J Michael's Tavern & Grille — Restaurant in Stuart

As much as I wanted to love this place, I just couldn't find enough good to make me want to go back. In my opinion, the area could use more good old fashioned American cuisine restaurants. You know, places that have a wide variety of things on the menu. I love Mexican food but even I have my limit! There are a lot of ethnic restaurants around. Some good, some not. When I saw J. Michael's menu, I was excited. Unfortunately, reality came crashing down on me and my family last night. Formerly the Red Grill, J. Michael's is fairly new so I took the family there for dinner to check it out. Although the website would have you believe it's quite the upscale eatery, it's decorated like pretty much every other sports bar in the area. Think Duffy's and you're be dead on. The place is quite large and last night when we got there, it was 90% empty. Best I can tell, there's only one, maybe two servers. No definite hostess at the hostess station. We ordered drinks and a large tavern pretzel to get started. Took a LONG time to get our cocktails. The place has an enormous bar and best I could tell, only one bartender. They'd be in trouble if the place was even half full but I figured since the place was really empty, there's no excuse for such a long wait for drinks. Unfortunately, once we did get them, they were wrong. Bartender used a wrong ingredient. We sent them back. The replacements seemed to at least have the right ingredients but weren't very good. And presentation? If you look at the website, you'd be expecting something special but, you'd be wrong. Simply served in a 16oz beer glass. Our dinners weren't much better, once we got them. VERY LONG wait. At one point, our server apologized and told us the kitchen was backed up. We looked around at the mostly empty restaurant and scratched our heads. Though the portion sizes were generous, the food itself wasn't very good and presentation again was on par with a chain place like Duffy's. To be honest, I would say Duffy's is actually better. Fortunately, the place isn't expensive at least. Odd, considering how upscale the website...

Pros: the staff was nice.

Cons: I started with a passion fruit daquiri, she brought a purple drink that tasted like rum with ice. I asked the waitress if it it was supposed to be purple since passion fruit is usually yellow and she told me yes, that they have the mixers in purple. Another waitress told me he's never seen passion fruit daiquiri but that it looked more like a wine daiquiri they serve, he went to ask the bartender. I didn't want it and asked for a miller light, instead, they brought a different beer and then a few seconds later a different drink as an apology cause they gave me the wrong drink before, it was not passion fruit. My daughter asked for fish nuggets, they came out without fries I asked if they come with fries and she told me no, but that she would grab me some. I asked where did I order from cause it says fries in the menu and she said that was the way it looks like in the computer for the cooks but she told them already and they have to fix it. The fish nugget was raw and she asked if I wanted to throw it back in for a few more minutes and I declined. My son ordered Philly cheesesteak sandwich- he ate half, he said it was salty and soggy. I got fried honey garlic wings and while the sauce was good, the chicken had no flavor. In the end, I wasn't charged for the beer and passion fruit daiquiri but still paid for the raw fish. I paid without complaining, but I will NEVER go there again. Please see the...

★★☆☆☆ Disappointed After a Promising First Visit

We first visited Jay Michael’s Tavern for their inaugural burger night a couple of weeks ago and had a great experience—the food and service were both spot-on. We were genuinely excited to return and even brought a group of 12 from our resort community, which has over 200 residents who regularly share dining recommendations.

Unfortunately, this second visit was a major letdown. The majority of our group received overcooked burgers, fries were soggy, and there were several billing issues. One guest was charged for a $14 appetizer instead of the $8 happy hour version, and my own burger was missing cheese—which I had clearly requested. Even more surprising, after I had taken a bite, they took the burger back to the kitchen, melted cheese on it, and returned the same burger to me.

It felt like the kitchen and front-of-house teams just weren’t in sync, which is a shame because the concept and location have real potential. This could have been a great opportunity for the Ocean Breeze community to embrace Jay Michael’s as a go-to spot—but the execution simply fell flat. Hoping they can regroup and improve, because we’d love to see...