It's rare that Yelp reviewers and I don't agree on things - and that's saying something for a Yelper for over 10 years.
However, despite the best efforts of our young waitstaff, Over the Hook Bar & Grill (aka OTHBG) bit the dust with our visit. I debated on giving one star, but two is what I landed on.
So... the good news first. Location. It was cool to sit off the boardwalk of a marina.
And, that's it.
Everything else had lots of room for improvement. Some more than others, but everything had room.
Service: Despite being friendly, our young waitress didn't often check on us, brought our drinks really late and didn't share updates on the status of our food. When we did ask, she shared excuses and no apologies.
Food: Our party of four wasn't impressed. One order was cold, several dishes were bland and lackluster for being on the gulf and ordering seafood. My guy's grouper sandwich was cooked well, but incredibly bland - the potato salad was bland as well. My burger was decent but lukewarm at best. The Asian slaw was bland. Two other orders weren't great - the beef nachos were cold and pretty visually unappealing - check out the pics. And the last order, shrimp and fries - you guessed it, also bland and cold.
Timing: The young wait staff shared so many reasons for our over ONE HOUR wait, only to have cold / lukewarm food delivered. She spent several minutes at the end of the night sharing why our orders took so long, how the kitchen staff were backed up and understaffed with inadequate space and indirectly, why we should be thankful we had food arrive. Oh, and she mentioned on several occasions how thankful we should be about sitting in a table reserved for "5 or more" despite offering other seating options (there were none) and how she'd "let it slide."
How to recover: If you happen to be management reading this, what would've been nice, at least for our party, would have been:
- Take accountability: even saying "we are slammed. My apologies as it's likely your order will take some time. How else can I help make this a good experience?" would have gone a long way. And really, we were a table of 4. If you'd rather us not sit at the table reserved for 5 or more, sit us elsewhere.
- Check food temps. Heat things up if they aren't coming coming out together and end up sitting on the counter for a long while.
- Stop by more often and share some updates. It's disheartening to get a spiel at the end of the night, after an hour has passed, about why our food hasn't arrived - and after we've had to ask several times.
- Offer your genuine apologies rather than anything else. Acknowledge what went wrong. It goes a long way.
As someone who's grown up in the customer service industry and had a family restaurant background, there were so many opportunities to have recovered an "in the weeds" night. We experienced none of them. Maybe next time; likely not for us, but maybe for others. read more