Tail-Gators Brews & Grill — Restaurant in Port Saint Lucie

Sun. 6/21/20 Father's day ~ This was our first visit here (and) after Restaurants started back up after the shutdown in Florida. The dining area was empty which I preferred right now, however the bar area, (high top tables and bar stools) was quite crowded, there were stacks of dirty dishes piled on the bar. It appeared there was only 1 Bartender, 1 waitress, and a Manager, unknown kitchen staff? Our waitresses name was Kayla, a very nice young lady. We placed an appetizer order for the, Fried Gator Tail and Onion Straws. Now, you would think with an empty dining room it shouldn't take 2 fried appetizers 20 minutes to come out? When they finally arrived we weren't disappointed in the taste, both were delicious! As for our entrees, I ordered a half rack of the baby back Ribs and got to choose 1 side and I got the housemade Mac and Cheese, my Son chose the Fried Mac and Cheese Burger. I was delighted with the bb ribs, tender, meat falling off the bone, bbq sauce delicious too, I ate with a fork! The side housemade Mac and Cheese was hot, and very stringy as you expect it should be but I wasn't to much of a fan on the taste, nothing to brag about being housemade. Then there was a problem with my Son's Mac and Cheese Burger, it looked impressive and he was very excited about it but when he bit into it, the center of the "fried mac and cheese ball" was literally ice cold in the middle and that's not a figure of speech, it literally felt like it just came out of the refrigerator, plus his Burger he ordered "Medium" was well done. It took a minute to find any staff to tell, (out of the only 3 working) but finally had someone find Kayla and she apologized and offered to have a new one made and he said absolutely please. I was completely done eating by the time his replacement came back out but he was happy that the Burger was medium and the mac and cheese was piping hot! And through our entire appetizers and entrees we were never asked if we wanted another refill on my soda (which I did) or a second drink from the bar. Considering how slow they were we did expect better service, front and back house! Just fyi, no staff were wearing masks but they did offer all Condiments in individual souffle cups with lids, the soda straws also were (not) in paper, it was put in with bare hands, Management should revisit that! In closing, we did like the food, once corrected, and with alittle more speed in service, (front and back) I'd say this is a great place to eat. Our waitress, Kayla was very nice and friendly with a big...

Service was excellent when we went, but that's about it. We ordered the buffalo dip as an appetizer and it was extremely disappointing. They used the recipe found on the Frank's Hot website, which is usually fine, except they give you the tiniest cup of it with a bunch of chips. By the time we finished the dip, we still had 3/4ths of our chips left and nothing to eat them with (not even salsa? come on). As a $10 appetizer, that was extremely disappointing, especially since for that price I can make the exact same buffalo dip for a whole party. For the entree, I ordered the chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and cole slaw, and my wife ordered a burger with fries. She enjoyed the burger, but the curly fries tasted exactly like the frozen ones you can buy at any grocery store, and they were cold in the middle. It's really not that hard to just follow the instructions on the frozen bags, but they managed to mess even that up.

My chicken fried steak was... fine. It was a small cut of it, and again tasted like it came straight from the freezer to the fryer. Disappointing, given that you can just drive a few minutes to Cheddar's (which I don't love, but at least the food has some quality to it) and get twice the amount of chicken fried steak for the same price and have it taste significantly better. The mashed potatoes were good enough, I guess. All in all, a very...

We stopped on our way home to South Florida around 12 noon yesterday. . Bar area was busy for folks getting ready for the game, but large dining room was empty where we were seated right away. Staff was friendly, promptly brought beverages as ordered, but we were there nearly a half hour before the only appetizer and a soup were brought out ... their version of poutine —- barely cooked frozen crinkle fries and melted cheese but the gravy was decent. After another nearly half hour later, our three sandwiches, a salad, and a child’s meal were served. Cheesesteak was grizzly, French dip was dried out, Buffalo chicken ranch sandwich and blackened chicken Cobb salad were good ... chicken on the salad was cold but well seasoned, real buttermilk ranch dressing which was tasty. COVID precautions are not important to most people on staff — one of the staff members behind the bar had a gaiter-style mask around his neck but not covering his face, servers were leaving the kitchen and rolling flatware without masks covering their noses or mouths and without gloves. The worst part was that as we were finally being served our lunch, another family of four was seated directly next to us in an otherwise empty dining room. Two stars — two decent meals out of 4 (our little one was done, and we took it to go), slow kitchen, and COVID precautions not followed although their Google info says...