Holy Mackerel — Restaurant in Wilton Manors

This restaurant was closed for renovations and did not let me know. We reserved this for our anniversary dinner so this would really ruined our night. Not only did they not let us know, there was no information at the restaurant, on their website, Facebook or Instagram. I tried calling and they never answered, finally got a hold of them via Instagram and they weren't even apologetic. I definitely would probably never go there again because of that experience alone. Further more I had another reservation coming up to which I had to hound them again to see if they were open and they responded late again of course and said they could offer me alternative suggestions. I don't understand how a business doesn't check their reservations and let people know that they won't be open, very poor business skills.

In response to the owner, first of all you did not notify me about the closing, if you had I wouldn't have had to show up to the restaurant, even after I got the email that week reconfirming my reservation. Secondly, I am not sure what you consider someone "demanding" an answer, I had to ask you twice if you would be open on Sunday 1/22 because you did not respond the first time, I have the instagram messages to prove it. Thirdly, you did not offer to help me with reservations elsewhere for my 1/22 reservation, you offered suggestions for other places. Please get your facts straight before you try to make me look bad for what your business did incorrectly. The only reason you even responded to my review as quickly as you did (which was literally in a matter of minutes) is because this was posted on the internet and now it can affect you, whereas me just messaging you doesn't matter because nobody can see the messages. However when I called on Friday, I got no answer, when I messaged you on instagram it took you 30 minutes to reply and I was at the restaurant, waiting for some sort of response. I then had to message you again yesterday, which was 3 days later from the original message to find out about you being open on 1/22, because you never answered my question on Friday!!!! You read only the first message and that was it. The message I sent through facebook took you 6 hours to respond, so again please do not try and make it seem like you went out of your way to promptly respond when you did not. When it wasn't public, you did not care about sending a prompt response, nor did you care that you messed up an anniversary dinner and a birthday brunch - saying "sorry for the inconvenience" is not even caring that you ruined someone's night because your restaurant couldn't even have a sign on the door saying it was close - I mean really, what restaurant does that?? Also you don't even have it listed on your instagram, facebook or webpage. Lastly to further prove my point, if I had not asked, you would not have even notified me of the restaurant not being able to honor my reservation on Sunday because opentable would have sent the reservation...

We have high hopes for this place and am very happy someone has revived this great location. The menu looks great. The renovations are great. The service, however, needs to dramatically improve. We arrived tonight (Sat) at around 5:30 thinking it best to get in after they opened for the evening - they open at 5pm. My parents were in from out of town and we decided to go here to celebrate our wedding anniversary - as we were so happy to have a new BBQ place to try out. We figured after reading previous reviews that the service issues would have been resolved - after all we arrived 30 minutes after they opened today and they have been open for about 4 weeks. I am disappointed to say this but we walked out. We were seated in the back of the restaurant in booth 2 out of 3 next to the beer vats. Our server barely acknowledged our existence and was a little frustrated when we asked for menus. We got the menus but never saw her again. For being a craft brewery, we expected to get some sort of menu for the craft beers but all we got were dinner menus with nothing to describe any drinks, craft beers and the like. She said she would be back with waters. We waited over 15 mins and she never showed. I don’t know if they have enough staff or what. When we got there the place was already filled - so we’re happy they are getting business. For us, however, we’ve decided to take a pause on this place for a couple of months until they continue to work out the service kinks. The food reviews seem to be very positive. After being at the restaurant for more than 20 mins w/o drinks or anything, we said “Holy Mackerel” and went to...

We'd been looking forward to Holy Mackerel. We enjoyed their prior location but were disappointed with our last couple times in Wilton Manors. We wrote off the first as a random miss and the premise of this review is for our the most recent visit on 7/25/20.

The good is that it's nice, big brewery with plenty room and a stage for live music. It's convenient to our home and the staff is friendly. We stick to brews at breweries so we haven't had any of their food.

Unfortunately the bad is... their beer, and one of their ideas for serving it. This weekend we ordered a crowler of "No Name" IPA and another of "Sour Apple" cider. Both beers were off, specially the cider.

We ordered two crowlers but received a pair of 32oz mason jars at $20 each. After we inquired, the bar-keep shared this is their form of "crowler" and that they get refilled for $10. It wasn't what we expected but it seemed fine and we proceeded to grab take-out dinner nearby. By the time we made it home 40-ish minutes later; both beers were completely flat. We drink 32oz or more in a session so we only needed it be fresh until cracked open. A mason jar's wide mouth doesn't seal/hold contents under pressure like the shape of a growler/howler. That's a guess but their idea of a crowler didn't do these beers any favors.

Maybe a pair of low-quality batches made it out together, and we got the dying end of both kegs, and their lids weren't tightened. That seems a stretch but idk if we'd return for refills to find out until they've had a chance to work out some kinks. Fingers-crossed they get back to brewing the way they were not too long ago. I'll happily update this review...