HHI Restaurant Reviews

[DisneyStarWisher]

Well we tried out Dockside Restaurant tonight. We made reservations through Open Table for 5:15 in order to have the option of the early dining menu. I’m sure glad we did. We were seated immediately. As we were leaving, the wait was an hour and 15 minutes. The meal started off with great appetizers—Dockside Rockefeller, Hot Shrimp and Spinach Dip, and a half dozen Gulf Oysters on the 1/2 Shell. I had ordered a cup of She-Crab Soup, but it wasn’t brought out with the appetizers so I assumed it was going to be brought out with the salad and red seafood chowder that came with the early dining entrees that two members of our party had ordered. We waited and waited. Finally our meals came out. I immediately told the waitress that we had not received our soups and salad. No apology. She just said, “So do you still want them?” I replied, “Uh, yes.” They brought them out after several minutes. My soup was a little on the salty side but not bad. My broiled scallops were amazing. My husband was not impressed with his red seafood chowder (saying it had no taste) nor his fried shrimp and flounder platter from the early dining menu. He got only 5 shrimp (which is understandable since it was on the special pricing menu). I tasted his flounder and thought it was pretty good. I think he didn’t like it because he had found a huge bone in it on one of his first bites. My older DS said his Dockside Collection with scallops, crabcake, and stuffed shrimp was just average. He said he could think of a lot of better places to eat on the island. My younger DS had Shrimp and Grits. He said it was good but weird that they had put BBQ sauce on top. It would have been better without it. Overall though I was pretty impressed with the food here, but I was not impressed with the service at all. It was downright terrible. The only thing that was good was they kept our drinks refilled. But it took forever to get each course. We didn’t even order desserts and we were still there almost two hours! And that was getting seated immediately. I’m willing to try it again but not sure the other members of my party are.

Just wanted to give a review since I had been looking for information on this restaurant with little luck.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Thanks so much for the review. We've never been there, but have thought of it. Isn't it right next to Skull Creek Boathouse? If you're driving that way, which place would you pull into the parking lot to eat at?

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

Thanks so much for the review. We've never been there, but have thought of it. Isn't it right next to Skull Creek Boathouse? If you're driving that way, which place would you pull into the parking lot to eat at?

It is beside SCB. Driving from the Disney resort, you come to Dockside before SCB. It’s easy to find. Lots of parking. Not like SCB where you have to valet park. It actually reminded me of where the Chart House used to be. Not sure of that though. There are lots of outdoor games between the two restaurants such as cornhole, ping pong, and fuseball, and there’s a playground for little ones. I say give it a try. I’m hoping the bad service was a fluke. I’m willing to try it again.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

Ok so I changed the title of this these in order to continue the reviews of the restaurants on our vacation. The reason? We just had an AMAZING meal at Poseidon!!! We have eaten here in the past. The first time we weren’t impressed. But this restaurant keeps getting better and better every time. We started out with a half dozen James River oysters, hushpuppies with honey butter, a shrimp tempura roll, and baked Gulf Coast oysters. All the appetizers were awesome! For our entrees, three of us chose from the early dining menu. We all had she-crab soup to start. Then two of us had the surf and turf and one had the chef’s brick cut NY strip. All of the steaks were tender and cooked perfectly and had an amazing-tasting glaze on top. One DS20 ordered the stuffed flounder and loved it. Our DS22 ordered two appetizers as his meal: the tuna bowl and the tuna tartare. He enjoyed the tuna bowl but said the tuna tartare didn’t have a lot of taste. That was the only negative I heard the whole meal. The location is especially convenient on a Tuesday night when you want to avoid the traffic from the Shelter Cove fireworks. It’s about a 20 minute walk from the Disney resort. I would highly recommend this restaurant. We will definitely be back. I’ll let you know how tomorrow night goes!

 

[Simba's Mom]

Yes, please do continue. How was the service? The one time we went, DH told me he didn't get the appetizer he'd ordered. But it wasn't much different and he kind of liked it, so he just ate it rather than say anything. I think this was right after they opened a couple years ago. Always on the lookout for new places, since when we go it's for 12 days or so-lots of meals!

 

[Chelley00]

I’m almost sure Dockside is the old Chart House building

 

[GrnMtnMan]

Ok so I changed the title of this these in order to continue the reviews of the restaurants on our vacation.

Your first post now doesn't mention where you went/what you're reviewing.

