Uncle Buck’s Fish Bowl & Grill

Our experience started off poorly. Let me start by saying it wasn’t very busy, and there were several entry tables around us. We had to wait a while for our drinks and to order. We finished our appetizer before the waitress even came back to take our meal order. It was impossible to get her attention. I smiled and waved and she just smiled and walked away. She forgot to bring drinks and straws and we had to keep asking. At first we accepted that she just might be having a bad day. When we were finishing up, we asked for a check and a box. She looked shocked. Did she think we planned to spend the whole night eating burgers? When she came back about five minutes later, she brought a tiny box that didn’t fit my food and started clearing the table before she brought the check. We asked for another box, and she tried to take my food anyway. Another five minutes passed, and then she brought us the wrong check and freaked out. Instead of taking care of the situation, she just stood there with her mouth hanging open for a full minute. While we waited, we had to ask someone else for a box. She couldn’t figure out how to split the check, and when my friend went to see what was happening, the manager didn’t even offer an apology. It took us 30 minutes to pay and leave after we had eaten. By the time she figured everything out Bass Pro Shop was closed and we weren’t able to buy anything. The three year old I was with left in tears because she didn’t get to go back into the store, and we had left items on hold that we had already picked out. After we left, I realized I left a brand new hat behind and called them to see if they found it and could send it to me, because I don’t live nearby. I was disconnected and transferred several times. They wouldn’t let me speak to a manager. When the last person I spoke to answered the phone, she said, «Who’s this?» Is that really how staff should be greeting customers on the phone? It was an absolutely terrible experience. Don’t waste your time.

Service was so ridiculously slow I will never go back. 20 minutes for drinks 40 minutes for burgers and no follow up. Bartender gave us drinks on the house after we cancelled drinks due to wait and waiter tried to take them away. Horrible service. Which is really a shame as the food was not bad.

My wife and I were pleasantly surprised by the food and service overall. We both met years ago at a bowling alley so this place was Karma. I wanted to go on Valentines day but we couldn’t. One of our celebrated anniversaries is in March so we went last night. We went around 4PM and I had to convince my wife, more than once, to leave at 7PM. The fact that we didn’t expect to be impressed by the food at any bowling alley, the Fish Bowl proved to be pretty dang good. We had the Alley-​Gator to start and it arrived by the time I was ready to bowl in the second frame. We ordered entrees after the app. and they also arrived in a timely fashion. I had a Reuben with fries and it was a proper portion. My wife had the Mahi Mahi and it too arrived in a decent sized portion. I noticed quite a few patrons who were seated for meals leaving the restaurant area with foam take-​away containers. We both do not enjoy salty fare and nothing I tasted was overly salted. I won’t comment on the temperature of the food because the bowling was distracting from the eating.

I am not impressed with long flowing «diner» menus and the menu at Uncle Buck’s is short and tame. It is available online:
for review and it helps you decide if it’s what you crave.
To me, 130 choices on a menu spells FROZEN; please microwave 3 mins. The grill marks on the grilled pineapple and the fish were not from a nuker.
Our server, Megan, checked in on us often and was very attentive. She made suggestions and had answers to all our questions. Hopefully the growing pains from the opening are being resolved.
I will return to see if this review will be repeated.
The motif of the place is overwhelming and appealing. The high ceiling the effect of the large fish overhead is as though you are under the sea. A very appealing place for kids. Everybody we spoke with was having fun and enjoying their visit. Having worked in Bridgeport for many years the opening of the Bass Pro and Uncle Buck’s is a healthy shot in the arm the city needs. I recommend a visit even if you don’t eat or bowl.
P. S. If you are over 21 yrs., order the fish bowl but don’t forget that there are gummie fish in the bowl, so don’t waste them. The tend to soak up to vodka in the bowl: o

This is my second time here & the food is so tasty! The only flaw is the food is never HOT enough! The 1^st visit had cold fries! The 2^nd visit the steak wasn’t as HOT as it could’ve been, but it was cooked to a perfect Medium! Mmmm… ALSO my 2^nd visit was a few feet from the kitchen, so the food should be HOT… right?

Stopped in on a Sunday to check out the place. Pretty cool layout and bowling alley looks like fun. So we decided to grab a drink at the bar. We waited 15 minutes and then decided to leave. There were three bar tenders but nobody looked like they knew what they were doing. Hopefully it changes! I will give it another try though. I really want it to work.

Quite surprised at the quality of the Ruben. Very tender corned beef and delicious. Service is a little slow but we were in no hurry.

