Ford's Garage Pier Park — Restaurant in Panama City Beach

I recommend we eat here for dinner because I loved the Orlando location so much. The wait was about 15-20 minutes which wasn’t bad at all for a Saturday night. Once my party of 5 + an infant was seated we were immediately greeted by the server & given our drinks. We ordered the cheese curds & pretzels as appetizers. We were given a small handful of cheese curds if that & the pretzels were over cooked with a tiny container of cheese, definitely not enough for all the pretzels. Before the appetizers came out the server was back to take our order. We didn’t order anything crazy. Between the 6 of us we ordered a chicken sandwich, sirloin, chicken nachos with a few toppings taken off, pulled pork Mac n cheese, brisket burger with tots, fries & mashed potatoes as sides. About 40ish minutes go by since we were seated. We never seen the server. She never came back to give us refills, never gave us an update, we occasionally seen her with other tables but for the most part she wasn’t around. About an hour goes by & she finally comes over to say “sorry it’s taking so long the kitchen is so backed up. Let me get you all some refills”. More time passes & she never brings us refills. Probably another 10-15 minutes go by & another server that we seen waiting on other tables brings out our food. The chicken nachos were cold. Not even room temperature. They were literally cold to the touch as if they were just pulled from the fridge with the toppings on it that we asked to be removed. The sirloin was undercooked, & the fries, tots and mashed potatoes were room temperature at best. The chicken sandwich was warm but dripping honey mustard out of it. To the point it was not edible because it was so wet and soggy. The macaroni had a couple pieces of pulled pork on it, the noodles were dry and cold and the cheese was hard. The brisket burger was cold. Which is very interesting that our food took over an hour to receive because “the kitchen was so backed up” yet every single one of our food was cold or messed up. We paid extra for a side of mashed potatoes for my baby & we never received them. Clearly we’re easy going people & don’t complain much considering we’ve sat there for an hour with no food & still hadn’t complained. When the server asked how the food was we said the nachos were cold & wrong & the brisket macaroni was cold. She said she’d get the cost of the nachos taken off & she’d get her manager to remake them. 5-10ish minutes go by & the manager comes out to deliver the food & makes sure to mention how piping hot the food is because it just came out of a 400 degree oven. The new brisket macaroni was fine but my husband felt rushed to eat it because at this point we had been here for 2 hours, it was after 9pm & everyone else had finished their food. The nachos were still terrible. The chips were stale so my niece didn’t even get to eat at all. The manger then comes over and says she will take 10% off the bill. A whole 10%. We watched people come in after us. Given their food before us. And leave before us. We sat for over an hour waiting for food. The food was wrong & cold. We were never given refills. We had to ask multiple times & the server still never gave them to us. We sat around for almost 2 hours. & all we were given was 10% off? In case you don’t know what 10% off each bill is. That equals $4-$5 dollars off. $4-$5 off horrible service. Not to mention the nachos that we were told would be removed, weren’t. We were still charged for them. And apparently the extra side of mashed potatoes for my baby weren’t forgotten to be given to us. The server just never put them on the order. We definitely weren’t looking to get free food but as a business and a manager, you should’ve looked at the situation, seen how patiently we sat for over an hour to initially get the food with a baby, waited 2 hours in total, all 5 adults had food that was cold and wrong and possibly offered to cover part of the food, the drinks at least 20% of the bill. Something. 10% is inexcusable and I can guarantee to never go back to...

My family and I, a party of six, visited your establishment on July 28, 2025, around 6:00 PM. We anticipated a pleasant dining experience, but unfortunately, several aspects of our visit fell short of expectations, leading to a disappointing evening.

Upon arrival, we experienced an approximate 45-minute wait to be seated, which we understood given how busy the restaurant was. However, once we were finally shown to our booth, we immediately noticed ranch dressing dripped on the back of the seat and the underside of the table was notably unclean. We brought this to the attention of the hostess, who removed a single fork but left the remaining mess, and we did not see her again. Additionally, despite requesting a booster seat for our 4-year-old, it was never provided, forcing us to improvise. It was also apparent that the hostess could have been more attentive to the cleanliness of our booth and less distracted by her colleagues.

