johnnie's hideaway

my boyfriend and i wanted to go somewhere a little fancier on our evening out. we expected it to be pricey but worth the extra money. it was not! we were sat at a large partytablewhen it was just the two of us. one waiter greeted us, then a waitress came over and introduced herself without explaining they were sharing the station. we ordered our drinks and had about 20 minutes to decipher the menu before the waitress asked for our orders she laughed at our questions like we were a joke to her. the salad was bizarre with the most random ingridients like chick-peas and beets. i has the 10oz filet minon which wasn't too bad, though it was more rare than medium rare. he had the plank salmon which was alright but nothing special. we had to repeatedly ask for drink refills while those at the tables near us were fawned over. we felt neglected and agreed we receive better service at red lobster for half the price. not worth the time or money!

overall a good restaurant to try, but i think i would only go back for the monday night all-you-can-eat stone crabs.

we started off with the stone crab bisque and clam chowder.  both were wonderful. i have never had so much clam in my soup, except for going to san francisco.  

i had never tried stone crabs before, so we got those as well. they were delicious, especially with the mustard sauce provided.  i would use that mustard sauce for sandwiches and salads if they bottled it.

and if you are looking for a good drink, the smoked pineapple sunset is delicious!

for entrees my husband had the ribeye with blue crab truffle butter topping and i had the giant madagascar shrimp.  the butter sauce for the ribeye just made the steak that much better.  the shrimp were massive!  i have never seen shrimp that big.  the best part was dipping the shrimp in the sauce that came on the side, but i can't remember what it was.  i also got a loaded baked potato, big mistake.  it was massive, i barely made a dent in it.  our entrees also came with a salad, so we both got the wedge salad.  it is just too big as well.  i would get the house salad or caesar next time.

now as far as atmosphere goes, when the entrees arrived is when i started to feel my adult meltdown coming on.  we had been seated in a lovely room, but as the night went on 4 8+ parties were seated in our area.  the noise was unbearable and the pace of the meal considerably slowed down.  we couldn't hear our waiter or each other talking it was so loud.

when we first were seated the manager came over to say hello and we got to talking and told him we were here on our honeymoon.  he insisted we save room for dessert on him.  so when it came time for dessert i went with my favorite, creme brulee, and my husband went with the key lime pie, even though i was getting antsy to leave from the noise and length of time.  the creme brulee is madetableside with a liquor caught on fire to make the crust. my husband went with the margarita version of the key lime pie, basically some liquor is poured over top the pie.  i am pretty sure my husband was drunk after his pie.  went they brought the pie it came with the shot of liquor, that poked holes in the pie and poured the liquor on.  our waiter then asked him to wait a minute and he would be back.  he came back with another shot of liquor and poured it on top too.  it was just sitting in a pool of booze.   i have to say the creme brulee was horrible.  the liquor was not completely cooked off from the brulee part and my first bit was a big shot of booze.  for some this may be great, but i am not a big drinker so this was too much for me.  once i scraped off the booze puddles and just tried the custard it was just as bad.  i had my husband take a taste and he actually thought it may just be plain butter in the ramekin, not vanilla custard.  it had absolutely no taste to it.  

by this point we are almost to 3 hours for dinner and i'm about to lose it from the noise so i hand our waiter my card so we can get the heck out of there.  big mistake!  i didn't notice until we left that we were charged for our desserts that were supposed to be on the house.  but in the grand scheme of how much we spent here it wasn't worth me going back to have it fixed, especially when we had already left.

despite the dining experience going bad towards the end i would definitely try here again in the future.  probably not a friday night though, and i would skip dessert.

didn't even start. this evening was booked for a special birthday celebration and an outsidetablewas requested online. the reservation was confirmed online. we arrived 15 minutes early and were told that ourtablewould not be ready until the booked time, but we could wait at the outside bar, and unfortunately, no outside tables were open tonight. (sunny, 72 degrees)
after waiting outside for over a half an hour with servers passing us every few minutes we got tired of being ignored and informed the hostess that we couldn't wait any more and would be leaving. no apology, no explanation, just "ok". i don't see how this restaurant can succeed with this level of customer service. can't recommend risking a special evening here.

