Story and photos by David Bowling

To tolerate the service, or more specifically, the lack thereof, you will have to want this burger really, really, bad!  Le Tub is famous for having the best burgers anywhere in the world and doesn’t have to provide good service to get your business.  Knowing this going in I expected lousy service and a great burger.  What I experienced was beyond belief! 

The first thing you notice as you enter is the décor.  A large bathtub is the landmark in the front and toilets fill the lobby area.  I’m guessing the idea is that you’re entering a restroom for dinner.

We arrived a little after six in the evening on a Sunday.  The place was packed and you seat yourself.  Basically you just choose which table of people you think will leave first and hang out by them.  Luckily within 15 minutes we had a table.  Also, it was a table outside by the water.  We were seated for about 10 minutes when a waitress approached the table and told us the wait for food is at least an hour and a half.  We decided to wait.  They serve beer and we’re on the Intracoastal

Waterway at sunset watching boats go by.  Not a bad place to wait an hour or so.

A few minutes later our waiter for the evening came by and reaffirmed that we’d have to wait an hour and a half for food.  We told him we knew and he took our order.  We ordered an appetizer, dinner, and beers.  One person ordered water and he showed him where the self serve water cooler was.  I mentioned to our waiter that we wouldn’t mind the wait as long as he kept the beers coming.  He promised he would.  He later brought us beers, Coronas, and then apologized for not having any limes.  But, a few minutes later he found limes and brought them to us.  It was whole lime cut in quarters, not easy to put that big of a piece of lime in a bottle but we managed.  We also ordered shots of tequila. A while later we ordered more shots and beers. They never came.  The appetizers never came either, or the key lime pie was ordered.   However, the dinners came, minus the fries, but in less time than expected, only about an hour.  He told us the fries would be out in a little while.  At least he finally brought us another round of beers.

We finished the burgers and were still waiting on the fries when the waiter appeared and told us they had run out fries and he was done for the evening.  He then came back with the check. 

The menus do not list prices.  The check listed 3 burgers at $34.50 and 2 burgers at $24.00.  So I guess they’re about $12 each. 

Luckily there are many places for us to enjoy an outdoor setting by the water with good food and service.  I’ll admit the burgers were good, but it’s just a burger. Many places sell quality sirloin that’s just as good.  I think that in fairness I should mention that even though our server was inefficient, he was friendly.  To prove this point a person in our party left his wallet on the table and he brought it to the parking lot to return it to him.  I think the don’t care attitude is passed down from management.      

I’ll never return to Le Tub and will never understand why others do.  They’re slogan should be:  

Enter our bathroom and be treated like shit!