UnHappy Hour - Big Fin Seafood Kitchen

Big Fin Seafood Kitchen - it was, well, just ok.  Located in Dr. Phillips, Big Fin a newer restaurant in the Villa Dellagio Plaza.  Nestled in next door to Flemings and Cantina Laredo, I really believed that this was going to be a great place to go. Let me be clear, we were only there for Happy Hour.  Dinner not included...

Inside is nice, with checkered red and white table cloths and big crabby signs, but it's the Bar-a-Cuda bar that I attended during a Friday night Happy Hour.  Don't get me wrong, the outside bar area is enticing, and as always the views of the Dr. Phillips sunsets were great.  Armed with my team of girlfriends and fellow Happy Hour goers, we were ready for some wine specials and seafood appetizers.  The only problem was that there weren't any seats and the clientele was a bit snotty.  Seriously, this is Happy Hour people. Let's have some wine and relax!

After negotiating a table, we ordered some appetizers from the 5 for a Fin menu.  We were enticed by the Popcorn Shrimp, Spicy Tuna Roll and Crispy Calamari.  Our waiter was unique.  I am trying to be as nice as possible about his unprofessional behavior.  We had started with a tab at the bar, but since we couldn't sit and no one was very polite, we snagged a table.  Our waiter was kind enough to tell me that it was my problem and not an issue for him at all that I already started a tab.  I would just have two tabs. Great.

His hospitality went downhill from here.  Maybe I would have found my experience to have had a greater value if it wasn't for him, but nothing seemed to be cutting it.  Our appetizers were ok.  Expecting full size appetizers that had merely been discounted for the specials menu, I can assure you that is not what we got.  This was the opposite of super sized, this was child sized portions.  I understand that a $5 menu at a higher end restaurant is low, but I wanted to eat more than a bite of each item. 

I guess if I had known the portions would be so small, I would have opened up my pocket to splurge on an actual meal.  But I thought we were going to be given a deal. I was so wrong.

I dare not make judgement on how the food might be, as I never really tried anything.  The dining menu looks great, and if you are interested in trying all different kinds of seafood, I would suggest trying it.  They seem to have everything from Oysters to Sushi to lobster. 

In the end, I hope to go back sometime with only the intention to drop some serious cash on a (hopefully) really nice dinner.  But as for Happy Hour, I might be sailing in another direction.

http://bigfinseafood.com/index.html