The Reef — Restaurant in Saint Augustine

First off let me preface this by saying if you want excellent seafood check out the local seafood eateries and not the chain establishments. There you will find the freshest and tastiest food. And an added bonus if they are located on a body of water. Whether it be on an ocean, lake, river or pond. And a triple bonus if they offer outdoor seating. Now with that out of the way let me tell you about The Reef. First my wife got there at about 8 O' clock on a Thursday night and they closed at nine. When we walked in there the decor was absolutely stunning. We walked to the hostess stand and were greeted by a nice young lady. She asked us how our day was going so far and asked if we would like to sit inside or outside. Treated us like we were arriving at a normal 5 or 6 and not like it was only an hour before closing. She promptly sat us at our table on the upper deck and gave us our menus. While we were looking over our menus Taylor our server greeted us and brought us waters and gave us a couple of minutes to look over the menus. When she came back she brought with her some complimentary bread and butter (more on that in a minute). Then she took our orders and even described to my wife how her scallops would be. And again she didn't rush us to order even though by this time they were about 45 minutes away from closing. The hardest part about the ordering process was seeing the menus due to it was already dark outside and the only light we had was a little table spot light. But we managed with cellphones. Now to the food. As I said in the foreword if you want excellent seafood go to a local restaurant and not a chain. First off the bread was delicious. It was crusty on the outside and pillowy soft in the center. The flavors were nice and yeasty in the center and a slight pretzel flavor on the crust. And we were finishing off the bread Taylor had brought us our breaded fried green tomatoes. Now as a southern boy nothing hurts your soul more than to bite into a fried green tomato that's soggy and flavorless. These tomatoes came out full of flavor all the way from the breading to the datil pepper sauce the tomatoes laid upon. The datil pepper sauce was perfectly spicy but not so spicy that it couldn't be enjoyed (even by my wife who cannot handle too much spice). Now my wife ordered the grilled scallops. Which consisted of 4 sea scallops that were the size of a silver dollar and at least 2 inches thick. They were beautifully nestled on a bed of couscous with spinach and confit tomatoes with a balsamic glaze underneath. The scallops were perfectly grilled. Easily cut with a fork. They were sweet and had the perfect char flavor. The couscous was cooked to perfection. The confit tomatoes gave it a rich and slightly sweet tomato-y flavor without over powering the flavor of the scallops. I myself had ordered the seafood jambalaya. It was nicely sauced with a beautiful medium brown Cajun flavor. It had bits of chicken, shrimp, real andouili sausage and grouper. And topped with cheddar cheese. It reminded me of some of the best jambalayas I had down in NOLA. And as we were finishing up our dinner it was past 9 o' clock and Taylor was still in great spirits never once made us feel rushed. She even offered us dessert but by this time we were too full to even think of dessert. So she brought us our check and asked if I needed a to go box for my leftovers. Overall I give The Reef a 9.5 out of 10. The only downside was the outdoor lighting. So if you are ever in St. Augustine and have a craving for seafood do yourself a favor take 10 minute drive north on A1A towards Vilano Beach and give The Reef a try. You will not be...

I wanted to provide some feedback about my event this past Sunday. I don’t normally do this, but I wanted to convey how disappointed and dissatisfied I was with the quality of the service. The Reef has always been a family favorite and we were so looking forward to hosting our event there. The quality was so far below my expectations for what is normally such an elegant and extraordinary restaurant.

I was informed that the tables and room would be completely set up for us the evening prior to the event, and in any case, well before our arrival at 9:30 AM to set up. We arrived promptly at 9:30 and walked into a very humid and musty room that had 4 tables haphazardly strewn around the room with only empty water glasses. I had to ask multiple times to get the correct number of chairs and settings at each table. Nothing else was set up (buffet, bar, plate settings, etc.)

