StingRay's Seafood — Restaurant in Tybee Island

(continued from review below by Hannah U)

So after about 45 minutes of actual eating -- around an hour and a half spent inside. We were provided our check. This would be only the third time during our meal that we saw our nameless server come and ask if we were doing okay or needed anything... "nope just the check" my mom told her. I can say the server did ask us if we were all on one check at the beginning of the meal and we said yes. When she gave us the check, she announced in the most bubbly personality she could muster that for parties of 6 or more there is an 18% gratuity added automatically to the total. Which was the real breaking point for us all. We already were prepared to pay roughly $270 for this "dining experience" because we can do math and read the menu prices, so the initial total was not an issue... THE issue was this automatic gratuity added that was not mentioned to us during seating, during or ordering, nor did anyone see it printed on the menus. Though, I'm sure it's printed on there somewhere, most likely in 8pt italic font at the bottom corner on the back page or somewhere obscure such as this. This means that our server automatically received a $47 dollar tip for her [lack of] service during our meal. She literally did not come to our table more than the three times. I am a generous tipper, I know it's hard times and tips are what some folks live off of every day and they work for the tips and are proud of their work. This girl did nothing and made $50 off of our meal total. We asked for the kids each a lemonade to go and also a coke zero to go (because they were the drinks we had already been drinking at the table) and I expected the server, who we all know now is getting a huge tip for not-serving us, to get the drinks fresh for us to take, but oh, no. That was too much for her to attempt... So, she poured the watered down half consumed drinks from the table into the to go cups and put the lids on them. I was baffled at her literal lack of willingness to do anything professionally. So, I requested she fill them and freshen them and initially, she refused to do it. So, I pressed this and repeated my request but in an unfriendly and, at this point, rude tone. She did end up doing something to that nature.. which was just add more ice to them all and making them cold again, but watered down and flavorless. I've had it at this point and leave with my youngest son to cool the car down and cool my frustration, too. My parents and oldest son had to use the restroom before we left. The final nail in the coffin of this meal was the ONE SINGLE UNISEX BATHROOM that had no a/c inside and was disgustingly filthy. I mean, mold - trash - broken toilet seat... NASTY. My mother was unable to even use the toilet, she was so grossed out. It's unfortunate that our experience overall was just a chaotic whirlwind of being unsatisfied. The food was hit or miss, leaving lots to be wanted. It could have been a whole different situation had the service been up to par with what is expected when you are sitting down to an expensive seafood meal. The poor service + horribly hot atmosphere + nasty facilities + auto-gratuity of outrageous percentage = never again. It's unfortunate because it could have been a whole different situation had the server done her actual job instead. The food that was actual tasty and delicious was the only saving grace and that was literally only 1/6th of the total food ordered by all of us. We will not return to this restaurant next time we stay on Tybee and will advise anyone that asks to avoid...

We took a family trip to Tybee Island the last week of July 2025 and decided to eat here as our seafood meal for the trip. Our server, to my knowledge, never told us her name when she seated us. We actually hardly saw her. First red flag - they seated us in a hot room with an overworked mini split mount AC unit on the wall and large fans to circulate the hot air around the room. The temperature outside was scorching, reading over 100 degrees on my cars internal therm. So, we were all HOT and ready to sit down in a cool room and eat some seafood. Well, we sat down at the first table, all of which are plastic picnic style tables that have been extremely overused and undermaintained. My family chose to move to a different table than we were initially taken to because it was so wobbly that we were afraid it couldn't hold the weight of 4 adults and two children (a 12 year old and 8 year old). We had fried pickles for an appetizer and they were typical spear cuts battered and deep fried. When I took a bite into one, the skin falls off and liquid pickle juice mush that (after 10 mins to cool) still burned my tongue as if it was pulled from the pits of hell. Scratch those -- not worth it. I did get a dozen oysters, raw on the half shell and they were HUGE, fresh, and delicious. I can't even try to complain about them -- they were the highlight of the whole meal. My husband got a hamburger because he is a chef and is picky about his seafood and fried food, in general. He asked for the burger to be undercooked, after clarifying that they were steak burgers. He asked for his to be med-rare. It came to the table black-scorched and dead-grey throughout. He could not eat it, but did not complain because my parents were really enjoying the seafood sampler that they had ordered and he did not want to put any more negativity into a meal that was struggling to be pleasant. My flounder plate was fried hard, fries over-seasoned but I was able to handle that. My oldest son, however, was not able to. Both of my sons ordered typical chicken tenders and fries. My 12 year old did not eat any fries due to the seasoning, frustrating because the seasoning on the fries was not mentioned to us during ordering... and KIDS are picky, y'all. He ate one piece of his chicken. My 8 year old did eat his fries and we boxed up the chicken to eat later. My mom also ordered a strawberry daiquiri that was seriously lacking - not too much for me not to finish it for her because I am just like that when ordering specialty drinks. My pina colada was very good, though. My dad and husband shared a few beers and they were ICE COLD - so at least the coolers were...

Long wait. Poor service. Disappointing food for a $25-$35 per plate establishment.

Waited a while to get a seat inside (it was extremely hot outside, so it makes sense that it took a while) but I make it a point to say this because we were in fact seated inside, not outside and people were vaping at the next table. Our server "A" even walked up to the table to give them their checks while they were vaping and still did nothing about it.

Service was awful. Our server "A" took our order and vanished. At one point she came back and said food was on its way, but 20 minutes later still no food. Food took 45 minutes to come out. When it did arrive it arrived in waves. One burger, followed by two fried shrimp dishes 5 minutes later, a kids hot dog 10 minutes after that, and then remaining two orders 5 minutes later. No acknowledgment from "A". No follow up afterwards either.

With each shrimp basket thing, half the shrimp was overcooked (dark brown) and half was fine (light brown). Either two different deep friers were used for each meal, which would be strange, or they were different orders shared amongst the different plates because two of them were overcooks and they knew it.

Kids hotdog came with overpowering seasoning on the fries (which was not disclosed on the menu). It's a kid dish after all. Toddlers dont typically eat old bay seasoning or whatever they poured on it..

Server sure was quick to want to get paid though. I paid for my groups meals and asked to speak to a manager. She then told me "I just want to warn you that the manager is really hard to talk to. I told him about your issues and he said he didnt care". We ate the food. I wasnt trying to get something for free but wanted to make the management aware of the vaping issue and the service issue. As we were leaving she pointed to the old guy in the green shirt saying he was the manager.

But they knew I was just a tourist who will leaving soon and just didnt care. Dont waste your time or your money here. It's over priced bar food served on styrofoam and plastic baskets.

Management: I am happy to share the names of the employees involved in this meal if you wish to fix the issues you have with violating the Georgia Smoke...