Coconuts Restaurant — Restaurant in Panama City Beach

I wish I had read the reviews prior to stopping to eat here. In regards to the service, it left a lot to be desired. I walked in and told the hostess it was a party of 1 and she asked if I was sitting at the bar. I requested a 2-seater table beside the bar instead. The hostess, who’s job it is to seat people, handed me a menu and a silverware and said, “here you go”. Lucky for me, she was also my waitress and had her ear pod in the whole time and really didn’t want to be bothered having to deal with people in a restaurant. The food was just okay. Nothing special. But, the most mind blowing part is the check. I ordered a chicken tender basket for $17.99 and had a glass of tea. MY CHECK WAS $28.71. So, I started looking and realized my glass of tea was $3.88 (about a 500% markup). Then, even though it’s not stated anywhere in the restaurant or on the menu, there’s automatically an 18% gratuity added…and then, when they bring you the credit card receipt, it has TIP SUGGESTIONS on the receipt to attempt to get more from you after you’ve already given them 18%. That’s bad enough, but then there’s an “RF” added for $1.09. I questioned this and the response was, “it’s a resort fee because they own the hotel”. Ummmmmmm, what? I didn’t stay at the hotel. I ate in a restaurant (which is NOT located inside of a hotel, not named after a hotel, nor even the same colors as the hotel). I asked the waitress upon seeing the total, “I’m not sure if this is correct” her response was, “yes it is.”

I totally understand that businesses are in business to make money…but adding an 18% gratuity for a party of ONE and then adding a resort fee that I’ve never even heard of a restaurant adding, is asinine and the servers absolutely could have cared less about my concerns for the...

We waited for an hour on our food without being offered drink refills and without our waitress checking on us. After that hour, we asked her for the status on our order and she said they were working on it. We had a party of 12 so we knew the wait would be a little longer. We asked again about 20 minutes later because at this point we were all starving and thirsty and 6 of the 12 of us were children who were getting restless. The waitress went to the back then walked around helping other tables side-eyeing us but never approaching our table. After about 10 minutes with no answers and not even asking if we wanted refills - nothing, we got up and asked to speak with the manager. The manager apologized because apparently the waitress had forgotten to put our order in the system and didn’t do it until we asked for an update after we’d already been waiting for an hour. We asked for the check for our drinks so we could leave. We had only 3 alcoholic beverages on the tab; the other drinks were sodas and waters. They actually gave us the check with the automatic 18% gratuity applied. I had to ask for them to remove the gratuity. After waiting for as long as we waited, getting no drink refills and receiving no update after our second status update request, the check should’ve been comped; it was only around $50. OR we should’ve received an update followed by an apology and the offer of a complimentary appetizer or 2 while we waited for our food to come out. Little things like this go a long way when someone writes a review or when they decide whether or not they will return to your business. Instead, we left with incredibly hungry and cranky children and adults and about...

The food is OK, I wouldn't say good, but not terrible either. The servers are courteous and friendly, but the service is very slow. I think this may be more of an issue with the kitchen because we were greeted and sat with only a short wait, and our waitress took our drink and food orders fairly quickly also. I didn't see her put our order in immediately, but i have no reason to believe she didn't. Plus everyones food seem to take a very long time, not just ours. I will say the servers do not come back to check on the tables much after the order is taken. But they also don't have much incentive to give exceptional service because there is an automatic 18% gratuity charged to every ticket anyway, no matter the party size. This is the only restaurant in the area that I have found that does this. Most people probably don't even notice this, and there is no sign at the entrance forewarning you, only a small notice at the very bottom of the back of the menu. What bothers me more than this however, is that there is a hidden "resort fee" that they do NOT disclose and I'm not even sure is legal. And you'd never guess is it either because it's labeled "Tech" on the ticket. I asked what the fee was for and the server at first told me it was a credit card fee. I said "but I gave you cash...?" and then she said "oh, I mean that is the resort fee; we own the hotel across the road". I'm not sure how that justifies anything... I'm guessing if you request it removed, they probably have to take it off. The resort is totally separate from the restaurant. You'd never even guess they are related in anyway. Infact, the hotel has its own...