Glory Days Grill — Restaurant in Winter Haven

My friend and I were traveling on Cypress Gardens Blvd. when we decided to try Glory Days Grill. Neither of us had been to the Glory Days grill before.

We found parking right in front. We walked in and were immediately seated by a friendly hostess. I immediately went to the men's restroom. I began to panic when the first three doors all were marked women. I then seen the fourth door marked men. I had never seen separate bathroom for the same gender before. It is a nice touch. In effect you can have a private bathroom. The men's bathroom was clean, well lit, it had an old style full length urinal and a toilet. Very nice. I then washed my hands. No water. I had already soaped up. The sensor on the base of the sink appeared to non functioning. I finally got the water on after waving my soapy hands back and forth. When the water did come on it only was a trickle. What a pain.

I returned to the table and the waitress, Brianna was there almost immediately. I ordered the fish fry and an appetizer of beef nachos. The waitress told me they had chicken or pork nachos. I knew that was going to suck. However my friend and I were very hungry and he wanted to try it so I agree to try them.

The waitress quickly returned with the Nachos. I wish i had taken photos. The nachos looked like vegetarian fare. Not a bit of meat in sight on top of the nachos. I tried a few naked nacho chips because the top was almost bare. I finally got some toppings on my nachos and it sucked just like i thought it would. My friend wanted the nachos and tore into them. I felt vindicated when he pushed it away after several moments. The waitress returned and I told her the nachos sucked. My friend just smiled but I told him to be honest and tell the waitress about the nachos. He said they were a little off. The waitress offered me an alternative of broccoli. She quickly returned with it. The broccoli did not taste bad but it had a strange taste. Not bad, but different. I think it was steamed but I am not sure.

Another waitress bought our main dishes to the table. As I said I ordered the fish fry. My coleslaw was good. The fries were okay as was the fish. I asked our original waitress brianna for some tarter sauce. She apologized for it not being on my plate and immediately returned with a plastic cup of sauce, not tarter sauce. I had plunged a piece of my fish in the sauce expecting tartar sauce. It was not tarter sauce. I made my friend dip his finger and taste the not tarter sauce. He agreed it was not tarter sauce. I called the waitress over. I had already complained about the nachos and I told her I did want to be a problem but the sauce she bought me was not tarter sauce. The waitress told me it was lemon basil tartar sauce. Another employee later told me it was made in house. No matter were it was made it was not tarter sauce and it sucked. I did not use another drop.

My friend ordered the pork sandwich and beans. He dont like drama and does not like to complain. I asked why he ate less that half of the sandwich and barely touched his beans. He said the seasoning was off. I told him I was going to tell the waitress and he went outside. When the waitress came back I paid the bill and told her that I had stuck a knife in the ketchup bottle. When I tried to squeeze the bottler it would not dispense ketchup. I checked and the factory seal was in place. I told whatever germs I may have had were now in the ketchup bottle because I had to remove the seal my self instead of simply squeezing the bottle.

Our waitress was very good. I felt bad complaining but the glory days grill experience turned into a doggie bag bonanza. Speaking for myself my glory days are long gone and unlike MacArthur I shall not return. And I will not...

1st part is from Oct '23. The atmosphere was great. The Philly cheese steak was good. The hand breaded chicken was hard, dry and overcooked. I asked the server if that was normal, since this was my 1st visit and she offered to replace them. The 2nd batch was perfect and fresh like night and day and when I told the server how much better the replacement was she said I should ask for lightly cooked next time! 😆 I told her I just wanted them cooked correctly. Next was the pretzel bites, which were great except for the beer cheese sauce which looked microwaved in a melted tiny throw away plastic side cup! The sauce tasted like jalapeño nacho canned cheese sauce. I brought the pretzels home and made my own beer cheese sauce and they were great! This was the 1st visit for my wife and I and nothing here would make me run back! We're local and we were hoping for something quick and good to go to for good food, entertainment and service. The server took more than 10 minutes to come back to the table after the food runner dropped off the food. We needed sauces and drink refills but had to wait for her to cash out 2 other tables before I could get her or anyone's attention. I get she was busy but she never even looked up at us while dealing with 2 other tables. We'll try it again but maybe lowering my standards will make us happier, not really. Maybe it was just an off night with an off server. I also thought the server would have a manager touch our table since the she knew it was our 1st visit and we had 2 problems from the start. When we left, the outside seating was still empty and still had trash all around the seating area! Napkins and straws littered that area and that's your 1st impression of cleanliness from this place. You have to pass it when heading for the front door. I expected better since you can see Legoland from the front door and thought that would help keep their standards up! Update Oct '25 We had another visit that was ok, but everything took so long. 10 minute wait for table was pretty good, but after that, we sat there for another 15 minutes before another server asked us for our drink order. When they finally took our meal order, about 40 minutes in, we asked that the appetizer come out 1st and wait for the entrée, but they hit the table within 1 minute of each other. We spent 2 hours here and we weren't there for any games, just food. We haven't been here in 2 years and now we remember why. 2 years and nothing has changed. Food was good but the service is so slow. Maybe the servers sections are too big but something has to change. We live local and this will not be a spot for us! We just don't have that much time to waste for slow service and...

Tonight at around 7:30 my family of 3 came in. Not busy at all. I’ve visited before and had great experience with Erica. This time was so horrible I left without eating. Manager on duty didn’t seem to understand the meaning behind customer service. I do not recommend the food or service there. I order buffalo dip to start, it came out with 2 chunks of hard chicken and the rest was a very watery consistency. I apologized and told the server. It was taken away we ordered the fried shrimp dinner with an extra plate for my daughter and 12 smoked wings all flats. Order comes out, my wings are all drums she kindly offered to replace them and so I ordered another margarita while waiting. I was very disappointed after waiting ….NO margarita, no plate for my child, and she brought out 6 flat wings. Mind you I ordered 12 wings (flats) she said it was to compensate for the flats missing. I only had 2 flats in my Entire order that the manager insisted on leaving at the table. I am extremely offended and disappointed at the service provided. I don’t think I will ever return the manager never even came back out after telling me to munch on the wings I didn’t want while he corrected the order which he did not. So the only one that ate at the table was my husband my child munched a bit on his but was never given a plate and he was extremely dissatisfied with his shrimp dinner but refused to start another battle. I literally left only eating 2 flats and a celery stick. The manager should have taken charge and fixed this situation. Not what I expected from a company that holds its employees at such high standards. We paid 45$ for a fried shrimp platter and a margarita. This is unacceptable. Do better glory days!!!!

UPDATE:

Thank you Mr. Rice for reaching out and offering a free dinner but I don’t think anyone could pay me enough to come back there. It’s not about the money for some of us it’s about the time wasted...