Michael Y.
Yelp
If you are considering booking this restaurant or even returning, you may want to read about my experience. I was shocked that this is my first really bad experience at a higher-rated restaurant with seemingly many reviews. I later discovered Citrus City Grille's ownership changed hands less than two years ago, and nearly 90% of the reviews are written BEFORE the new owners took over. Further, reading the other recent negative reviews and 'hidden reviews' (literally hundreds near the bottom of this listing), I found my experience similar to hundreds of other angry and upset customers (mostly about treatment of customers and the decline since ownership change), and it starts to make sense.
I had two very negative interactions with this restaurant. The first was when we came in to celebrate a special occasion. Our party arrived right on time at 11am for a 11am reservation, which I had booked many weeks prior. I even called a month before, to make sure our reservation would be fine and was reassured everything was good, but upon arrival, the hostess informed us that our table had been given to another party and we no longer had a table reserved for us. They said that the other party was given "priority" over ours, and when I pointed out another empty table was available, they informed me that one was being saved for one of their "frequent customers". That "frequent customer" table sat empty for 30+ minutes while our group of 9 adults and kids stood around waiting for a table to open up.
After about an hour wait time, they then placed a foldable table with a tablecloth and some folding chairs on the sidewalk and asked us to sit outside on the street for brunch (note that it was nearly 90 degrees outside that day and the toddlers would be seated a couple feet from a busy road with cars passing by), that could not be an option so we had to wait longer.
Finally, 20 minutes later, a table opened up, but it was a table for 6 (we had a party of 9) so we had to squeeze our entire party into this small table. When the check came, I was shocked to find that they automatically added a 20% service charge, which was not mentioned anywhere on the website or during booking. I explained to the manager about our experience and replied that he acknowledged mistakes were made, but that he did not have the authority to address our situation, only the owner could do something. This brings me to the second interaction with this restaurant.
As instructed by the manager, I contacted the owner, and he responded initially, admitting that mistakes were made and something was wrong with their system, and he said to contact the manager directly to rectify things. He suggested a solution, which frankly wasn't great, but I said I would try. He asked me to call the manager back and I did so.
But the manager said he had no idea what I was talking about, and once again said the owner did not give him the authority to do anything for us. He said he would speak with the owner, but after I called and emailed them multiple times, neither of them replied to me. I leave two stars because our wait staff and several of the buffet dishes were good, but the management of this restaurant ruins the experience.
In the back of my mind whenever I visit a restaurant, I am hoping that it can become one of our favorites. However, when a restaurant management will not try to make things right, especially if they know that they made a mistake, and even worse, ignores a customer who reaches out to them, this becomes very difficult. Sadly, this was the case at Citrus City Grille, not a place I can recommend.
