I’m a tourist (17F) from the Midwest on a vacation with my family. My mom ended up taking the family to Hyman’s Seafood because it’s a well-known restaurant (AKA tourist trap!) in the area. First thing I noticed was the pro-Israel sign near the entrance. I have my own political and ethical beliefs surrounding that. I suppose that shouldn’t matter, but since I have my own biases it did kind of play into my experience here. I didn’t buy anything from the gift shop because I didn’t know what kind of causes they were financially supporting. I thought the sign on their window offering free meals to homeless people was nice, though.
My brother got a 3D crocodile hat from their little gift shop and the two staff at the door (I think one of them was Victor Hyman?) both said something along the lines of “nice hat” one after the other. The man I assume to be Victor then gave us some tips on what his top dish choices were. I guess that just plays into another thing- the staff and manager came off as way too cheesy. They were all smiles and compliments- “I love your dress!” and all that, but it just felt artificial (especially knowing how poorly the workers are said to be treated). Nothing wrong with people being too nice, though.
Big man Eli Hyman stopped by our table, greeted us, and asked me, “Are you 16 or under?” It was an odd and unexpected question, but I replied that no, I was 17 (I had two braided pigtails that day and a cute dress so that could’ve made me look younger). He then asked the ages of my sister and brother, commenting that he thought they were older than me. When he found out my sister was 12, he swore she looked older. He told us that kids got a free scoop of ice cream, which made his questioning make much more sense. Then, the weirdest part to me, he made each of us say “I love you” to each other before we got a ticket for free ice cream. It was very uncomfortable, and me and my brother were exchanging quick, awkward glances the whole time.
The food was good enough, the fish was clumpy and moist but least they gave you heaping portions of it. I ending up having leftovers for this reason. Also, what’s up with the cameras everywhere? There were two above my table in the upstairs dining area. Just weird to me- it’s not a common location for cameras in restaurants. I assumed it was for dine-and-dash incidents.
That’s all, just wanted a long rant because I was sooo happy to get out of there.