Robbi’s Reef

Robbi’s has great food and now has a great location to match the cooking. We had another wonderful meal. The burgers here are to die for!

This place was great! The food was fantastic and the server was great! We had the brisket, salmon, scallops, and fresh catch grouper. ALL FANTASTIC! Skip the app and save room for the banana pudding! Get one for yourself… Be greedy… it’s worth it:)

Went with a certain amount of trepidation, given the negative reviews
On both Unilocal & other sites. Came in for dinner and sat at the bar. It was a Tuesday night, not terribly crowded. The first thing you do notice it the lack of acoustics in the place, everything is loud ! Anyway, was greeted by the bartender, I ordered a cocktail and a delicious fish dip– very good. Started to feel comfortable, ordered dinner, blackfin snapper (blackened) with 2 sides, pineapple coleslaw & black beans and rice. Dinner showed up in less than 15 minutes, hot and was delicious. The service, at the bar (there were 2 bartenders, guy and a gal) both very friendly and helpful.
If they can consistently serve food like
This, the place will be very successful — I’ll be back — BTW– the place is expensive, food is expensive, small cocktail & wine glasses, no bargains here but the food was great.

My first experience here was pleasant. However my second experience made me never want to go back. We were there 2 hrs. They got our bill wrong 3 times and we had to wait forever. The owner was so rude. When I went to talk to him (he didn’t tell me he was an owner I asked a server) he turned his back to me and would not turn around. He said our ticket said we waited 18 mins for our food. That’s because our server waited 45 mins to enter our food. We waited an hr! When I told him I’ve worked in customer service for 20 yrs and this was uncalled for he finally turned around and said well we are hiring here. The server who wasn’t our server had to apologize for the owner. They ruined a special occasion for us.

The soup and blackened Mahi tacos were fantastic! I was here at the old place a couple of years ago and they were great then, now even better!

It was good. I got the pulled pork and hush puppies and i thought it was good. Wife got the Caesar wrap that was really good! Prices were reasonable. I would come back again.

very generous portions at a good price. We went within a week or so of their opening & the place was mobbed. We’ve been back numerous times since, also took relatives and new neighbors. All loved it. Very friendly staff. Again, good portion of fish at a good price… can’t say that about other local seafood restaurants. We had only been to their other location a couple of times but the new, larger location is more convenient, clean & bright. It can get a bit loud but that’s to be expected.

I have gone to both the old and new locations and although I liked the idea of a smaller restaurant the new one is nice. The food was great as always and the service was ok albeit we did have a very pushy waitress which is not a plus; I don’t like to be told I need to order the special over and over when I already have chosen my meal. Unfortunately, the live music did nothing to enhance the atmosphere in fact, it made it impossible to even hear each other. As well, the valet parking was not needed but additional handicapped parking is!

Started with the smoked fish dip– very nice and I thought we were going to have a nice meal. The Manhattan clam chowder was sweet… I had the blackened Mahi tacos– the fish was very salty and a tasted fishy — the Pico de gallo had unripened tomatoes — the rice and beans were now hot. The crab cake sandwich was mediocre at best. I have NO IDEA why people wait to get into this place. I will not be going back

Loved their old location. Food and service was always gr8. The new location not so much. The place itself looks gr8 but is way to loud. The food is not all that good. Had the ribs which were all dried out and tasted like left overs. Nothing was done when I complained. The fish tacos were served barely warm and they used to be our favorites. Hopefully they’ll get their act together although I don’t know what they can do about the acoustics.

Good food, very under priced.
They plenty and it is very tasty.
But the tall brunette behind the bar, she in the wrong biz, we found her very insincere, really not a true caring bartender. I guess a full bar automatically brings great tips and that can make a server think their pretty valuable.

This place must have lost stars because folks reviews aren’t rated high enough! This place is the
you will not be disappointed. The bar staff Katie and Matt were awesome hosts tonight.

We ate at the original Robbie’s reef one time and the food was good. We attempted to come to the new Robbie’s reef several times and Have never been able to get in as It
was always it least a half hour to one hour wait. We finally got a table tonight and I don’t understand why anybody would wait to eat there. The food was mediocre. One of us had the scallops and the other had ribs both were disappointing. Loud environment is very difficult to talk in. Overall I was very disappointed and would not go back.