tourist trap, beware - ordered the shrimp cocktail and the lump crab. lump crab never showed up. everybody at thetableheard us order it. server forgot it, or didnt hear it, but everybody else did. ok, no big. shrimp was good. salmon entree was good. asparagus was super huge and tough though, i guess they only like to steam the $hit out of it and smother it in provolone? and hollandaise. awful quality. filet mignon 10 oz. was garbage. one of the worst quality cuts of beef you can find. a 5 dollar cut of beef sold for 30 bucks. tasted like a$$, we thought it was rancid, who knows. quality control issues for some products, other were ok. they either have a low quality kitchen staff or just buy cheap stuff and try to pass it off. maybe the staff doesn't know what they are doing, or maybe they just don't care like lots of places. sizzler two blocks down is a better choice as the product is what it is, and is not faked and tourist trapped to fleece you. cool ambiance, absolutely awful quality product,.. when all product is placed on thetableat once. half the stuff being edible is not worth it. you have been warned!

horrendous. went on a monday for their all you can eat stone crab for $45. we called at least twice to confirm price and double checked with our server once we began to order. after our second round of stone crab we were told that they had run out of it. why would you let us order something you were running low on if it's supposed to be all you can eat!??? on top of having to leave with a close to empty stomach, when the check arrived they charged us almost $60 dollars per person for the all you can eat stone crab. the manager never came to ourtableas per our request to dispute the matter so we were only able to get the price down to $47 dollars. not worth it at all almost $300 later, the quality of the food was very low, as well as their drinks. the only good thing was their tiny portion of lobster bisque which accompanied the stone crab. they could have at least offered to let us order something different. what a shame.

the food is amazing. the service matches!. if anyone reading seafood is reading this, you will not be disappointed. absolutely the best seafood i have ever eaten, and i live in charleston, sc. while i was their this past time, i noticed the bartender took the time to get ask for everyone's name and at one point a lady sat beside me and she had only visited once before but the bartender remembered her name, and what he fixed one of her friends in a previous visit. once we were seated the manager visited ourtabletwice to make sure everything went well!

absolutely amazing. i was in orlando with my parents and a friend via a conference, and the one goal i had was a great seafood dinner. this evening blew all my expectations out of the water. the hotel we were at recommended and set up reservations, we arrived and immediately were swept to our table. the ambience was fantastic, thetableside martini service was spot on, the waiter was one of the best i've ever had, and his recommendations and the meal that followed could only be described as "a perfect dining moment." the seafood was incredible and the one steak ordered at thetableby my mother was shared and deemed the "most buttery ever." the management team touched tables throughout the night and i genuinely felt that the price was in line with the service and experience we received. if i'm ever in orlando again, i will definitely be back.

waste!. not even going to bother to mention all the issues since mgmt doesn't care to approach ourtableto discuss them during our saturday night dinner here. they will likely not be around after a few years anyway with their lack of customer service and flavorless food. the manager was aware we had concerns and didn't bother to stop at ourtablewhile he visited others and chatted with employees at the hostess area.

stay away unless you have $$$$ to waste. i have normally not cared enough to review places until we went here. we went there on a sunday night, our party of four adults and one infant was seated in a corner and it seemed nice but poorly lit. the waiter came to thetableto explain and introduce the specials as we tried to decipher the menu that he poorly explained. he left then the next waiter who'stableit actually was came and she explained the menu totally different. now we were totally confused and she was giving us some kind of attitude since we were trying to unscramble the less than detailed menu items. bottom line is the menu was poorly laid out and a jumbled mess. after asking more questions and being even more confused we settled on regular menu items as our entree's. my wife gave up and ordered a fried shrimp dish since the other items didn't appeal to her. since i liked steak i figured i was safe ordering the bone in ny strip and a special stuffed lobster tail w/scallop.
a house salad was included with our meals and after 20 or so mins it was delivered. this looked like no other or traditional house salads i have ever seen. it was not detailed on the menu as to what was in this "garbage" plate. the salad had a clump of potato salad under all the unconventional vegetables(beets, chickpeas, greek olives)and small tomatoes. it was slathered in way too much of a sweet italian dressing. my wife could not eat it and gave it back to the waitress and she didn't even ask why she didn't touch it.
now the waiting began and after 45 mins and the waitress coming by and saying they were really busy and apologizing i complained. i told her if they were not out soon we would cancel our order. she said there were two orders in front of ours and she would see what she could do. 5 mins later the food was out. i am not sure what kind of steak i was given but i am positive it wasn't a ny strip of any kind. it was carbon crispy burnt on the outside and rare on the inside. it tasted ok and i scraped off the burnt parts of the completely fatty and grizzled piece of beef. the lobster was not completely cooked and for the most part raw. the stuffed portion was a unrecognized concoction that really had no taste and definitely was not scallops.
my wife and father in laws meal was best choice but really could have been confused with long john silvers. our friends meal was scallops recommended by the waitress and thats what he went with. the dish he got was a totally different sauce than the one she described.
bottom line: it was way way over priced, loud at times, long waits, dark with poor service and food. stay away so you don't ruin your evening like we did.

