Tequila Joe's Beach Place

Quite possibly one of the blandest meals we've ever eaten. The chicken tenders we got for our son had zero taste. I'm not exaggerating the lack of taste. I wish I would've noticed the automatic 18% gratuity everyone keeps talking about.

We had a girls' night out, celebrating a bday of a friend.  We'd had dinner on Las Olas, but wanted somewhere to dance afterwards.  We r Caribbean ladies, so we wanted a mixture of reggae & soca.  We were headed towards Fat Tuesdays, since we heard some activity upstairs, but we passed by Teaquila Joe's & were enticed by the guys outside inviting us in.  We were skeptical because they were playing hip hop & there were only a few folks inside- mostly men, dancing. It's also a bit of a hole in the wall bar, at night. During the day it's more touristy with tables outside.We were not looking for a pick up joint, so we almost didn't go in.  They promised us they'd play some reggae/soca, so we headed in.  They gave us some free samples of rum punch & started playing some oldies but goodies of soca, reggae, r&b, & hip hop.  We had a really good time & stayed for about 2 hours!

I'm going to 1-star this to throw off the obvious employee or management-based posts of 4 & 5 stars. We were visitors trying to find some Mexican food on a Florida beach so we didn't have a lot of options. This place is expensive for what you actually get. Weak margaritas, $6 for the most basic chips & salsa, and fairly bland $15+ meals.

The place was empty and it's very clear as to why. We came on a Friday night and there was a wannabe-rasta DJing and singing karaoke-style over background audio (that's what they advertise as LIVE music). He's there every Friday, so you can see that's how much management cares that you are actually enjoying yourself here. It was so loud and terrible we almost (and should have) left for that reason alone.

Our bill the night before at Coconuts was the same price as Tequila Joe's and there we had the most amazing crab cakes and cheesecake I've put in my mouth. Tequila Joe's is teetering the line of being a complete scam. The 18% auto-gratituity for every bill is a giant red flag regarding their service levels.