The Chimney House - Grill & Cafe

Biked to check out this new neighborhood joint for brunch this morning. I do not like to read reviews prior to visiting a new place. Bottom line food was great! Did not expect Latin food with a name like the Chimney House, but the omelet was fantastic! Service on the other hand was awful! The owner,male, sat my boyfriend & I outside, but never brought us menus. We had to walk inside to ask for them. Not only that, but we had to ask for silverware & napkins. I had to get up & get sugar for my coffee & salt & pepper for food. The female server barley spoke English & had a hard time understanding our order. She did get it all correct though.

Can't be a great restaurant on only good food, service has to match. Just as you can't have a restaurant with good service & bad food.

As a server for 38 years I bend over backwards when it comes to rating restaurants and I am seldom that negative but this was a disaster from beginning to end. When you ask a server for recommendations and they answer "Everything is good" you know you are in trouble! A good server will always suggest 2-3 items when asked.
I read about the Chimney House and since we were going to the Broward Performing Arts Center, and it was only a block away, we decided to give it a try. It is a small place with very small tables with more on the patio and we were seated right near the 'fireplace' which meant the constant coming and going of servers. It also provided a direct line to seeing who came and went from/to the restrooms.The lighting is low which is okay but Allen, even with excellent eyesight, had a hard time reading the explanations of the dishes because it is in a very light gray color.
We both had the Arroz Marinero ($16) which is described as 'Spanish Seafood Rice made "Paella Style" (I am reading the menu on the Internet). It consisted of 3 small slices of sausage, 2 little-neck clams, 2 muscles, 1 shrimp and a lot of small pieces of calamari on a lot of lukewarm yellow rice. Allen had a can of soda ($1.95) and I had water--didn't want to chance coffee going to the theatre. The check, with tax, came to $35.99 and we left a $7 tip.

Friendly but inattentive staff. I only saw my waitress 2x during the meal. I made more eye contact with the busboys.

Very small inside but they have an outdoor patio.

Zero parking. Literally 4 spaces in the back. You may have to find street parking if you plan to park close to this place.

I started with potato soup with gatlic croutons. The soup came out lukewarm  and not hot. I asked the hostess (not waitress) if it was to be served hot and she offered another bowl. The second bowl came but the tempature did not change. The soup was tasteless. No salt no pepper. It was literally like biting into a boiled potato.

And things went from bad to worse.   I have bitter sweet feelings about the next course. The waitress strongly recommended the fish tacos so I trusted here. Big mistake.

The package tortilla was stale. My soft corn flour tortilla was very crunchy. While they look beautiful everything will fall out because they are generous. While the tortilla almost ruined the dish the bright side is that the fish was actually very good.