy but this was a heavy, dense slice and just not good .

I'm disappointed and probably won't go back, which is unfortunate. It's been fair to good in the past but now it's rather expensive with mediocre food. None of my 3 visits have I been able to say the food is more than mediocre, it's just plain average and...

I took my granddaughter and two great grandchildren there for lunch today. I have Celiac disease and McKennas has a gluten free menu. When the waitress took our order, I ordered last, pointed to the menu and told her I could not have gluten. Another waitress delivered the food and my order was served on a bun. I told this waitress I couldn’t have the bun. She said no problem, took my plate and said - I’ll be right back. That’s when I told her that she couldn’t just remove the bun because I could get sick. Then I told her to just cancel my order because I wasn’t hungry. The anxiety I got from being worried my meal could still be contaminated caused me to not want to eat. The manager came to the table and personally guaranteed my meal would be gluten free. I explained to him that I had lost my appetite. My granddaughter and great grandchildren ate their meals. However, the 2 year old needed a booster seat. The one they provided did not have a functional strap so I requested another one and was told all of the booster seat straps were broken. I wish I could say this was the first time that I have been served bread with a gluten free order, but it wasn’t. It is difficult for friends and family to understand why I do not like to eat out, but now my granddaughter understands that even with gluten free menus it can be a lousy time for me. A suggestion to help prevent this from happening in the future is to require the waitress to write down the order - that way gluten free will be on the slip. Our waitress didn’t write anything down and my granddaughter’s meal came with French fries instead of soup (which they fixed...