Shuckers Bar & Grill

Reviews 3

RA

Ray Barnes

Let me first say that prior to their deck collapsing, I thought the food absolutely sucked. The dolphin was always old, and the rest of the food was generally low-quality. So this is a place Id go to drink at, just for the view, but not to eat at. When I heard they were open post-collapse, I decided to go back for the first time in about 3 years. My burger was great, girlfriend had the grouper sandwich which was also great. That was around November 2014. Fast forward to today, we went back and ordered exactly the same thing. My burger was great, but not my gfs grouper sandwich. Specifically, it tasted old and fishy, and it wasnt grouper. It seemed obvious to me that they probably served her some half-expired Mahi. So when someone stopped by our table to ask how everything was - an older gentleman who reminded me a lot of Joe Biden - I asked him if hes something like a manager, he said yes. So I proceeded to explain to him that she ordered grouper but thats not grouper. I grabbed a piece off the end of her sandwich to illustrate. He asked me how I know its not grouper, I told him Ive been eating the stuff for 30 years. Also, grouper filets are always thick, they seldom ever terminate into a thin sliver of meat, as her sandwich did (which I explained and illustrated to the manager, who apparently knows nothing about the products he sells). So he disappeared and came back 10 minutes later, which made it obvious he didnt care what kind of fish was on her plate, and he said "So I checked with the kitchen, and they said.." so I immediately interrupted him and said "theyre all out of grouper, right?". He just smiled and shook his head slightly, but he never said no, and he never denied that they served her something else. He just asked if it was good, and I said she liked it, but I found it to be barely acceptable because it tasted old as you-know-what. Manager disappeared and never offered to charge us the lower price for dolphin, or whatever it is they decided to serve which wasnt $15 grouper. Why am I making such a big deal about this? Because the substitution of other fish instead of grouper is one of the oldest and stupidest criminal rackets in the state of Florida. People lose their jobs and their businesses and go to jail for intentionally substituting non-grouper and charging the premium grouper price. Prior to now, I told myself that Id go back and order a grouper sandwich just to give them the benefit of the doubt. But after reading another review (here on Google) about how some idiot manager chased off a group of people for having their service dog at the bar (and demanding that they pay for their unfinished drinks?!?!), Im content to reduce my review from 2 stars to 1, and cut right to the chase by calling the Florida Dept. of Agriculture to tell them Shuckers is committing fraud by inducement with their grouper racket. Good luck, Suckers.

MA

Matt Lee

Not just a horrible restaurant experience - a horrible life experience. My friends and I were long time patrons of Shuckers, pre-collapse. We were excited to go check out the new deck, and have a few cheap beers. The hostesses and servers were great. We had a group of five, plus a six month old puppy (service dog). We were seated, and promptly attended to. We ordered a few beers, a bottle of wine, and dinner. About halfway into our beers, the manager came over and told us that the puppy sleeping in my girlfriends lap was absolutely not allowed on the outdoor deck, or anywhere on the property. We thought he was kidding, since we had great encounters with several restaurant employees who mentioned nothing about a "No Pet Policy". Unfortunately, we didnt have our service papers, so we had no choice but to leave. To add insult to injury, the jerk shoves a bill in our face for our half-drank beer and untouched wine. Again, we thought he was kidding. He told us to pay our bill and get out. We agreed to leave, but were not paying for unfinished beer and wine, when several employees sat us and served us. By the way, the managers name is Dave. He looks exactly like the 40 Year Old Virgin. Youll know him when you see him. When you see him, jump into the bay and swim in the opposite direction. As we walked out, insulted by this dopey managers behavior, he actually chased us into the parking lot, waving the bill, and CALLING THE COPS! Over a $30 check for unfinished beer we were served, and not allowed to sit and finish! FOUR SQUAD CARS SHOWED UP TO THE RESTAURANT. I know this sounds like a joke, but its not. Dopey Dave told us to get up and leave, demanded we pay for what we werent allowed to sit and enjoy, and called the cops on us after we refused. The cops showed up, dumbfounded that this buffoon and putz GM would actually call them over $30, but as a legal matter, we didnt have a choice but to pay. I was very disappointed to find out this was not the same Shuckers we enjoyed before. Great staff, horrible management. Dave and GM - if youre reading this, do the restaurant and the good people of North Bay Village a favor, and fire yourselves. If they dont get fired or quit, Shuckers might as just collapse back into the ocean. P.S. The beers we ordered were 10oz glass thimbles. When I asked why not normal glasses, and only 10oz, we were give the intelligence-insulting response of, "We do that because if we served regular sized beers, they would get warm, and we dont want you to drink warm beer". Again, Im not kidding.

D.

D. Collot

Ive been to this place several times before (Even prior to the deck collapse into the bay) and rather enjoyed the casual atmosphere smoked fish dip and other items on the menu. Last Saturday night however (at approx. 10:45 PM) my wife and I invited my mother in law and a couple of friends for a drink and a bite to eat after the fireworks show. The place was not that busy and although it was not our preference in seating we got a table right away but requested that we get moved to a preferred table when available. We saw one table get empty, then another and then a third and after asking to be moved a couple more times realized that our request was just being ignored and they had no plans to move us. In fact the waitress finally told us that they would not. I decided to make the best of it rather than have this ruin the evening for everyone. After having a drink and appetizers, we were ready to order other items including a New England clam chowder for my mother in law. I asked the waitress to please remove the chunks of potatoes before serving it to her. She told me that she could not do it. I asked again and she plainly told me that they could not remove them. At this point I was rather disturbed and I asked her to please get me the manager. After about 10 minutes, someone approaches the table cleaning it and vaguely asked how everything was. Never mind introducing himself as the manager and asking what the problem was. I though he was one of the busboys and had to ask if he was the manager. I explained the issues we were having and here was his answer. "Yes thats right we cannot move you from the table and we sell $30K. to $40K. dollars a day do you think we have time to remove potatoes from every clam chowder. Needless to say, I cancelled the rest of our order and asked for our check. Being a manager myself for over 20 years, this was something that I would have gotten fired for in any customer service oriented industry. I only hope that the owner of the place would have handled this in a more appropriate manner and may not be aware whats going on. He should know that employees like these help businesses fail in the long run. Thinking hindsight, I felt bad for the waitress who probably felt her job threatened by this managers attitude and ultimately has little choice than to follow the pattern of crappy customer service. Beautiful place with an awesome view and decent food but at least this time around in front of my invited friends a shameful example of what customer service should be.