Tarpon Turtle Grill & Marina

We were staying at our friends’ house and they live on the lake, so we grabbed his boat and came here for dinner. The place is typical FL, rustic décor, typical bar food, lots of fried stuff. I ended up with a burger, my husband had the tacos and my friends also ordered burgers. It is ok, nothing special. We brought a bottle of wine, there is a $ 10 corkage fee, which is ok, our wine was awesome.

Had a very nice meal on Saturday night.
We sat outside. The weather was very nice.
Our server Britt did a great job. The food was good and the portions were large. Everything came out tasting good.
The egg rolls were extremely good.
The wine list could be a little better.
We’ll definitely be back.

Came here with my mom where told the wait was only a few minutes they where cleaning off a table for us. We waited 15 minutes and when we got to our table there where a few tables empty. I don’t get it. I barely remember who our server was because I only saw them 2 times. 1 to get our drink order and 2^nd time to see how our food was. The other staff where taking care of us more! Food is tasteless. Nachos where cold, cold shredded cheese unmelted, a few tomatoes, black olives, I mean there where barley any toppings but an over abundance of corn chips.
I got the salmon and it tasted fishy to me (fish should never taste fishy so when I mentioned it to someone since our server was no where to be found they said oh sorry I’ll get you a new one, the new one was the same thing, fishy! I gave up and just didn’t eat it. I got a side of fried plantains which where under cooked and buttered rum carrots (best thing I ate there). My mom got the shrimp skewers and they where so rubbery and over cooked barely edible. This place only has a good location but service and food is terrible.
Only reason why I’m giving this place 2* is because of the view and location on the lake!

Outside dining service is consistently weak. Meals are fair to good but certainly not commensurate with cost. The atmosphere gives an ambiance that indicates fine dining while the menu is more suitable for a beach bar. Overall experience in 3 visits weak to fair. I won’t be returning

Just had lunch here
Just awful, terrible service from our waitress
She never meal checked us or refilled our drinks. My boyfriend had jerk chicken which was dry as a bone.
When she finally came back after we were completely finished she had no apologies and then came back after I’d voiced my complaint saying here’s your check, I’ve took the chicken off, like that makes it all ok
Will not be back

Not the best. We were there in January 2016 and it was pretty good. Tonight, not so good. Service was very slow and they got all three orders wrong. Once it was corrected, the food was ok. I don’t know if we will be back. Tarpon has so many choices.

This is one of the better places to dine in the Tarpon area. It is not in down town Tarpon, It is across 19, a little out of the way. It is on Lake Tarpon. I suggest dining outside on the deck. Food seems to be above average, prices reasonable.

This is a great place where locals go and a must for the tourist. Excellent food, as fresh as you can find in the area, cooked by Chef Eric, the owner.
The view overlooking Lake Tarpon is fantastic.
Bartenders are attentive and fun!

What a great place!
Eric and Katie the owners do a great job with the food but also make everyone feel right at home.
Atmosphere is awesome, right on Lake Tarpon.

First timers. 8 of us. All very happy w our meals. Cory our waiter perfect, attentive, reading our minds on more salad dressings. I had Farmers Chix Salad. Chicken so moist. Homemade Ranch dressing tangy — loved it. We all agreed would go back in a heart beat.
Understand new ownership in last year. Can tell updated. Let me tell u we r picky!

Got a friend with a boat. This is a great place to spend a couple of hours while out boating on Lake Tarpon.
Good food and good service

We were really excited to finally visit but we’re so displeased with our experience. Upon entering the indoor eating was empty of course because it was a beautiful day outside and there’s a large outdoor dock area to dine. After being seated we waited 15mins without being treated by a server and no drink order taken! I asked a waitress if we could please make our orders being at this time we had looked over the menu. She said she would find our waiter… 10 mins later he arrived and apologized that he didn’t see us. Our orders were finally taken and it was another 35mins before it arrived. Our appetizer came out with our lunch. This was completely unacceptable but so was this entire experience! As we waited we observed many plates being sent back and many others looking for there waiters. I sat there thinking if I was the owner of this establishment I would cringe at the sight of how this place is ran.
This place could be so great it’s truly the people running it that ruin it entirely:(

