Fuddruckers — Restaurant in Palmetto Bay

I haven't been back here since I was a teen and was so excited to go again. Sadly though, this visit was a disappointment. I gave 2 stars because the seasoning on the Buffalo burger was good, but the burger wasn't cooked to my specifications and it felt a bit thinner and messier than I remember. It felt like a Frankenstein burger, with only 1/4 being cooked as I asked, and the other quarters were falling off, trying to hold on for dear life because they were all cooked differently. It was.. odd.

Service was lacking. We felt rushed for the fact that no one was behind us, we felt like he didn't care to help answer our questions, despite entering pretty excited to enjoy an "exotic burger", and he just seemed to not care at all for us being there. As if we were inconveniencing him by wanting food. He also charged us something my husband didn't order, which I'll get to in a bit.

The atmosphere was 2 stars. Dirty tables everywhere, and once you passed the checkout counter, the smell was so terrible that I could hardly breathe, and I was afraid it would affect the taste of my food. We found a small, quiet, and clean spot up front, past the cookie counter, in the dark, where we found some comfort eating our overly paid for food. The plate had a total of 10 fries or less. Which for the combo upcharge price, I almost went up and demanded a fair money's worth, but I figured the effort would be futile. (Pictured was my plate untouched and the lack of fries)

They also charged my husband for grilled onions when only I wanted them. Also, don't ever ask for grilled onions if you actually like "grilled onions". They tasted as if they were dropped in a bowl of grease filled with old reused vegetable oil and then dropped on your burger. Paying extra for that was a disappointment. I'll pay a good price for grilled onions, but not greased onions. They tasted nothing like onions, and I scrapped them off my burger. YUCK!

Overall, we left full, and the burger (without the "grilled onions") tasted decent, as did the fries, just wish everything else was good. They saved the experience, but sadly, we will never go back. The almost $45 dollars spent was not worth the experience or the taste. What a huge letdown..

Avoid this place if you value your...

We used to love coming to this particular location because the food was always good for a burger place. Unfortunately everything has gone down hill in the last couple of years. The food is rushed through preparation, the cheese is thrown on top cold and unmelted, the fries are undercooked, the chicken sandwich was either cooked earlier in the days and re-fried or overcooked as it tasted of old grease, the specialty burger toppings are sloppy and lack quality ingredients (definitely not as described or pictured in their ads/menu…ex: the guava-sriracha bbq sauce? Yuck, I’ll spare you the details of what it actually looked like. The place is always crowded with few employees. The tables and common areas (drink station, silverware station, etc.) are poorly kept. The soda machines dispenses watered down drinks and when you inform the manager (a peppered hair, bHispanic gentleman with a Colombian accent) he says he’ll look into it later as he is busy handing out orders. When you add a to go item to your sit down order and want it made later on, it becomes a problem. No one keeps track of it and so it is given to you at the same time as your other food. When I refused it, this same manager insisted that he could put it in a to go box for me and I had to sternly decline. I told him I had asked the person who took my oder how I should proceed with a to go plate for later and the young man had advised me that they’d prepare that to go dish when I requested it. This particular manager has always had this same nasty attitude and abrasiveness when dealing with anything at this location. He doesn’t have any customer service skills and doesn’t care to even make himself approachable and customer oriented, at the very least polite and attentive, not dismissive! He is always angry and condescending. Too bad that what used to be a good place to eat now feels like a run-down, dingy hole in the wall (there are actually some good ones) where you go spend your money for a quick, casual meal and the only perk is getting scolded by...

Something dark and sinister ruined my meal today. I had to downgrade my 5 star rating to reflect the ugliness of my experience.

I previously rated this place great for burgers but today my dining experience was ruined with the shadow of hate, xenophobia, and racism. There are a dozen or more TVs broadcasting #FoxNews. It was impossible to find a seat without the propaganda channel in my face. I went to the cashier and said "Can you please change the channel? I find Fox News offensive, highly offensive. Please just change the channel. Any channel, but not FOX NEWS!" Several of the workers were people of color and smiled brightly at my request saying, "Yes, yes we can" and went to the manager. I didn't ask for MSNBC or even CNN. I would have been happy with Discovery, Disney, or even a sports channel. Over half an hour later nothing was done. I finished my meal with a sense of nausea. I had just supported a hate monger with my patronage.

A so called family friendly restaurant, especially a franchise should avoid at all cost broadcasting such divisive and xenophobic programs. I feel the employees should also be treated with more respect. FOX is widely known to be the amplifier of Donald Trump's anti immigrant, xenophobic, misogynistic, antisemitic, white nationalism messages. There is no place in a workplace for that rhetoric.

On this visit I felt like I had walked into THE AUTHENTIC TEXAS REDNECK ROADHOUSE.

I like the food but will not be going back soon. Hopefully this is not the franchise model. Its unamerican and certainly not...