Veranda Corporate Office - Fort Myers

Seating for two was very tight and there were no good choices. Interesting turn of the century decor. Between the decor, background music and the worn looking tuxedos of the wait staff, the place gave me the "Shining "vibes. The wait staff was attentive and courteous. The food, I didn 't not enjoy. The appetizers were fine, stuffed mushroom and beef carpaccio. The blue cheese salad dressing was quite bland. The main course, fish filet on a bed of tomato infused orzo , topped with crabmeat just didn 't work for me. Pasta not evenly cooked, fish tasteless, crabmeat and tomato flavors clashed. I didn 't eat it. I came, and I saw the much talked about Verandah Restaurant. It 's highly unlikely I would return.

A total disappointment ?. Chateaubriand for 2 was skimpy and poorly prepared! Tasteless and dry. Mashed potatoes cold, lamb chops overcooked, strip steak over-salted, coffee arrived cold. And ladies room had no toilet paper. A very expensive disappointment. ?

We were celebrating our 43rd anniversary in a restaurant where we had held a large 80th birthday party, anniversaries and special dinners previously so we are very familiar with this restaurant. We made a reservation 2 weeks ahead of time. We were seated one table over from the women’s restroom. Frankly, it smelled. Although there was a pianist playing in the bar, there was the worst piped in music. Our server was adequate but not attentive. The service was quite slow. We ordered wine by the glass and sat with empty glasses for 25 minutes while awaiting our crab cake appetizer which was excellent. The salad was lackluster with lots of canned hearts of palm and greens. The bread basket was delicious. And then we sat for a good 30 minutes before entrees arrived with no interaction with server. The shrimp scampi was Angel hair pasta with no sauce topped by 5 shrimp. My husband had a very flavorful steak. And then we sat some more and watched the endless parade of people in and out of the bathroom. No dessert presentation like we saw at other tables, or offer of coffee, etc. just the bill delivered.$169.00 even after we mentioned it was our anniversary. It was disappointing and lackluster. We won’t go back.

Truly a beautiful evening. The Veranda is one-of-a-kind, the food and service are exceptional, and the building is charming with so much to see. From the phone call for our reservation, greeting upon arrival by the valet hostess, and Pete our wonderful waiter, everything was simply perfect. The service is impeccable, fine dining at its best. I cannot say enough about the food, everything we had was so flavorful and delicious. My better half is an Executive chef of many years, he was beyond impressed with everything, first class quality of food coupled with amazing presentation. We look forward very much to our next visit.

I wanted to love this place. We dined here last night and the evening started perfectly. We were warmly greeted and taken to our outdoor table. It’s such a lovely setting. We were a table of 5…myself,my husband and three friends. My one friend has a gluten allergy and was very clear with our server of this. When her salad arrived it was covered with croutons. She asked the waitress if these were in fact croutons and reminded her of her allergy….well this is where the mood of the evening changed on a dime!!! The server’s attitude was no longer smiley and attentive…you could feel the change. When she served our meal my friend even asked HER if everything was okay! The meal itself was lacklustre…under seasoned and under whelming. I had the sea bass with risotto….I wouldn’t have even guessed it was risotto as there was no flavour at all! The fish,though,was very nice…but the waitress hadn’t bothered to come and ask how our meals were until later. Who knows how poor the service would be if we made any complaints. We had such a fun evening with the great company and the beautiful setting anyway…(once we got them to remove the pile of dirty dishes accumulating behind us).