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The buzz this week on the beach was the grand opening of Hurricane Grill and Wings. I’ll just get it out of the way now - not worth the time.

I was in a party of 4, and we sat on the deck. There were 3 empty tables there at the time. The waitress took our drink order, and brought back the wrong drink for 1 in our party. My friend kept the wrong drink. The waitress took our food order, and left. We had kept our orders very simple - we all had the boneless chicken wings, each plate a different flavor.

The remaining tables were filled by now. Which meant for the next 20 minutes, we were forgotten. Around that time, our waitress decided to come by the table with fresh drinks. Without asking, she changed my friends mistaken drink the first round for the correct drink the second round. I only mention it because my friend found it annoying. As I would have too. Then again, I’m an asshole and wouldn’t have accepted that drink to begin with.

Almost 30 minutes from the time our order was placed, we were finally served. Not by our waitress, who knew who ordered what, but by 2 new girls. They were uncertain of the flavors they were serving. You’ve got 4 plates, each with its own flavor, and no idea who gets what. The one waitress actually held a plate up near her nose to see if she could smell the flavor.

By process of elimination, we’ve decided my plate isn’t here. I’ve been served a Teriyaki something-or-other, when I actually ordered Hot Hurricane Sauce. The waitress, who is not our waitress, tells me I should just keep it, because they have “a whole bunch of to-go orders”, and if she has to re-submit my order, it’ll take another 30 minutes. While I actually hate to send something back, I did anyway.

Now here is my issue. You brought me the wrong order. And now you’re telling me that you’re too busy to fix my problem? Are you not advertising your establishment as a wing place? Should you not have wings cooking already, seeing as you are actually busy? I’m seriously going to have to wait through the 30 orders in front of me? You can’t just put the correct sauce on the next batch of wings that come out?

So I waited. For 18 minutes. In the meantime, we split up the 3 plates we had correct. And it just wasn’t that good. The taste was just…too much. The Bourbon Apple Glaze tasted like a shot of Jack Daniels. Except you had to chew it. The Garlic and Parmesan was much more garlic than it was Parmesan. When my plate was finally served, the Hot Hurricane just wasn’t very hot. The chicken itself seemed non-existent when compared to the sauce and breading.

Only 2 of the 4 wing plates had celery with them. And when the original waitress did take our order, she asked each of us if we’d like Bleu Cheese or Ranch. That didn’t come with any of the plates. The fries were disgusting, just dripping with old tasting oil. I’m going to go with ‘Worst Fries in St. Augustine’.

Our waitress was MIA for most of the meal. We hadn’t seen her at all since our second round of drinks was served, before the meal had come. When everyone was done, our waitress walked past, said she’d be right back with more drinks, and disappeared again. Most other tables around us seemed to be in a similar state, no one had drinks. The table nearest the door appeared to be friends or family of staff, and they were well taken care of.

We sat there for a while, waiting for anything to happen. Drinks, dessert, go-box, check, whatever. Finally a whole new waitress walks by, and offers us go-boxes. She is the first one true to her word, and comes right back with our boxes. We pack up the food, and finally our original waitress comes back with our drinks. We had debated dessert, but the waitress didn’t ask, she just laid down the check. She did not ask how everything had been, showed no sign of caring how the customer had been handled during the meal. They had said earlier due to the mistake with my order, it would be taken off the check. It was not. I’m fair - I ate it, I’ll pay for it. Just don’t think they should have offered if they didn’t plan on doing it.

St. Augustine hardly needed a new restaurant. From the deck of Hurricane Grill and Wings, you can see 5 other eating establishments. So if you’re going to compete, then you really need to put your back into it. Hurricane Grill and Wings does not.

If you decide to go, they’re located about midway down Anastasia Island, just a bit North of Dondanville Rd on A1A. Same plaza as Bagelicious, Seafood Kitchen and Purple Olive. Find your way using Google Maps.

Posted on September 7th, 2008 under Restaurants • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback