Thistle Lodge Beachfront Restaurant — Restaurant in Sanibel

The first time I called for a reservation the man was very helpful. We wanted to use the beach after eating and I asked him if we could. The resort is private but he said it was no problem to take our stuff through the resort and set up on the public beach.

Upon arrival the hostess wanted to seat us near the wall... with no view, despite the reatauraunt being empty because it was off season. Begrudgingly she gave us a window seat.

Our server contradicted the man who took our reservation. She informed us that we had to use the public beach much farther down.

The food was incredibly lackluster. My wife ordered the steak and it turned out to be a steak salad even though there was no mention of salad on the menu and it was not listed in the salad section, it was listed in the entrees section. The seafood wrap had uncooked shrimp in it and in general the food was cold and unimpressive. It was not cheap though. Most meals started around $15 for what amounts to basic airplane food.

We returned to our car to get our beach gear and the parking attendant approached us asking if we were staying in the resort. He said we could not park in the half empty parking lot and use the beach. He bluntly told us to park "across the street" or he would have our car towed. We agreed to move the car despite what the man on the phone told us and even though we had just suffered though a meal at the lodge. He didn't care about any of that and reitteredated we needed to park "across the street" or suffer a tow.

We took our stuff out of the car and some of us took it to the beach. The rest of us moved the car. There is no parking across the street. The nearest parking area is 20 minutes walk away.

I could understand if the reatauraunt was packed, the parking lot was full, or even if they were expecting one of those two things to happen. But two hours later when we left the beach the parking was nearly empty and still no one was in the reatauraunt.

Needless to say, we will never stay at what looks like a decent resort. The views are great but the service is what makes a place like this. 0 stars for the service and 1 star for the food. Avoid at all costs. Fast food and a motel will treat you better than the...

Oh so disappointing! We thought this would be a nice way to spend the 4th of July for our friend saying it was her birthday. On arrival for lunch we where seated by the window right next to another table that has a party of four. The restaurant was empty there was no need to have us close to this other table. Then the waitress Jazmyn comes with the menu we give our drink order it took exactly 9min to receive the drinks (weak drinks) very little alcohol in them. We proceeded to order our starters 10min later they came out and I must say very tasty however on one of the starters we ordered chicken Quesadilla and on the plate was three small quarters, where did the four one go? So cheap of them. The male server came to the table and starter to take our plates while we where still eating the starters. I was like excuse me as you can see we are still eating and please do not remove anything unless we are finished. He made a huff and walked away. Very rude and unprofessional of him. We continued to order our main lunch meal and 15 min later out it came. Pictures will show on the grouper sandwich is was dry over cooked and tasteless. The lobster roll tasted like canned lobster and the bread over done. The tuna plate was fine. Now back to the birthday girl! You would think knowing it was her birthday the waitress would of made some fuss over her or offered a bday surprise dessert but no all she got was after we paid the bill of $207.62 while walking away. Oh have a good birthday. We where like what!!! Never ever again will I ever return to this place and I think an explanation and apology from any manager should be a follow up reply to this.

One more thing as we walked in the ceiling due to obviously water was falling in and the smell of...

Wife and I celebrated our 25th anniversary at The Thistle Lodge and it was incredible. We knew it was going to be expensive and had no problem splurging for a wonderful week on Captiva Island. The Lodge is fantastic our suite was huge and wonderful the staff helped us with everything. The part we were disappointed in was the food at the restaurant. If you are going to charge "Michelin Star" prices then you have set a pretty high bar for the expectations of your diners. I compare this to experiences that my wife and I have been lucky enough to enjoy in New York, Chicago and San Fran. I am not trying to sound pretentious, just pragmatic when it comes to the experiences that you pay top dollar to have. I want value for the money I spend in any establishment. So when the check comes for our Anniversary dinner comes the only thing I care about is do the numbers match my expectations and if the price of the meal is priced at or above say a Michelin Starred establishment then my expectations will be pretty high. Our food was good but the value was clearly not what it should have been. The service was incredible and she truly understood the prep, execution and sourcing of our meals. She also parred wines perfectly for us. My point to this lengthy review is make sure you get value for your hard earned money for any of your experiences...The wife and I still had a wonderful time...