Madfish Grill — Restaurant in Sarasota

My husband and I had dinner here while vacationing in Sarasota this past February. I’m an adult with numerous food allergies (soy, peanuts, nuts, shellfish, corn, sunflower, wheat, etc.), so eating out – especially while on vacation – can be challenging and a little scary. I couldn’t really find many restaurants in the area that showed promising food allergy friendly reviews (I hope this one helps someone!!), but I did stumble across an old Madfish Grill blog posting from 2014 that mentioned their allergy best practices and knowledge of ingredients. I decided it was worth a try, so I came them a call and just asked if they catered to food allergies. I was told that they have a full allergy chart in the back and can accommodate my needs – GREAT! So, we headed over for an early dinner both to avoid the dinner crowd and to be finished in time to catch the sunset at The Westin. After ordering our drinks came the nerve wracking part to me: will the waiter understand my needs and make me feel comfortable? Well… not quite. He seemed nervous and disappeared for a while. My husband and I considered leaving before getting our drinks, but luckily he convinced me to wait it out and I’m glad I did! The manager came over (I don’t remember her name!) and totally reassured me. She helped me figured out what I can eat, how they will cook it separately in a pan to avoid cross-contamination, and explained what ingredients they use, such as oils and spices. I felt so confident after placing my order of filet mignon, broccoli, and asparagus. It was delicious and left me with zero doubt or worry afterwards. A+...

The young waiter came to take our order,repeated it back to us and that was great. He asked if we would like some bread and we all happily said yes. I ordered a glass of wine and the other 3 folks with me ordered iced tea.the drinks appeared promptly and some of the food did also.That was the last we saw of our waiter until we were ready to leave although we asked others to have our waiter come to our table.The bread did not appear until we paid our bill and were leaving. The salad I ordered as a side never appeared even though I asked other waiters that passed by our table to check on it. Our water glasses and iced tea glasses were never offered to be refilled until the waiter came with the bill.I will say the mahi tacos were delicious,not so the so called shrimp that 2 of our group ordered.They were more the size of smashed prawns and the 2 that ordered them did not eat them after 1 taste and said they tasted plastic,manufactured, and were horrible.we were unable to speak to the waiter until he showed up with the bill because he didn't come back to our table until then.The restaurant was alittle busy but didn't appear overly busy.The waiter did remove 1 shrimp dinner from the bill but we would have tried another dinner ( at our own expense)for each of the 2 men that had the shrimp but by this time we had been waiting for our waiter for about an hour and half so the guys just wanted to leave and grab a...

Seafood eatery with moderate chic setting and lighting while awkward teen waitstaff run around in dirty black jogger sweats and Adidas. A bit of a bipolar look/feel. If you sit next to the host stand, you will be treated by watching the fluffy/fuzzy headed host scratch his scalp and pop a zit. (Yes, that actually happened.) APPETIZER CALAMARI - perfectly tender, light crunch, light batter. Perfect! KEY WEST FISH SANDWICH - it had a thick meaty piece of fried fish. When tasted alone, the fish was good but bland. Juicy, flakey, light. It wanted to be tastey, but didn't have salt to drive the flavor. Would've been passable alone, but it was completely lost in the sandwich. Each bite of sandwich tasted of bread, tomato, and mystery patty (because no fish fillet flavor came through). It comes with tartar sauce which I began adding, but then the entire sandwich was overtaken by the sauce. This was a delicious looking sandwich but the elements didn't work together as a whole. BANG LOBSTER BLT - Same problem as before. It tasted of burned bacon and bread. Could have anykind of meat in there. Who knows when you can't taste it. They need to work on how to get seafood to come through on a sandwich. This is admittedly challenging. The keys lie in enhancing the seafood with seasonings and selecting breads/condiments that do not compete for...