Bahama Breeze

You can judge me all you want- ITPers but out here in the burbs we have to appreciate what we can get and honestly I don't think Bahama Breeze is all that bad. I have visited this chain in several different locations. It became a go to place for my husband and me when we were dating. It could be found in whatever city we were living in at the moment and we liked the mojitos and coconut shrimp. I was pretty impressed that my non seafood eating husband loved their coconut shrimp and has now even graduated to ordering fish. He got the tilapia recently and liked it a lot. I had black grouper with this shrimp sauce. I wish I would have taken a picture. The shrimps were pretty big. Not the tiny salad shrimp by any means. The fish was nice and meaty- cooked really well. And it was a huge portion so I had leftovers that reheated pretty well. I got a side of yummy fried chunks of yuca- crisp on the outside- creamy texture inside.

We had also ordered the corn cakes appetizer. I found these to be a bit sweet. They are served with butter and jelly. It seemed more appropriate for breakfast.

I will definitely return for the fish. Being a chain I would have expected the prices to be lower- maybe the seafood dishes were more expensive- the coconut shrimp were $9 and my grouper was around $22... But we had a $10 coupon that came in the mail so that lessened the blow.

And last thing- we really liked the atmosphere. It's a little kitschy but it sort of reminded us of stops on our Caribbean cruises!

I went here on a work related group outing. The atmosphere was chill. I'd say the lighting was a bit dim (both on the dining floor and restrooms). The food selection was vast. I really had a hard time choosing. The prices were reasonably priced. I'd say it was more of a two and half $ price range to three versus the stated two.

This place would be a good place for drinks after work since there are plenty of places for a large group. As for lunch time dining, the food selection was good. Do give this place a try.

It's been about a month since I brought a large party here and I can honestly say that in my 10+ years of organizing group events, this was - hands down - the worst experience I have ever encountered. Startlingly so.

Having been in the restaurant industry for many years in my youth (including managerial positions) I can say this was an issue of managers and not necessarily wait staff. Oddly enough, 2 years prior we had a great experience there, but the year before I had some red flags that made me exclude them, and this year I decided to ignore my instincts. BIG MISTAKE.

Though our large (50+) party probably will not affect this particular location (80% OOTers), what it will affect is similar events that occur in every state all throughout the year. Most of the people in our group were out-of-towners, but every single one of them is on a committee for the same event for their state. And I can promise that without me saying ONE word, NOT ONE WILL EVER CHOOSE BAHAMA BREEZE AS THEIR YEARLY LOCATION. Ever. 3 years from now if someone new joins a committee and recommends it, they will be reminded of how bad it was here.

I won't go through the litany of problems that occurred - I will reserve that for corporate. Suffice to say, this was a horrible experience as an organizer of an important event, and not only will I not ever use them for a group function, but neither as a personal dinner function.