If I could give this restaurant 0 stars I would.
I had the worst restaurant experience here and will not be returning. The only good quality is location-​right on the water. We had a table of 4 and enjoyed watching the turtles and alligators swimming around. The restaurant was mostly empty, with some patrons around the bar and 2 other tables ordering food. It took almost 15 minutes to order drinks and we were there close to a half an hour before the server took our food order. Then the waiting game began. An hour later we hadn’t received so much as an appetizer. It had turned cold out since the sun had gone down so we requested to move inside. Instead of being gracious, the server was openly rude and told us that switching tables wasn’t normally allowed but she would let us. What a ridiculous response considering at that point it was just us and one other table in the entire restaurant. We then waited another 30 minutes before deciding to leave at which point they told us our food was ready so we sat back down. The food was various stages of poor quality. All of it was over cooked, the chicken was dry, vegetables looked sad and wilted. It was awful. We picked at a few bites but no one wanted to send anything back because we had already invested 2 hours into waiting for this food. The server then came with the check about 5 minutes after the food came, asked if we wanted dessert because they were «closing soon.» Our bill for 4 people, 4 drinks, and 1 appetizer was over $ 100. No one ever apologized for the terrible service, food, or wait. The next day we decided to call the manager to voice our concerns and after numerous messages that were unreturned we gave up.

Blah.
The view and ambiance are really good. The service was also good. Our server was ok but the staff worked well as a team and we got taken care of pretty well overall.
We came on the day of Gasparilla and they had some bizarre music playing. I’m assuming it was suppose to be pirate themed, however it sounded like a the music you hear while waiting for a ride at Disney. We heard the soundtracks of Star Wars and Indiana Jones several times during our meal which was odd.
Food: 2 stars. We had their special grilled wings which came drowning in a Caribbean flavored BBQ sauce. They would have been much better with less sauce. Conch chowder was very good so order that. Pulled pork nachos were ok. We also had the Turtle Rita which was way too sweet. It could use a little less simple syrup. Also, the salt rim is coconut flavored salt and not regular salt.
We would come back but only for drinks outside to enjoy the awesome view!

This is the rating (5) I would like to give to the Tarpon Turtle Grill & Marina when we visit it this week. I’ve been wanting to drive by Tarpon Lake to explore a different side of Tarpon Springs away from the Dodecanese Docks’ restaurants which are pretty decent themselves. Looking at other reviewers’ comments about this Grill I’m confused by the disparate comments. Either they’re very good or mediocre. One review was from a disgruntled employee which I would discount altogether. The three of us have different tastes. One is very demanding about the service and prefers that a man waits on her. The other will usually order what one of us orders and devours it in seconds. I’m all about the ambience. The food I will order will be what I would expect to eat at a Key West restaurant without the sunset since the restaurant is on the west bank of Tarpon Lake. Maybe a sunrise breakfast would be something to write about in the future. Hoping to be surprised sometime this week.
Monday was the day we chose to visit the Tarpon Turtle Grill & Marina. Michèle ordered the Walkerswood Shrimp Bowl, Jimmy the Bermuda Chicken Bowl and I the New Ropa Vieja Bowl. Michèle cried while she ate her spicy meal. She loved it Jimmy also enjoyed his meal. The «New» Ropa Vieja was what I expected. It was good but I liked it even better today when I finished eating the rest of it. Our waitress, Jamie was very attentive and friendly. «No problem,» was her favorite expression when asked to bring extra napkins, coffee, dessert and the check. Total for the meal was $ 61.77 without the tip. The lake, well… was a lake. We arrived a few minutes before sunset, and chose a table by the outdoor patio near a pine tree that kept dropping needles. The restaurant was not well illuminated. A bit too dark for a place that did not have that romantic feeling of a fine restaurant. Perhaps the next time we will chose a table indoors and maybe sign up for their frequent diner program. Any chance to give us credit for our first visit?
Final rating (4) Food is good, place is nice, meals delivered in a timely manner. Loses a star because the ambience didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

