Basmati's Asian Cuisine — Restaurant in Santa Rosa Beach

This used to be one of my favorite restaurants I took everyone to when in town. Granted the owner has never been friendly, their reservation system is antiquated and after you’ve eaten there a few times the food doesnt wow you as much but it is a cute atmosphere and one of the few upscale restaurants we have on 30A. We have been many times where we have made friends with several other people in the restaurant and its always been a fun time. Our last visit there was an entirely different story. We were celebrating a friend’s 50th birthday with a party of 17 people. Knowing we were loud (due to group size,not because we were obnoxious) we bought the lady’s dinner who was also in the dining room with us. She was super appreciative, told us that wasnt needed and wished us a fabulous night and encouraged us to continue to enjoy our night. At this point it had taken 45 minutes to even get our first round of drinks (after going up and asking for someone to take our order) and the appetizers had just been served. The owner had the audacity to come out and shame one of our guests, singling her out and humiliating her and telling us to be quiet. We were literally THE ONLY people in the entire restaurant and it was 9:30 at night so nobody else was coming in. After a heated exchange with the owners we determined they are miserable people. They tried to back track and act as if nothing had happened but it was too late. They wait staff was amazing (as they have always been) and were trying to diffuse the situation only to be shushed by the owner and pulled to the back. Again the lady is just miserable and its always been a joke as to who is going to call for reservations because the owner is so mean and hateful but nothing we couldnt deal with. Treating customers this way is a completely different story. I WILL NEVER VISIT THIS RESTAURANT AGAIN and truly hope the owners will retire and leave the restaurant in better hands, its obviously...

We went here as we have a discount book we bought earlier in the year and have yet to use. We drove for half an hour to get here. A pretty little place, very intimate. We were shown to our table after being offered either indoor or outdoor (screened) seats. We asked if our discount was valid as the table was being laid and were told we could. Unfortunately the grouper my wife wanted had sold out. Our server was attentive and knowledgeable. Our starters arrived promptly and the presentation was second to none. However, for me the flavours just weren't there. Maryland style crab cakes are my favourite, they just didn't do it for me unfortunately. The wife had a selection platter. She also agreed it was nice, but not amazing. I also ordered spring roll which was again, beautiful fresh and presented, but lacked in punch. It certainly wasn't horrible. Our mains were brought out at a good point after the starters, my wife had a half portion of fried rice with shrimp and I had the bbq duck. My duck was fantastic - the flavours were great much more like what I expected. Cooked to perfection and melted in the mouth. The shrimp fried rice was also nice, not fantastic and had some rather large lumps of onion in it. The shrimp were huge, which meant there wasn't that many of them. We then shared a coconut cake for dessert. That was very nice. However it all fell apart when we presented our discount. We were told we couldn't use that with the fried rice as a meal. We spend $160 between two of us, yet we hadn't spent enough to meet the requirements. That was very disappointing. And the meal certainly wasn't worth $160 (Inc tip) unfortunately. I doubt we would go back,...

We had high hopes for Basmati’s, but we were severely disappointed. The service was good. I’m pregnant so I guzzle water and never had an empty glass. Our server, Jesse, was nice and extremely knowledgeable of the menu. But the food, the main focal point, was severely underwhelming and overpriced. The spring rolls for $12 were nothing short of average, although the chili sauce was delicious. The special was egg drop soup with chunks of blue crab. We asked that the crab not be included which Jesse happily obliged. The soup was perfectly seasoned and my wife and I throughly enjoyed it. For dinner, I ordered the Vegetarian Creation and my wife ordered the fried rice with steak and beef. My dish consisted of a stack of chargrilled vegetables with no flavor and tempura tofu and asparagus with a dipping sauce. The dipping sauce was good and I ended up pouring it over the vegetables. However, it didn’t give the vegetables much of a flavor boost. Plus, they were severely overlooked. My wife found the fried rice to be basic with too many currants that threw the flavor off. She chose the half order which ended up being a ridiculous $31. She literally ate four bites so there was plenty left. One would think this would cause someone from the staff to ask if there was something wrong with the dish. That never happened. We would happily pay for the dish, but it would have been nice for someone to acknowledge or realize something was wrong with the amount of untouched food from...