the Gafford — Restaurant in Stuart

Third time disappointed. This place just keeps getting weirder. Drink orders can be forgotten, but three times in a row by the same bartender? This would not have been a big deal except that it got much worse: All three times we had to go to the second bartender for the order. However this bartender’s pours were so weak in comparison that I eventually mentioned it since everyone around us were getting much healthier pours. The bartender GLARED at me, then poured from a measuring glass to prove his point. We have always tipped well, so how is this treatment warranted? Please note; we frequent a lot of restaurants around town and I have never written another review like this one. No place is perfect, but nowhere else have we had these problems so consistently, now even rudeness. The wine and SOME of the dishes are very good, these are the only redeeming factors I can see.

For a second time, I am so disappointed in this place. Drinks supposedly are half price on happy hour. It is never mentioned that this is only for well liquor. (Their well vodka is Mc’Cormicks which we all know is undrinkable.) So an upgrade to a better vodka for a simple vodka-soda drink is $10! Of course the bartenders are not REQUIRED to explain it, but a good bartender does. Most of the places we frequent do that, presumably because they want their customers coming back? What you are doing here is pushing away your regulars, and creating bad PR for yourselves. Is that really what you want? I don’t want to come back to The Gafford, but my partner does, I for one am not going to give this business the satisfaction of overcharging us one more time, and I will be telling everyone I can about these practices.

This has been a great place up until now and we were regulars, but our most recent experience was so disappointing. A week ago the crab cakes were $14 on the happy hour menu. A couple of nights ago we ordered them, not realizing the price had been raised to $21, ($25 on the regular menu.) The happy hour menus were not given out, so we foolishly made the assumption that prices were the same. Furthermore, the crab cakes were terrible! They had very little actual crab meat in them, and they were dry. We were paying for breading, not crab. We can get a whole crab and lobster entree for $26 at Bonefish, so what a nerve this place has!

The way they apply their so-called discount coupons also doesn’t make sense. We wanted to use one but were not allowed to because we were happy hour customers. So if we stayed past happy hour and ordered food and drinks at full price - we still wouldn’t be allowed to use that coupon? That’s how it was explained to us, and that is also ridiculous.

Not sure I can recommend this place to our guests anymore, and not sure if we...

Such a terrible experience. I chose this place based on google reviews. Stepped in the restaurant and it was a very nice atmosphere but immediately turned into a sad evening. The host placed us at a table in front of the kitchen although there were free tables all over the restaurant the whole time we were there. I love the idea of an open kitchen in a restaurant but this place is not suitable to have tables in front of the kitchen because they are extremely close. It is extremely loud, you smell like you cooked the food and the waiters are going back and forth the entire time. We ordered a meat and cheese board which was very good except a little detail...the grapes were old and FULL OF MOLD. I called the server and she took them and brought us back the same grapes just you could see very clear she removed the molded ones. I asked her to take them from the table and she did not say a thing. Our food came. Meatloaf and short rib. The meat loaf has a very strange texture, somehow mushy and like a weird paste. The short rib didn’t had any taste at all. Was well cooked but no salt, no seasoning, no taste. We just tasted the food and then a busser came( our waiter disappeared for a long time) and asked if we would like to have that to go. We said no because it was not what we expected; just took the food and left. Our waiter came and asked if we want desert, we informed her that we were not able to eat that food and we asked for the check. Not a single word from our waiter; she just brought the check after a loooong time. Such a sad experience to go to a place to eat, spend money and leave that place hungry with a huge disappointment.

LE: the owner of the place stopped at the table at the beginning and than he brought the charcuterie board. At that point we didn’t know about the MOLD on the grapes and how is the rest of the food. I assume he should stop by after he received our feedback from his staff. But he didn’t. The grapes had MOLD and if they should not be brought at the table I am surprised that actually they were brought twice. Definitely will not go to this place where it seems that people don’t know...

My husband and I made reservations for Valentine's Day and had our first experience at Gafford's last night. We decided on the pork chops and stuffed snapper (was supposed to be grouper but it wasn't available-which is fine). I really wanted the shrimp and grits that I saw on the menu online, but I guess that wasn't available. Limited Valentine's Day menu? We were told our table wasn't ready yet so we went back outside and waited. We came back in 10ish mins later for the hostess to tell us that they're cleaning it now and just to give them a few more minutes (perfectly fine). Then they called us by the wrong name and sat us. I tried to tell the hostess that that wasn't us twice, but I guess she didn't hear me or didn't care? Anyway, we waited awhile just to even get water. We were also given bread and it was just hard and not very good at all. When our meals came out, we were a bit disappointed in the taste. My dish was just very basic. No wow factor. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't horrible, it was just super basic for a pricey entre. It pretty much tasted like a lump of under seasoned crab cake. The green beans on the side were just plain as well. If there was some cracked pepper, maybe even a little bit of salt, garlic, anything, it probably would have made a huge difference. We came here to try something different and special for Valentine's Day and were just disappointed all around.

Our waitress wasn't very attentive unfortunately. She was nice, but I feel like she just didn't really care. She took our orders and we saw her walk past us several times without ever asking how anything was or if we needed anything else.

Overall, we won't be returning. Maybe the other dishes have more flavoring, but we were disappointed in ours. I hate having to leave a lower rating, but all the other reviews made it seem like the dishes and experience was exceptional. Ours were not. I also felt like I saw the owner (maybe?) talk to everyone...