Chuck's Fish Tallahassee — Restaurant in Tallahassee

First, based only on the food, I'd give four stars, but our server brought it up to five with her knowledge, recommendations, and checking on things if she wasn't sure. Gumbo appetizer was pretty good, but felt microwaved, as in unevenly heated, and needed more rice. Two pieces of yellowtail nigiri were meh as far as texture and flavor and I will not get sushi here again. As with most places, they didn't have non-aspartame pickled ginger. The server was nice enough to ask about that, as well as whether they had some fresh ginger that they could chop up and add some vinegar and sugar to, but no dice. Weird that a mostly Asian-themed restaurant wouldn't have fresh ginger. Fish of the day was red snapper, which I ordered grilled. It was almost perfectly cooked and had just the right amount of salt/seasoning to enhance, but not overpower, the fish. Chicken scaloppine was decadent, and our 16 year old son devoured that and all but one piece of the focaccia appetizer. Goat cheese and blistered tomato risotto could have used a little more cheese, another tomato or two, and some kind of fresh herb, but was tasty and cooked exactly right. (This reminds me that their plating was pretty lousy overall for this level of food; put some herbs and color on the plates!) Summer squash and garlic side was deceptively simple, but excellent. My wife absolutely loved the white chocolate...

Arrived about 2.5 hours before closing, yet it seemed like the staff had decided their day was done. Waited an hour for a table as many tables opened up and just weren’t cleared. Staff was walking around chatting, clearly available. On the other hand when we finally did get a table we were told it would be half an hour for two rolls of sushi. The restaurant was half empty by this time, there obviously needed to be an additional sushi chef (there was only one), while the rest of the staff seemed redundant. Waitress was very inattentive, after finishing our drinks we’d gotten waiting at the bar, took at least half an hour (most of our stay at the table) combined to find her again to order a second drink, and then to actually get that drink, at which point we were ready to leave anyway. Again, half an hour may be an underestimate. At one point during that time, the hostess who had been in no hurry to seat us (and oddly called my phone in a loud restaurant rather than having an automated text go through) asked if we needed anything, but then said she’d have to find our waitress…why ask if you can’t do anything? Our waitress should be able to do her job on her own. So, given the multiple issues with staffing levels and staffing uselessness, can’t imagine these problems are unknown to the careless management, but...

I was very disappointed with my recent dining experience. The rice that came with my meal was hard and clearly undercooked which is quite surprising for such a basic staple. This is something that should have never left the kitchen! I brought it to the staff’s attention, and the waitress handled the situation with grace and professionalism. However, the manager's interaction was disheartening. Her only solution was to deduct $5 (the cost of the rice alone) from a plate of food that costs a little over $40. While I appreciate the gesture, it completely ignored the fact that the mistake affected the entire meal and my overall dining experience.

I did not receive an apology, nor did she acknowledge that the mistake impacted the quality of the entire meal. Unfortunately, I left feeling dismissed rather than a valued paying customer. The approach reduced my experience as a customer to just the price of a side item rather than the quality and enjoyment of my meal as a whole. Good customer service is about making things right, not simply tallying up a miniscule cost of what went wrong. In this case, the focus seemed to be solely on the dollars and cents rather than on making things right or showing genuine care for customer’s satisfaction-...