A recent drive to Vero Beach for house hunting required us to stop for an early 11 a.m. lunch. Not knowing any better (and not checking other TA reviews), we thought the website made CJ Cannon's look like a really nice, fine-dining option. Got that...wrong.
The interior is done in heavy dark wood and looked to be stuck somewhere back in the 50's. The average age of the patrons was well over 70 and the waitresses were not far behind. The elderly lady who seated us complained about the high cost of cooking oil and how hard it was to get supplies but she would check and see if the crab cake sandwiches were available.
Our poor server was frazzled most of the time. She forgot things, like bringing water, and became really defensive when we asked for it saying she can only do one thing at a time. I do believe she held it against us the entire time we were there.
As for the food: I had the Mahi Mahi sandwich which came on a monstrously large blah-bun which dwarfed the fish. Another in our party (11 years old) got a chili dog, and the others had the crab cake sandwiches. Those crab cake sandwiches also came on super-sized buns. The onion rings and fried clams we ordered were good. All in all, the food was okay (not great, but decent).
After reading other TA posts about watching for a built-in 20% tip, I would certainly watch my bill closer in the future (not that I anticipate there will ever be a future visit). Making that determination should be left up to the customer.
As this was our first introduction to Vero Beach, it was living up to its reputation as a community of retirees (not that there is anything wrong with that). Fortunately, our realtor helped us see another side of Vero Beach.
CJ Cannon's badly needs an update.More