Cha Cha Coconuts — Restaurant in Sarasota

With rising menu prices all around St. Armands, Cha Cha Coconuts continues to deliver great tropical and Cuban-inspired dishes sub-$20. I bought the top entree, the Tropical Mahi Mahi, which proved an excellent choice! The fish came topped with a mango and avocado salsa, a slice of lime, some fried plantains, and yellow rice topped with a small portion of brown beans. I paired this with a delicious red wine Sangria, to my surprise, with actual fruits on the bottom. The meal was fairly balanced, but I felt it could use more vegetables. My friend made the mistake of ordering the coconut shrimp - that entree came with a small condiment cup of coleslaw and french fries, along with a mustard sauce. My friend loved it, but all entrees should include a good portion of healthy vegetables to make a more sterling worry-free recommendation. This dish would suffice much better as an appetizer. Compared to others in the area, 5 stars is worth the food we got at the price we got it. Just make sure to ask for vegetables, or you may not get much with what you order.

Our server was Krisa. She was attentive to our needs, took care of us, and demonstrated her experience very well. She asked if we needed anything immediately once the food was brought, and came back to double-check just a couple minutes later. I actually wanted some hot sauce when the Mahi Mahi and salsa came far less spicy than anticipated. I was worried she'd assume we didn't need anything after we said we were fine, but by double-checking after we tried the food she made sure we were well taken care of. This extra step made a huge difference. I got the hot sauce immediately after (apparently the table next to us had it-whoops!). My friend got me a slice of cake, provided to us free of charge for my birthday, which was unknown to the staff until he mentioned it at the end. The cake, eaten the next day, was delicious. So was the Key-Lime Pie my friend had, and his tango mango iced tea. The level of service we received from Krisa specifically and Cha Cha Coconuts as a whole demonstrated experience and excellence, birthday or not. This service should be expected from all restaurants these days, but sadly not all measure up.

Considering how rare it is to find good food at good prices with good service in good locations these days, Cha Cha Coconuts is a St. Armands staple that should find renewed relevance following the gross inflation of prices nearby. Our whole experience, including live entertainment, made for an excellent night on the Circle. Following this, I will definitely recommend Cha Cha Coconuts to my friends more frequently. Not just for the colorful and affordable food, but for the fantastic service and...

We arrived around 730 to the restaurant and we were able to find a table immediately for all 5 of us. We sat seemingly unnoticed for about 10 minutes and our waitress finally greeted us, she was pleasant. We ordered our drinks and 2 appetizers, the half pound peel and eat shrimp and the loaded nachos. The shrimp were so cold they were on the verge of frozen, but the nachos were decent, no meat, only black beans. We waited 20 minutes for refills on 3 drinks. Our waitress came over approx 30 minutes into waiting on our food and said the kitchen was backed up, however, 3 other tables that were seated after us with a different waiter had food out, which lead me to believe she forgot to put in our order. The ham and cheese I got was pressed but not hot, the cheese was not melted, buffalo chicken sandwich was ok, burger was just ok, my husband ordered chicken tenders and they were the flat, breaded kind that are obviously frozen. My mom got the grouper sandwich, which, they were "trying out as a special" and it was not good, 5 little pieces of grouper bites with waaay too much bread! There was a woman behind us waiting on her shrimp quesadilla, to-go, same waitress, and she sat there for 30 minutes. Aside from the underwhelming food, the environment is so loud, it was difficult to hear the people at my own table, we even did a little experiment and turned the volume on our phones to the highest setting to see if we could hear them.... We couldn't. I know a restaurant can not necessarily control the volume of the patrons, but when I tell you there were 2 tables in particular that were together, probably 15 people in total, literally yelling, they should have been addressed. Very disappointed and will not...

Wanted to come back here because I’ve had a good experience in the past… But today our server Ashlee was absolutely horrible… from someone who has worked her way up in the restaurant industry from host, server, bartender and now manager Id think these points are very valid. We got sat and it took her a minute to come greet us and she got our drink order and pretty much ran away. As she brought our drinks to us we also ordered an appetizer and told her we were ready to order our food as well.. She then proceeded to write NOTHING down and had to come back and ask us about our order again.. And to no surprise since she didn’t write our order down our appetizer never came out and our food came out so we asked to have the appetizer to go. It was just chips and queso. She brings us the box of chips with no queso in it just salsa and guacamole which we had told her previously we didn’t want. My beer also didn’t taste right and I had to tell another server (the one who brought our food) to grab me just a coke. Then I waited a few mins for my coke and still never got it…Ashlee then had to come back and make sure coke was the drink I wanted because again she didn’t write anything down. The food was okay and the service was absolutely horrible… we will NEVER be back because of this experience. And to pay $67 was absolutely...