The quality of the food was consistently problematic across our orders:

My High Octane veggie burger was not very good, and the onion rings I paid extra for were tiny and severely overcooked. Given the extensive wait times and my young children's exhaustion, I chose not to voice my dissatisfaction at the time.

My husband's High Octane burger was accompanied by overcooked tater tots.

My sister's chicken sandwich also came with overcooked onion rings, though hers were a larger portion than mine.

Most notably, my brother-in-law's ribeye, ordered medium, was delivered well-done, and his mashed potatoes were cold.

While our waitress was commendably sweet and attempted to rectify the issue with the steak, the subsequent interaction with management was less than satisfactory. The manager initially addressed only my brother-in-law's steak, failing to inquire about the satisfaction of the rest of our table. It was only after a new steak was delivered that he finally asked about the other meals. We feel that a manager, when performing table touches, should ensure the entire table is happy and ask more comprehensive questions. At this point, it was quite late, and given the evident busyness of the restaurant and the slow service, waiting for additional food replacements would have been an inconvenience rather than a solution. We believe a more proactive approach, such as offering a discount or other form of compensation for the cumulative issues with service and food quality, would have been appropriate at that juncture.

This experience could have resulted in a far more positive review had the management demonstrated stronger leadership in addressing our concerns promptly and effectively. Having worked in the customer service industry myself, I understand both sides of such situations, and it is clear that this could have been handled significantly better by management.

Considering the significant wait, the cleanliness issues, the widespread food quality concerns, the less-than-thorough managerial response, and the hostess's lack of attentiveness, we regret to say that we will not be returning t Ford's garage pier park until we are assured that these issues have been comprehensively addressed and that management is committed to making such experiences right for their patrons.

We sincerely hope you will take this feedback seriously to improve future customer...

Warning for anyone looking to go!!!! First time we went, it was for lunch. Found large ball of hair cooked in the meat of our burger so they had to replace it. Went back this weekend in the afternoon and it was really slow to bring friends to try. I was giving them a Second chance and it was worse. Food was not as fresh. Then when we paid for bill they brought our folder back with our receipt but didn’t return my CC. The waiter which was almost non existent and didn't reserve the required tip that is automatically added as he only came to table twice then when CC was not returned disappeared. Grabbed another person to ask someone where my CC was. One said they took it to register to run card.. the one at the register said they had not seen it and had no clue and they all looked clueless. Went up to register myself where I was told my card was taken in the folder. The said she had not seen it and it was not up on counter with her. She in formed me it was not really a big deal and said she could see where it would be an issue. I said yea this is a BIG issue that my CC is floating around. Then her reply was why? I asked her what do you mean why? and asked me what she needs to do about it. She offered up to get the manager but stated again she didn’t understand the issue why we were upset because they didn’t return the card. (This was witnessed by at least 6 other people) She finally got the manager ( not the main one we have talk to before but a supervisor of some sort) with my waiter that went MIA with my card by her side like a guilty look in his face. Stating “ it was found by another worker (not the waiter or the cashier) and was locked up in the safe and if we found any charges which we won’t they MAY pull the camera”. So until I pushed the issue about they better find my CC they were all clueless and never seen it’s me had amnesia. When I did, she came out and named about 5 people that hand handled my CC she knew of and none was the waiter that took it with my bill. I’m like OMG. Beware when they take your CC as they may get Amnesia at anytime and not remember your card, where they put it, etc. but they will make sure you get the recipe where they swipped it. We are regular to pier park and I am letting all my friends, company I work for, and all Panama City social media groups know. If you go to watch for HAIR and pay in CASH if you dare to go. I learned from other locals the 5 star reviews are fake reviews to try to pull in business to the new...