-There was only one server setting up and running the entire event for 30 guests. Not only was the poor man struggling to set up the entire room by himself while we were trying to decorate, but he was behind the entire party. Guests showed up at the 10:30 start time with not even a glass of water to be offered to them. We paid to have champagne and mimosas “butler passed for the first 30 minutes.” We had a bar set up instead and the guests had to go fetch their own drinks after being there for over half an hour.

-I had to prompt the server every step of the way to follow the itinerary. Both the buffet and the cake service were also late. The cake was served on little plastic plates and set out one slice at a time with no extra utensils (they had all been used for the brunch service). Eventually, my sister in law stepped in and started passing the pieces out herself because the server had no help while he was in the back room slicing the cake. This was ABSOLUTELY not worth the $75 cake service fee.

-The food was of very poor quality. The buffet was set out in a visually unappealing manner that looked thrown together. The shrimp and grits were watery and entirely unappetizing because they were mixed together like a porridge instead of being served separately. The waffles and chicken were burnt. The syrup was ice cold like it had just come out of a fridge. No one was there to staff the buffet and inadequate utensils resulted in guests struggling to serve themselves and making a mess of the tables that just lingered the duration of the party. Dirty plates lingered on tables because there was inadequate staff to clear them.

-No where on the website or in the planning documents we received was there any mention that the Ocean’s Edge room was upstairs with no elevator available. Additionally, there is no mention that there is no restroom upstairs. I had several elderly and handicapped guests that struggled to climb the stairs and almost weren’t able to attend. This is both embarrassing and a completely unacceptable way to accommodate guests. I should’ve asked, but I also would expect an event coordinator to ask a client about accessibility needs prior to an event booking.

For the money, I am extremely unhappy with the event service. I would not recommend The Reef to anyone hosting an event...

I tried emailing the reef privately about this, but they will not respond. Just some things to keep in mind if you are looking to rent their upstairs for a wedding.

Good morning I've decided to reach out via email instead of writing a bad review on your site as I feel if you can't say something to the restaurant directly it isn't fair to post it for the world to see. We were very excited to have our wedding and reception at the reef with beautiful views and while there were some highs (the food was amazing one we actually got it) .. There were way more lows. From the beginning it was a nightmare to get a hold of Danielle. Not only for myself but for my wedding planner. I understand everyone is busy, but when you are trying to plan a wedding and can't get a response for days ( a couple of occasions weeks) it makes it very frustrating. The icing on the cake was when she didn't even show up to the walk through that my wedding planner set up with her. She was the one that confirmed the time and date. There were also prices / things that she promised that we were told later was not correct. I was informed when I got to the reef of a huge mess with the rental company being told they couldn't set up. and several issues with vendors needing answers and staff not helping them with the questions. My wedding planner could speak more on that. Dinner was supposed to be served at 6:30 per the timeline we needed for pictures and we were not served our plates until 7:15 with the rest of the reception being served later than that. My grandparents were down stairs and I fully appreciate them being able to reserve a table for them, but when I went down at 7:30 thinking they would have eaten and be ready to leave they hadn't even been served yet. I had to track someone down to get them their food. We were promised that you guys have done this several times and if we needed food served at a certain time you would make it happen. Because of the delay in everything I had to pay extra for vendors to stay around and capture things when they should have been leaving by 8 or 9. One of the most frustrating experiences was how incredibly hot it was up stairs and in the bathroom. By the time I got my dress and items up to go, and put myself together again I was dripping sweat which no bride wants on her wedding day. Several people left because of how hot it was and most people stayed on the deck because of the heat instead of enjoying the dance floor. We asked several times for the air to be turned down and they did twice then refused after that. The thermostat read 73-76 all night. That is way too hot to have 50 people in the upstairs room in dresses and suits sweating. I understand it's Florida, but when it's cooler outside then it is inside when you pay to rent out the space that is a huge problem. I felt disgusting and gross all night dripping sweat while people wanted to take pictures. Honestly just extremely disappointing for the money we paid to have it there. I know hiccups happen but these all seem like things that had a solution when we spoke up about them...