Water Oak Grill

Safety Harbor is a charming town full of great eats. Water Oak is right on the corner. Seating is inside and out. Great fresh food and top shelf cocktails. Please try to delicious pork belly’s.

Would definitely return. Great food, drinks were unique and delicious. The service was 1000% amazing. I got a piece of pie and every bite was amazing

Always fabulous food in a wonderful atmosphere! The grouper was so good!

Awesome local foods and great service by Avery!

This place is a gem and a savior. Actual healthy food that taste great and is mostly seasoned. The blacked salmon with veggies and rice was great. The steak tips and mashed potatoes were unbelievable too. The service was on par. The food and setting is why you should go

The food quality was good, you can tell they use fresh ingredients, but the taste and presentation was very bland. Just nothing inspirational here. The service was also adequate but not particularly friendly. I guess there aren't too many high end resturants in downtown, so this gets a bump by default.

Service was lovely and a majority of dishes albeit expensive (we knew it was pricey, not a dig but, I explain below) were very delicious. Short rib fries, Shrimp with tomato and capers were amazing, blackened fish was not “blackened” as some may think, just a dusting of spice and no real hard sear on them so lost points their. The blackening issue is also noted in other reviews, I’m assuming the demographic can’t handle the spice or salt of a true blackened and many send backs to the kitchen prompted the very reserved blackened style but, I could be wrong. A few things I would like to add and tell why I am giving 2 stars… First was that being on the west coast of Florida near Cedar Key I thought “Cedar Key Clams w/ Andouille” would be a good appetizer to enjoy while on vacation visiting my parents. Unfortunately the single clam in the first photo are the variety of clams we received, clearly not the local “Cedar Key” clams in the second photo. The 3rd photo shows more of these cryovacced cooked clams usually from Vietnam, the difference is very evident with the black markings on the side of the shells and their thinness compared to a real Cedar Key Clam which I have eaten many times. We were not made aware of any substitution and would have actually declined the $17 appetizer if the server informed us. I am happy to pay premiums for FRESH local seafood but, not imported precooked clams like this. (I am very familiar with this product as I have operated restaurants for 20+ years, if the chef or manager replies here otherwise just do some research yourself.) My second gripe is this restaurant comes from the same owners of another in Dunedin “Hog Island Fish Camp”. Hog Island has a great local reputation so I wasn’t expecting this... I first noticed on the menu “2.99% discount for cash payments” while deciding what to eat and remembered to be on the look out on the check. I included my receipt so you can see how deceiving they make it look. This is the business trying to pass on an ADDITIONAL 3% fee for credit card processing to the consumer not any sort of “discount” as labeled on the menu. Take note that unless the business clearly states the surcharge openly in the establishment and also noted on the menu they cannot pass this fee onto you the consumer. I included my dispute letter from the bank, $6.94 is not much but, on a large scale it adds up fast, especially for a business like a restaurant in these hard times with cost of goods, labor and rent rising rapidly. So, I completely understand this move from the business, just very disappointing that it was not handled properly by Water Oak Grill and fully transparent. If you have been charged this fee you can dispute the difference of your actual total with your banks and most likely be refunded with very little resistance. Due to these mishaps during our visit I am not sure I care to patronize any of their area restaurants on my yearly returns to my parent’s. Make your own judgement but, any biz who goes out of their way to deceive guests/customers/clients is probably doing more things to cut costs and expenses then we probably know about, not a good sign for a “fresh, local” seafood restaurant. I see the management responding to good reviews and not negative ones, we will see what happens here. We as customers ask you to be better to the world who keeps your doors open, it is the hospitality business and remember the silent guest is probably your biggest nightmare and will write amazing reviews like this…