Crow's Nest Restaurant, Tavern & Marina — Restaurant in Venice

REALLY wanted to love this place but it fell short for multiple reasons.

First, the parking. There are now three restaurants in Tween Waters and nowhere set aside for restaurant parking. I parked at one of the areas under construction until we found out that one of the spots next to one of the cottage parking areas was available (if it says parking for cottage 112 AND there is an open spot next to it you can take that one). Although I’m sure the folks in the cottage would like that for any guests they may have…

The restaurant. Very nice setting, great view, however…VERY LOUD! They left the ceiling exposed mostly so sound just bounces around. There was some music playing when we first sat down but it got so loud I thought it stopped playing until I went to the bathroom and heard it again. Fully realize that they can’t control the volume of their guests but they really should look at installing some sort of sound deadening material on the ceiling. It was so loud in fact it caused a mix up in our order which I’ll get to.

The drinks. The cocktails were really good! We had the sour cherry Negroni and an old fashioned. Both were excellent!

The service. Good not great. The waiter was difficult to hear (the loudness) and didn’t really ask if we had questions or make suggestions (although he did say the purple gratin potatoes hadn’t been going over well which was a bummer since I was considering ordering them). When the steak was brought to the table it was actually rare, not medium rare as ordered (again, due to the noise I think he thought I said rare but I HATE sending steaks back because there’s a good chance they can overcook them). But, most times the waiter will immediately stop by, wait for you to check the meat and ask if it was cooked to your liking. Didn’t happen. I think he stopped by a total of four times in an hour.

The food. We ordered the smoke on the water appetizer…don’t. The description isn’t very helpful (purposely so?) and the waiter didn’t really fill us in on anything although I didn’t ask. What you get for $25 is three toothpicks (not kidding) with some tiny portions of the fish listed stuck into a wooden tray that they put a dome full of smoke over. Probably $4 worth of actual fish so I guess the smoke must cost a fortune. We ordered the aged cowboy cut 32 oz., which was the daily special at $155 to split (which I’ll get to in a minute) They ask you to order a sauce to go with the steak so we got the demi glace trio. I don’t normally care for sauces as I think the meat should stand on its own but they were ok. Again the steak was rare but quite tasty. However it didn’t seem to be the size they advertised (if anything I’m usually surprised by how big of a steak I get when the menu says 10 or 12 oz) and I had to cut out a decent sized piece of fat that was right in the middle of the meat. We had the mushrooms and the asparagus, both of which which were very good, for sides.

Last thing I’ll mention was the check. Maybe I missed it but nowhere on the menu did it say there would be a “plating charge” for shared meals and the waiter certainly didn’t mention it. So when we got the bill I was a bit irritated to see an $18 charge for sharing a 32oz $155 steak. I called the manager over and he fixed it but…

So, overall we were actually quite disappointed. I REALLY wanted to love it but we said we probably won’t be back. If we do it’ll be for much lower priced items but honestly I’d much rather go to Jimmy P’s in Naples for that kind of money. The view and drinks were great but not enough to make up for the other...

Crows Nest is OK. Not great, not horrible. Parking can be competitive. The Good: Service has always been 4-5. The view is a 3.5. The food will sustain life although it did give me nasty stomach cramps once. I think it was bad beurre blanc. They have a good selection of beers. The Bad: Their food can be bland. There are not many options for healthy eaters. My wife had the veggie wrap and I ordered the Atlantic Salmon. The wrap would have been fine had the veggies been cut smaller. It was hard for her to eat. The salmon came dry. It did have sauce on the side, but that had near zero flavor. It was my 69th birthday, so on to dessert. What they called tiramisu was more like cream cake. No discernible espresso or rum flavor. The Key-lime pie was apparently mislabeled. Creamy custard like, but no lime flavor at all unless you ate the lime wedge on top. Something akin to canned white frosting was drizzled around the plate. I admit I prefer bold flavors. Thai, Indian, and Southern cuisine are great. If you have ever eaten in Sante Fe NM you may know what I mean. But all you really need to make anything taste better is a good sauce. The waiter did agree to bring some jalapeno slices. They were the pickled from a jar variety however and not fresh. I added them to the veggies. I have given Crows Nest at least a half dozen visits. Will I go back, well never say never, but it will not be my first choice. As much as I enjoy watching the boats go by with a cold beer in my hand, I have options. Nokomos, Fins, Deep Lagoon, Casey Key, etc. Life is short and getting shorter every day. Too short to eat bland food. I usually have to carry my own sauce but forgot it that day. Question is, for nearly $100, should I have too? I know folks who think black pepper is too spicy, so i understand the bland baseline dishes, but how hard would it be for them to...

Been coming here for 25 years and although the ownership has changed a couple times now - the food has remained consistent and delicious. My only issue is that when you plan on spending some money on a great meal the service needs to equal the food. The service has definitely slipped. I had to physically get up to get the bus boys attention after being seated with drinks for 20 minutes to ask him to please bring a bread basket. Our table wanted to get a couple orders of Stone.Crab “ warm” we were told that the appetizer size doesn’t come warm - however if we ordered the dinner portion it could be warm 🤔. Having worked in the industry for 10 years myself I thought this was absurd. I approached the host station and spoke with a manager about this dilemma. I was told it was the chefs choice to make the app version offered cold only. So they missed out on more revenue due to not allowing the customers a choice. When the dinner was over (mind you the restaurant had pretty much cleared out) we saw a table get an order of Spanish Coffee’s (looked delicious) so we ordered them - what we got was NOT the same presentation on down. When I asked the server what they were he said Spanish Coffes - I said not like the table over there - he said that they are the same - I asked him to please ask the other table what they got. He said it’s not my table - he did go over and ask, it was the same however, extremely different visual. The other tables had a cinnamon & sugar rimmed stemmed glass . We would have never ordered them if we hadn’t seen the other table later order. I did approach the bartender at the end of the evening and was told they didn’t have any clean glasses 🤔🙄 had I seen the same drink go by in a coffe cup we would NOT have even ordered them. It could be a bad night but ultimately service needs to match the meal and...