The Lighthouse Grill — Restaurant in Trinidad

This place seems to be pretty popular, as there is almost always a line. I have to assume that it's mostly tourist traffic (people who have never been here before) or locals who simply know what, exactly, or order. My sister-in-law invited us out here, so I assume she really enjoyed the food on her previous visit. Unfortunately, nothing we received was all that good. The fries are thick-cut, but you have to eat them fast before they start to cool down, because they're soaked in oil so much so that they start going limp almost immediately. If you love oil-soggy fries that are NOT crisp at all, but are completely limp... then you'll love these style of fries. The children's "chicken fingers" or whatever they were, were absolutely nasty (my kids wouldn't even eat them). That's likely due to them being horrifically overcooked, but even if they were cooked properly they would not have been all that tasty at all -- just some flat, poorly-battered Sysco-purchased chicken things for kids. I guess they figure kids aren't that picky, which is true -- but no amount of ketchup tricked my kids into eating those things. Also, as a parent, I taste all of the food I give to my children -- and this stuff was bad (not rotten, or poisonous -- just bad as in not good at all). I almost wish I had tried a burger or the mashed potatoes, so a few people around us seemed to enjoy those. One bad thing about this style of restaurant is that you go up to a counter and order -- with a line of people behind you. That means you don't get to sit down with a menu and ask questions of the wait staff, because you have to order right then and there at the counter and pay for it. The food is then delivered to your table. So, if you're not already familiar with the menu or how things are cooked, you're either going to piss everyone behind you off, by taking up extra time to order, or you're going to just randomly order something just to try it out. If you have a large party, or multiple families, don't expect to get served at the same time. Our mother and sister-in-law's family were almost done with their meals by the time we received ours, and we were right behind them at the order counter. Just another reason I hate restaurants like this. Ordering at a counter with a menu on the wall in front of your reminds me of fast food... and if I wanted to order like that, I'd go to a restaurant good at delivering fast food instead of this place. Sorry for those who love it (for whatever reason), but it just didn't fit the bill for me...

The food is pretty good - though in the busy Summer, they can't get anything right (my well done burger w/ hubby's cheese, etc , and vice versa, or the wrong chicken sandwich, etc.). The service (all year) generally leaves a lot to be desired, but last time was beyond poor. I ordered a well done burger, took one bite and took it back in. It was seared on the outside and raw inside. The girl at the counter told the cook to make a new one, and the reason (I showed it to her). I sat back down and after about 15 minutes went back in to check on the burger (hubby was done with his lunch). There was a shift change while we were waiting and the new crew knew nothing about the burger, nor had one been cooked by the prior team. This was on a slow late Fall day - with only us and one other table there. The new cook got me a burger quickly, and it was cooked well, but I sat around while my hubby ate, then he sat around while I did. They offered us a free ice cream for the issue (they should have comped us the burger and offered the ice cream). On top of that, the "tip screen" when you pay has the first "suggested" tip at 25!%, the second at 20%, the last at 15%. This is a place where you order at the counter, grab your own utensils/condiments and bus your own table. That's fine, but they shouldn't "suggest" the same tip (or higher) as a restaurant where you sit down first and the wait staff does everything (which is when I tip 20% or 25%). This is also on top of the couple bucks they automatically add to your bill for "employee services". We're locals and have eaten here many times, and this is not uncommon. If you're very patient and OK with pretty good food but sub-par service, you may...

We were excited to try this restaurant. It came highly recommended by a local and we thought the loaded mashed potatoes in a cone sounded too unique to pass up.

After our extremely long and drawn out dining experience, I have a few bones to pick, but I'll stick to one particular issue we had:

1. My daughter had a meal that was NOT GOOD at all. We walked it up to the counter to replace it and there was no offer of making it right - we straight up had to buy a whole new $12+ sandwich (they don't come with fries, you have to buy sides separately).
2. We ordered the replacement sandwich and it went to the back of the line, which meant a 30 minute wait, after we'd already waited at least 30 minutes for our original order to get to our table.
3. They gave our replacement sandwich away to someone else. When they realized their mistake, they put in the order again, and once again it went to the back of the line. I couldn't believe it. I asked them if they could please move it up and get it done pronto because we'd already waited an hour for food (between the original order and the replacement order). They really made it clear that they didn't want to do that even though it was their fault that they gave the food to the wrong person. They offered me one ice cream cone to help me feel better about the situation. I told them that there were six people in my party, so one cone wouldn't really feel fair to everyone else (ultimately I'd have to buy five more ice creams). There was no other offer to make things right.

The staff could have done a much better job at making the situation right. They...