I really wanted to give this place a higher rating ! I love the location and being able to sit outside by the lake ! But the service was less than acceptable ! I took a good friend here this eve for dinner she drove 40 miles to meet me! We ordered appetizers and dinner ! We waited quiet some time and then they brought out appetizers and entrees together! Not acceptable ! They then took our entrees back only to bring it back out 30 min later with burning hot plates and we knew they just stuck it into microwave to heat it up! Plates were hot but food wasn’t ! My friend made it clear she only wanted two beers because she has to drive home and waitress kept asking her 3 times if she wanted another one and me she didn’t ask once if I wanted my empty iced tea refilled ! We were very disappointed ! Due to the great ambience we will give it one more try but at this point I’m not very hopeful
¹⁰⁄₂₀ I am going to revise my rating just because the fact that the owner personally reached out to me and that speaks volumes for a business! I will give them another try ! And hopefully update my rating higher after that !

Really nice menu, really nice food. I go here often and the service is nice. However, beware when ordering the drunken pig flatbread– the pork is good and it tastes great, but there are so many onions on it that you seriously can’t taste anything else. At one point I found an entire half layer of an onion right on top. The onions aren’t very soft either, very crunchy. Their flavor pours over the whole piece and there are no other flavors. It says in the menu that there are onions in it but I assumed that it would be a tasteful amount. I actually had to pick out the onions with my fork to retain any flavor other than onion. There were so many onions that I could see that they just took a whole onion, cut it up a little, and threw it on the flatbread.
Either way, the rest of the food there is great, and there’s a nice atmosphere.
Edit: I’m told that that’s not the intended amount of onions.

This is the third time ‘Tarpon turtle’ changed its management since I moved to FL five years ago. Although I didn’t have chance to try the highly praised original ‘Turtle,’ but both Billy’s Turtle and the current ‘Turtle Republic’ failed to impressed me on their food. Is there a missing link?
What keep me going back to ‘Turtle’ is its location. Both indoor and outdoor seating provide full view of the tranquil Lake Tarpon. Plenty sitting area spread among two outdoor bars, round picnic tables and booths. The outdoor setting is perfect for romantic date, family gathering, and group parties. At our last visit, we enjoyed the hassle-​free boat access to the restaurant and excellent service began from greeting at the dock to the end of our lunch meals.
Regretfully, the taste of their Caribbean infused food fall short on my expectation for dinning at such beautiful restaurant. My guests and I ordered soup of the day, nachos, shrimp bowl, fish n chip. We spent more time staring at our dishes than enjoying them. To be fair, I have no complaints for their eclectic menu and large portion dishes; and I totally understand that ‘Turtle’ tries to standout. But, I think ‘Turtle’ underestimates many of its patrons whom need more than just quantities and presentations.
Turtle has many potentials. Right now, it is still looking for that missing link.

With new owners, we decided to try Tarpon Turtle. Took Wife and Daughter. My chicken tacos were made with diced, dry meat. The sauce partially saved the day. But the meat was also cool, not warm. Ugg! Daughter had the same dish and had the same experience.
Wife had grilled chicken sandwich. She reports: her chicken was dry and needed more sauce. Service was very good.
I noticed a guy in a chef’s uniform walking around and almost told him about our negative feelings, but did not want to spoil our day.
There was a large parking lot blocked off for valet only. We had to schlep a few blocks to get to restaurant. The lot was empty.

I have been here twice since new owners took over. Once for dinner, once for drinks only. It is evident that things have changed here.
The service was great. The food was also great and presented well. The quality of food and beverages for the price is high. The changes that have been made to the outside bar are noticeable. And, the bar staff is attentive, efficient, and friendly.