Google
Very disappointed with how our family was treated at Surf Hut. We were visiting with a party of 10, including two small children, and were told the wait would be about an hour and a half. The restaurant was busy, so we understood and waited patiently.
What became unacceptable was watching the crowd thin out and other large parties come in after us and get seated before us. A party of 12 arrived, waited near us for only about 20 minutes, and was taken to a table while our family was still waiting.
When my daughter questioned the hostess, we were told they seated the other group because they had a table that could accommodate a larger party. We had already been told they do not take reservations, so after waiting that long, it certainly did not feel like parties were being handled in the order they arrived.
We eventually spoke with a manager, but instead of the situation being handled professionally, we were given an explanation that didn’t really address what had happened. Then, after waiting all that time, they attempted to seat our party of 10 at a table that only seated seven, plus a high chair, in the bar area with our toddlers. When we pointed out that there weren’t enough seats, the response from the young staff at the front included laughing and then going to find additional chairs.
At that point, we would have left if we hadn’t already spent so much of our vacation waiting to eat. Starting over at another busy restaurant with hungry children wasn’t a reasonable option.
Our server was not responsible for what happened, and we made sure to tip accordingly, but the front-of-house experience was extremely unprofessional. A restaurant in a vacation destination should know how to properly communicate with and accommodate larger families, especially after asking them to wait well over an hour.
We came to enjoy dinner together as a family and left feeling like our business wasn’t valued. We will not be returning.