City Seafood A Joke

I try my level best never to write anything negative about a business that we encounter along the way. There's so much negativity in the world to begin with that we don't need to create any more. And let me say at the onset that I'm no gourmet diner, nor do I feel special or privileged in any way in life. But Marilyn and I went out for a dinner to celebrate our anniversary tonight. THAT is special to me. We had stone crab claws and a fried oyster basket at City Seafood in Everglades City. The stone crabs were stone cold and the butter was luke warm. We asked to have the claws warmed up and though "we don't do that..." they relented and put them in the microwave for 60 seconds. Big deal. We also had two (plastic cup) glasses of wine. No biggie. I'll drink boxed wine, so again, no special palette at work here. RV Guy! What can I say?

The stone crab platter had about 6 claws on it. Doesn't take long to eat that, so we went back to the window and asked for another 1/2 pound. The time was 6:05 on a Sunday evening.

"I'm sorry we're closed."

What? We just came to dinner.

"We're closed and that's that!

"Right in the middle of dinner service you close?"

"This is what we do to people like you, the greasy waitress said as she slammed the window closed in our face. (Nice style, babe; good people skills for sure)

So there was not another 60 seconds worth of crab claws at 20 bucks a pound, and there was not another fine plastic of Merlot by the side of the river. Dinner was done. Celebration was over. Go home! We're done!

If I ever had such a bad experience dining out I don't remember it. If I can stop one other person from going here for a festive evening I'm happy reporting this. It literally would have taken 60 seconds to get us what we wanted and we could have been OK with things. We were NOT the only diners who wished to add to their meal and were refused. And the tone of the refusal was down right ugly. Stopping service in the middle of service is just downright stupid. Having been in retail and sales most of our lives we know a business lives and dies on its service. Businesses are hurting not so much because of the economy but because they don't give a care for their customers. That ALWAYS comes back to haunt you in the end!

City Seafood: kiss your claws good-bye!