Old Florida Fish House

Have been numerous times to OFFH and it has been wonderful. Girlfriend of mine ate their last night and raved about everything except some form of hillbilly entertainment. Cafe 30A has been a consistent disappointment to us. Guess you never know.

Wait until the Red Rocket sees this one. That is a compliment in the book of BlueGrass! I heard that James Taylor and Jimmy Buffet were already booked, so ...

..."some FORM of hillbilly entertainment". That my friends is the gem of the day.

except some form of hillbilly entertainment.

Okay, okay, I have been withholding any comment because I have been wanting to disect the information and apply it, but now I just can't help it... :funn: :funn: :funn:

using hillbilly in that tone seems almost racist.

using hillbilly in that tone seems almost racist.

But, man oh man I like y'all's FORM!!! :clap_1:

using hillbilly in that tone seems almost racist.

Re: Old Florida Fish House (Early Bird'd Last Night)

GTTBM and I like this place. They have excellent sushi and we especially like to split the Grouper Fish House (sauteed, not grilled.) They do an excellent job of plating up a single portion of it for two.

We decided to try the early bird last night. The selection of dishes and sides was limited (as you would expect) and the portions were smaller (again as you would expect.) The prices ran about $22/entree (buy one, get one free.) They had steak, a Fish of the Day almondine, a couple of fried plates and 1 or 2 other entrees.

That being said, we won't do the EB again. We feel that we get a far better meal splitting the GFH and each getting a salad. That costs a little bit more than the early bird, but the quantity of food is similar and the quality difference is significant.

On top of that, having a waiter who clearly didn't want to wait on early birds (who were buying several rounds of drinks plus dinner, so a decent sized tip) didn't contribute to our enjoyment.

We still like the food and recommend eating there, but we won't recommend the EB to anyone.

My .02

Have been numerous times to OFFH and it has been wonderful. Girlfriend of mine ate their last night and raved about everything except some form of hillbilly entertainment. Cafe 30A has been a consistent disappointment to us. Guess you never know.

that is kinda the only entertainment here.

Glad to see this info re OFFH. My family and I come to SGB several times a year and my mom is always wanting to go to OFFH and my husb and I have refused. We love 331, 30-A and Yanni's. I was shocked to see that someone had been "consistently disappointed" with 30-A! We think it is one of the best restaurants in the whole area. Have been eating there for several years and do not have one complaint! Have not found a better gin and tonic anywhere -- always consistent! Just shows how different we all are. Very disappointed in the change of menu at Bud & Alley's! I mean I know things can't stay the same but they could have at least left a few "old stand-by's" on the menu! We ate at 331 twice in October and it was excellent!

Here's my more recent experience, my husband & I chose to go by ourselves one night and picked OFFH. We LOVED our food. He had crabmeat au gratin and it was delicious with lots & lots of crab, not just cheese. I had fried Grouper and it was just the perfect portion, I think I just left a few bites behind. We had some fried shrimp appetizer from the specials and enjoyed those and our salads. I also tried some crab cake off the plate of a family member who happened to get seated at the table next to ours(even when we tried to get away from all of them...) So everybody's food was great, but our waitress definitely could have been better. Things weren't slow, she just neglected to bring a couple things we asked for and messed up my drink order. Then when she fixed it messed it up again. It was a very simple pineapple juice with Malibu(my beach drink) , but she kept insisting on giving me grapefruit juice & vodka i believe(gross,who would ever order this???) Luckily the second time she didn't get away and I didn't have to wait as long for her to correct it. She did sniff my drink & try to give it to me again, but it didn't smell, look or taste like pineapple and I don't care to drink out of a glass somebody's nose just touched. Besides this, it was a beautiful restaurant with great food. Hopefully it can get a better staff.

Does this review make me sound crabby? I hope not.

Have been numerous times to OFFH and it has been wonderful. Girlfriend of mine ate their last night and raved about everything except some form of hillbilly entertainment. Cafe 30A has been a consistent disappointment to us. Guess you never know.

are you European?

are you European?

Oli!

You're a peein!

OFFH - Food has always been great, service has always been slow. Really doesn't bother me though.

Cafe' 30A - Never had a bad experience Still one of my favs

over the past two years i have frequented OFFH quite a bit up until the past couple of months. primarily i went because of its proximity to my house, and because one of my best friend's worked there for a long time. it really has a beautiful atmosphere, and my first couple of experiences there were great... we had the best sushi i had ever tasted, and we even tried a few things from the regular menu that were very good as well. i don't remember much about the service on those first few visits other than that it must not have been remarkable or terrible or it would have stuck out in my mind. since then i've been back probably over 50 times (not an exaggeration -- whether for food or simply drinks & entertainment), and ever since then it has NEVER lived up to those first few experiences. in my book it continues to get worse & worse and more & more inconsistent. i've had some of the worst service experiences of my life at this restaurant... which is odd considering i'm acquaintances &/or neighbors &/or friends with several people who do or have worked there during the past two years. once the service was so bad that we spoke with the manager, who clearly didn't give a sh#t. instead another server had to step up (basically doing the manager's job) and tend to our table and correct the damage the previous server had done. this second server was amazing, and that is about the only compliment i have for this place. i believe his name was DJ or JD or something.
not only is the service horrible there, which is enough to prevent me from going to even a terrific restaurant, but even the sushi has gone downhill in my opinion -- some nights it is still amazing, but some nights i have literally spit my food out on my plate (sorry but it's true). i guess it all depends on who is working in the sushi bar. same goes for the regular menu... i guess the menu is probably not really geared towards "foodies," so i never have high expectations, but all i ask for is consistency. and the only thing that i consistently get is poor service!
i haven't been back since my friend stopped working there, and i don't plan to return even for a cocktail. i've heard dread clampitt no longer plays there anyway, so what reason do i have? old florida fish house? no thanks!

