Coastal Orange Beach — Restaurant in Orange Beach

Coastal review

As a local who has been to Coastal several times id like to tell you that all my experiences have been good but that’s unfortunately not true. I didn’t make a review last June when I had friends come in from West Virginia taking them to coastal for the great views and high quality food… sadly my best friend and her boyfriend said it was the worst food they had the whole week down here and my plate was ice cold. But tonight was even worse. My family visiting from Texas wanted to return to Coastal because they really enjoyed the views, live music and atmosphere when visiting last spring. We had a party of 17. The hosts were super nice getting us checked in. It was an hour and 15 minute wait which I 100% understood its spring break and one of the busiest restaurants in OB. But after our hour and 15 wait we were told our table was ready. While walking in we are passed by Luke Bryan heading out after just finishing up his meal. Our table was in the far back corner near the oyster bar. (I feel like because Luke Bryan’s table was the corner booth beside our tables we were stalled to get sat so he didn’t have to be near a large party. But who knows lol) Anyway we are seated and let our server know we have several checks so however she needs to work that best for her we can do. The kids weren’t allowed to order from the kids menu because it was “10 and under” which is a dumb rule to just keep the bill prices high instead of ordering a cheaper meal option. (Which would be okay if the food was actually good) so an hour after ordering our food it finally makes it out. I sat and watched my oysters die under the warmer for 20 minutes. So by the time they brought the oysters to me they were just lukewarm. 3 cheeseburgers were all prepared incorrectly with cold French fries, all the chicken pastas cold as well, missing ingredients (roasted tomatoes) and looked as if it had been sitting for quite some time. We of course informed the server of the issues and she did her very best to make the situation better. The manager even stepped over to apologize that the standard of Coastal slipped through the cracks. Which he was very kind to try and make up for our dining experience. But after three hours and some unfortunate grub it was hard to make it better. Overall VERY disappointing experience trying to go to a good dinner with family from hours away that are only here for 2 days and 3 nights. I probably won’t try to take any more of my out of town friends back to Coastal. Really a bummer because the views are spectacular and most of the staff is super nice it’s just very lacking in the food aspect. For any people visiting Gulf shores/ Orange beach I would suggest you check out some other places. My personal recommendations Oysters: Acme Seafood: Cobolt, DeSoto’s, Mikee’s, or Acme. Burgers: The keg or The cove (these are more of a bar establishment but still damn good burgers.) Pastas: Rotolos or Carmelo’s Steak /or an over all really good fine dining experience Louisiana Lagniappe. My West Virginia peeps and I had the BEST birthday dinner at...

Maybe it's because of the "offseason". But we had a pretty awful experience. Service was nonexistent despite a large amount of servers running around, we were ignored completely. Maybe it was because we were a party of two? Not enough money being spent for them to care about a two-top I guess. Maybe your experience will be better with a large group, as they were the ones receiving service. We were recommended this place and seeing the prices it's not exactly advertising itself as a cheap outing, but not crazy expensive either. But this was our choice for a date night at a "better" place on our vacation.

We checked in with the hosts to get a table in the main dining area, waited about 30 minutes which was fine as that was what they said it would be. During our wait we ordered a couple drinks at the opposite bar. When got texted our table was ready, we get taken to our table which was a high top near the bar (and bathroom) which again not great but it was fine, no big deal. We proceed to sit there for 25-30 minutes with no one ever coming to our table to take drink/food orders. I finally flag down (after trying for several minutes) what seemed to be a manager and ask her where our server was. She says "Oh you're at a high top so you order at the bar." What?? We waited 30 minutes for a table to have to order at the bar? Is this not a restaurant? We basically got dumped on a bar table by the 16 year old hosts who didn't even explain that's what the table was to us. Then we were ignored. When I made it clear we wanted table service, the manager basically said oh we're in the offseason so we're understaffed.

Meanwhile this place had over 100 people working on a Saturday night and instead of helping us they blamed their own system and basically said tough luck on the table you get. We watched every table around us get service too. I was baffled. We would've waited longer for a real table. Even if they had just given us the choice. I think they just dumped us in no-mans-land for their server area. Gave us no explanation on how their dining room worked. Just sat us and left us there with no service. Haven't had this bad of an experience in a while, so I'm here on Google reviews leaving a bad review for what seemed like a nice establishment. But we were only a two-top so priority seating and service was left for the large groups where the real money is.

We finally ordered an appetizer, it was good. The manager said they would comp it for us. At that point we decided to leave because we had no real indication anything was going to change about our service or table situation. 0 stars if I could, but since I can't do that, I guess I'll give the one star to the kitchen since the appetizer was good, and I'm sure they make good food. Again, make sure you make it clear with the host what you want from your dining experience here, because...

We started off with what seemed like a good server, who was personable and attentive. Then the mistakes began piling up. First, one of our apps was brought to the wrong table, who had also arrived after us and was a larger table, by a food runner. Our server Chase, was quick to cast blame on her for being relatively new. He apologized 3 or 4 times for our oysters taking too long, and that the kitchen was backed up. Ok, but that's the second excuse, and casting blame on another part of your team. Our first app arrived, but we waited for another 10 minutes for our oysters. We order our entrees before the 8 top behind us, and theirs still arrive well before ours do. At this point, either the server forgot to ring in the entrees, or the kitchen dropped the order, which doesn't really matter because we sat there for 20+ minutes with no one checking on us, no refills or new cocktails offered, and not concerned with why a table doesn't have food. Our sever was quick to take it personally when we asked why our food was taking so long, and immediately said he would get his manager. Zero attempt to problem solve, blamed the kitchen again, and said "all he can do is put the order in". No, you can check on your tables, be proactive, see what the guest needs before they need it, and keep tabs on your orders. It's not hard, but does require attention to detail, empathy and awareness to be a great server, or chef. That said, the manager came over, said she was discounting our food. I don't care about the discount, we wanted our food. Never asked for a discount, nor expected one. Our food finally came about enough time to have fired it on the fly, and it wasn't seasoned or cooked properly. If you say blackened on a menu, it should be just that. Not lightly seasoned with blackening spice. My grouper was not blackened, but was dry and over cooked. Improper technique. My wife's shrimp were not blackened, and barely touched a pan or flat top, and weren't warm. Our sons' blackened chicken was hardly seasoned, and our sons fries were cold. When the server came back by 10 minutes later to check on us, I told him the issues with the food. No attempt to actually care, said he would get the manager again. A few minutes later he dropped the check off and said "he split it with us". Again not what I wanted, and no one asked questions to find out what the issues were. It was strange, once he found out we were from Missouri, we were treated differently. I hate to say that. I know in the restaurants and hotels I've ran, we treat everyone with respect, dignity, and each plate is as important as the next. Allowing the staff to then talk about the tables, and make passes by to see what's going on, isn't a good look either. A lack of professionalism on the FoH. Don't throw people under the bus and work to resolve any issues. To say we were disappointed is an...