Sunset at Turtle Bay — Restaurant in Oʻahu

I don’t usually leave bad reviews, but I wanted to share our terrible experience today at the Turtle Bay Sunset Bar. The food is Great but… the customer service was terrible, especially from the manager, Thomas. My husband and I came to the Turtle Bay Ritz-Carlton to pick up personal items left by a Professional Lacrosse Player/Team Owner from the mainland, who is a good friend of my husband. We drove all the way from Kahala to pick up these sentimental items that were left at the front desk for us after their stay.

We had a great day, stopping at Pipeline to watch professional bodyboarders, and even bumped into my husband's college schoolmate, who is also a professional bodyboarder. When we arrived at the Ritz, we decided to go to their bar to enjoy the rest of the day, watch some football, drink beer, and eat pupus while we’re waiting for the Bell man to collect our items that was left for us. We were sitting at the far end of the bar on the left side, where the waitress and Manager Thomas often were. I had a brief conversation with Thomas, apologizing for working on adding flowers to my hat while eating there. We had a good first tab with John, spending around $110. After he left, we ordered another round of beers, garlic shrimp, a rice bowl, and two more beers for another $60 with the other bartender, Matt. (Great customer service by these two).

As the day ended, my husband and I talked about checking out the pool. I dipped my feet in but didn’t want to go all the way in because there were too many kids, and I was thinking about the pee, lol. I asked the waitress if they had a hot tub, and she pointed out the two locations. We didn't intend to go there, as we were trying to catch the sunset back at the beach. I went back and asked my husband if he wanted to sit by the pool so I could finish my hat before we left. From a distance, I noticed a security guard heading to the bar, and I wondered why. We had literally just sat down for about two seconds when Thomas came over and told us to leave, saying we weren’t allowed to hang out by the pool if we weren’t staying there. We had no issue with that rule, but the way he delivered the message and spoke to us was shocking and insulting. We were just eating and drinking in the bar; he could have informed us that the pool area was only for guests while we were seated there, and we would have understood. But the fact that he made it a big deal by calling the security guard, who stood there backing him up, was very insulting, especially since we were just chatting and he didn’t even ask if we were staying there or if we were kama'aina. We felt very insulted, especially since we had spent money at their bar—two orders of garlic shrimp (five pieces each), one bowl of rice, chips and guacamole, and five beers, costing us $170 in cash, including tips. You could at least take care of your kama'aina and show some respect with friendly, professional, and proper communication. And FYI we didn’t even ask them for some “Kama’aina Discount”

It just heart breaking he was just there next to me… We are very disappointed and will gladly inform all our professional clubs not to stay or use their business if this is how they treat paying customers who hang out at their bar. We have used their conference room before to host our professional club, my best friend, who is an executive for American Savings Bank, just stayed there last weekend. She even invited me to join her, but I couldn’t take off work. So, I thought, wow, it’s really meant for me to come back to Turtle bay this time, especially since the last time we were there was in January of last year.

Thomas, you can definitely improve your customer service! And Dan, I appreciate your apology, but you really need to train your manager to lead by example and provide great customer service. This is especially important for your local kama'aina customers who travel from across the island and who have recommended and brought many paying customers, including professional athletes, from...

Very poor service considering you are at the bar located in a hotel resort that costs $1k per night.

SERVICE Long story short, when we ordered drinks (in particular, Aperol spritz) — the drinks were really bad. There was barely any Prosecco and Aperol, just soda with orange coloring.

The context: it was very hot, and we just arrived tired and thirsty, so we drank 1/3 of it or so.

We waited for the waitress for 20 min because she was nowhere to be found, and when she finally came, I politely said that Aperol was really bad, and I received the most astonishing answer, “but I see you drank it, so I guess not so bad”…. What the hell?! I am sorry, am I your friend? Usually, in those types of situations, if the bar cannot afford to replace the drinks, the trained staff would joke around and say something like, “I will make sure the next one is the best you ever had”… definitely not what she said.

Later on, we asked for a check (we were 5 people, a $600 bill and 3 cards), and we asked to split a check into certain parts… guys, I am telling you, she rolled her eyes at us and gave us so much trouble that she can only split in even parts (which is not true), my friend had to really start to argue with her and guess what .. in two minutes she was able to split it… but all was done incorrectly: the wrong cards and wrong sums of money, but she was able to split it.. that was some sort of magic after arguing with the guests for 10 min!

Again, when you are associated with a luxury hotel & service, you need to be trained on how to handle situations that are outside of the normality.

FOOD The food was okay. Nothing special, I would say, a typical American menu with poke and some flatbread with mozzarella.

They do not have any fruits on the menu, and I feel like it is a big miss.

DRINKS The only good ones are soda water and Mai Tai. Please don't take anything else. Waist of money that comes with a rude attitude. hahah

AMBIENCE Stunning location. The only reason why I would recommend this place is for its location, and its views - the must-see, plus you can spot some famous people over there.

The sunset is amazing! And when people surf over there - it looks so picturesque. They also have live music, and it’s really good, not just Hawaiian vibes that you literally hear everywhere you go.

Anyway, there is no way I want to accept rudeness and attitude from staff. That’s absolutely unacceptable. I am not a person who can leave someone without good tips, but I would like to have a level of courtesy and respect.

I rate this place two points for the lack of professionalism and problems solving skills from the personnel side. And I hope that the review is revisited by the management...

They have a limited menu but I guess you would go for the scenery the ocean is just feet away and it's magnificent this time of year being March most people are aloha cuz I've been staying here for a week and tonight is the first time I've had people not pay attention to the signs on the Lanai saying no smoking all I want to do is listen to the ocean it's real hard when somebody smoking and it blows right into your room I ordered fish and chips a constant good but make sure you tell them to get it to you as soon as it gets out of the grease along with their french fries cuz the first time I felt like it had sat there a few minutes this french fries were soggy and the fish was just warm after I told them everything was fine don't order hamburger they're not the best take the cart over to the golf course and experienced a burger this place has a monopoly on food they open for breakfast and then close down the you have to make dinner reservations if you want any good food they have no shuttles to take you into town because then they wouldn't make any money the town is about 7 miles down the road there's rent a car if you want to do that but I find that should be out in a minute e I've been to resorts and this one is nice but they don't offer you much and of course being Hawaii everything is overcharged anyways please don't bring your children they're loud and obnoxious and parents don't parent today not them upside their head tell him to shut up instead of baby in them you might not like my comment but when you get older and watch AI taking over your children you'll understand where I'm coming from it ain't long coming or better yet put a shock collar onno really they should have side for children and a side for adults and I know they don't want smokers but you're going to have them so they made a place for smokers to I guess this wouldn't be here then with all my suggestions cuz they do try scout you and unfortunately there's not many other places to stay unless you want to be in concrete City and wacky okay I hope you...