Critic's Review
Roger Craft, who recently bought The Downtowner, is doubling down on Old Fort Lauderdale and has re-opened Docker's with the same name. I never went into the place before, and I wasn't going to go to the new one. But today's plan didn't work out, and I found myself driving by at 2:15pm without an alternative. So I decided to stop in and give it a try.
You have to walk though the bar in order to get into the dining room; the hostess station is just to the left and the bar has a few high tops and 2 big TVs and a few smaller ones.
I wanted no part of the bar; she tried to seat me in the middle of the room but I asked for the corner. I don't like sitting at a table in the middle of a dining room.
The restaurant touts it's "waterfront" location, but you're looking into the back of a marina. There's no dockage so don't think about coming here by boat.
They do the hard sell here; like when they ask if you want to order an appetizer before you've even looked at the menu. I ordered an iced tea; what we have here is another place that doesn't understand that a lemon isn't a garnish for iced tea.
I had trouble finding something to order. $12-18 for a salad; I didn't want anything with pineapple rice. I was going to settle for a burger, but instead decided to go for the Cod Sandwich. The menu describes it as "lightly breaded", so I thought maybe it wouldn't be too bad. My server's vocabulary consisted of "No Problem" and "Gotcha". I'm glad that doing your job isn't a problem.
The music fits the crowd: Natalie Cole, Sammy Davis JR, James Taylor, Rapheal Saadiq. A lot of old time stuff. One big thing is that the place is LOUD. The chatter from the bar fills the dining room. All of the noise came from the bar, and it was very noisy in the place even with only a few tables occupied.
A "chef" brings out the sandwich 5 minutes later.
My first thought was "this is lightly breaded?". The lettuce and tomato didn't look so hot; one of those not-ripe tomatoes that needs another 3 days on the window sill and an inner iceberg leaf. Notice the lemon wedge; so they DO know what's required for squeezing, so why not give wedges with Iced Tea? I tasted the fish with the breading first; the breading was limp; not crisp at all, and it had no seasoning. What is the point of frying food if it's not going to have any taste; good thing I asked for the tartar sauce. I first tried to make this into a sandwich, as intended.
I tried it with just the fish; it was a nice, soft roll, but it didn't work. I tried adding the lettuce and tomato but that didn't help much. I decided that I'd just eat the fish and leave the bread; no point in eating bread if it doesn't make the food taste better. I surmise that this fish is the same that they use for the fish and chips (the description is the same), in which case I recommend that you order something else. This served as a square of protein and not much else.
The fries were pretty interesting; thin crispy sticks that were sort of the opposite of the fish.
It was getting surprisingly busy at 3pm; boat people getting off work perhaps? I waved at my server to get my check.
I think this picture sums up my experience here; my empty glass didn't phase my server one bit; nor did the straw wrapper that I put at the edge of the table when I got the tea. A good server will grab little pieces of paper from the table when they come and check on you; but there was none of that here.
Conclusion
The old Docker's was a place where you could eat for under $10; What they've done is refreshed the decor and installed a Las Olas style menu; the problem is that they didn't do anything that makes the place more attractive to higher end diners to pay the prices. They have a lot of beers and a token wine list; I can get a $14 salad at a lot nicer and more convenient places than this.
