Wonderland Ocean Pub

Reviews 3

HE

Heather Willens

really impressed with this place overall; OB has made a lot of transformations in a positive direction. we came here for a Saturday evening dinner just after sunset...place was fairly packed - which could be due to overall weekend popularity or the fact it was during the 4th game of the world series. given the lovely ambience wonderland has created from the ashes of Nicks, I will suggest that it is probably the former. this can easily be called the best bar/restaurant to enjoy food and drinks while socializing and admiring the beautiful ocean beach shoreline. i mean, the only competition is South Beach Bar & Grille really, and there is not nearly as much opportunity for patrons to see the view over there. i mean, we sat at the far end next to the front door and i was still able to enjoy the beautiful view across from us due to the huge sprawling windows all along the west end. they make great use of the open floor plan to allow for it to be at capacity and not feel congested. and on the note of how busy it was, i was thoroughly impressed with our server, Christina. She had that air to her of being a natural at serving: personable, easy-going, conscientious but not overbearing, overall just made us feel taken care of and not rushed. it is always a positive thing when servers are aware that you are at a place to "stay a while" but still wanting to be check in on appropriately. she even had a very casual stroll up to our table and rest her arms up to let us know she was finally being let off (to indicate she needed to close our tab). timing worked out as we were all set to go, but I appreciated the approach was cool and honest rather than pushy. on to the food and drink: APP: we got (probably) the most popular app on the menu: the Pescadero sampler. This is obviously a great shared app that goes a long way and gives you a nice serving of the three seafood items - ahi poke, ceviche, and shrimp cocktail. the overall flavor is good albeit a tad fishy (poke esp), and between the two of us it could not even be finished with the prospect of dinner coming. my one criticism and suggestion to the kitchen is the plating: though beautifully presented in the tumblers upon a huge bed of cabbage to make them appear more bountiful ;) it is a pain in the ass to consume with everything rounding outward from the cup. its sort of like when you grab one apple from the perfectly stacked pyramid of fruit and then every tumbles down. items like poke or ceviche simply word better scooped from within a bowl. ENTREE: Firebird chicken sandwich. with ordering the big app trio, we opted to share this ground chicken sandwich and without even asking, it was cut and extra plate brought for us. so nice :) the firebird lives up to its name; it has quite the heat to it!...in a good way. messy and delicious, i would order again. DRANK: now, as a bit of a cocktail snob, i am rarely overly impressed but WOW, their Ginny Hendricks was absolutely delightful. Fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, cucumber and gin make a very refreshing and flavorful beverage. i will need to recreate it. all in all, if you are in OB looking for a meal, drinks, or sports bar action with a great view...this is your spot. they are doing it all right.

CA

Carli O

Rude staff. Loud. No accommodation for people in wheelchairs, despite claiming to be accessible. Busy I understand, but I had to wait longer than the healthy customers, because I couldnt sit in my wheelchair at their window seats. Yet, when I called ahead to try to make a reservation, trying to avoid exactly such a situation, because I am in a great deal of pain and it is difficult to sit waiting for long periods, I was told I could not reserve a table without a larger party (um, we order a lot and tip well, but apparently they thought our business wasnt worth reserving a table for my special needs) but ASSURED we could sit at the window without a wait. We showed up and that wasnt the case because my chair didnt fit there and I needed a full table. Staff clearly didnt care at all that wed been told differently and refused a simple reservation that would have avoided it all, and treated us like a nuisance when they would even acknowledge us at all, as we tried to yell and explain over the drunk crowd while Im sitting there in my wheelchair hoping not to be run into by drunks and feeling stupid for even trying to go out in society with "normal" people and have a nice time on vacation with my husband. We had to wait for over an hour to be seated, which was very uncomfortable for me, and their rude uncaring attitude made it worse. This was for our anniversary btw, because Yelp said this place was romantic. The location is obviously great, and the food and drinks were pretty good (if a bit salty, it made my lips swell up) by the time we finally got some, but this really isnt a very romantic date spot, and its definitely not good for the disabled. Lots of drunk screaming basic young people, if thats your thing. Also, the bathroom was absolutely disgusting, trash and filth everywhere, and a pretty intense experience with an enormous line because they dont provide sufficient facilities for the crowd. One especially obnoxious drunk girl actually cut in front of my wheelchair, announcing that SHE needed to pee. No joke. This felt like a trashy bar that happened to have a nice location and serve fish, not like a casual but romantic waterfront seafood restaurant and bar, which we expected. They also got our order wrong on the first try, fail. Since they didnt seat us until after dark though we timed our visit for sunset, we couldnt see the view anyway, so that didnt do us much good. Im sure its nice if youre not disabled and are allowed a view. Two stars, only because the food was decent. Very disappointing experience overall, and there has to be an ADA complaint I could make here. The entire place was very difficult to navigate in a wheelchair, and making us wait longer than everyone else after not allowing a reservation for the special circumstance is just asinine. Might be an ok place for singles to go out and party on a completely superficial level, or a divey place to get some seafood if all the above doesnt bother you. For a couple celebrating an anniversary, it was frankly horrendous, made me feel worse about my disability, and did nothing to make the night romantic. Fortunately, we did that ourselves, the best we could, in spite of the awful people (workers and patrons) here.

TR

Tristan Petricca

UPDATED REVIEW: WAS 5 STAR. It once was a 5 star review, but I must update after the last visits. So I came in for lunch, girl with tattoos and dark hair with purple stripe was working. Greeted in decent time, got a drink, all is well. So we both ordered Clam chowder and then lunch entrees (sandwich, tacos). After about 15 minutes (decent time), everything comes out. I spent years in the food industry, and this is rookie stuff. Two people order soup and then an entree, and they bring everything all at once. Clearly, they have no management during the day to make sure this type of stuff doesnt happen. Moving on...The soup was cold, not even luke warm, COLD. The tuna melt was cold. Tacos were cold. The only thing done properly was my friends cup of chowder, but somehow my bowl was cold. One of the main rules of service, is that when the food arrives to the customer, you check in after the first bite, or at least a minute after it arrives to make sure everything is good or if they need anything (salsa, salt, pepper, utensils, another beer). NOTHING. The clueless bartender had 4 people sitting at a 40 person bar, but that was too much for her to handle. We werent offered another beer, and no one asked if we needed anything or how the food was. I had pushed my full bowl of chowder forward with garbage to show it wasnt good, she didnt get the hint. Finally we had our wallets out to pay, took her 20 minutes of bullsh&tting to realize we were ready to pay and leave. Congrats on getting the smallest time I have ever left in my life! I usually tip between 20-30% (because I was a bartender), and I gave her 5%, which was generous. We were regulars at Wonderland, but now I will not be returning. I hope this place can get some bartenders that arent completely useless, or at least some management that understands how to run a bar. Go elsewhere. Try South Beach, OB Noodle House, BBQ House, Hodads, OB Brewery, anything will be better than this place.