Flying Fish Crafthouse

Reviews 3

JO

John McCardell Jr.

My experience was from Sunday 5/7 around 4PM. We were greeted by Coco, she is a lovely hostess and was the most helpful person by far at Flying Fish Crafthouse. She is EXCEPTIONAL! However she is only the hostess and could not solve our problems. We were seated and assured our waitress will be right over. We waited for at least 15 minutes before I went back to the hostess station to tell Coco we have not been greeted by a member of the waitstaff. We get a waitress and the waitress is already rolling her eyes and look DISGUSTED! She has to handle another table. (The place was pretty dead - maybe 8 people at the bar and 7-9 tables total?) She was absent for most of our time there by hanging by the bar doing NOTHING. I did not see any waitstaff members on the floor for most of my time there. We place our drink orders and food orders immediately because the wait has been long enough. We ordered the pretzel appetizer, I ordered the burger with the egg on it and my wife ordered the Chicken Caesar salad. I also ordered fries and I wanted the chips as well and I said the cost did not matter because they both are delicious. My wife ordered water and I ordered the extra pale ale. The beer is delicious and I recommend it to everyone I know. The appetizer came out very quickly and was very delicious. Our drinks were Empty and I sat there for about another 10 minutes with no members of the waitstaff present. I then raised my hand and started waiving my arms as if I were landing a 747 on a runway. NOTHING. No one came over asked if there was a problem. At this point I was tired of getting up and asking for service. There were customers sitting near the front door at one of the large tables. I seen a woman doing a balancing act bringing her own beers to her table from the bar. Mind you there are about 6 steps she had to handle as well on her journey. I believe she spilled a bit because it takes skill to carry multiple drinks without a serving tray. They had about 25 empty glasses and at least $6 a drink that’s about $150 table that NO ONE cares about. Then our server shows up and asks if she can get me anything. With 2 empty water glasses and an empty beer glass – I would think it is pretty obvious something is needed. Oh yeah and also no food as of yet. Then a nice woman from the kitchen brings us our food. She tells me the fries are not ready and I said ok what about my chips. She brings them out immediately which was appreciated. We tried to make the best of the situation. Then I see fries being brought to other tables and I still have not received my fries. My wife was picking through her salad not looking like she was enjoying herself. How do you mess up on a Caesar salad? She said it looked like chicken thigh meet which did not taste good. Also there was very little dressing and of course .. No waitress to be found! At this point I said I do not feel comfortable spending our hard earned money on this HORRIBLE experience. The only items that were good was the beer and the pretzels. I had 2 beers at $6/piece and the pretzels which were good. I couldn’t enjoy my burger which was tasty because my wife’s meal was horrible. I put $20 cash on the table to cover my beers and also the pretzels. Mind you I have not seen the manager near my table ONCE! We were there for about 45 minutes and the crowd was slim for a Sunday. He should have made sure everything was acceptable and at least said hello to his customers. I proceeded to tell Coco that we were leaving and I did not want to have words with the manager. He did not come out to talk to us so therefore I did not want to talk to him. Also while waiting I was reading google reviews and saying that he is not too kind. I was upset and there was nothing he could of said to make the situation OK. The best move for us to make was to leave and we told Coco about our experience to pass along to the manager.

KA

Katie Elwell

Just had possibly the worst experience I have ever had at a restaurant. I should preface this by saying I live in the neighborhood and have gone to this restaurant multiple times, always hoping I would have better service the next time. This was the last straw. We arrived and were seated outside promptly. After waiting about 15 minutes without a server or water, we went inside and asked if we could have some service. About 5 minutes later, the server came out and took our drink order. Drinks came out in a timely fashion, at first. We waited, on average, about 10 minutes for a drink. We then ordered our food, and thats where it all really went downhill. Our food came out and was offered to the wrong table (no big deal, except this has happened EVERY SINGLE TIME we have come to this restaurant. I dont understand how servers OR food runners dont know table numbers?). Then, my friend who ordered 2 eggs scrambled, was given 2 plates each with one egg. She was asked by the server to combine the 2 plates, and when she tried she realized we didnt even have untensils for our food, so she asked the server to get some for us. 10 minutes later, with our food just sitting in front of us, I got up & went inside to find not a single employee in sight. I grabbed the nearest empty tables silverware (4 sets for my whole table) and brought them back. No one ever came back to offer untenils, water, check on the food or anything. We then realized we were also missing 2 orders of fruit, so I got up and went to the service area. I told the man the situation, how angry I was and that I just wanted my fruit. He apologized, got the fruit, sat it in the service table and asked a waitress to run it to our table. That waitress mumbled something and walked away. A manager, watching her walk away, just stared at me for a few seconds. I then grabbed the fruit myself and said "dont worry, Ill serve myself". NEVER in my life have I had to serve myself at a restaurant and I sure dont pay to serve myself. They even had the nerve to include a 15% gratuity automatically in your check! Oh and the kitchen shut down 10 minutes after our food was served... 2PM on a Sunday during brunch? Thankfully, they did comp our check. We were thankful for that because the experience was horrible. We will not be going back anymore.

DA

David Weintraub

Good and Average The Good: The food is pretty good, and in some cases really good, especially because its bar food. Ive never had anything bad there. Some of the proportions are out-sized; nothing is small, except the personal pizzas, which are as they should be. Noted, you can break a tooth on the beer-bread with avocado and mushroom. And if you dont, you could rob the place with the edge of one. The prices are quite fair. If you are bringing young kids, they always accommodate and have foods for them. The beer is pretty damn good. Cant complain on that front at all. And theyre not stagnant, but do a nice seasonal rotation, at least so far. The Less Good: While I appreciate a huge chicken sandwich, piled high with slaw and a brioche bun, its kind of annoying when you cant actually put the thing in your mouth. In fact, its ridiculous. You almost have to work to eat some of their sandwiches/Burgers. Im sure it looks great in photos, but its annoying. Yet it does fit in quite well with the large American flag that waves over the staircase for whatever reason. SHRINK down some of your portions. Make them easier to eat. Some of the staff are lost. They get overwhelmed by large crowds. We had a server combine our check with a separate table who we didnt even walk in, but since we were chatting with them she put everyone on one bill. It was a pain in the ass since the other table ordered considerably less than us, and we hardly knew them. This may sound nit-picky, but the tiny little, cheap cocktail level napkins are a pain in the ass when youre eating greasy food. I had to use about 8 of them in on sitting, and that is annoying. If youre there for a sporting event, like say the NCAA Basketball tournament, do not expect volume. Nor should you. Its not a sport bar. But there are large TV viewing areas which are comfortable. Overall Id say 3.5, closer to 4. I judge things on what theyre supposed to be, and overall, they get it right.