JS
Jason Shaffer
Jan 8, 2026
After a long 12-hour day working away from home. I was excited to find a place like Marlow's so close to my hotel...3 minutes. The pics made the place and the meals seem like a higher quality experience. I've had better service at McDonald's in Quitman, GA.
I ordered the Grouper Tacos and the Ahi Tuna Poke through Uber Eats. I arrived 5 minutes early to pick up my order. No information anywhere in the place about Online Orders so I walked to the prep area and asked a server if this is where one would pick up an online order. Not only could she have not overtly seemed more disinterested in assisting me, she made about the least amount of effort to help. She asked my name, turned around and said "order for Jason," and nobody answered. She didn't ask again, she just turned and walked away. While this was going on, I watched someone place two to-go containers in a paper bag. So, left standing there near the kitchen and feeling like I was in the way or doing something wrong, I walked to the front of the restaurant and waited for 10 minutes. Nobody came and asked me if I had been helped, nobody seemed to mind that a patron was standing in the doorway watching to see if his food was ready. So after 10 minutes and counting 5 empty tables (so not too busy) I walked back to the prep area and stood there. It took several minutes for someone to ask if I had been helped. When asked, I responded "I'm waiting to see if my Uber Eats order is ready." I thought she might offer help, but nope. She just walked off too. After another couple minutes I asked a kid if that brown bag on the counter was mine. No name on the bag, no receipt stapled to it, but yes it was mine. I walked out of the place 17 minutes after I arrived.
I drove back to my hotel and opened the boxes only to find the fish tacos so soggy that the tortilla could not hold the contents. I did not order Grouper casserole. So I ate the two tiny Grouper fillets, and the Ahi Tuna Poke was unremarkable. So when I called Marlow's to let them know the issue with my tacos, my two options were to have them remake new ones or settle it with Uber Eats. I was certainly not going to get back in my car and wait again so I chose the Uber Eats option; only to have my refund denied despite their instruction not matching my app. They ended the help session, and I didn't get a refund for the tacos.
I'm a small business owner who travels about 50k miles annually. I have doubled my business each of the last 3 years through quality work and strong customer service by way of professionalism, courteousness, and making sure everyone my business interacts with is treated with respect and feels valued. Some of my clients are the biggest banks in the country, the largest gas company in the country and a number of business whose annual income is over 100 million dollars a year. I may look blue collar, but I know what good business looks like. My experience with Marlow's was the opposite of good business and courteous. If you cannot greet someone with a smile, then get out of the hospitality business...and not an employee there greeted me with a smile or seemed interested in assisting me. In fact, while waiting at the front for 10 minutes, I studied the staff, and it seems like enjoying your job and smiling is illegal there.
Marlow's earned $50 for my meal choice without having to pour a drink, come to my table, or put on a fake smile. I didn't take up seat, a table or a spot at the bar. This is not a cheap tavern with over-sized meals; it is the exact opposite. So I'm sitting in my hotel room, 90 after I ate my tiny little Grouper fillets, my poke and a salad small enough to starve a rabbit, and I realize that I'm pretty hungry.
Maybe if I ate there I would have had a better experience, and maybe I would have had the opportunity to have a good-tasting and filling meal. But if you are offering online order service, you should make sure you support it the way you do in-restaurant dining, or don't offer it. There was no attempt to meet the bar tonight.