the waterfront

if you have ever traveled further down south orange avenue anytimein your life, you may have noticed a divey lake side dining spot called julie’s waterfront. . i always wanted to check the place out, just out of curiosity, but i could never convince myself to do it.amazingly, it was one of the longer standing establishments in orlando, and even more so in that part of town, which is a lot more industrial. julie drobot who was a water ski pro opened the original restaurant on south orange avenue in 1988. she sometimes would hold informal ski shows on the lake all the while serving up food and cold beers.

cozy cheap food and beer. stopped by for the firsttimeon saturday night after passing by it for years. its cute on the outside, and little run down on the inside. couldn't see the lake since we went at night, but i imagined the view would be nice around sunset.

service and food were good at a very reasonable price (i had the rueben, the wife scallops). i expected a bit more selection on the seafood (very limited) but they make up for it with lots of great sandwich, wraps, burritos and burger options. draft beer was cheap as well.

would i drive across town for this place? no. but if i was in the area, i would totally make a pit stop at this locally owned spot.

changes......for the worst!!!!. wow, i never thought i would be doing this but here it goes. i've been a longtimecustomer of this restraurant since the early 90's. my wife and i used to love coming here almost every week for dinner. new owners took over the place a few years ago, actually it was the former cooks that bought the place. the first couple of years it was great with new management. but i would say the past year and a half this place has gone down the drain quick fast & in a hurry! overtimethe food has become terrible, and the employees even more terrible! i do have to say we love when melissa or autumn takes care of us! they're the only reason we continued to eat there. just lately it seems by the look of the place it doesn't get any tlc from the owners. the curb appeal is horrible. it's no wonder why it's hardly busy like it use too be. on our last visit recently for dinner we were turned of bigtimewhen all we could hear was the owners and cooks talking loudly (seemed like screaming) in spanish to one another. we noticed a few other tables getting annoyed with it all and one table actually left before they even ordered drinks. it seems like all the owners do throughout the night is sit at the counter holler at employees and play games on their ipad and laptop. we really feel sorry for julie's waterfront, it used to be a nice, quaint spot!

dont waste yourtime- what a dump. saturday night, about 8:00. i called to ask how late they served dinner. they seemed to be having a good time. lots of giggling and an unintelligible answer on the phone. i should have taken this as a warning. the giggling chick said they served until 9:00.

we drive the half-hour across orlando to get to the place, arrived about 8:35. the door was bolted and the outside lights clicked off while we were standing at the front door!

if you own this place, take heed. they're having a greattimeat your expense, and running off potential customers. if you already know about this, you deserve to see your place go down the drain.