This is a cozy litte restaurant located in the historic district of Fernandina Beach. Decor was upscale, but still casual. The menu had many good choices.

The first sign something is wrong is when the waiter is slow coming over to ask for your drinks. I'm really not sure whether we had a waiter who was filling in as a bartender or a bartender who was filling in as a waiter. Next to the entrance was a very small bar and we could see our waiter spending much time there.

Our bread came after we placed our order. It wasn't really bread, it was probably foccacia cut into little squares resembling homemade salad croutons. It was accompanied by a bowl of melted butter with some parsley in the bottom. Apparantly we were supposed to spoon the butter on top the bread. Very strange.

My wife ordered the grouper which was cooked to perfection and seemed to be covered in fresh picante sauce. It was a good size portion and definitely real grouper, not the Vietnamese catfish found in many restaurants. She really enjoyed it.

My steak was the biggest disappointment. I ordered the New York Strip steak with three sauces. I asked for it medium, but it came almost well done and very dry despite the sauces. Normally I would have sent it back, but the service was so bad I didn't want my wife to be sitting there while we waited another half hour for a second steak to be cooked.

The plates the food arrived on were very hot and I suspect they had sat under the heat lamps in the kitchen while waiting for the waiter to pick them up. I rewarded him accordingly.

Overall, the food wasn't bad, but I've had better food and service at Appleby's for less than half the price. My advice, go somewhere else.