Mr Manatee's Casual Grille - Vero Beach

First, the positive. Our server was excellent. She was very friendly, attentive, and really on her game. I believe her name was Tracy. The food was meh. I had the blackened grouper. The rice was over seasoned and not very pleasant. My wife had the grilled chicken bowl. She felt the same way about the rice, and the chicken was dry. We also had the jalapeño watermelon Margherita. They were flavorful but a weak pour. Other than the great service, I won't rush back for the food or beverage.

Really enjoyed the laid back, casual atmosphere with the water and manatee themes. Pretty good amount of seating inside and outside. Fish and Chips were super great. Sweet potato fries the best. Blackened salmon really good. Their coleslaw is great. Local beer on tap is always good news. Very accommodating staff.

Big fish sandwich and good price on raw oysters for Tuesday

To be honest, one of the worst experiences I’ve had in a restaurant. We had three different servers. One of them guessed he was taking our order. One guy only came by to take our drink orders. And then we were left with another lady. We waited about 30 minutes before the first server even came to the table and we waited another 45 minutes just for the food. The food was horrible. The burger wasn’t seasoned and it tasted like dirt. We asked for it to be medium rare and it was definitely more on the well done side. The shrimp was gritty, the fried conch was 90% batter, and the clam strips were OVERCOOKED. Extremely rubbery. We had to chase a different server down because our server was no where to be seen. The entire staff was sitting around doing absolutely nothing. I’m completely baffled. I would not come back again.

Usually I enjoy manatees for their drink and food specials. Today I tried the burger Monday for the first time and received table service. I will likely not return after this time.I ordered the mussels to start which had an odd taste and was not very appetizing.For dinner I ordered a burger with avocado and bacon which was off the menu, I don’t remember the name.My waitress failed to explain the burger special and I ended up paying extra for everything. Not only that she didn’t bother to ask the temp, luckily she came back and I told her I wanted it medium rare…It came out well done. At first the burger looked like there was some red but as I bit into it, I realized it was way too cooked.she didn’t return to the table for over 10 minutes and was not visible on the floor. During this time our drinks needed refills as well.I eventually got the burger remade after everyone else was done eating, and can’t say I was too impressed with the burger. They cooked it right, but the patty was not seasoned or at least seasoned enough. Not a lot of flavor.The fries were tasty.