Saltwater Cafe in Nokomis, FL
 

A few weeks ago when Connie and I were down south for several days, she read something about this restaurant and wanted to go there, thinking they only used local seafood. The place looked nice enough and I was in the mood for some fried shrimp. Since we already thought they only offered fresh local seafood, I didn't ask my usual questions about this situation.

Anyway, the meal arrived and for some reason they put a bowl of some sort of spinach concoction on my plate. It smelled funky to me, so I moved the bowl off of the plate and out of nose range. Hmm, the plate STILL smelled funky. I cut off a chunk of shrimp and chewed it a bit and about gagged. The damned shrimp smelled ROTTEN and didn't taste much better. Obviously my appetite was shot then, so we just picked up our things and walked to the front. We caught our waiter's attention and told him about the meal stating we were perfectly willing to pay for the drinks we got, but were NOT paying for that meal and were leaving. Of course he called over the manager, and relayed the story to him. He went over to the table while we waited by the door, sniffed that plate and took everything back to the kitchen. He apologized profusely and offered to give us a discount on our next meal. I mentioned that I was surprised that "fresh local" shrimp could small so awful, and his eyes lit up when he countered that those were NOT local shrimp at all. Like that should have been sufficient explanation about why they were so raunchy and therefore should have been acceptable fare.

I looked at him like he had just lost his mind. Sorry bub, but I'm just not eating that imported garbage. So yeah, we have a card that entitles us to 10 percent off of the next meal we may want at a restaurant we will NEVER go to again. Great.......

But let that be a lesson to me. ALWAYS ask. If they don't know, assume that it is imported. If it is fresh and local they will be proud of that fact and everyone working there will know it.

Yuch, I can STILL remember that smell......... :ack2:

Send me the discount card:thumbsup:

I've eaten there before and enjoyed it.

Wonder what happened?

Sure. Send me a PM with your snail mail address and I'll send it to you.

Oh yeah, please don't tell me that you eat imported farm raised shrimp. You are what you eat, you know, and those farm raised shrimp from China, etc. are often fed human excrement. And then you eat the shrimp...... :ack2:

Eh...My wife always tells me I'm full of chit....maybe there's something to it?:D

Frankly, unless I see it caught with my own two eyes, I don't know where half this chit is from anymore?:nonod:

I just enjoy seafood....:thumbsup:

I believe it is against the law for restaurants to lie about the source of the seafood. It has to even be identified accurately. For instance, they can't sell white fish as grouper. So yes, I ASK.

Heck years ago I had a restaurant try to pass off snow crab as king crab on me. The manager tried like hell to intimidate me but I just stared him down (tougher to do when someone is taller then you - but I persevered) and TOLD him to bring me KING CRAB, not this cheaper snow crab. Save it for someone who doesn't know better.