Reviews for Reggae Shack Cafe

03/06/2022 - MenuPix User
Let me start by saying that I’ve eaten at reggae shack every time I’m near UF for the last eleven years. I get the jerk chicken with extra plantains every single time. I dream about it lol… just last weekend I took my family for the first time and the experience was absolutely fantastic. The waitress was kind and prompt, and the food was out of this world, like always. My wife wouldn’t shut up about it all week, so I took my family again tonight for dinner and couldn’t wait. We got there and were told to come back to the counter to order. I though to myself well that’s new… but didn’t think much of it. I ordered, paid and tipped. Went to the restroom to wash my hands. The restroom was atrocious so I opted to just use my wife’s hand sanitizer instead. When the food came out it was in styrofoam containers, bagged up as a to go order. I asked if I had maybe misspoken and said it was to go, and the guy said that it was because they were short staffed. I was a little bit frustrated that I had spent seventy dollars at this point, and didn’t have a plate to eat off of it real utensils to eat with. Tell me that you’re running ragged tonight up front man. That’s the whole point of going to a restaurant rather than taking it home. It’s the dining experience. When we got to the food it was god awful. The fried food was clearly old, my wife took one bite of her meal and closed her box. My jerk chicken was actually curry chicken, and my sons onion rings weren’t edible. The tropical hush puppies were darker brown than usual and I’m lucky I didn’t break a tooth on them. They were old and room temperature. I went inside to ask for napkins and the guy tore off a piece of a paper towel roll, bunched it up and handed it to me. At this point my head is about to explode. There was a line of people waiting to order so I didn’t say anything but probably should have. The only thing that was even close to normal was the cabbage and plantains. Everything was absolutely the worst meal by far that I’ve had in a long time. There were no servers anywhere, nobody checked on us, the place was filthy and the food was the worst I’ve ever had there in a decade. I hope this isn’t a new thing that they’re trying out. If so it’ll be the end of the Reggae Shack. People won’t take that for long, especially if they’ve been there on a good day. If I would paid thirty bucks for dinner I wouldn’t have been so surprised, but at least give me a heads up when I walk in so that I can go somewhere else if I wanted to. My wife said she’ll never eat there again, which sucks because it’s my absolute favorite restaurant of all time. I used to drive from Orlando just to eat there. Now that I live in Gainesville I was hoping to eat there often. Looks like that likely won’t be happening unless the wife is out of town. I will also be calling ahead next time to make sure they’re serving fresh plated food with a wait staff. As long as whatever tonight was is going on, I won’t be back. I can’t believe I’m saying this about the reggae shack!!! Super sad……