unbelievably... bad!. i usually just click "like" or "don't like"... but this experience calls for elaboration! preface: husband and i are out for a late vday dinner on a sunday evening; it was our first visit.

first impression: hostesses (one dressed like a streetwalker as an aside) were flustered and unable to greet us- at all. after interrupting them to tell them we had arrived for our reso, (we were a ab 3-4 minutes early) we waited another 20-25 minutes at the bar. aside: bartender was not friendly...
we were escorted to a largetablein the back. ambiance was nice and we were promptly greeted by a young woman. we planned a pretty drawn out meal and started with apps: oysters- they came out promptly and were good! we were off to a good start!

i then got the mussels and he shrimp cocktail. when she dropped them off, the ice that the shrimp were sloppily presented on was so melted that it soaked ab a two foot area of the table- to which she scooped with her hands and did not mention. (my husband eventually covered the area with an extra napkin). my mussels literally smelled like manure... i asked for lemon hoping that they wouldn't taste the same and my husband asked for horseradish. we waited a good while and unfortunately, the mussels tasted just as horrible as they smelled. i had to send them back. the shrimp clearly had sat in the water and were gummy- dipped in enough cocktail sauce- edible though.

i had the triggerfish (citrus grilled) and he the ribeye. the fish tasted like char and the steak had the craziest seasoning on it! there was no "steak" flavor left! the lobster mac-n-cheese tasted like cheap macaroni and was flavorless.

at that point, we didn't want to give them another dollar and skipped dessert...

maybe we were there on a reeeeeeally off night, but i do not recommend trying this with any expectations... ugh.

poor service & poor food!. what a terrible restaurant experience! my husband and i live in kissimmee and decided to try this highly rated restaurant for the first time last night. the best part of the meal was our initial drink at the bar! the food was terrible. we spent over $138 w tip and over $20 at the bar. two items on the menu were highlighted as specialties for the restaurant - my husband had calf's liver and it was stringy, had grizzle and was served just warm, and he didn't even finish it. i had the speciality pan seared scallops which were served cold and in an enormous amount of brown juice that was flavorless. we also ordered a side of asparagus which was served very cold and was hard as a rock. we told our waitress who did nothing. she was so preoccupied with the largetablenext to us that while we were talking with her, she was not even looking at us, but looking at the other table. she also did nothing to rectify the complaints we made to her. we did have one shrimp as an appetizer and it was very good. we also chose to have coffee and baked alaska. baked alaska is a cake with some type of orange sherbert on top that has whipped cream that they light on fire. it was not very good and we did not eat it all. our coffee was very cold and we left thinking we would never come back to this restaurant again due to all the items that amounted to a miserable eating experience. i never write restaurant reviews but felt this one really needed to be posted based on all the wonderful reviews i relied on to go there. the atmosphere and the bar are the only items going for this restaurant. it was my choice this time to pick the restaurant we were going to visit, and i must say we were very disappointed. my husband and i don't recommend this restaurant.

get a second opinion.... we dined at johnnies hideaway after our hotel recommended it as a great place for steak. upon arrival there was no one at the host podium (which looks like captains bridge) so we asked a passing server if we should seat ourselves, we got no response just a look. after a few minutes of standing there feeling out of place, we were asked if we had a reservation...no hello, no greeting, and no apology for waiting to be acknowledged. after being sat directly in a nonstop blast of ice cold air! our waiter came over and poured water not only in our glasses but all over thetableand floor, which is as slick as oiled wood to begin with. the restaurant had a feel as if it was in a panic and ready to fall off and into the lake at any moment. the managers were running around and obviously very busy dealing with the operation. our drinks arrived on a big wooden cart piled with dirty dishes and dirty linens. at this point we all agreed that it was early enough to find another place to have our business dinner, payed for the drinks and were on our way. the food smelled really good, and looked good going by our table, but good food can be found without much effort in a convention driven city like orlando.

