Bradenton Beach Restaurant Guide

Our meal was ruined by thick second-hand smoke on the "outside" deck, which is mostly enclosed, and is in violation of Florida's no-smoking laws. The waiter didn't care. Our parents had to wait outside while we quickly paid the check. Luckily the other seaside restaurants we frequent respect the law, the clean gulf breezes and their customers. We live here, own a business here, and will never bring guests here again.

the cafe has some of the best food i've ever had in a restaurant: you must especially try their homemade clam chouder and peanut butter pie! the service and atmosphere is equally as good.

Hello out there! I am on vacation with my family and we dined at the Gulf Drive Cafe this afternoon (3-20-07). In saying this our experience was... well, not very pleasant. I'm hoping that anyone who reads this will reconsider spending their time and money there, or at least you can walk into the place with a "heads up" and not let yourself get cheated from the quality and service you deserve. Of course, no one will care about that but you. The staff at the restaurant didn't seem interested- nah that's putting it nicely, they just didn't care that the service they provided us was pathetic.

I left the place thirsty after waiting 10 or so minutes on the refill of sweet tea I never got. The sweet tea was a joke by the way. lol I could add two teaspoons of sugar to my tea and get the same effect. Let me back up just a little. Our server disappeared after we received our dinners and we got a new one who in turn gave us our check and carry-out order. Now the new server offered to get me my tea and by then I just refused. We spent more then enough time there, and frankly I felt I had better things to do then stay there longer just to drink a tea. As much as I love vacationing here I'm not here to spend my time drinking tea lol. Our condo is just 3 minutes away, so taking care of my thirst wasn't a big issue.

During our stay at the Gulf Drive Cafe we sat out on the porch to watch the gulf. There was a couple who were not as tolerant as us in waiting for service, and they got up and left. We should have done that at the start, being ignored for as long as we were before getting a server to take care of us. Service overall was very slow. The food was good. I'll give it that. But the compliments stop there. We won't be going back there.

I heard last spring that the place was supposed to close? I don't know what the issue is, but giving poor customer service is bound to bite them in the behind one of these days. Both of our servers didn't have winning people friendly personalities, and come to think of it the cashier didn't either. I can understand "bad days", but if I want to pay for an afternoon in a stressed enviroment full of people who have had "a long day" then I'll go visit a hospital.

This got long winded and there's so much left I could say, such how they messed up our carry-out order. I need to get going though. I have a two year old under foot :) I got to say, lol, I'm glad I had a sitter for him today while we were there. The tot wouldn't have been nearly as patient with the stay as we were lol. Later all! Take care!

<3 Anna Maria Island

gulf drive cafe is the best restrant ive been to.

I am from the UK, and have visited this restaurant many times on my visits to relatives in Bradenton. I find the food and service really good for this type of restaurant and would recommend anyone to call there as I shall be doing when on my next visit.