Riviera Dunes Dockside — Restaurant in Palmetto

My wife and I met here with her family to celebrate a birthday. It took over 30 minutes to park because there was not enough parking to meet the capacity of the restaurant. People were cutting each other off and almost breaking out into fights to find parking. After finding parking, we went inside and ordered our drinks and food. We are vegetarian and ordered the pretzel sticks and cauliflower wings. The pretzel sticks and cheese were very good, but the cauliflower wings were not fully cooked, leaving the batter raw in parts. For entrees, we ordered the dockside bowl without protein and a pick 4 deal where you pick 4 sides to turn into an entree. The kitchen sent the dockside bowl out with shrimp originally, and then corrected the issue but forgot to send rice and aioli that was supposed to come with the dish. The pick 4 came out mostly correct, but I received the vegetable of the day instead of smashed potatoes like I ordered. For a meal that ended up costing us over $100 for two people, this was not the experience I feel I paid for. The one positive aspect was our server. She did a great job supplying drinks and refills and worked hard to make sure our experience was positive. It should be noted that we went on a Friday, so this was likely as busy as they get, but I believe that a restaurant should be judged on how it handles a rush, as opposed to how they do when there is a lull.

Edit: I updated my review to 3 stars for the ownership/management responding as professionally and cordially as they did. I do want to emphasize that if the parking hadn't been such a negative experience this would likely be a 4 star review, even with the slight mistakes made in the restaurant. That is the reason I graded the restaurant atmosphere as 2 stars. The atmosphere inside was quite nice and we had a good time overall, but when it is such a headache to get into that nice atmosphere, it detracts from the...

Lindsay was our waitress. The place was packed with a 45-minute wait list for inside; 2-hr wait for outside, we were called in about 35 minutes for inside. They have live music on Thursday. It's a very lively crowd. My wife had the surf and turf. The food was very good. The sauces tasted homemade. They were phenomenal! I had the fish of the day, blackened red snapper. It was cooked perfectly. The grilled asparagus was grilled to perfection. We had calamari and the appetizer platter. The egg rolls were the BOMB! Plenty of crab meat and flavor inside. Simply put, this was a very positive dining experience. It was full, and I expected our waitress to be overwhelmed, but she was very attentive and showed genuine concern that we had a pleasant experience. I watched two of the managers helping out wherever they could, providing leadership and guidance to everyone and being the example for everyone to follow. As an Army veteran I was really surprised that they didn't offer any military/veteran/first responders discounts of any kind. Either way, I always share the information to others. Whatever discounts most places give, I always tip them off the original price, and give it to the waitstaff. Lindsay did a fabulous job. You need to make reservations if you don't want to waste time waiting on a table. You'll be glad you did. Needless to say, I definitely recommend. We really enjoyed ourselves.

April 20, 2025-Shana was our waitress. We enjoyed the Grouper at market price with a side of asparagus and smashed red potatoes. It was delicious. The fried coconut shrimp was crispy, but the shrimp wasn't over done, so we enjoyed it. The views at the marina/dockside we're inviting. It is a relaxed atmosphere. The prices are starting to creep up, but we were okay with that also. This is definitely closer to $30-$50 per person, depending on your...

We were so excited to pull up on our boat until we saw how mammoth everyone else's were hahahaha

The place was packed. A band was playing do that was awesome, but that's were the positives end. The drinks were ok--nothing great. The Buffalo egg rolls were OK. The burger was kind of dry, tasted like a frozen burger. And the side risotto was not great. The Bang Bang Taco was alright. It took over 40 minutes for our dinner. It was also pretty expensive for food that was just mediocre at best. As fun as the scenery is, we probably will not be back.

9/25/21 went back for a second visit, and the experience was slightly better, so I changed the rating. The atmosphere is very relaxing. They had a band playing again, which is always a plus. The drinks were ok. During this visit, we ordered the porkchop with risotto and mashed potatoes..... The meat was cooked perfectly. We also ordered shrimp tacos. The food came out hot.

3/7/22 went for dinner since my son in town, and what a disappointment. No one was here.....which should have made us turn around being the dinner rush hours. We've had mediocre food here before, but tonight was subpar. The calamari was raw. Like, I'll never eat it again raw...... My husband actually spit it out, and he never complains. We told our server and still had to pay the $14.

I ordered the grouper tacos, and it's just ok. I couldn't eat it after the calamari. The pork chop was good. The risotto eh.... cold. My husband's jambalaya was so hot he burned his mouth. The featured cocktails weren't anything special. It's beautiful here and the water is amazing but we've given enough chances... We...