I can't even believe I actually went to this restaurant. My feeling was that if the Tommy Bahama clothing and its wearers were any indication of the dining experience, it was going to be unoriginal and in poor taste. Alas my friend wanted to go there was his birthday lunch so.... Let me be clear that I'm not a food snob at all. Just last week I enjoyed a lunch of Nachos Bell Grande and a bean and cheese burrito at Taco Bell very, very much. That was far superior to this lunch at Tommy Bahama.
The decor was comfortable and breezy. Everything else - not so much. 1st it's nice that they bring you bread and butter, but a sweetly flavored butter? Why mess with the pure goodness of butter? The glass of lemonade I ordered was sickeningly sweet, and I am a notorious for my sweet tooth. It was undrinkable until I cut it with water. The coconut shrimp also had an overly sweet sauce. So much so that we could each only eat 1 of 6 shrimp. I got the crab bisque which was crazy salty, and in my opinion, contained previously frozen hence rubbery crab meat.
As it was my friend's birthday, they brought him a complimentary dessert. Very nice. He got the newest one which was some sort of chocolate/caramel-filled cake with oreo crust, chocolate mousse topping, sprinkled with crushed Heath bar. Sounds good, right? Vile, absolutely vile. Overly sweet except for the oreo crust that was saturated in butter. On an update note - it was not the nasty sweet butter they serve with the bread though.
My final issue was with our young, highly attentive server. He was very sweet and well-intentioned. However I feel that every server in the world needs to stop speaking to customers in the collective. Don't say "are we enjoying our coconut shrimp?" or "are we ready for dessert?" Unless I've badly misinterpreted our relationship, "we" aren't doing anything together. Just a pet peeve - I still tipped him 22% and kept my mouth shut about this odd little quirk.
oh and the bill for coconut shrimp appy, quesadilla, cup of crab bisque, lemonade and glass of white wine? $52. for lunch.
Tommy Bahama and I just didn't work out at all.