blue parrot

sat there for over an hour with no fucking service!!!! got attitude from waitress when we told her we had been sitting there for 30 minutes & hadnt even been asked for our drink order or anything. people who had arrived after us were seated & served before us. this restaurant just had complete shit service. i highly recommend not even wasting your time & going to the restaurant next door. also manager is a total fuck up in life & cant even run this restaurant.

not my kind of place.  bartenders are rude they say fresh seafood.  i don't think so, their isn't anything fresh.  the blue lights are hard to take.  must be a young party crowd hang out

love this spot for a festive outdoor on the lake atmosphere!  it is outdoor dining only....so if it's raining don't go!  the plantains are a fantastic side.  shrimp po boy is also good.  service is good.  the manager is extremely attentive to guests and cares about making you want to come back.  very casual atmosphere and great place to get off your boat and stop in for a meal.  will go again and try other items on the menu!

was here last night. the atmosphere, location and service is great! perfect ending to a day on the lake. however the food is not at all that great. the fried gator was very very tiny bits of meat with an overwhelming amount of batter. not to mention it was way over priced for what you got. the parrot sandwich was ok at best. the grilled plantains were tasty though. perhaps we'll just stick to a simple burger next time (which looked pretty good from what we saw nearby).


-----12 apr, 2015-----

where here last night. the atmosphere, location and service is great! perfect ending to a day on the lake. however the food is not at all that great. the fried gator was very very tiny bits of meat with an overwhelming amount of batter. not to mention it was way over priced for what you got. the parrot sandwich was ok at best. the grilled plantains were tasty though. perhaps we'll just stick to a simple burger next time (which looked pretty good from what we saw nearby).

still open. ate there tonight. great food as usual. wonderful sunset. great waitress (summer). the place has a great vibe in the peak of the summer when the crowd is there, but is still fun as the season draws to a close.

great view, service and food lacking. this restaurant has got a great waterfront view, colorful and lively decor which was very inviting. although we beat the noon rush for lunch our service was slow and we rarely saw our server. had to hunt someone down to get our bill paid. the burgers were overcooked, dried out and poor quality. the salad was good, but that was the only item ordered that was worth the money spent here. this might be a great bar hangout and i can't give an opinion on the other food options, but i would not recommend it if you are looking for a great burger. there are lots of better choices in the area.

great people. went for the first time yesterday afternoon by boat. had good food in a nice setting. pete gassed up the boat while we ate and then the boat wouldn't start. pete left his work and went to get us a booster charge. when that didn't work he found a buddy, who was a boat mechanic and got us on our way. wouldn't accept a tip even! can't say enough about how good this experience was. pete and his wife are great and we will be back.

terrible service and incredibly unprofessional staff. food took over and hour to arrive. we questioned our waitress about the order several times and were told it was coming right up. then overheard staff complaining about the "annoying family" at the big table. classless. if you want a good meal and service, drive across the lake to boathouse grill.

great location. poor service. mediocre food.. maybe we were there on a bad day, but we could not have been more disappointed in the service at the blue parrot. we had absolutely no idea who our waitress was. 3 different people took our order or checked on us throughout the meal. despite that, it took almost 30 minutes for anyone to take our order, and 45 more minutes for us to get the food. the waitress even had to take our order twice, and then got the order wrong.

we weren't in a rush and it was nice just to sit on the lake, so it wasn't a huge deal, but we couldn't believe how incredibly unorganized the staff was. on top of that, the food was just okay. definitely nothing special, and not worth the 75 minute wait.

i would recommend this place to grab a drink, as everything coming from the bar was out quickly and the view from the patio is pretty nice. but i would never come back here for a meal. especially after seeing the cleanliness (or lack of) of the kitchen when i went back to use the restroom.

taste of key west on lake norman. i've been wanting to try this place since we dined at another restaurant next door. it looked interesting at the time and since we're going to the florida keys in a couple of week, we decided to give it a shot.

it's a really fun place and it pulls off the key west/caribbean theme very well. all dining is outside but they do make excellent use of wind screens to limit the cool breeze coming off of the lake. the tiki bar is great and the music while electronic is a pleaant blend of jimmy buffet and reggae.

when we walked in, we wre immediately seated and our server came over with menus and to take our drink orders. unfortunately they don't have coffee on the menu but the tea is excellent. menu is typical of what you would find in key west with a hint of the mainland thrown in.

i stated with the fried mozzarella sticks with a nice marinara dipping sauce. the fried mozzarella sticks were just a shade overcooked by delicious all the same. the marinara sauce was outstanding and had a robust flavor to it.

my wife chose to go light and just ordered the crab cake appetizer which came with a small serving of greens and she had grilled asparagus as her side. the crab cakes were hugh being probably 4 inches across and almost all crab. my extimate was probably in the range of 80% crab with just enough filler to hold it together. the aspargus was so good she tried to fanagle the recipe from the chef.

i had a blackened shrimp po boy that was excellent. most shrimp po boy's used fried shirmp but as the name implies, these were grilled and they were moist, tender and full of flavor. an excellent choice and i would order again. the dressing had a very caribbean flavor to it. for my side, i had the plantains and they were very good as well. i had expected fried but they came out perfectly grilled.

probably does not apply to the entire staff but our server was named spencer and when she found out we were going to the keys in a couple of weeks, she gave us some great tips on restaurants in key west. checked them out later online and we are definately going to have to try out a couple of them.

all in all, an excellent restaurant and i would recommend it to anyone. we were there for brunch but the view of the sunset there must be fabulous..

the blue parrot has outstanding food, fast and friendly service, great prices, amazing waterfront view, available to access by water, & those girls that work on the dock are goregous and very friendly!

it's a beautiful lakeside restaurant. bring the family and friends an jam out. i really love what they did with the place.

great place, excellent food and friendly servers. i went day after they opened and have been back many times since. a great improvement over the cruddy rudder, great value and i've always had a great time there!

amazing food! great service! cute dock girls to help pull in your boat. great hours! friendly people! and low prices. best lake restaurant around!

the wonderful outdoor seating makes it the most fun place on the lake - and the food is awesome - the southwestern egg rolls are phenomenal! service is great, too! must try!