Sand Bar Restaurant

This place has a great view, great vibe and good food. If you are looking for a relaxing atmosphere and aren't in a hurry, this is your spot. Unfortunately, they are having some issues keeping enough staff at the moment due to Covid, but if you have time to chill, this place is great! The cocktails are delicious and a lot of them are huge! The food is good and the place offers the option to cook fish you bring in from the boat. Also dog friendly! We really enjoyed it and will be coming back!

Went out with my friend on a whim last night. She mentioned passing by this place the other day and wanted to check it out. Parking lot was packed when we got there but expected that - was easy to just park on the street. The vibe was nice when we entered, yes it was kinda crowded but we expected it to be since it was Saturday night. We go to the hostess stand to put our name in for a table and they said a 30 minute wait- honestly we thought it would be longer. The hostesses said while we wait we can go upstairs to the bar and they’d text when our table was ready. As soon as we got up the stairs, we found two seats along the railing - was the perfect view with the perfect breeze. Told my friend to wait with the seats to see if we could just take them - they were numbered for seating purposes. I asked the hostess and they said it would be fine and to order food we’d just have to go into the bar and order there and the food would be brought to us. PERFECT! We took our names off the seating list. Moving forward, I go to the bar order us some cocktails and proceed to enjoy ourselves. After an hour we decided we should probably order food. We looked at the menu on our phones, came up with the order and my friend went inside to grab another round of drinks and order the food. She came back out with our drinks and said the bartenders wouldn’t take our food order unless we were seated directly at the bar and that for service where we were we had to go back to the hostess stand to request a waiter. Fine, so my friend goes back downstairs, explains everything to hostess and then comes back up and tells me that they were too busy to send someone directly to us so we’d have to put our names in for a table and would now be a 45 minute wait. As we wait, we see many open tables and one in particular that is set up for two that has been open since we got there. We wait and wait and then we get the text for a table- we are then seated at the table that has been open for the entire 2hrs we’ve now been there. We order food- it was good but nothing spectacular. The food was priced fair for the atmosphere but the cocktails were pretty pricy, in fact 4 drinks cost more than our food bill. Granted I’m sitting at a marina surround by beautiful Viking Yachts - but I’m not drinking the cocktails on them so maybe ease up a bit on their pricing. I get it that it’s hard to find help these days but I felt like the whole time we were there, there were many employees just standing around when they could have been helping to make the flow better. I’ve worked in the tourist/service industry in Key West and understand short staffing and big crowds, but that’s when everyone pulls together, even if it’s not a part of their job, and make the flow better and to make better money. I felt there was a lot of miscommunication between the staff and a lot of room to make it work better. We probably will return, I always like to give a place with potential a second chance.

This place was recommended for a causal dinner with kids after a day at the beach. Arrived here around 6pm on a Saturday and was told it would be about a 45 minute to an hour, which we were okay with since the vibe was nice. We got a text at 6:56pm that our table was ready and went to the hostess station to be seated. We arrived at the hostess station and was told that they couldn’t seat us due to the kitchen being backed up, but that we would be the next to be seated. We waited until 8:15pm and was told that the kitchen was still backed up and we couldn’t be seated. We asked if we could at least sit at a table to order a drink for the adults and water for the kids (at this point we had been waiting for over 2 hours). I was told by the hostess that she would send a waitress over to the Adirondack chairs we were waiting in so we could at least get a water served to the kids. After another 10 minutes the hostess comes back and tells us to go upstairs to the bar if we want a drinks and water for the kids, but the kids would have to stay downstairs by themselves. At this point the place was very crowded and I obviously would not leave the kids alone to get a water at the bar. I get it that it’s hard to find help but there were three hostesses sitting on their phones for hours and not one thought that of getting a water for kids that had been waiting for 2 hours to be seated and 1.5 hours since they text us our table was ready. I felt like the whole time we were there, there were many employees just standing around when they could have been helping to make the flow better. We were VERY DISAPPOINTED with the lack of services, which is unfortunate because the place has the potential to be good.