Shooters Waterfront Cafe USA

If you want to drink on the water, maybe watch some football, and watch boats go by this is your spot.  It's been here since I was a little girl, way before there was an internet or a YELP.  

The food for me is very mediocre, but I don't think one ever says "hmmmm I'm craving bar food" no one says "wow what a great day it is, let's go have a drink on the water"--and this is one of the choices in Lauderdale where you can do this.  They also have a ton of TV's to watch sports on, even though they don't play any sound...which frustrates me.

My assumption that the drinks are more expensive would be based on the premise that the location itself is expensive: right on the waterway, you can tie your boat up  if you want on their dock, and the place is huge.  Paradise ain't cheap my friends.

I've been a hundred times and will continue to go back.

I'd like to give this place 2.5 stars, but unfortunately, I can't, as this is not a Yelp option.  The quality of the food is meh, the location is great, the service is pretty good, the prices are high for the quality of the food, and the cleanliness leaves much to be desired.  The redeeming quality was their live band.

I really wanted to go to 15th Street Fisheries but my friend kept whining about how hungry he was and how great this place was and how he didn't want to wait until the Water Taxi made another round of stops until arriving at the 15th Street joint.  Fine.  I had a feeling this was one of those tourist trap locations where they get you with their location but the food is nothing special, but we went inside anyway.

Imagine my surprise when I find the carpet, all the way up and down the aisle, is full of wrappers, crayons, fries, and other junk.  I must note that even though we were there for over an hour, many of these wrappers remained on the floor.  I'm all about first impressions, so I definitely was not impressed about the lack of cleanliness.  I understand a certain table may have mess around it, especially with kids, but the whole seating area? There were a good 8 tables or so and there was junk everywhere around them and no one cleaning up the floors.  The wooden floor by the bar looked wet -- a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I ordered a tuna salad, although I was a bit worried about the freshness of the tuna.  The waitress kept telling me it was fresh and I'd be satisfied with it, so I took her word while praying she'd be right and I wouldn't have any food poisoning.  The food took a long time to come.  I forgot what my friend ordered, other than the fact it was full of fries.  Like, more than half the plate was fries.  The tuna salad was ok, nothing spectacular, and it came with no dressing.  There was a brown sauce that I hoped was balsamic vinaigrette but it was actually soy sauce, so that was my "dressing" for the salad.  

I heard what sounded like a live band playing the intro to U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" and turned around and there it was, a group of about 5 musicians.  They make up a band called [Retro Sky] that was playing great 80s hits such as Duran Duran, The Cure, Billy Idol, etc., for over an hour.  They were great fun and did a great job.  The singer had a good voice and even looked like Billy Idol, rawr! They got me dancing, which is rare...

Again, had it not been for the band, I may have given this 2 stars, because as if the food was not interesting enough and the place wasn't very clean, the bathrooms were backed up, leaving you with no option but to go upstairs.  I'm sure that they can do better, and considering their location, it's a shame they aren't improving on the rather high prices, food options, cleanliness and organization of everything.  I recommend coming here to have a drink and checking out the live band (although, they do change bands every week so I cannot attest as to the performance and song choices of the other bands), but for food, I'd suggest going elsewhere.

Very friendly staff!!! Great happy hour. Love being on the water!