My husband and I sat at the bar, it took someone about 2 – 3 minutes to «greet» us. if that’s what you want to call it. Several bartenders had made eye contact with us, but no one came over. The first words out of the woman’s mouth that did come over to «greet» us were, «are you eating?» She threw menus on the bar, then just walked away. Directly to our right, a gentleman walked up to the bar, another bartender went straight over to him, took his drink order, made his drink, cashed him out, and we still have yet to be taken care of. That same bartender then just walked away and continued on her way towards the other end of the bar. After waiting a total of 10 – 12 minutes and no acknowledgment at all, we left. Needless to say, we will not be back.

Sorry it’s a chain. Didn’t enjoy the food at all but the service was fine. Kind of gimmicky

We had dinner there tonight. Wee both had clam chowder. All broth no clams very few potatoes and as salty as the Dead Sea. And I love salt in my food. I had fish and chips again very salt over cooked and dry. Tarter sauce was good. Fries were ok. My husband had a Reuben. Also very salty he said couldn’t taste the food because of the salt. No Russian dressing and cold kraut. Unfortunately we will never return. Wait staff was good. Food came in a timely manner

Not a lot of menu choices, but that’s OK because what’s there is pretty solid. We had the pulled pork nachos which were good, but would have been great if they were slightly warmer.
Major pet peeve alert… our dinners came less than 10 mins after our nachos. I can’t stand that!!! He had the Reuben which he liked and I had a pretty good burger. Unsweetened iced tea tasted like mildew. Avoid at all costs.
Now the service, terrible. It’s a bunch of kids who look like they never worked a day in their lives let alone know how to serve food and be social. Our waitress was older but I would have had better luck flashing down a 747 to land in the parking lot. Sad thing was, we were seated 10′ away from where the wait staff and manager were congregated, but they were all too busy chatting to notice us and other tables waiting for service. At one point she was facing us, but wouldn’t make eye contact.
All in all very disappointed. The bowling alley looks cool and the wall and ceiling décor are amazing but that’s all it’s got. Just bad.

Excellent dinners! Four of us had dinner. Each order something different, fish & chips, Reuben sandwich, Buffalo Burger and American Steak entrée. Everything was so good!!! Just right portions. Tried the Bread Pudding dessert excellent!
Will definitely be returning to eat, bowl and shop! A lot of great gift ideals!!! Can’t edit to try the bowling lanes!!!

Terrible dining experience. Took them 3 times and over an hour to get my sons meal correct. Appetizers arrived after our meal and were not cooked throughly. (Mind you they were chicken). Too bad. It could have been a fun afternoon of eating and retail therapy at the neighboring Bass Pro Shop but instead it was a major disappointment.

Bad bad bad. Went with a party of 4. Sat at the bar. Everything was going good until the food came. We all ordered our entrees and my boyfriend and I ordered wings as well. The other 2 in our party got their food while we still didn’t receive our wings. Asked about it and our server informed us she forgot to put in the wings. So now we assume they won’t serve our cooked entrees until the wings are done. (Which was a correct assumption.) Get our 6 wings then about 3 minutes later our cold entrees are delivered to the table. Had to get a manager to cook us new food instead of reheating our old food. (Which they offered to do, reheat the cold food.)
Since they screwed up, we refused to order more beer or spend money any more money after their screw up. (Which we weren’t even compensated for.) I did order a glass of water, which I’m still waiting on. (It has been over an hour and I have ordered the glass of water twice more, it still has not been given to me.)
Last thing. Their menu shows their wings at $ 9. They charged $ 10. Either way still over priced for 6 wings.

Cute concept for a restaurant, but the food is a real disappointment. I had the fish and chips. The batter wasn’t crispy and the fish was incredibly chewy, which means it was frozen and overcooked. Same with the fish tacos.
The sauce that goes with the alley gator bites was gross (the way it looked and tasted), and the bites themselves were spicy but bland. Chips and salsa /​queso were underwhelming. The salsa is definitely out of a jar (sugary and thick) and the chips were basically warmed up Tostitos. The queso was warm but had already developed that film on top by the time we got it, so it was definitely sitting in the kitchen for a while. The fries were droopy and Luke warm. It’s too bad because the entire idea behind this restaurant is adorable and fun, but I don’t see myself going there again in the future.