This was my second time eating at Robbi’s, but my first time at the new location. Great location, beautiful open space, great service and delicious food! I thoroughly enjoyed the mahi fish tacos with rice and beans and a side of green beans — so tasty! My hubby enjoyed the pasta with seafood and chorizo and my parents and uncle enjoyed the fried shrimp dinner. Everyone was happy and loved the new location! Be prepared to wait a minimum of 30 minutes or an hour, but it’s definitely worth the wait!

Ordered the smoked fish spread and pulled chicken sandwich and black beans and rice. Both good — ate at bar. Bartender very pleasant.

We looked forward to trying the updated Robbi’s with a group of friends, we were told the credit card machines were down, not a huge deal these things happen. The new interior is decent and the place is huge inside, there was a guy strumming away on the guitar. He played the regular old acoustic Florida covers but I like live music no matter what. Once we were sat drinks were in order. Our waitress was clueless as to what was on draft, left the table to find out, came back ten minutes later butchering the names of the beers, we order and another ten or so minutes go by… I guess a keg needed replacing. No big deal except you tell the table why. Drinks dropped off, and she vanishes again… ten or minutes later oh thank goodness she arrives. We ask the specials, she doesn’t know and repeated the butchering of names and time away from the table. We finally order and guess what they are out of almost everything on the menu, no BBQ, three of the sides. Good service dictates you let your customer know up-​front what you have and especially what you do not have. Food ordered and was out shortly from the kitchen, the food was compared to the service amazing. Too bad we had to hunt our waitress down to pay and another literally 30 minutes for the change. Which she only returned in large bills.
Short story mediocre food and absolute garbage service.

Moved to a new location just north of Venice business 41 & 41 bypass next to Hampton Inn. The food was still good, but the NOISE was unbearable!!! 2 or 3 previous restaurants failed at this location due to Architectural and Interior Decoration. The place is all hard surfaces. They even painted the ceiling tiles reducing their effectiveness. 3 of us were seated at a 4 top, and we had to shout to speak to each other. The waitress had to lean over and speak to each person individually to hear or be heard. If we hadn’t waited 45 minutes for a table, we would have left!!!
Robbie’s will probably fail here also? They have a huge Bar, and like the previous restaurants can’t decide if they are a Bar or a Restaurant? It looks and sounds like a Bar!!! Also in wealthy old Venice, the clientele at this new location was decidedly RED NECK! Sad!!!

This place is so wildly inconsistent. I placed two separate take out orders over the past several days and they either didn’t get the order right or there were quality control issues. The first order placed a couple days ago I ordered the Monterey salad with balsamic dressing and seafood gumbo. The salad came with the stock ranch dressing and no balsamic dressing. The Gumbo was excellent and hearty.
The second take out order was simply gumbo. This time the take out container of gumbo was filled up halfway. It appeared that they ran out of gumbo because the container was only half filled and of that half filled container half of that was plain rice. So only ¼ of the container was gumbo! They do have some good dishes but they need to have staff that can take orders and accurately convey them thru the food prep chain. There also needs to be consistency from order to order.

Myself and my girlfriend had the greatest bar experience of our lives here! Mike, our bartender from SF via New York, a self described 36+ handicapper at golf when not taking mulligans, is the funniest, most welcoming barkeep we met on the East Coast!
We’ll be back to see him next time we’re in Florida!
We loved you Mike
Veronica Bell and Micheal Fox

Had dinner with the family on Thursday March 31. A week after they opened at the new location. The wait for 5 adults & 2 small children was an hour & 20 minutes. A sign on the front door warns of over an hour wait time so we knew it would be a long wait. Kelly was our waiter and he was on top of things. Very attentive to our table. 3 of us ordered the shrimp scampi and all 3 of us loved it. Generous portions of shrimp makes this dish worth it. The kids meals were served in a plastic flying disc, (Frisbee) that the kids could take home afterwards. The overall experience was pleasant for all of us and we will come back again. If we didn’t live 1,500 miles away in Michigan, Robbi’s Reef would be a regular stop.