Well we tried out this new restaurant tonight. We made reservations through Open Table for 5:15 in order to have the option of the early dining menu. I’m sure glad we did. We were seated immediately. As we were leaving, the wait was an hour and 15 minutes. The meal started off with great appetizers—Dockside Rockefeller, Hot Shrimp and Spinach Dip, and a half dozen Gulf Oysters on the 1/2 Shell. I had ordered a cup of She-Crab Soup, but it wasn’t brought out with the appetizers so I assumed it was going to be brought out with the salad and red seafood chowder that came with the early dining entrees that two members of our party had ordered. We waited and waited. Finally our meals came out. I immediately told the waitress that we had not received our soups and salad. No apology. She just said, “So do you still want them?” I replied, “Uh, yes.” They brought them out after several minutes. My soup was a little on the salty side but not bad. My broiled scallops were amazing. My husband was not impressed with his red seafood chowder (saying it had no taste) nor his fried shrimp and flounder platter from the early dining menu. He got only 5 shrimp (which is understandable since it was on the special pricing menu). I tasted his flounder and thought it was pretty good. I think he didn’t like it because he had found a huge bone in it on one of his first bites. My older DS said his Dockside Collection with scallops, crabcake, and stuffed shrimp was just average. He said he could think of a lot of better places to eat on the island. My younger DS had Shrimp and Grits. He said it was good but weird that they had put BBQ sauce on top. It would have been better without it. Overall though I was pretty impressed with the food here, but I was not impressed with the service at all. It was downright terrible. The only thing that was good was they kept our drinks refilled. But it took forever to get each course. We didn’t even order desserts and we were still there almost two hours! And that was getting seated immediately. I’m willing to try it again but not sure the other members of my party are.

Just wanted to give a review since I had been looking for information on this restaurant with little luck.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

It actually reminded me of where the Chart House used to be. Not sure of that though.

I’m almost sure Dockside is the old Chart House building

You’re both right! Dockside is where Chart House used to be.

We just had an AMAZING meal at Poseidon!!

One of my faves!

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

Your first post now doesn't mention where you went/what you're reviewing.

Thanks for the oversight. It is now changed.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

Tonight our party split up. My DH and I went to one of our favorite restaurants here on the island: Alexander’s. This restaurant has some sentimentality connected to it. We ate here after we renewed our vows on our 25th wedding anniversary. We also ate here before Hurricane Matthew when they closed and weren’t going to reopen. I’m so glad they changed their mind. We had a 5:15 reservation through Open Table but arrived at 4:55. They were not open yet so we waited outside for a few minutes. Once they opened, they seated us quickly. We ordered the shrimp cocktail as an appetizer which was delicious. We also decided to go with the early dining menu. My DH had the seafood bisque, and I had the she-crab soup (my favorite as you can tell). We tried each other’s, and they tasted very similar. My DH had the prime rib which he said was very good. I ordered the crab cake which I found ok. I wasn’t a big fan of the sauce on it, but I think it would have been too bland without it. The crab cake itself consisted of plenty of lump crab. Our service was just ok. Probably the first negative was they brought out two appetizers, one that we had not ordered. It was interesting because my DH had almost ordered the Oysters Alexander but had decided against it. That was the extra appetizer that was brought out. We told the person who brought it that we had ordered only the shrimp cocktail. He seemed confused but took it back. We started second-guessing ourselves that maybe we had ordered it. So when our waitress came back, we asked her if we had ordered it. She said no, that she had ordered it on our ticket for herself and had just eaten it. (This never appeared on our bill though.) We were just very surprised that she was eating after taking our orders when the restaurant had just opened and she had obviously already clocked in. We also had to wait awhile to get a second serving of bread to go with our soups. Another negative is our sweet teas which comes with the early dining entrees did not come out. We were three-fourths of the way through our meal before we had the chance to mention it. But this is still one of our favorite restaurants for the food and the atmosphere, and we will be back.

The rest of our party went to Nick’s Steak and Seafood. I couldn’t get a lot out of them except they enjoyed the food and their service was good. Our DS22 LOVES their snow crab legs and was full after eating two pounds of them. Nick’s is not on Open Table, so no reservation but I discovered that even though I had called and they said there was a 30 minute wait that they actually walked in and were seated immediately.

I’ll let you know how the next couple of days go.

 

[lovin'fl]

We were just at HHI and we dined at:
Poseiodon and had crappy service but the food was good
Scott's and had crappy service and the food was meh
Frosty Frog and had good service and mixed bag on food, my shrimp tacos were great but all was on par with pricing
Guiseppe's and had crappy service but good food and not bad pricing
Crane's Tavern and had okay service and okay food (good food but not on par with the super high pricing)

I heard that they are having trouble staffing these restaurants due to the area being an expensive place to live.

