Wild Rover Brewing Company — Restaurant in Oldsmar

(UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM) I visited this restaurant while riding along with a co-worker in the area since he was dining there. It was my first time there. I sat down and had a packed snack since I wasn’t planning on spending money. As I was about to eat, a person (I assume to be a manager or something) approached me in a shocked expression and said in a shocked manner as if I was about to defecate on the carpet, “Oh no, you can’t eat in here.” Given the way he said it (as if I was licking the table or something), I was stunned for a moment but then immediately started putting my food away. He then out of nowhere asked, “Like I have to ask, do you know how disrespectful that is?” I had only explained that I was there with my co-worker who was ordering. I wasn’t asked politely to please not bring in outside food, or even offered any food or drink instead. I was made so incredibly wrong for attempting to take my lunch (since we were using his car, I couldn’t just leave). I would have been completely fine just packing up, but the guy at least three times asked me again and again, “Do you know how disrespectful that is?”

There’s no wonder this place is empty during lunch. We were there at noon, and there wasn’t a single soul in the dining area. It wasn’t like I would have even made other diners uncomfortable because there weren’t any. I would have at least gotten a drink or something, but I wasn’t offered anything; I was just scolded.

UPDATE: I got responded to this with the below:

Hi Erol, We're disappointed to see such a review, which we find a bit odd, so we're uncertain you actually dined with us here at Wild Rover Brewing Company. As a policy for a vast majority of dining establishments on planet earth, bringing your own lunchbox, prepared by your mother or (we hope) by yourself, is a puzzling, very strange display of entitlement. We hope you carry this nugget of insight next to your Lunchables for future outings! Once a Rover, Always a Rover! Cheers! Theo

MY RESPONSE -

Your response doubles down on the unprofessionalism I experienced at Wild Rover. I brought a snack while accompanying a co-worker who was ordering which isn't disrespectful albeit unusual. I would have happily complied to a simple request not to consume outside food in the dining area, yet your owner—or at least family member of the owners—aggressively shamed me repeatedly, calling me disrespectful even when I promptly did as I was told. He later apologized to my co-worker, I was told later, admitting he mishandled the situation due to inexperience with such an occurrence, which made me consider removing my review. But your mocking reply, questioning if I even dined there, is absurd and insulting. My mileage tracker confirms I was at your location if you need proof but accusing me of lying instead of taking accountability is ridiculous. Other reviews echo my experience—poor customer service. And they are consistently met with excuses. A sincere apology could’ve resolved this, not condescension. No wonder your place was...

Have been coming here for several years with my daughter for the English Breakfast. Actually, we stopped for about a year because the cook had no clue how to cook eggs. We came back this year to see if things had changed. Sadly, they haven’t. I think I could get better eggs at Denny’s. Anyway, the straw that broke the camel’s back was today when we arrived the volume from the television was louder than normal. So, my daughter asked if it could be turned down a bit. The owner, or manager (whatever he is) didn’t want the volume turned down because HE was watching soccer. Screw the customer; he’s watching television. Clearly, he didn’t like us questioning the sound volume so he tells our server that we aren’t allowed to bring our Yeti’s in with us. I expressed some colorful words about that to our server and said she’s welcome to share those words with the manager. She told us to stay and we had our meal with the worst eggs you can imagine. Anyway, this is our last visit to this greasy spoon. If a zero-star review was an option that’s what I would have chosen.

UPDATE: In the response to this review the Wild Rover manager stated that the person we spoke to was not a manager. To be clear, we did not speak with that person. Our server told us that he had spoken to her and told her that we were not allowed to bring our Yeti's inside. Since he gave instructions to that effect we just assumed he was a manager. As it turns out, the manager that did respond to this review is deliberately attempting to mislead those reading his response. He explained to us on the phone that his mother is the owner and the person that told us we couldn't bring in our Yeti's is his father, i.e., the husband of the owner, but he is not an owner. Clearly, ownership or not and being the husband of the owner, he feels he has the authority to give those instructions. Given that he is lounging in the restaurant every time we have been there, it would appear that he feels he is management as do the servers since our server did not dare challenge him when he gave her instruction. Another aspect of this is that the manager that did call us at first presented the call as an apology. However, as the call progressed, it was just a feeble attempt to get us to remove our negative review. When it was clear I was not taking down my review on here and on Facebook, he took the step to block me on Facebook in order to separate my "Check-In / Review" from his Facebook profile. If he had been sincerely honest with me I would have revised my review to soften it a bit because I respect honest people. Unfortunately, his dishonest approach is what I got so this review is what he gets. Bottom line...If the quality of your eggs is important to you, then you do not want to eat here. Oh, and by the way, I ordered the fish and chips despite the $18 price tag and was truly surprised when it only came with one piece of fish. To be honest, it was tasty but...

Yesterday was my first visit. Went with friends that recommended the place. I ordered the fish and chips entrée and it was - no exaggeration - the worst I've even had. The fish was much smaller than I expected for the price and it looked like it had been cooked, taken out of the fryer, then dunked in some oil and put on top of the fries. Like, there was literally oil all over it and running out of the bottom of it onto the fries. I peeled all the saturated batter off it with my fork and ate about half of the fish, which was then as plain-tasting as can be. Only ate about half of the fries, too, as those that were under the fish were oily to the point of being inedible. Pretty sure they were also frozen/from a bag, as there were lots of little pieces/slivers mixed in.

Maybe a fluke, but it was downright gross - and $19 plus tax and tip ($24.23). If I hadn't been there with three other people that all got their food at the same time - I definitely would have sent it back or just ordered something else.

Beer and service were good enough for me to leave two stars, rather than one, though.

P.S. Thinking about it, even if it had been good, it's still rather pricey for one relatively small piece of fish and some fries from a bag. Even if it had been good, I wouldn't order it again. My $0.02...

Edit/update: In response to comments from Wild Rover... I eat a good bit of fish, like three times in the last three weeks, and sometimes more than that. I took pictures of the last three times. Here’s more fries, which are fresh/house-made and more fish for $12 at Square Grouper. More fries, which are fresh/house-made, and more fish for $15 at Front Porch (they just increased from $14 to $15). Fries, three hushpuppies, and way more fish for $10.99 at Blue Sea. And, all of this was far better than yours. I stand by my words that yours is the most expensive I’ve ever gotten, the fries were from a bag, and the one relatively-small piece of fish for the price was terrible. I regret that I didn’t take a...