The Wharf Buffet — Restaurant in Panama City Beach

4/29-This is not worth $60 a person!! Which is what is charged per head. Very disappointed in our experience. The building itself is very nice from the inside and outside. Appears to look classy and relaxed. Guests have the option to eat in or outside. Going from walking in and being seated you think you are about to have a relaxing and excellent dining experience. NO. This is where it ended.

Some of the servers seemed like they didn’t want to be there. Some frowned when we tried to smile at them. One female scowled the whole time. Our server was polite and friendly. Only issue is after every time he would make his rounds to all his tables, he and the manager and other staff would hurry back so they could congregate to the bar area and talk and laugh VERY LOUD! We heard them over the VERY LOUD music. We could hear their whole inappropriate personal conversations. How can we report this when the manager himself is also being unprofessional and inappropriate where all guests can hear? Another thing that was off was the music that was playing. One minute it felt like we were in a sports bar and the next minute we couldn’t tell if we was in a restaurant or in Club La Vela? The music did not go with the restaurant vibe at all. We are travelers and foodies. We have been to many restaurants with music. We all started giggling in shock when we heard certain songs that were extremely inappropriate. It was clear to us that whoever is running this restaurant has not a clue on how to create and set a relaxing dining atmosphere.

What was the most disappointing issue was the food. For what is charged per person, we expected a much bigger buffet. The buffet is VERY SMALL. Very limited choices. NO variety. We all were hoping the crab legs would redeem this experience. NO!!! The crab legs were unseasoned. Bland. Tasteless. DRY. OVER COOKED. HARD TO CRACK from being over cooked. Our party made three separate trips to get served crab legs. All three trips were disappointing. After going through all the work of trying to crack hard to crack over cooked crab legs, we got no meat out of them. Meat was stuck to the shells. A big waste of our time. The steak was not cooked as requested. After three attempts I gave up for a med rare and my friend couldn’t get a med well without it being burnt. Not much of a dessert selection. All we heard was how amazing the pasta is there? If you want to pay $60 a person for somewhat decent pasta then this is your place. For our party, we were very underwhelmed and we all felt ripped off and left still hungry. A local referred our party to try out Captain Jack’s. We ARE SO HAPPY we took that suggestion. The next night we headed out to Captain Jack’s and the restaurant redeemed us of our bad experience at The Wharf.

The Wharf has so much potential. Its almost sad. It’s very inviting from the outside and inside. Owners really need to reevaluate what they’re doing there. Clean house and get rid of useless lazy unprofessional managers. Put in place a team of professional managers who can train the wait staff better. Change your music. Make your buffet much bigger. Change your cooks. Hire people who know how to cook steaks and crab legs and you could really knock it out...

Heartbroken. This used to be my favorite restaurant. I am a local. I am also the manager of a 150 room resort and I placed The Wharf's information into each unit because I loved it so much. Last night I brought my friends in. It was a nightmare. First of all it is $60 per person now. Which I do not mind paying because their food is usually fresh and delicious. This is what happened. The calamari was rubber. Complete rubber. Couldn't even bite in half. Shrimp was tough and overcooked. crab legs were overcooked and the shell was rubbery and would barely break. The filet mignon was tasteless. Taste like a sirloin. My friend ordered one Rare and it was cooked blue. This means barely cooked. Raw flesh. At this point I complained. The manager came over and started making excuses for every single thing. He informed me they were going to do away with crab legs all together but got them because another restaurant did. They no longer have scallops either. I told him to go taste them. He came back and agreed with me that it was all bad and he would tell the chef. That is it. Argued with my friend about his steak trying to tell him it was medium rare. It was raw. We are foodies. We know. I paid $120.00 plus tax to eat, my husband and I, and in total we had 4 claws of crab a half a steak and 2 bowls of she crab soup. No incentive was offered to us for this. NOTHING. I am pulling his info out of all units today. I will never ever recommend this restaurant to anyone else. EVER! Rude management, argumentative management. Also they did away with bananas foster and fresh ice cream. Manager said he didn't want to do it because customers are rude to the people that serve these. They took away so much and charge more. NOT WORTH IT!! You lost some loyal customers with us. But not just us. My over 25,000 renters that see your info a year in our units and my friends I used to bring down. I have never ever been more disappointed in a place. For the money you pay you can go get better fresher food for more...

Visited on a birthday trip and made special plans to visit here since I have seen it on social media, etc. Needless to say, my sister and I were very disappointed. The price is $60 for adult buffet, which was very small. The highlight of what we visited for was the crab legs and filet mignon. The crab legs were okay, but seemed overcooked as the shells were flimsy making them difficult to crack. The flavor of the crab was still good. The filet mignon, on the other hand, was extremely disappointing. I asked for medium cook twice, and received rare, twice. My sister also asked for medium and hers was rare. When I say rare, the steaks were pretty much raw. She always orders steak medium rare, and it was way underdone for her liking. We couldn't eat it...the only reason I tried again after the first one was because I saw them refill the steaks and figured that maybe I was given the wrong cook before, but, no. It was the same as the first and was not able to eat it. The steak also had very little flavor, just disappointing for sure. The salad bar on the buffet was the highlight for me. Although it didn't have extensive selection for toppings, it was fresh and their ranch was delicious. The made to order pasta was also good and prepared fresh to your liking with whichever noodles type, sauce type, protein and vegetables that you like. The dessert options were very minimal and mediocre. The service was good, it was very busy but our drinks were kept full and the staff kept the table clean by removing dirty plates and replacing the shell plate used for discarding the shells regularly. I think the buffet was overpriced for being so small and the quality of the food on the low end. I'm not typically one to write poor reviews, but I must be honest as I had such high expectations for this birthday dinner with family. I'm glad we visited The Wharf for the experience; however, I would not recommend this place and I personally would never choose to return...