Restaurant review: Bentley's Seafood & Grill / Boca Raton -- So...

[Maria Bergman]

I am glad you have a forum for restaurants .

I had dinner twice just recently at Bentley's Seafood & Grill in Boca Raton and I didnt write a coment on my first visit as I said it is too good to be true. Let me catch them on another day for a reality check. The reality is that the chef knows what EXCELLENT is! What simply simple extraordinarily Great Food this restaurant serves.

[Rimmer]

My wife and I usually go to the same old places, so we decided to try something new. Based on the outstanding review we decided to try Bentley's. We made a reservation for last Friday at 7:30 PM. We are open-minded easy going people, but I have to say this was one of the worst dinning experiences we've ever had.

We stood in the lobby for five minutes before even greeted by a hostess, even though the place was half-empty (a bad sign for a Friday night). We were eventually approached by three different people before being sat. The decor is, well, pretty cheesy, much more suited to say, a breakfast-lunch place on the water than a seafood place on Federal Highway.

Our server was very nice, new to South Florida, and pretty inexperienced. Like I said, we're easy going, so even when she couldn't get the cork out of the bottle of wine we ordered (my wife had to do it) we thought it was a little charming. No big deal.

Then came the food. Both our dinner salads were awful: lettuce that tasted old and half frozen, with way too much salad dressing and on top of that they were missing some ingrediants. We didn't want to make our server feel bad so we ate them and waited for the main meals.

My wife ordered the horseradish-patato encrusted grouper, based on the description in the review, and got a giant mound of grouper with some sort of bread crumb topping. Nearly flavorless.

I ordered the snapper in a banana-rum sauce, and they forgot to include the sauce. All it ended up being was some badly cooked snapper with no flavor at all. My sides: sweet mashed potatoes (cold) and broccoli (tasted like plastic).

Some of the worst food I've had out in ages. We didn't stay for coffee and dessert. I wouldn't put too much faith in anything Judith Stock writes after she gave this place three-plus stars. I'm all for trying new places and supporting family-owned, local establishments, but the food here is terrible, and it's not run in a very organized manner.

Stay away; you've been warned.

[CJD]

I have been to Bentely's at least once a month. I have tried their lobster, steak, lamb and the Boca Pizza to die for. It makes my mouth water when I talk about it. It is not a fast food restaurant people. If you didn't like it, you are used to having Burger King, McDonald's and checkers because the food is top quality.

[Gina Pashor]

Bentleys Seafood is a place to be appreciated for good food and value made by a chef and service which is caring and pleasant. The menu has great selction of fresh seafood and grill items. Prime steaks Rack of lamb french cut and grat 4 course dinner for very reasonable price. We would highly recommend you experience the great food and friendly autmorphere and try the great selection of nightly chef specials.
Federal Highway Boca Raton

[Shelia]

This is a Competitor Sabatage Warning-Do NOT READ
False and Inapropriate

Rimmer wrote:

My wife and I usually go to the same old places, so we decided to try something new. Based on the outstanding review we decided to try Bentley's. We made a reservation for last Friday at 7:30 PM. We are open-minded easy going people, but I have to say this was one of the worst dinning experiences we've ever had.
We stood in the lobby for five minutes before even greeted by a hostess, even though the place was half-empty (a bad sign for a Friday night). We were eventually approached by three different people before being sat. The decor is, well, pretty cheesy, much more suited to say, a breakfast-lunch place on the water than a seafood place on Federal Highway.
Our server was very nice, new to South Florida, and pretty inexperienced. Like I said, we're easy going, so even when she couldn't get the cork out of the bottle of wine we ordered (my wife had to do it) we thought it was a little charming. No big deal.
Then came the food. Both our dinner salads were awful: lettuce that tasted old and half frozen, with way too much salad dressing and on top of that they were missing some ingrediants. We didn't want to make our server feel bad so we ate them and waited for the main meals.
My wife ordered the horseradish-patato encrusted grouper, based on the description in the review, and got a giant mound of grouper with some sort of bread crumb topping. Nearly flavorless.
I ordered the snapper in a banana-rum sauce, and they forgot to include the sauce. All it ended up being was some badly cooked snapper with no flavor at all. My sides: sweet mashed potatoes (cold) and broccoli (tasted like plastic).
Some of the worst food I've had out in ages. We didn't stay for coffee and dessert. I wouldn't put too much faith in anything Judith Stock writes after she gave this place three-plus stars. I'm all for trying new places and supporting family-owned, local establishments, but the food here is terrible, and it's not run in a very organized manner.
Stay away; you've been warned.