The MoonCricket Grille — Restaurant in Winter Garden

Before I register my tale of woe, I wanted to provide a baseline regarding my opinion of this questionably titled bar and why my comments hold at least some merit. (Google the bar name if you’re unfamiliar with the etymology. Refrain from this search while at a work terminal, as you may trigger a racist flag...). I popped into this establishment in 2006, long before a friend advised me of the name issue and well before the freakish popularity explosion of downtown Winter Garden.

The offerings are above par for bar food and the wait staff is usually quite friendly and attentive. My wife, a vegetarian, has routine and tiresome ordeals when we attempt to identify locations with acceptable fare. She was ecstatic to discover they made a suitable sandwich and has ordered the same item for over 10 yrs. So regular was her order, numerous waitresses knew what she wanted before we were seated. The sandwich, by the way, is rather simple: hoagie roll, tomatoes, onions, cheese, and pesto. The same exact ingredients they offer for their flat bread, but she requests....a hoagie roll. Seems fairly simple.

So why the one star review? On this day, she ordered her sandwich like any other visit. While eating our food, a woman stopped by the table and asked, “How is your special sandwich?” As I am particularly keen at picking up subtle cues of dissent, I knew our “special” conversation was about to degrade quickly. The woman next advised she was the owner’s wife. My first thought, “Weird, as I have never laid eyes on you before during any of our visits to the bar.” She then proceeded to advise how difficult this sandwich was to input into their system and suggested it was too overly customized. My wife and I starred at each other in disbelief as we were criticized for our ordering of food...at a place that serves food. The woman concluded that we should pay more attention to how busy their business is in the future and not order such a complex sandwich. The sandwich that literally takes no longer than 30 seconds to create with all of its four ingredients.

Needless to say, we were completely flabbergasted by this unnecessary encounter. Unfortunately, I believe this is a business spoiled by the sudden success of its locale. They were more than happy to make the sandwich years ago when we were the few patrons filling the seats. However, in the time of the Winter Garden frenzy, this business can apparently afford to ostracize decade old customers.

My wife and I have decided to help them with their business model and will comply with the request to not order this sandwich. We will never enter this establishment again. Solid repeat customers are hard to develop and maintain. What a waste that this bar has the luxury to...

As a teenager that is always looking for good places to eat that also has good live music, this place was a good find. I went here around February and loved it. I also got to see the band Spayed Koolie on the night that I was there. They definitely added to the mood and feel of the place. A very mellow band with good sound.

The place itself is very small and has a "homey" feel to it. Even though it was more of a bar setting, it felt a very small town feel. The place was very mellow itself. It had benches made of wood and you can see pipes running through the place which I thought was pretty cool. The staff was very nice and helpful as the food was also amazing. I went on a Saturday and it was kind of packed. There isn't much space to move around in but I didn't mind that so much. Even with the crowd, my food arrived at a decent time and my server was very attentive.

Now on to the band itself. I am not one for live performances just because I am really picky when it comes to overall "vibe" to the place but Spayed Koolie was really good and their music went well with the atmosphere of the place. From what I can recall, it is a 2 person band that consists of 2 males but they did have a female present on the night that I went. One played the guitar and sang while the other played the violin. Their music had a country vibe to it mixed with a little rock n roll. It kind of reminded me of the Eagles. Their music can honestly appeal to anyone that likes country and/or classic rock. Their songs would make a great addition to roadtrip playlists. The band really brought the place together in my opinion.

Overall, this was a new experience and I really enjoyed it. The food was great, the staff was great, and the live music was great. Can't get any better than that. I will definitely be back and would love to see...

Normally this place is very good in customer service but this evening was appalling. My friend and I got to Moon Cricket around 6:30pm and there were people; however, we initially sat at the high top table near the bar and waited for nearly 15 minutes before even being acknowledged. I noticed that two parties who came in and sat after us were served before us in the time we waited to even get a drink order in and menus (which we waited another 5 minutes). There was a young waitress who clearly saw us sit down and kept looking at us but chose to ignore us repeatedly even after we tried to wave her down. While we were eating-no more than 5 minutes after receiving our food-the man who cleans the tables came to our table and started cleaning it as we were eating and had the attitude that we were inconveniencing him by not hurrying up to leave. I am not sure exactly what was up tonight but the customer service was very dismissive and we are regulars to this restaurant. I am not one to jump to conclusions but I felt I was an unwelcomed customer by the staff tonight maybe because of my ethnic background (I am Korean and everyone in the restaurant at the time was Caucasian). I honestly do not think this was the case but it sure felt like it. This type of dismissive service cannot be tolerated by management and my friends and I will be thinking twice before coming back to Moon Cricket based on...