RusTeak Ocoee — Restaurant in Ocoee

So, I'll start with something you don't expect to find in a negative review - our food mostly tasted very good. Unfortunately, there were so many details messed up that the negative far outweighed the positive for us.

We ordered our food to go. I ordered the fish tacos with Brussels sprouts on the side on the specific recommendation of the employee to whom I spoke. The tacos come with a crispy shell, something similar to a chalupa. My wife ordered a burger (bun on the side, to keep it from getting soggy) with truffle fries (upcharge). We were told our order would be ready in 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, the food took a full 45 minutes to be ready. I (foolishly, I guess) trusted RusTeak and rushed out to get the food home ASAP. The mistakes were many. First, my wife's burger came on a (very soggy) bun. It tasted great, the flavors were there, but who can stand to eat a burger with a liquified bun? Second, the fish tacos (remember, a super crispy shell) were somehow even soggier, a mushy mess when you picked the tacos up and bit into them. They were a terrible recommendation for a to go order, something you'd expect an employee to be cognizant of. Even worse, the fish within the tacos was TINY (see pictures). The fish pieces literally took up less than half the length of the tacos shells, leaving me eating soggy shells with sauce and cabbage in them for most of my meal. Now, the bites with the fish tasted great, although they were still problematic with the gross, soggy shells. It was easy to see how good the dish COULD have been, much like my wife's burger, if they hadn't skimped on the fish and recommended a dish to go that would turn into cereal after 15 minutes in a box.

Even worse - they completely forgot our sides. No sprouts, no truffle fries. As poor as the execution was on what should have been really delicious dishes, missing out on food we paid for was the worst.

So, we called the restaurant. I hate doing this, and I apologized for being a problem to the female manager to whom I spoke. I felt bad. I always do when complaining. She was very nice, offering to send an employee out to our house (about a 15-20 minute drive) with the sides. But who wants to either (a) let your entrees get colder and soggier while you wait on side dishes, or (b) eat side dishes 25 minutes after you finish your entree? So, we said no. She then offered to mail us a gift card to compensate us for our poor experience, an offer I gratefully accepted. I gave her my name and address, which she repeated back to me to make sure she had it right.

Whelp, that was about a month ago, and we've gotten nothing from RusTeak. I've waited to do this review to give them ample time to get us the promised gift card. Whether it was intentional or not, the manager to whom I spoke failed to follow through on her attempt at guest recovery, really leaving a sour taste in our mouths. Between the missing food, the messed up alteration of the bun on the side, the tacos missing fish, the longer than expected wait for our food (on what was already a long promised ticket time, mind you), and just flat out not getting what we were offered to try to make up for our long list of issues, I can't help but rate RusTeak poorly, despite the food clearly having the potential to be really good based on the flavors they created in the food we did get.

We were really excited to try what we've gleaned from others is a local favorite, but after our poor experience in so many ways, it'll at least be a long time before we go to spend our...

Friday evening I went to Rusteak for the 1st time since they moved to the new space. I always enjoyed the food & service at the old location. I had put off going to the new spot because I had heard not such favorable things about the new location from my daughter. But it was my friend's birthday & he suggested trying the new location. After our experience on Friday I should have stuck with my initial thought. Started with our waiter initially greeting up with "is there anything else I can get you". After that innocent blunder we ordered wines off the menu. I ordered a glass of Reisling. The waiter returned to tell me they were out of Reisling (at a restaurant billed as a wine bar) so I ordered another choice. Still no big deal. We ordered our meals & when they arrived the server, not our waiter, placed my friends pork chop down first then haphazardly placed my meal down dropping my salmon off the plate onto the table. The young man picked up the fish with his bare hands & placed it back on my plate. He proceeded to ask if I would like a new piece of fish. When I said yes, he lifted the fish off my plate, again with his bare hands, but left the sides on the plate infront of me. At this point we still were not given Silverwear. After sitting with my sides & my friends meals in front of us we called a young woman over & asked her to bring us silverware. At that point we also requested to speak with a manager. This is when Meghan, came out & stated she was aware of what happened but not to worry they were cooking me a new piece of fish. We explained our dinning experience up to this point was far from good. When explaining the wine issue Meghan's response was, well my Reisling shipment didn't come in & that wasn't her fault because she had no control of the distributors. She then proceeded to tell me she had some lovely Reisling they only sell by the bottle but she would crack one open to sell it to my by the glass. I declined because I was more than half finished with my 2nd choice wine & wasn't interested in another glass. During this time my friend's meal & my sides were still on the table getting cold. When my friend pointed this out, Meghan offered to take them in the back & keep them "warm". I could only assume under a heat lamp. We declined her offer. My salmon finally arrived, it was an average meal at best. Upon receiving the check my friend asked our waiter if Meghan had instructed him to make any compensation for our inconvenience. When he told us she hadn't we asked to speak with her again. This is when Connor, the new Manager replacing Meghan, who had gone home for the night came over & things went from bad to worse. Connor started by stating Meghan made him aware that they didn't have the wine I ordered & my salmon needed to be "re-cooked". When we explained it didn't need to be "re-cooked" he stated "well mistakes happen what do you want us to do" he proceeded to say " well did you like your meal". At that point we told him never mind he obviously doesn't understand the meaning of good customer service. The management team displayed a lot of "it's not my fault" & "mistakes happen" attitude but zero accountability. Needless to say we will not be back & highly recommend people save your money & support much better quality food & serve establishments in the Ocoee/Winter...

We have dined at this restaurant before and have been pleased with the food, and the service has been adequate. Came in for dinner last night and it seems things may have taken a turn for the worst. As we walked in we were greeted by someone behind the counter/front desk area. Stood there awkwardly for a while (not long) til someone told us they would be taking us to our table. We were seated and the waiter seemed nice enough, taking our drink and appetizer orders. A few minutes later we ordered our entrees. About 20-30 minutes after being seated our waiter tells us that they are "changing shifts and he will be leaving for the night" our new waitress will be coming by to introduce herself. This is when everything started going downhill. Our new waitress never actually introduced herself to us (I still don't know what her name is) she just came over to our table to ask us if we wanted to order dinner since she checked and saw that our table still had not placed any dinner orders. Excuse me??? We ordered our entrees over 30 minutes ago! She went and checked and assured us it was her mistake and the orders were placed by our first waiter and would be right out. Another 20-30 minutes pass and this is when it really starts to get comical as both our new waitress and the original waiter keep coming by asking us about food and drink orders, obviously not knowing what the other is doing. We voice our concerns to both our waiter and waitress about the situation and our wait time for dinner and they both apologize profusely. It's obvious that something went wrong but neither would admit to it. Our entrees come out and they got my side order wrong. Not a big deal but a good indication that our order was not placed in a timely manner. It was placed after the fact with whatever the waiter could remember. The food itself was OK but seemed over salted. Seems like the chef has no confidence in the natural flavors of the food and the cooking method and just salts everything. Now our original waiter never left, he is still working the floor, and he states that he will comp my beers (with an s) for the inconvenience. The waitress is also apologetic and tells us dessert is "on her". OK, I guess they're trying to make this right for us. Well, more than 2 hours after arriving at the restaurant we get the final bill. Guess what; they charged us for dessert and they comped me one beer, a draft beer at that, out of three that I ordered. I paid the bill as presented to me and still left a tip above 20% not wanting to engage any further with either of our waitstaff. Needless to say I would be very hesitant to come back to this establishment and would definitely not recommend it to any of my friends or family as I have done...