The food quality and service level has been steadily going downhill for a long time. They have some great staff members and some good dishes, but they are so inconsistent that you never know what you're going to get. It's gone from good to hit or miss to consistently subpar. A year or two ago we were regulars, now we might stop by every couple of months.

I'd love it if they refocused and got things back to the way they were as it is a great location & space.

I love the food - not a big fan of the service. Even in the slow season, the service is not the best. But they have the best sushi on 30-A for sure and I love seeing some good music on Tuesday's nights. CHEERS!

I love the food - not a big fan of the service. Even in the slow season, the service is not the best. But they have the best sushi on 30-A for sure and I love seeing some good music on Tuesday's nights. CHEERS!

have you been to cafe rendez vous when Nick is working?

nicks sushi at rendezvous is rocking! jordan also

Hi WhiskeyRiver, Look for some of the old stand bys coming back this fall. Carpetbagger Steak, Seaside Shrimp, crab cakes and a few more. Let me know if you have any past favorites and I'll pass the suggestion on to our Chef, Ed Reese. Please email me at dave@budandalleys.com Thanks very much for your comments. Dave Rauschkolb owner/operator

Glad to see this info re OFFH. My family and I come to SGB several times a year and my mom is always wanting to go to OFFH and my husb and I have refused. We love 331, 30-A and Yanni's. I was shocked to see that someone had been "consistently disappointed" with 30-A! We think it is one of the best restaurants in the whole area. Have been eating there for several years and do not have one complaint! Have not found a better gin and tonic anywhere -- always consistent! Just shows how different we all are. Very disappointed in the change of menu at Bud & Alley's! I mean I know things can't stay the same but they could have at least left a few "old stand-by's" on the menu! We ate at 331 twice in October and it was excellent!

I just read Whiskeyriver's comments about not wanting the menus to change. As someone who has lived here for several years, and someone who has worked in the restaurant business for many years, my number one complaint about the restaurants here is the lack of menu changes. Sure, if you are known for your crab cakes, by all means, keep the crab cakes, but it is simple enough to change sauces, cuts, cooking methods, etc all while using the same base food item. I used to oversee the operation of multiple restaurants, each with its own style and different level of service. Some menus, we changed weekly, some quarterly, and a couple no more than annually.

I have eaten every menu item at least once at my favorite local restaurant. They are all delicious, but I would love to see them shake it up a bit after eating the same items for over five years.

Restaurant owners, don't be afraid of moderate change of menu items. There will always be people who don't like the change of selection, but there are likely more people who will like the new options.

I agree with SJ, Variety is what keeps me going to my favorites. A change in menu with the seasons, what's fresh, etc is what makes repeat visits grayt. I like the places that have really good daily specials tat reflect creativity from the chef.

True, but this is our 21st year and I thought it would be great to bring back some of the old favorites for awhile or at least from time to time. Over the years we have had many favorite menu items long time customers have asked to bring back and 21 years is a nice round number to bring em back. Thankfully my ex-partner and dear Friend Scott Witcoski is still around and willing to lend his helping hand.

I just read Whiskeyriver's comments about not wanting the menus to change. As someone who has lived here for several years, and someone who has worked in the restaurant business for many years, my number one complaint about the restaurants here is the lack of menu changes. Sure, if you are known for your crab cakes, by all means, keep the crab cakes, but it is simple enough to change sauces, cuts, cooking methods, etc all while using the same base food item. I used to oversee the operation of multiple restaurants, each with its own style and different level of service. Some menus, we changed weekly, some quarterly, and a couple no more than annually.

I have eaten every menu item at least once at my favorite local restaurant. They are all delicious, but I would love to see them shake it up a bit after eating the same items for over five years.

Restaurant owners, don't be afraid of moderate change of menu items. There will always be people who don't like the change of selection, but there are likely more people who will like the new options.

Dave, I don't think that I was clear in my statement. I have no problem with bringing back old favorites from time to time. My thoughts were more along the lines of regularly changing the menu being a good thing. That is not to say that you shouldn't add a once popular item back to the menu on occasion.

The food quality and service level has been steadily going downhill for a long time. They have some great staff members and some good dishes, but they are so inconsistent that you never know what you're going to get. It's gone from good to hit or miss to consistently subpar. A year or two ago we were regulars, now we might stop by every couple of months.

I'd love it if they refocused and got things back to the way they were as it is a great location & space.

We ate there two nights ago and everyone had a great meal, and the service was even better than the meal==go figure