The Mermaid Cafe at Riverview — Restaurant in New Smyrna Beach

Here in Smyrna Beach for 5 Star Nation Football Championship (From NC) for our boys and randomly came across this spot on Saturday afternoon after seeing the window saying Beignets! We were instantly excited as we love beignets…what we didn’t know is that they had closed at 2pm and we’d walked in around 2:13. A waitress asked if beignets were the only thing we were ordering and we said yes, and she asked another lady if she could make them, which she took about 1 min of looking around in silence before I finally said never mind, thank you and left out. Not sure if she was trying to see if they had supplies or if she really just didn’t want to serve after 2 pm, who knows.

Today (Sunday) we said, hey let’s try again, we have time before our game. I kid you not, the same thing happened again…Walk in, it’s a little busy since it’s brunch hours but no one waiting. There was one lady nice enough to point out seating that was open and we let here know that we would be ordering to-go. We stood at the counter for about 10 minutes with everyone just looking at us. No greeting, no “we’ll be with you in a moment”, no “would you all like to order”…. NOTHING Until finally I ask if anyone is going to greet us or ask us if we wanted to order and they all just look at each other. One young lady stated that she just got there and I let her know that regardless we are standing right in front of you all and have been for a while now and no one has said anything!! Instead of an apology of some sort, seemed they wanted to argue about how poor their customer service is and how rude they are to customers willing to spend their money on their establishment!!! Needless to say, we walked out again. It’s sad and unfortunate, we really wanted to try this place and had taken the time to come back yet again after we felt we didn’t seem welcomed the first time, but it is what it is. I would have loved to have ordered 2 orders of beignets, took pictures and took them back for our boys to try before their game and this review might’ve been much more positive!

(Thank you to the young lady with the...

This place was highly recommended for this area so we decided to try it out. I love trying local places in general and mermaid cafe made the list. Food was great, I actually enjoyed everything they served us. Breakfast burrito came out little cold, the outside was warm but the inside was colder than expected for a warm breakfast burrito. Buffalo chicken wrap was great, it had just enough spice in it, not a lot of chicken but enough and bunch of veggies which I appreciated. Both burrito and buffalo wrap came out beautifully, some good and nicely tight tortillas. I had a side pasta salad that was surprisingly good and refreshing, but majority is pasta with very little tomatoes and mozzarella, however it was nicely spiced. We tried their traditional beignets, which were actually delicious and i would change nothing about them, they are perfectly crispy and soft at the same time and came out warm so that experience was great. When it comes to drinks, I expected little more, i got a hot green tea but my order was wrong but they switched it quickly, much appreciated, and the dole whip mimosa was good but i think it could be better, there was little to no flavor in beginning and serving wasn’t super pretty. I was expecting at least couple types of coffee but this was okay, did not blow my socks off. Service was good, lady that served was very nice and considerate, however the first server we interacted with was not so pleased. Overall nice place, could use some cleaning (chairs, tables and front patio need a rinse), i don’t know that i would go out of my way to go there again but it’s a nice break from the ordinarily food places, worth a try not a long term commitment.

P.S. My ratings are based on whether I believe I could make a better or healthier version at home. If food/drinks/service impress me, I’ll be happy to come back. If not the stars...

I wanted to love The Mermaid Cafe but was disappointed on our recent visit over Labor Day weekend. Not sure if it was an off day but our experience was not similar to what others have shared. We arrived and there was only 1 table available (inside) which our server showed us to. She got our drink orders quickly and returned to take our food orders. We ordered chicken & waffles, NSB waffle, Strawberry Shortcake waffle with a side of hash browns, an order of the fresh fruit, an order of traditional beignets, and an order of the caramel cinnamon apple beignets. The beignets came out before the rest of our food and they were delicious! The issue with our meal was that ALL the other breakfast was served except for the NSB waffle (mine) and the side of hash browns for my daughter. Our server didn’t come back to check on us for a while and it was then that she realized I didn’t have my waffle and we were missing the hash browns. I heard her speak to the kitchen but by the time I got my waffle, the rest of my party was finished with their meals and ready to leave… except, we never received the hash browns. It’s over a week later and we’re still waiting, lol. At this point everyone was ready to go because we were cutting into our beach day so my husband placed his card on the table to pay before receiving the bill not even checking to see if we were charged for the hash browns. We were done. Maybe we’ll try to stop in at some point when we’re in New Smyrna Beach but won’t put it on our...