Complaint Review: The Honu Restaurant - Dunedin Florida

We feel like we were ripped off.  We were there for a wedding reception and they should not have marketed themselves as able to accomodate us.  The food was absolutely awful, cold, tasteless and not hawaiian and the service was even worse with the mediocre staff. We were flat out ignored by staff and the owner didn't want to acknowledge a problem.  This women still does not take accountability and gets aggressive when dealing with guest conflicts. 

I would have rather had her say we were a little off that night and acknowledge the problem.  Instead she pretended to have asked us all if things were ok.  She never did.  She was passive aggressive in dealing with criticism and honestly should stay out of a restaurant altogether. This lady is mean and cannot accept feedback. I would not be posting here if it weren't for her acting like she acknowledged us.  Don't waste your time at this substandard "hawaiian restaurant". What a poor reflection of this great town. You'll feel ripped off like our poor wedding party.

we are not the only ones .....look on yelp for all the bad reviews. The list of bad experiences could form a book. Poor Dunedin

Management is so rude.  They have "under the table" employees working there and pay terribly.  Food is okay (hot food, cold food wasn't that great) but overall - dysfunctional kitchen.   -Chris B

We were really excited to try this place so we brought friends. All of had food poisoning later in the afternoon. This was the only place we ate so we knew it had to be from the food. I ordered a Sangria and my friend had the mango saki drink. They were both the same. The waitress said they were different. The chef seasons the dishes to her liking and they had soy sauce ( you had to ask for it) and they did not offer low sodium soy. Sorry. We tried.    - Kim O.

Unfortunately this place missed the mark. Spam musubi was literally one piece of spam cut into 3 pieces and for $6.25! Rip off! To make things worst, it came out cold. I told the waiter that it was cold and he told me that is how they serve it. If that is the case, it shouldn't have taken 20 minutes to serve. The moco loco is a "healthy" spin on the tradition comfort dish. You can see pictures posted of the Turkey burger on a bed of rice and spinach slathered with garlic "pesto" gravy.

The turkey patty was under-seasoned, if seasoned at all. The rice and patty was not portioned correctly with about 4 spoonfuls of rice. Most upsetting was the "gravy" that tasted purely like an unseasoned garlic/parsley blend.  I gave the hostess feedback suggesting that the garlic could be cooked down or portioning the elements of the dish more appropriately. Unfortunately, my feedback was met defensively. "We are a non-traditional Hawaiian bistro. You shouldn't expect the food you might be used to." I was rooting for more representation in island cuisine for this area, however this one definitely misses the mark in appropriate pricing and most importantly taste.  Christopher C.

I wanted to like this place, but the food was just very disappointing. Atmosphere was nice - quiet, small, family-friendly. I imagine it's nice to sit on the front outside lawn area when weather permits, but we were there on a rainy day. 

In any case, we were a bit disappointed with the food, expecting much more from a 4.5 star place. We started with musubi and edamame. These already were disappointing and overpriced - the edamame was over cooked (more mushy and lacking the soft crunch we like), and we were very glad we asked for the spicy oil to be on the side because when we tried it, it had no flavor - was just a bland oil.

The musubi were tiny, considering it's $5 (I think) for a serving of sushi rice with spam wrapped in seaweed. In any case, we love musubi generally (we've had it in Japan, Hawaii, and in the states), and don't think it's something that's too hard to perfect, but ours were a little too mushy. They tasted as though they had been made earlier and been reheated. I could be wrong, but that's what it seemed like to me. 

For our main dish, my husband and I split the King Kamehameha, which was sushi rice with three meats (a pork, beef, and chicken). The meats were juicy and had tons of flavor, but the only meat I liked enough of to eat more than four bites was the beef. The rice was...questionable. It was listed as sushi rice, but it was less like the tangy, sticky rice I love and more like regular rice that had been cooked in an excess of water until it was mushy and flavorless. Regular rice would have been 10x better. 

Anyway...we kept going and ordered the macadamia nut ice cream and cookie crumble. Unfortunately, the texture of the ice cream was lacking. The inside was icy, which reminds me of ice cream that has been in the freezer for too long. The cookie crumble for me had a little too much cream in relation to cookie bits. (But was still overall sweet and delicious because well, cookies. And sweet cream.)  - Rachel L

This has been the most disappointing dining experience I can remember. We waited AN HOUR for our food, which consisyed of a QUESADILLA and SHEPHERDS PIE. Nothing extravagant. The quesadilla was plain, small and underwhelming at best; just cheese and meat, costing $10.49. The shepherd's pie looked like it was literally portioned for a child, for $13. Chips and salsa was $6. Everything was overpriced, tiny and especially mediocre. I'm writing this review while still sitting in the restaurant and I'm listening to other complaints about food time and overlooked reservations. I wish I had stayed home. Laura M.

My parents always said "if you don't have anything nice to say"...well this is one of those times. In short, we asked for our check and left after a round of drinks and some appetizers. Luckily Downtown Dunedin has many other great places to choose from. - joey v.

This was a strange experience for sure. As a caveat the food wasn't that bad, nothing that special but pretty standard salads and sandwiches. The drinks though were all over the place. The special being offered was their "Orange Sangria" that tasted like straight sugar water, imagine a concord children's grape juice over ice. Then we decided to take advantage of the beer flights as we were aware of seven local breweries in the area. What a mistake this was.

The flight which stated on the menu, was supposed to be the four "CRAFT" beers on tap, ended up being four non local questionably craft beers and a BUD LIGHT. Yup you read that right they put a bud light as one of their flight craft beer samples. Then when the manager came over she laughed at the bud light that we didn't drink and said it was a MISTAKE and they put it on tap so they could get free umbrellas from Bud light. This would be fine, however she didn't feel the need to correct this "mistake" and instead laughed it off like oh well you got tricked. What kind of customer service is that? You trick people into getting your bud light craft beer flight and sugar water sangria, and then laugh at them when they bring it to your attention. Why are these places still in business? Dunedin deserves better!! dan m.

Not the place to go if you want to be in and out in under an hour. Laid back is one thing, the day we were there it felt more like they were trying to figure things out. Maybe I just don't like Hawaiian food as I found it significantly under seasoned. It was definitely fresh and healthy with many vegan options. 

Prices seemed a bit high for portion size. - dwayne l.

and the list goes on. I hope a better chef and owner inhabits this building soon!