Reef - Midtown - Seafood

Menu Selections:  Oysters on the half shell; tomato and mozzarella pizza;  kinilaw-blackfin tuna and blue crab, blood orange, coco-lime broth

My friends and I attempted to eat and drink here for happy hour-key word:  attempted.  Upon arrival, the hostess sat us in the main room only to discover the happy hour specials were limited to the bar area, so we relocated.  After having that, “is anyone going to help us look”, on our face for a good while, we asked the hostess if we had a server.   A waitress then finally arrived and hastily provided us with a menu without a friendly introduction or guidance of the menu.  The only cocktails that were on the happy hour were $5 margaritas and well liquor, which didn’t make sense to us.  Who orders margaritas with seafood?  And well liquor at 5:30 pm?  No thanks.  As far as the wine selection, there were roughly 4 types of wine that were offered by the $10-dollar-and-up-glass.  The options for the happy hour food menu consisted of $5 pizzas and $1 sliders.  We ordered the pizza….when we chose to go to a seafood restaurant…because we were craving seafood?  The pizza was decent but of course, rather small.  Still hungry and still craving seafood, we then ordered the oysters on the half shell and the crab ceviche appetizer.  The oysters were good, but honestly, how can you screw up RAW oysters?  The ceviche tasted exactly like soap.  I tried it first, didn’t say anything, and waited for my friends to try it.  They had my thoughts EXACTLY-soap!!  We informed the waitress she could take it away since we didn’t care for it.  I personally believe this is a nice way of saying the food was un-edible.  However, she didn’t apologize, ask if we wanted anything else instead, and it still showed up on our bill.   The scene at the bar was an older crowd, who could probably afford the expensive wine and lobster.  However, for those looking for a budget friendly happy hour, I would recommend to go anywhere else.  We ended up spending more than we wanted for something we didn’t want at all.  The place itself didn’t even appear inviting:  the furniture looked ikea-eske and the tables were in close proximity in one room. 

Will I be back?  The service, ambiance and especially the food at their happy hour left such a bad taste in my mouth that I will never be back.