Thanks for your reviews. Hope you are having a great trip!

 

[kittyab]

We ate at the Oyster Factory, it was really good.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

We ate at the Oyster Factory, it was really good.

Funny you should mention this. I’m glad you liked it. We ate here tonight and weren’t as impressed. This was our second time eating here. The first time was several years ago. I wasn’t a big fan of it then and am still not. But my DS20 loves it, mainly because he loves oysters. He ordered the Oysters Muscovite which came with caviar. He loved this! He also ordered the Oyster Sampler and loved all of them except the Cape Hatteras oysters because they left a strong aftertaste. The artichoke crap dip was a good appetizer. Two people ordered from the sunset menu. They ordered the seafood gumbo and the salad to start. The seafood gumbo was good, but there was a type of fish in it that had a strong fishy taste. The salad was watery and didn’t have much except lettuce. The entrees were both the surf and turf. Very high price for a 4 oz filet and 3 fried shrimp even if it was on the sunset dining menu. The steak was not very tender and had no taste. The mashed potatoes and asparagus that came with it were the same—a little tasteless. My DS22 ordered the scallops and enjoyed them very much. He said they were better than the ones at Dockside. I ordered the Seafood Medley which consisted of broiled shrimp, scallops, salmon, mahi mahi, and an oyster Savannah and an oyster Rockefeller. The only thing I really liked was the scallops, but I enjoyed the ones at Dockside more. My vegetables were pretty tasteless, but I did like the Parmesan rice. I do have to say the service was wonderful. We had a lovely server who did a fabulous job. Nevertheless, my DH and I decided to scratch this one off our list and in the future to make the night our kids go to the OOF our date night and go elsewhere.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

My final review. We went to my favorite restaurant Skull Creek Boathouse for lunch before heading home. I picked this for today for two reasons: 1) it is my birthday and 2) they don’t take reservations so it’s a good place to go for lunch since it gets busier at night. We sat inside but I wish we had chosen to sit outside. It’s shaded and has fans to make it cooler. It would have been nice to enjoy some HHI sun before heading home. We started with my favorite appetizer for the table:deviled crab balls. They were delicious as usual. I then ordered a shrimp tempura roll. Awesome! Other appetizers included boiled shrimp, fried dill pickles, and the sashimi appetizer. Everyone enjoyed what they got. Our entrees included the broiled captain’s platter, the fried captain’s platter, the Cuban un-pressed, the fried chicken po-boy, and the ahi tuna ceviche. Again I enjoyed the scallops on the broiled platter better than the stuffed fish or the shrimp. The deviled crab was good but I’d just had deviled crab balls so I could have passed on it. I’ll definitely get scallops only next time. The sandwiches were pretty good. The ceviche could have been cut up a little more but had great flavor. The fried platter was just basic fried seafood.

Well that’s all the reviews I have at the moment. My DH and I will be back next year and plan on some of the same restaurants plus maybe some new ones. Hope this has helped some of you who are headed to HHI. Enjoy!

 

[lovin'fl]

My final review. We went to my favorite restaurant for lunch before heading home. I picked this for today for two reasons: 1) it is my birthday and 2) they don’t take reservations so it’s a good place to go for lunch since it gets busier at night. We sat inside but I wish we had chosen to sit outside. It’s shaded and has fans to make it cooler. It would have been nice to enjoy some HHI sun before heading home. We started with my favorite appetizer for the table:deviled crab balls. They were delicious as usual. I then ordered a shrimp tempura roll. Awesome! Other appetizers included boiled shrimp, fried dill pickles, and the sashimi appetizer. Everyone enjoyed what they got. Our entrees included the broiled captain’s platter, the fried captain’s platter, the Cuban un-pressed, the fried chicken po-boy, and the ahi tuna ceviche. Again I enjoyed the scallops on the broiled platter better than the stuffed fish or the shrimp. The deviled crab was good but I’d just had deviled crab balls so I could have passed on it. I’ll definitely get scallops only next time. The sandwiches were pretty good. The ceviche could have been cut up a little more but had great flavor. The fried platter was just basic fried seafood.

Well that’s all the reviews I have at the moment. My DH and I will be back next year and plan on some of the same restaurants plus maybe some new ones. Hope this has helped some of you who are headed to HHI. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday! And what place was this...your lunch today? Thanks again for sharing!

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

Happy Birthday! And what place was this...your lunch today? Thanks again for sharing!

Wow. You can tell I’m tired! It is Skull Creek Boathouse. I’m editing it right now. Thanks for catching it.