Blue Shark Ale House — Restaurant in Urbandale

I first visited the Blue Shark after it opened, had a good overall experience, service was a bit slow, but food was good. I remember we had to ask for a 2nd round of drinks and our check, but not anything compared to our next trip back.

We visited the Blue Shark again over the July 4th Holiday weekend. There were 5 tables full inside (maybe 15 people) and we were one of 4 tables outside (another 12 or so people). There appeared to be 3 waitresses outside as we seen 3 different ones out there....The wait staff however was the worst we have ever experienced. We waited for 20-25 minutes after being seated and even after asking for menus, still no one came to take our order. The table we were seated at was clearly still dirty and had not been sanitized as it was sticky. Most tables by the time we arrived at 8pm appeared to have already eaten as they had dirty plates on their tables. We had 3 different waitresses pass by our area without even a glance towards us. It was the worst service of anywhere we have been in a long time. We ended up walking out and as we are leaving the very waitress who sat us and had told us she would get us waters (but never did), said "Thanks for coming we hope everything was ok." She and her co-worker were standing at the end of the bar wiping menus. I proceeded to inform her, that we are leaving because 3 people walked by us and didn't even look at our table, the service we received was awful and that we will definitely never come back.

I am giving Blue Shark 2 stars, and only because our first experience was OK, with our second being not good at all. Hopefully you can get some wait staff hired that understand customer service. I understand the industry is hard especially now, but you would think serving customers would be a higher priority over 2 wait staff both wiping the food menus down after 8pm instead of waiting on...

The best part about Blue Shark Alehouse is their Daily Specials which offer great value if you can eat a lot. My friends and I visited twice for their All You Can Eat Wings (which can be boneless upon request) and their All You Can Eat Fish Fry both of which taste pretty good, especially for the price!

I really appreciated the wide variety of sauces available for their wings some of which were very hot and very flavourful which keeps things interesting. I have no complaints about it.

Their fish though is a bit more of a mixed bag. Your first order of fish comes with a complementary order of crinkle cut fries and includes two fillets but do know that your second, third, forth etcetera doesn't and additional fries will cost you extra (I would've really liked to know that before ordering as it caught us off guard when it came to the bill. I feel it should really be disclosed either before ordering or on the menu.)

I was also slightly disappointed that there is a unexplained 3% Service Fee applied to the bill which is expected in addition to the usual 18-25% tip.

It's not a lot but as a matter of principle I find it a little dishonest and disingenuous to advertise one price to the customer and online and then inflate it later without disclosure. This should absolutely be removed and instead factored into the regular menu and incorporated into the price of ingredients as any normal business would do if their expenses went up.

Overall though. I think it's a pretty good place to go if your in a big group. It might not be the best food in the world but it's got a great atmosphere, tastes good and honestly even with the fees and non-disclosures it's still relatively cheap.

They'll definitely earn an extra star from me if they increase their transparency in this respect and take my...

Took a friend in to have lunch today! There were two gentleman at the bar and that was all for guests, four workers behind the bar.

I want to keep this short but nearly everything we ordered (and didn't order) was a mess. When looking over the menu we asked if the Buffalo Shrimp was breaded or not, it wasn't breaded - no big deal, but we didn't order it.

We ordered a the southwest eggrolls for an appetizer - very good! Then for our meals - I ordered a buffalo chicken sandwich with a side salad and my friend ordered a club sandwich - the waiter asked what he wanted for a side with his club sandwich and he said soup.

Then came out buffalo shrimp appetizer. We did not order it. They said that was their mistake, they put that instead of the buffalo chicken so it would be another minute to make that and returned the incorrect shrimp to the kitchen. Also not a huge deal and easy to see how they messed that up..

Bartender brought over the salad and soup and said they were sorry it took a bit because they "just found out today this was their job to get soup and salad", not my issue but whatever.

Then came out the sandwiches, no, only one sandwich. Waiter brought the buffalo chicken sandwich to the table but no club sandwich. Assuming it was coming, we waited, but then it became apparent it was not coming so we asked the waiter and they said they "did not hear that"-- but yet, she specifically asked what he wanted as a side with his club sandwich. ???

At this point we had to leave. I understand new businesses and ironing out the kinks, but we were literally the only table eating and all of the above happened. It was a total cluster and I can't imagine when more than one table. Huge bummer, was looking forward to this place but it was a big waste of time and my friend...