The General Public House — Restaurant in New Smyrna Beach

I do not recommend this restaurant. I ate here recently with a group and it was a disappointing experience for several reasons.

My main issue was with the food. We got 2 appetizers for the table and 1 was fine but the other, a bruschetta, had remarkably stale bread. It was not toasted, it was evidently old bread that was hard as a rock and almost inedible.

When it came time to order entrees, the item I wanted was not actually available so I ordered the steak frites instead. It is pictured here. This item was $30. What I received is not worth more than $10, in my opinion. The steak was actually cooked to temperature appropriately, however it was tough, seasoned poorly, and I was given a much smaller portion than expected: only 5 pre-sliced pieces of meat. The menu said it came with a red wine demi-glacé. The sauce was significantly thicker than a demi-glacé and tasted like they had put A1 steak sauce into a pan with some red wine, over-reduced it, and called it a day. The fries were extremely basic. I was shocked by the lack luster appearance of this plate and the quality/taste unfortunately matched. Not at all what I was expecting for the price point and description on the menu.

Several of my companions had the Brussels sprouts as a side and noted they were hard and crunchy and not fully cooked.

The mac and cheese was good and the chicken was good but overall the food was extremely hit or miss. And the misses were significant misses!

Additionally, the water we were served had a horrendous taste to it. We tried adding lemon to mask it but it was too strong. We tried ordering sodas instead but I believe the ice is made with the same water and the sodas had a similar taste to it. I am concerned they’re using unfiltered or poorly filtered water or perhaps need to clean their machine/water lines for mold. It was genuinely undrinkable.

My second issue with this restaurant is more minor but we were a little frustrated with the slowness of the service. We had made a reservation and were seated promptly upon arrival but then no one came to our table to check in or take drink orders for long enough that we became concerned they had forgotten about us. Our waitress was kind when she did show up but seemed rushed and stressed. There were only 3-4 parties in the restaurant at once time they whole time we were there which was during peak dinner hours. She was not the only waitress. There were 2-3 staff standing up at the hostess station the entire time not doing much who surely could have assisted her if she was truly swamped. So I’m not sure what the problem was there. It took a very long time to actually get our food orders in as she would drop things off and leave again very quickly and not come back for long stretches. When we finished our meal, we waited for her to come around so we could ask for the checks for another long wait time and made a plan to have our money out and ready to give her immediately so we wouldn’t have to wait again. She seemed thrown off to receive our money immediately like it was an inconvenience to have to deal with it right then. I watched her standing at the hostess station for several minutes talking to a coworker before proceeding to actually run the card which I found frustrating. She was kind and seemed flustered all night so we were kind and patient in turn and still tipped well as we have all worked food service before. I just don’t understand why she seemed so overwhelmed with only 5 parties in the restaurant max at any one time and multiple servers and other staff standing around.

All in all, I found this an extremely disappointing meal and will not be returning to this restaurant. I would not recommend it to anyone. For this level of food/service, you’d be better off going somewhere much less expensive. And if you do decide to go, bring...

My wife is really good about scouting places for us to eat wherever we go and she liked the menu at General Public House. My parents live in the area and we were down for a vacation so we took them out to dinner here. I hate to be negative about a place like this as I know firsthand how much energy, passion, and drive it takes to get a restaurant off the ground, not to mention the insane amount of resources, the staffing issues, and of course the financial risk involved. However, if I were crazy enough to be in the restaurant business again I would want to hear honest feedback. So here goes: as mentioned, the menu is outstanding. Great classics and modern favorites make up a menu that has something to offer for everyone. I chose the pecan crusted mahi, as did my stepmom. The flavor was great, the fish was a bit dry. This could’ve been mitigated with the sauce it’s supposed to come with (a tarragon & lemon burre blanc), but the sauce was broken. It appeared to have sat under a heat lamp for too long. Both servings at the table were like this. The fruit salad it’s served with was not very good with acidic and mealy fruit. The garlic risotto was enjoyable but I could see the film on it that developed sitting in the window. My wife had a kale caeser (which I told her was a bad idea), and it was very poorly executed. Kale is a tough ingredient and when being served raw needs to be well massaged with a dressing of some kind to help soften it to make it palatable. The kale was not at all prepared and the croutons were clearly from a bag. The shrimp on her salad were tiny and overcooked. She also had a bowl of lobster bisque, which while a bit thick and heavy, tasted great. My eldest daughter had the shrimp and grits. The shrimp were well prepared, and the ‘lobster sauce’ was just the aforementioned bisque poured over some grits (nice cross utilization). Here the grits to bisque ratio was powerfully unbalanced with a tiny bit of grits and a heaping helping of the sauce. She is like me and into food with a decent amount of skill and knowledge. She was nonplussed to say the least. My youngest had the redfish which I thought tasted great, but also suffered from being a bit over cooked. The rest of the table agreed the fish was too salty, but I liked it. My dad was smart and had the chicken and waffles. My dad is pragmatic so leave it to him to order the kind of thing that is hard to screw up. And it was good. I had a bite and liked it. If I were to go back I’d probably get that or try the fried chicken. We had the fried pimento cheese for an appetizer and the table agreed it was probably the best thing we ordered. We opted not to get dessert as the experience was already a bit of a letdown. I see dessert as more of a reward for the establishment; I liked your food so much I want another course. The General Public House definitely did not earn another course on this visit. The service was prompt and pleasant. The dining room is not well acoustically treated so is quite loud. Especially when there are boisterous patrons sat close by. Which was the case. This establishment clearly has someone at the helm with great taste and smart ideas. I think where this place fell short was in execution. I spent $200 with a generous tip for dinner on a table of six, which is not unreasonable. What I do find unreasonable is to have your kitchen staffed with people unable to execute your menu on a Friday night. I grew up in Volusia County and go back every summer for some beach time and relaxing with family. I would not bother trying...

My boyfriend is a quadriplegic in a wheelchair, and we found online that this restaurant had a good Shrimp Po’ Boy (they removed it from their menu), as a paralyzed person, he goes everywhere with his service dog.

We set outside, and when the waitress came to our table, she pets the dog, we told her multiple times “please don’t pet the dog” and she didn’t heard us, or didn’t care, but keep petting it. Until the around 5 time we told her, she stopped. The dog has a big vest that says “DONT PET” but some people just don’t care.

Then while we are waiting for our drinks, an other employee, was moving heavy speakers and music devices from the restaurant to his car, and he drops a huge speaker in my boyfriends feet, and the dog’s head. He panicked when he saw the dog crying. He said “that was so bad!” I answered “that was horrible! You hurt my boyfriend and his puppy!” He said “Im sorry” and left. A little later, a man was walking and he said to us “thats a beautiful dog!” We answered “thank you!” He came back and pet the dog. Again! Can you believe it? what a nightmare!

Well, I was shaking of how stressed I was feeling, so I told my boyfriend I didn’t want to eat there anymore, so I ordered the check to pay for the drinks. The waitress asked us why were we leaving, I told her everything and she called the owner.

Turned up, the last men who pet the dog, was the owner of the restaurant, he said he was really sorry for what happened, that it was unacceptable and that he totally understands the circumstances because he had a family member who was also paralyzed. He asked us to give them a chance to fix things, and give us good food. So after his insistence we did stay and ordered food.

Food was good. No complains at all, it took them 5 minutes or less to cook it for us. But… when we got back home and checked my boyfriend’s feet, he has bruises. Yes. And I paid $40 for a meal, that ended up in my quadriplegic partner with bruises and his service dog confused and stressed.

Not coming back. There’s not excuses for what...