Original Oyster House — Restaurant in Spanish Fort

In the TOP THREE WORST dining experiences I have ever had to endure - plus, as an added bonus, tag on the incredible embarrassment because I was treating friends visiting from the Midwest. Full circle - from the hostess to the bartender (and extremely uncomfortable bar chairs) to the meal and back to the hostess again when we were finally, finally getting out of there - it was not good. The tall, bar chairs are now at the top (#1 on list) of worst chair, of any type, I have ever had the misfortune to plop my behind on! Then the bartender, when we informed her we were not interested in dining at the bar because we were waiting for a table in the main restaurant, became gruff and her service, like ice on the bar floor, just melted away. The oysters on the half shell my friend was so excited to try, enjoyed about 4 of them until one was so gritty with sand she completely lost her appetite and repeatedly refused to eat another bite, even when the, ever so pleasant, server offered to replace them. I found the breaded dishes I tried - from the fried green tomatoes, shrimp, and flounder were completely flavorless. And throw the chessy grits recipe in the trash because they had the consistency of soup, and of course, no flavor. The waitress WAS THE BEST PART of our time in the whole establishment. As we were headed for the door (I was ten paces behind my friends) I observed the hostess walking toward them and giving them a blatantly, insincere, smiley face "thank you" because immediately after passing by them her expression gave off a F---you look, oblivious that I was with those people. Can't, and won't recommend to any one to come here. However, I can and will highly recommend NOT to come to this place. I worked in the service industry for years and the golden standard to follow is the 3/11 Rule - give good service/quality and the customers will recommend your business to, on average, 3 people. Give bad service/quality and the megaphone comes out because patrons are going to tell 11 people on average. Guess what I am holding? A: a...

I like to write great reviews, so this one gives me no pleasure. I got the shrimp Florentino, and my husband got the pasta shrimp Alfredo. My shrimp were supposed to be stuffed with spinach, cheeses, and mushrooms. There was plenty of stuffing and very little shrimp. The edible portion was about the size of a quarter. It's very thin and very small. 3 times the amount of "stuffing" was piled on top of each shrimp. The tails were left on, so i couldn't even eat the whole shrimp without literally picking them up and peeling them with my fingers. My husband's shrimp were overcooked and chewy. The pasta portion was nearly tasteless. His tea glass was never refilled once, nor was it offered, just as my water glass remained empty. You would expect a seafood restaurant to know how to cook shrimp. I think the waitress was either having a bad night, or they were shorthanded. We ourselves were part of a larger party, so a mandatory 18% gratuity was added to the check. I have never liked mandatory gratuities. I feel it gives the wait staff no incentive. I'm normally a 20% tipper unless I get terrible service. It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't good, and we never got a single smile out of our waitress. I would have gladly tipped more beyond the mandatory 18% had she just kept our glasses filled. So the bill came to $80 for two meals, a glass of tea, a glass of water, and one shared appetizer. Honestly, the appetizer was good. I have to say the salad bar was good as well as the turnip greens. But the "good" parts were definitely not worth $80. I'm disappointed. I've been here before and gotten both better food and...

I have been to the oyster house several times and each time service has been good… tonight on this particular night I can’t say that it was… As someone in the industry I understand the importance of customer service but from the get go we tried to sit at the bar and the bartender Pamela was clearly annoyed and simply in a rush to get her shift over with and tried to direct us to the tables on the other side, when we told her we wanted to sit at the bar the energy and vibe immediately shifted, we just wanted to sit at the bar get a drink or 2 and eat some oysters and watch a little bit of the NBA playoffs… she was cut and dry, we tried asking about certain items and got short answers, after we ordered our food she pulled every chair out from around us and swept, and vacuumed under our feet as if to indicate “Please hurry we’re closing soon” … I understand to a certain extent, but we aren’t those people who come in 10 minutes before closing… when our food came we had to constantly ask for appetizer plates and crackers for our oysters, I called her out on it and told her the food was okay but the service was terrible, she asked why and I respectfully gave her my reasoning, she tried to become apologetic and explain how she had been there all day and was ready to go.. But honestly that wasn’t my concern because you still have a shift to finish, my mind had already been made up to write this review.. These are the type of employees that will take an establishment under if management doesn’t do something to correct the situation before it becomes a bigger problem...