Passwaters is the restaurant in the club house at Heritage Shores (HS), a retirement community. The presence of an on-campus restaurant was a major draw for my wife and I in deciding to move to HS, but unfortunately our experience at the restaurant was really bad. Atrocious service and sub-par food.
When we arrived, there were only two other people in the restaurant, and four in the next-door bar. Once we were seated, the first waitress (there were 2, and I know their names but won't shame them) disappeared and a waitress #2 came into the room and started cleaning and setting tables, which should have been done before opening. After a full 10 minutes without either waitress asking if we'd like something to drink while looking at the menus, my wife said something about the wait, and waitress 2 said she'd be right over. A few minutes later she came and took our drink order, and just then waitress 1 reappeared with glasses of water for our table. It took 15 more minutes -- during which the other two diners finished and left and another couple came in: so still just 4 people in the restaurant -- before our drinks arrived. In fact, the 2 new patrons had been served their drinks while we were still waiting. My draft beer was flat, and the head was completely gone, leaving an inch of glass above the liquid, a clear indication that it had been sitting at the bar all that time; my wife's Shirley Temple had a bitter taste that she said was the worst one she'd encountered. When she asked the waitress (can't remember if it was 1 or 2) about the drink it turned out that the third waitress/bartender had pushed the lemonade button on the drink machine instead of the ginger ale. The second one was a correct mix.
My wife ordered the catfish tacos that came with avocado crema, and I ordered the Caesar salad with salmon. I've been eating Caesars for decades, but this was the first time I was asked if I wanted Caesar dressing on the Caesar salad! Well, yeah otherwise its sort of a plate of lettuce. Anyway, I said "yes." Again, the interminable waiting, during which the other couple's food was served. When my wife enquired about our order, she was told that the kitchen had made a mistake with her tacos and was re-doing her order. Finally, the food arrived. Fish tacos --minus the avocado crema-- and Caesar salad minus the Caesar dressing, and with stone-cold salmon (from being left to cool while the tacos were re-done, I suppose). I pointed out that there was no dressing on the salad, and was brought a little container of it, but when I poured it onto the salad, it had a thick, gloppy skin that I tried unsuccessfully to get off the salad. I guess that container had been sitting out somewhere, like the salmon.
I want to point out that this bad experience has nothing to do with the staffing issues we hear about these days. There was a 3rd waitress for the four golfers in the bar, and #1 and #2 never had more than four patrons, sitting at only 2 tables, during our ordeal. So a drink with tacos and a salad, and we were in the restaurant for exactly a full hour. Another point of annoyance was that when we gave our drink order, #2 asked for our last name, which my wife but asked why they needed it, #2's response was to ask her to spell the name but neither she nor #1, who was also at the table, could give any explanation other than that they needed our surname so they could "get-to-know" the customers. They really need to get-to-know how to do their jobs properly; management of this restaurant should get its act together and do some necessary training. n n read more