The Toasted Monkey

Reviews 4

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Chris Lontok

I took the day off for my best friend’s birthday to go jet skiing and to eat at really good restaurants. We spent an hour on the water courtesy of Woody’s Watersports and had worked up a pretty huge appetite. We asked the attendant who helped us bring in our jet skis for a good place to get a fishbowl cocktail – he pointed us to The Toasted Monkey a few miles away. A short trip later, we found ourselves at the St. Pete Beach Howard Johnson Resort Hotel, directly on the water. The restaurant itself is a sports bar at the front of the hotel and a beach bar in the back, literally between the hotel’s pool and the Gulf of Mexico. We walked to the back of the hotel, past the pool, towards the beach bar/restaurant area. In case you don’t know, the weather in Florida in October is perfect: 70’s, sunny, warm enough to still wear shorts and/or a bikini, yet cool enough to not be miserable. We walked through a sand volleyball court, up onto the wooden patio, and picked a table half in the sun and half in the shade of a colorful parasol. The restaurant was just filling up and the seating was first come, first serve. We waited a few minutes before I had to go to the bar and ask for menus. Once I flagged someone down, the waitress was attentive and friendly! Its a drink in a bucket! We ordered a round of drinks: a light refreshing grapefruit shandy, some fruity cocktails, and the requisite birthday bucket of tropical alcohol. I honestly liked these better than the hand-crafted cocktails we had later that evening, but their drink menus aren’t online and I don’t remember what we ordered. But seriously, the drinks were good, strong, and refreshing – definitely worth checking out. I ordered a Bacon Jam Burger, the one with a happy monkey picture next to it denoting a house specialty, and my girlfriend got the Fresh Gulf Grouper, another monkey specialty. The food came, after a bit of a wait, from the kitchen at the front of the hotel and I was honestly shocked at the quality! I’d been expecting beach bar food and I got a foodie experience! My burger was perfectly medium-rare and the bacon jam was spicy and delicious; it paired perfectly with the burger, provolone cheese, and high quality bun. The grouper was flaky and moist, served with tartar sauce on a bun. Grouper Sandwich After we finished and paid, we took a few steps to the Gulf to finish off our afternoon, pleasantly surprised by The Toasted Monkey. I’d definitely recommend it for a laid back afternoon with high quality food on the beach.

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Cassie Watson

I dont even know where to start. Very unprofessional and antagonistic owner and parking lot staff. They need to understand the idea of overflow parking and that liquor sales bring in higher profit then food on any day. Why in the world would you make people go out and move their car if they move from the restaurant to the bar? Never mind that we just had a party of 10 in there spending plenty of money and we had more people meeting us for the birthday party. The owner actually got in my friends face and both of the parking lot attendants tried to pick fights with my brother and were extremely argumentative even with me and I was trying to park the car somewhere. I guess they figured they had enough spring break business that they didnt need any locals spending their money there. I hope this place shuts down in the off season. I guess if you walk and have no interactions with any of them you might be ok, but Ill never support this business with my money. To the owners: Heres an idea-1st-charge $5 or $10 for people to park and then validate the parking and issue a credit on their tab inside. Hell charge $20 because you know people are going to at least spend that. That will keep beach goers out of the parking lot. And for goodness sakes, do not make people come out and move their car. You are losing business that way. Besides the fact that you are opening yourself up to additional liabilities for requiring them to move their car. Then, please go take a class on how to deal with upset customers. You caused the scene. You made it worse. Then add your parking lot staff you and it was out of control. Ive never been treated so rudely or seen such a thing in my life. Again, I will never ever go back to your bar and will make sure everyone I know feels the same way. And although I am only one person, their were nearly 20 people in our birthday party, plus all our friends, family, co-workers, facebook, google reviews, yelp reviews, travel websites. You name it and I will post this review there.

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Anne Gerrard

As a local patron of the St Pete Beach bars and a regular of the Toasted Monkey, I must say this business has gone downhill. We used to love hanging out here. Twice now we have been told we cannot park in the bar area lot, that we must park across the street. We frequent this bar nearly every weekend, however lately the owner Phil and staff seem more concerned about their spring break crowd having parking than worry about their regular devoted customers who are here year round. Every year we reserve at least 3-4 rooms for New Year’s Eve and party at the Toasted Monkey. Every time we are at this bar we spend A LOT of money!! The last time we came here, the parking “gestapo” said they had no places in the bar area to park. We know the people who run the gate, and they know our car. So they opened the gate for us, and let us through. There was parking back there and another couple getting ready to leave. Believe it or not the “gestapo” actually drove their little green wagon all the way down to kick us out of the parking lot. Neither the owner Phil nor his crew of "minions" realized we had a party of 7 more coming for a birthday. We are done with this place. He has lost 5 regular customers and this will hurt his business extensively! I plan to post ratings on every site I possibly can and share this story with all my friends and business associates. They better figure out who is paying the electric bill around there because it certainly isn’t a bunch of spoiled young 20 year old kids that come visit once a year. It’s the customers he is currently losing. There are too many fun beach bars in this area to be bullied by these guys. Thanks for the memories Phil, we will not be returning!

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Megan Range

Terrible service at the beach bar. On a slow Wednesday evening we arrived for a light dinner and drinks with a group of four. We were served waters at the beach front bar (seated at a table), waited 35 minutes, then had to ask a server twice for either the same waiter or anyone else to take our drink and food orders. We were still ignored by the staff for another 10 minutes while the large staff was talking and having a great time together being the bar. We finally walked all the way back up to the front of the hotel to the main bar to be served. At the bar directly on Gulf boulevard we received excellent service while there was only one waitress/hostess for several tables instead of an entire staff. She was fun, polite and attentive. The food was mediocre. We will not return due to the lack of service by the staff at the beach front bar. The Toasted Monkey is overrated from my personal experience.