First of all, let’s all take a deep breath and realize this place is brand spanking new. So there are bound to be issues as the wait staff, the cooks, the mangers get acclimated. But I think it’s less about the problems and more about how they are handled.
My wife and I went to dinner on a Friday night. We ordered a meal each. Waited like 30 mins, and were told it would be out shortly. After about 40 mins our waitress came over and explained that on the POS sales system someone had accidentally hit the «cancel order» button. And that our food was being made now.
She was super friendly and apologetic. She said both our meals would be completely free, and the manager would come over to speak to us.
He came over a few mins later and was polite. The food arrived shortly thereafter and was amazing.
I will definitely come back. The environment is great, the décor is fishy (pun intended) and the fishbowl drink is huge!

Cooking staff really needs to learn to cook a burger properly… Ask for medium and get either super rare or burnt and crispy. The chipotle turkey wrap also needs work. It had about 2 slices of turkey in it and no bacon which is was supposed to. Alligator bites are great though but again need to be cooked longer. Fries I got tonight were cold and felt like they were sitting for a while and those are usually the best thing.

We went here for lunch today and had to wait about an hour but that did not bother us as we had time to look around the store. We were sat and it took a while before we were greeted. Our server was nice but she got my husband’s order wrong. He ordered the jerk chicken wings as an appetizer and they brought gator tail instead. He does not care for gator tail so our friend ate the gator tail. Our friend said it was pretty good. I had the margherita flatbread pizza, it was bland and the flatbread was soggy. There was not any flavor to the balsamic drizzle that came on top of the pizza. My husband and our friend had the fish sandwiches with onion rings. Both stated that the sandwiches were bland. I will not return as the food was nothing special.

My husband and I were pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed our meal here. We went the night after Christmas and there was a 40 minute wait. We enjoyed our time waiting in the bar area as there was a comfortable seating area in addition to just the actual bar seating. The wait was exactly as they stated. We enjoyed the pork nachos and the Reuben sandwich was terrific as well. It is just as good as any other chain restaurant we have eaten at. True, the menu was limited, but there were still items on there we both could enjoy. And if you like cocktails, the Fishbowl is a must have!

We went on Saturday evening and really enjoyed it. Attentive staff, decent options and food was quite good. We will definitely be back the next time we shop in the store.

I wanted to try this place for a while. It opened about a month or so ago so I wanted to make sure they had worked out the kinks… still not there yet :(
We got here at 9:10 on a Friday night after calling to see if there was a wait for dinner. They said «no wait» so we ran over. We were seated immediately and I was struck by the «interesting» décor. The restaurant is connected to a bowling alley. The walls of the restaurant don’t go all the way to the top to allow for the fish motif to play out. I think you’re supposed to feel like you’re under the sea. I just feel like I was in a noisy little hell of my own. The bowling balls hitting the pins can be jarring after a short period of time… at least the seats were comfortable.
I was immediately struck by how short the menu was… like short, short! There were less than 25 items on the menu, which means picking should be easy right? NOPE! You want to pick right the first time because it’s not like there are many alternatives to choose from if you aren’t satisfied. Brenda, our server, was very nice and accommodating. She was able to explain the menu and make little suggestions, which is priceless in a server.
I was a little thrown off by the $ 11 price tag for only 6 wings. I mean hell even Colonel Sanders does better right? So we decided on the chips and salsa with queso for an appetizer. It was $ 7.25. Not bad. The chips were supposed to freshly prepared. They tasted more like Tostitos that I found under my kids’ bad six months later… yes that chewy, that dry, that gross. But we were hungry so we ate them. After waiting 30 minutes for or food, we were told that the kitchen was backed up and having some difficulty so the server brought us some new chips. OMG! We were blown away. The second set were fresh and crisp and tasty. I told Brenda and she informed the manager. He never came by. What a d*ck!
So about 45 minutes later, we got our food and I made a comment that there were people seated after us who ate before us. Her response was that they had actually been waiting for an hour and left and then returned. WHAF****?
My mom ordered Mahi Mahi. The best part of her dish was the broccoli… epic fail! My burger was amazing and the fries were actually pretty good except that they were cold as hell. My kids ate their food and didn’t rave about the next time we were coming back so I assume they felt like I did… THIS IS NOT A KEEPER!
Let’s just say it will be a frigid day in hell before I return. Oh and the manager, after hearing my observations, decided it wasn’t worth it to come over and talk to us because he didn’t see what more he could do. Ummmm hear the complaints of your customers. That’s how you improve, that’s what makes people come back when you think that a location might do better. I don’t see any potential for improvement until they fire him and the kitchen manager. Smh.
The 2 stars are for my burger and the server. I know she tried. This place is not ready for prime time as my grandparents used to say.