This is the place that used to be at the golf course off of Hammock Road and is now at the other golf course, way off Hammock Road.
It’s changed. If you had been to the old place, it was basically a Mexican American restaurant. Now it’s gone pretty much all American. The menu is big – six pages of a trifold, and varied. There’s a page for soups and sandwiches, one for pasta, one pizza and seafood, another for steaks and salads. There’s also an insert for specials and a big drink menu.
Our server was quick to tell us it was his first day. Lucky us. It was the only thing at which he could be described as quick.
To start off, I ordered my standard unsweetened tea, and Irene ordered an, “All American Pink Lemonade” from the bar menu. Our server delivered sweet tea, and lemonade sans vodka and twist. Not seeing him again for ten minutes or so, Irene, who is usually the patient one of us, asked the hostess to please find him. The hostess actually came to the table, and hearing what was wrong, took both glasses and headed off to the bar. She returned quickly with the correct beverages. They messed it up, they fixed it. No harm, no foul.
Our server brought our calamari appetizer. It was very good. Fried to just golden brown and served with a tasty marinara sauce. Also, it was just the right size for an appetizer for two.
For the main course, I ordered the crab cakes with a baked potato and seasonal vegetables. Irene ordered Mediterranean Salmon with mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables.
Me first. The crabcakes were described on the menu as “real crab cakes – lump and claw meat”. I was suspicious upon arrival, as the two cakes were clones of each other, identical in size, shape, and breading. My suspicion that they had come frozen off a truck with “Sysco” on the side was reinforced when I cut into one and found the insides paste like. If there was lump and claw meat in there, both had surrendered their identities and molecular composition to a food processor. The seasonal vegetables were green beans, sauteed with tomatoes. They were pretty good – the tomatoes were a nice touch. A baked potato is a baked potato. It was good and came with plenty of butter.
Irene’s Salmon was quite good. (We share.) Salmon fillets can be tricky being thick on one end and thin on the other, one can end up well done and the other rare. This was cooked to perfection, topped with a white wine sauce, capers, onions, and tomato. This was the best part of the meal. Her seasonal vegetables were also string beans sauteed with tomato. (Must be string bean and tomato season.) Her mashed potato was a baked potato that had been, well, mashed, skin and all. Turns out it’s really good that way.
Overall, her drink was good, and at $7.50, pretty much in line with market. Calmari $15, Salmon $24.50, Crab cakes $16.99. Total for dinner and drinks: $63.99 plus tax and tip.
I’m cutting the server some slack as it was his first day on the job and he was clearly nervous. Hopefully, he’ll get the hang of it. Actually, I’m cutting the whole place some slack as they have only been open a week or so and there are going to be hiccups, especially if they keep serving those microwave crab cakes.
The atmosphere is nice, and the staff friendly, if a bit confused. Irene and I will give any place a second chance. We’ll go back in a month or so and will report back after that visit.
The Caddyshack Bar and Grill is located at 4800 Haw Branch Road, in Sebring. Their hours are listed as “Always Open”, which I sincerely doubt. No phone number is listed, and their website link goes to a site “deezyj.com” that fails the Secure Sockets Layer test, so I wouldn’t go there. Hopefully they’ll get this worked out too.
¡Buen provecho vecinos!
g.
PS – You may have noticed two reviews posted the same day. The dinners were actually a week or so apart. But on top of everything else on my plate, I’m writing a novel, and my eyes seem to only be able to focus for five or six thousand words a day. After that they become ten or twelve thousand words, because there are two of every letter. Ageing is for smelly cheese and fine wine, and not the faint of heart.
