"I don’t know how anybody could leave anything more than 1 star for this place… do not waste your money here. First off, my experience started with their very unenthusiastic, rude, unprofessional host, Karen. I called to check for availability and was greeted with a grumpy, “Compass Grill”. I asked about availability for two and was told “Not right now, we’re packed and I only have one server” So I asked, “okay… when would you have availability..” and she said “I don’t know, maybe in an hour.” I then hung up and made a reservation online 30 mins after the call. When we arrived l, the restaurant had 4 tables in it and 4 bar guests. Not “packed” . We were greeted by the same grumpy Karen who took us to our table. Indeed, there was only one server !? who was very nice and good at her job thankfully. You go Caitlin! . However, the drinks were awful… what I would expect to get at a downtown trashy bar, not this nice, on the beach, hotel restaurant. We continued on with dinner anyway and the Cesar salad was fine, can’t mess that up. Then we were served some rolls, that I literally banged on the table and you could hear it from miles away. The rolls were cold and hard as a rock. Why even bother serving those? Our $40 filet and $25 pasta came out next. The “filet” was literally worse quality than a Publix flank steak. It was dry, chewy, and not cooked to temperature either. We frequent steak houses and I am 100% sure that was not filet. The veggies it came with were cold and still tasted like the probable can it came out of. The pasta sauce was good but the chicken fully resembled and tasted like the frozen bags of precooked, pre-sliced Tyson chicken from the grocery store. Disgusting. Appalling. As embarrassing as it was, I had to involve the manager. I was NOT about to pay over $100 for this birthday dinner when the food was that low quality. She thankfully removed the entrees and we payed for what we consumed so we could appropriately tip Caitlin, who was having to serve and bartend for the entire restaurant. Horrible experience. This is St. Pete Beach. Whoever owns Compass Grill, DO BETTER. Fire the host, hire more servers, and teach your kitchen staff how to cook. If you’re going to charge those prices for the menu, stop going to the Walmart frozen section and invest in appropriate ingredients. We would have had better luck at a Perkins or Chilis."
