Critic's Review
I was out for a drive, not really having a plan, and I somehow ended up in Parkland. The name of this place caught my eye; I'd never even heard of it. It's a pretty nice looking shopping center, and they were getting a fish delivery. So I figured maybe I could get some fish for a late lunch. I checked the menu on my phone; they have happy hour every day at 3pm and it was 3:10; maybe I'd have a beer for $2.
When I stepped inside, my first impression what that it was much smaller than I expected. It's really just a bar; a long room with a bar and some booths.
No hostess here; I sat in a booth and waited. And waited and waited. Finally someone came by and brought me a menu. She offered to take my beverage order without mentioning that it was happy hour. They make more on a soda or iced tea than a $2 bottle of beer I guess. I ordered an iced tea.
She brought it out with 1 small wedge of lemon; I'd asked for extra. I reminded her, and ordered the Mussels with red sauce. "Oh, we're out of mussels. We just got an order, let me see if they came in". She disappeared into the back and returned with some lemon. "Nope, we didn't get them". Ok, I'll need another minute or 2. "What's the soup", I asked, hoping for some interesting fish-based chef's "creation". "Chili", she said. Really? Chili isn't a soup, people.
I was starting to not think of this place as a seafood restaurant; what else were they out of on a Saturday afternoon? They had a bunch of items permanently crossed off the menu. No Grouper on the Get Hooked section. You can order your fish with a choice of preparations; it's about $18.95 (menus without prices suck, particularly with a single location restaurant). Problem is, they don't have any fish you can't get everywhere else.
I thought about just getting a bowl of soup; they charge $4.95 for a cup and $5.95 for a bowl, are you getting the bad restaurant tricks at play here? But ultimately I decided that nothing here was worth going off low carb; so I settled on a salad. I was first going to get a Cobb; it's priced at $10.95. But the trick is that it doesn't include chicken! Repeat after me: Chicken Onions Bacon Bleu; COBB. $3.50 extra for chicken. No thanks. I went for the wedge for $8.95.
Music ranged from Huey Lewis to U2 and Men at Work; not too bad.
Calling this a raw bar is kind of deceptive; because they sell clams and oysters?
The salad came out in 6 minutes. A single wedge of lettuce, but a lot of bacon.
I usually ask for dressing on the side, I was wondering if I had enough. But there was a lot of blue cheese, so it was more than enough.
Like the Cobb, this was missing one key ingredient; red onions. It was a good salad but it would have been much better with some onion.
My cup was empty, and my slow-moving server hadn't been down in a while. She wandered by and I asked for the check, which she put on the table as I was taking my last bite. No offer of a refill. I immediately put my card in the check holder and put it at the end of the table. But she didn't return. Waiting and waiting with an empty plate and glass. I decided to hit the Men's room; I had a longish drive home.
When I got back to the table, nothing had changed. The check was still waiting. This server was clueless.
Finally she made her way back and cashed me out.
Conclusion
The big problem with this place is that the name doesn't fit what it is; calling this a fish house when it's really no different than any other bar/restaurant in town raises expectations with little delivery. I went in hoping for some fish, and didn't really find anything that I wanted to order. They apparently can't even sell grouper; what you have is a mahi and scallops crowd watching golf and having some discounted beer; if you happen to know about happy hour.
Too many bad restaurant tricks for my taste here; Menus with no prices on line, no specials, no refills on Iced Tea; no mention of happy hour. Another ho-hum restaurant in South Florida.