largest shrimp ever!. never expected there'd be a cool place while down in orlando... was told about the shrimp they offered at this place but had to experience it first hand. the minute you walk into the restaurant, you know they are serious about their food when on either side of you are showcases of what the restaurant specializes in. on your right is a glass windowed cooler showing the different cuts of steak in different stages of their wet/dry aging process. on your left is a showcase of some of the seafood they offer as well as the wine that is featured at this restaurant. directly in front is a seafood bar showing the stone crabs that they bring in daily. the atmosphere is cool and casual. you will not leave this place feeling hungry as the portions are huge. my appetizer was obviously the madagascar shrimp that they feature, a shrimp that grows to monster proportions due to the lack of natural predators in the area in which they harvest them.. i did stop for a moment to think about the sustainability of these fine creatures.. but the moment passed as i ordered my main course - "surf & turf" that featured one of my appetizer's siblings. the turf part of my main featured a humungous 24 oz rib eye.. that is a crazy amount of meat. it was so well aged that it melted in your mouth. for the first time ever (outside of a cruise) that i was unable to finish my main.. as did 2 other full grown men at mytablewho ordered the same thing. the service was amazing and memorable as the hostess was kind enough to power up a television in the vicinity so that we could watch game 7 of the 2011 stanley cup finals. while i could easily forget the hockey game that night, i will not forget the food that i ate while watching it.

great food, awesome service by zack!!. we were initially treated a bit rudely by the hostess seating folks outside. she seemed a bit "overwhelmed" even though it was not overly busy. after a 30 minute wait she tried to seat us at atableother than the one we had asked for (which was available and was in an area being served) after a gentle "reminder" we were seated where we had originally requested. everything from there on out was fantastic! our waiter, zack saadeh, bent over backwards to make sure that our service was superb, the food was to our liking, and our drinks remained full! i would definitely eat there again, because 1) the food was tasty 2) the excellent service zack provided. he even ran out to the parking lot in search of one of the folks in our party after they forgot their glasses. ask for zack's area!

awful experience, do not go. we heard many great things about johnnies hideaway and being seafood and steak lover's we decided to give it a try. i cant say one good thing about our experience. first, we used valet to park our car. before we had all exited the car, the valet began driving off with my 3 year old nephew hanging half way out the car door. second, we reserved atableoutside and when we presented our name to the hostess, we were handed a colored piece of paper and told to bring it outside to a different hostess. not sure what the deal was with the colored paper and why she couldn't just walk us out the door herself. next, we ordered a bottle of wine and had to ask 3 different people for it since our waitor vanished and it took over 45 minutes to get the bottle of wine. after we finally got our wine, we were short a few wine glasses, we asked our waiter , however he vanished again, so we then had to flag the hostess down to bring us wine glasses. we ordered our meal and thought maybe our waitor was new and decided to relax and enjoy the rest of the night. however when our salads came out, they forgot to bring us one, and suprise our waitor was missing, so we had to flag down a bus girl to find the other salad. then we ordered a second bottle of wine, surprise we had to ask for that 3 times before it was delivered to our table. when our main course was served, they forgot to bring out everyone's meal!! the waitor didnt even notice that we were short one entree, so we had to flag him down, and after about 15 minutes he brought out the missing entree that we were told had to be prepared in a different kitchen. at this point the whole table's food was cold and the 2 orders of seafood at thetablestill couldn't be eaten because their utensils had been taken away prior to receiving their meal. one of the girls ordered an oscar fillet (how can you go wrong wtih that?!!) well lets just say it was 50% fat!!!!!!!!!!! i have never seen a fillet with fat, let alone that much fat. we did not complain during the meal, however, once we were finished our meals she told the waiter, who then showed the manager outside. the manager apologized and went on to say that sometimes that happens when you order a ribeye, she said but i ordered fillet, he said "oh, well, i did see the fat chain. that sometimes just happens with steak" (what is a fat chain???). the alaskan king crab legs were over cooked and so dried out. three people ordered the porterhouse, and you guessed it more fat.... we decided to get desert because we had people visiting from out of town and wanted to enjoy the night together. desert was delicious, however, we were not given any silverware to eat it. at this point, we used whatever was left on thetablebecause our experience seemed too bad to be true! every single person working outside knew that there were many mistakes and someone was dropping the ball. then comes the bill..... usually a restaurant would throw in desert, or wine, or do something when they know they have continued to disappoint their customers, but no one seemed to care that they had made numerous mistakes. so we decided to say something to the manager outside, and he said "sorry you caught us on a bad night." i said "this is ridiculous and poor customer service." he said "let me give you my business card and you can email me later...." he walked back over to the outside bar and sat down and continued conversation with 2 young ladies and a young man (how unprofessional!!!). so, if you would like to eat a good piece of steak and seafood i would highly not recommend going to johnnie"s hideaway. like the name of the restaurant says johnnie's should stay hidden!!!!!!!! i have to say, we are all very fair and easy going people when it comes to dining - in fact, this is probably the third time in my life that i have had a bad experience anywhere - and this is the only one that i am writing about because it was horrific and handled terribly.

again, keep johnnies hideaway hidden and off your radar screen!!