Zach Dobosh

Review of Wildside BBQ Bar & Grill (via ...

Stopped in Wildside's for dinner last Sunday to wa...

Stopped in Wildside's for dinner last Sunday to wait for the parking lot that was I-4 to clear out. My business partner and I are not hard to please and generally sport a smile everywhere we go... this establishment tested that statement. To start, I order a CUP of the soup of the day while my colleague orders a BOWL of chili. Each of our starters are brought out in the same exact glassware. Now this is not a big deal but it makes me question why one would pay $4.99 for a bowl when they could pay $3.79 for the same amount of soup. I wave the waitress down the next time she is in the area(which is very rarely throughout the course of dinner, despite the restaurant being next to empty) and ask while pointing to my bowl, "Is this a cup". She responds "yes" and walks away as if she does not have time to chat. Next, I order the Alaskan King Crab with a side of steamed vegetables and mac & cheese which is on special for $11.99. Now after seeing the price I do not have high expectations, "where can you get crab legs for $12.00?" My steamed vegetables turns out to be corn on the cob. Once again, not a huge deal and technically a steamed vegetable(likely microwaved) but if I wanted corn on the cob I would have ordered corn on the cob. Two legs and one claw of crab comes out.... "that's fine, I'm not that hungry". Upon first touch I can tell that they are entirely over cooked. The shell is completely mushy and proves very difficult to open. After finally opening one segment of leg I see that the meat looks more like a bundled up spiderweb and takes up less than a tenth of the volume of the shell cavity(another sign of being overcooked). Each segment of crab is in the same condition. Next I notice that I was not provided with a seafood fork(small fork for shellfish) so I wait until the next time I can wave down my waitress and ask her to be provided with one. She informs me that they use to have seafood forks when they served mussels but she believes they threw them away. Now, I do not like jumping to conclusions but this leads me to believe that these crab legs are from another restaurant and likely are being served here because they are past their shelf life and do not meet the standards of the restaurant where they originated. Additionally, the mac and cheese was clearly served from a can, not surprised. At this point I have been under fed, under satisfied and under served, I would simply like to leave. I ask for the bill and upon review notice that my cup of soup was $5.99. The cup was clearly priced at $3.99 on the menu so I ask my server when she returns, "The CUP of soup is $5.99?" Once again I receive a very short, "yes!", followed by a blank stare. Shocked but unwilling to argue over $2.00 I chuckle, shake my head and give her my card. Leaving feeling worse off than when I had walked in, I swing by the hostess station on my way out and ask for the manager. I refrain from sharing my overall experience with her and just give a friendly suggestion that they fix their menu since it is currently advertising false pricing. She asks what type of soup I had ordered and I respond, "the soup of the day". "Sir, the soup of the day is conch chowder, which you can see while taking a look at our Specials Menu(a 3" W x 6" H piece of of computer paper taped to the front of the menu), is priced at $5.99." HAHA Now this is truly absurd! I guess that a restaurant whose target market is the tourist population does not have to worry about repeat customers as much as the average restaurant but this is piss poor management. I have not lost my temper in quite some while and I was not going to do so over dinner but damn was I close. I uneasily force a big smile across my face, point at her while turning around and give my final declaration, "Bad for business!"