The Breezeway Restaurant & Bar

The food was excellent and the service was right on the money. Speaking of money, the only thing keeping me from giving five stars was I felt it was a bit pricy. I will go back regardless.

The food was great, very friendly service, but management refused to light a single patio-​heater though there were three near our table, claiming «they cost $ 100 to run.» The lovely waitress loaned my wife a cardigan. Boooo Scrooge Manager, subtract the 4^th star.

Was down in the area over Christmas holiday to visit family. We stopped into Sanford Sunday evening since it is close. My family members decided to go to Breezeway and I allowed them to sit down against my better judgement. I should have stood my ground.
The Bad:
— kitchen closed at 8pm on a Sunday and the place was obviously understaffed. This is the fault of the management not properly knowing Sunday night of a holiday weekend would be when people would want to go out.
— food took over 30 minutes to arrive
— not an issue by laughable: dogfish head was listed under «imports» lol
— Fries were terrible. It is obvious the oil was old and/​or they use the same oil that they use for the fish
— two dishes were ordered and general consensuses was everything was very bland
The Good:
— tends to have open tables when other places are busy
— large outside seating area
Really wanted to like this place but too many negative things definitely add up to poor management and ownership.

Awesome food, large portions and great Tate … Found our new favorite place. service TOP NOTCH.

Five stars for the chefs creating great tasting food in that small kitchen. Best hamburger I have eaten in 48 years. Wifes shrimp n grits where outstanding. Service was just 3 stars. Waitress vanished after we where served our food. When she finally showed up it was give her a credit card
so we can finally go home.

Been here with my wife and dog. Sanford is a dog friendly town so bring them but only mild tempered plz. Food was good and it was Bloody Mary nite 10.00 all you can drink but they come slow. Lol. Food was good and the dog had her own water bowl. Nice place to hang outside on a cool evening. They had live entertainment for a little while and an outside bar with sports tv. Lol

One of our favorite places to eat or hang out. The food is on point and there is always music of some kind to look forward to. I highly recommend the chip nachos or the crab soup.

After searching high and low for a decent place to eat that is open on a Monday night, we came across this place and decided to give it a try.
We’ll we were not disappointed one bit. Our waiter was awesome! He made us feel at home and was constantly checking with us to make sure we had everything we needed.
Our party was overly hungry, so we by-​passed the appetizers. I tried the blackened mahi-​mahi over dirty rice. The dish was seasoned to perfection and has decent heat to it. Some of the other orders in our party were the crab cakes, which were delicious, plenty of crab and lite on the filler. The pastrami sandwich and burger over-​sized and delicious. This is my new favorite the Sanford area.

The atmosphere is really what you’re going for. Really good live music, not too terribly loud; fun people, good vibe. The food is pretty solid and there are lots of fun drink options. Nothing fancy, but you don’t need it. Cool place to hang out. We’ll definitely be back.

We ordered the big fish… it was completely raw in the middle. Had to knock on the door because our waitress was I’m guessing way to busy to check up on us. But I have a feeling she was annoyed some of our party didn’t know much English as her facial expression with their broken English said it all.
Regardless I had to knock on the cooks door to tell them my food was not cooked.
They came out 10 or so minutes later with a fresh piece and said sorry the cook was new and put in a frozen filet? I guess they don’t check food temperature here to ensure it’s cooked thoroughly. We won’t be returning. To many great places to dine in downtown sanford to waste our money with rude or preoccupied with coworkers or cell phone staff.
And also raw undercooked food.

My last trip here was GREAT but this visit was far from enjoyable.
We stopped by on our way back from St. Augustine because I have been here several times with my son-​in-​law but never with my wife. I told her how good the food and service was so I was really looking forward to her seeing first hand what I have raved about. I ended up with egg on MY face…
We chose an outside seat and the server was kind enough to wipe down the table right under the street lamp we wanted to sit at. My wife ordered Hot tea with lemon and iced tea with lime for me as usual. My first clue should have been how slow it was and that it took a while just to get our drinks. It only got worse from there.
A few minutes later she took our order and it was the Ahi Tuna appetizer for my wife and the Fried Red Snapper Sandwich with fries for me. Our server let us know a to go order for 14 sandwiches was put in just before ours so we’d have a little wait. REALLY!?! Guests at the table take a back seat to to go orders?
40 minutes later we still have no food. I requested the manager and she told us… «It normally takes 40 minutes to get food because everything is made fresh.» I told her that the last time I was her with three others, we had food in less than 20 minutes and it was a lot busier. After hearing that, we just got up and left. We headed to a place we found up the street a week ago called Negril Spice and in less that 20 minutes had a delicious Caribbean dinner in front of us along with great service to boot.
It will be a while before I give them another chance after this incident in spite of how good the food is. This is a great example of how the manager and kitchen can undermine a server!

We come here every time we are in town. The place is pretty consistent with good food, good selection, and live music, generally good. The main drawback is their service. On a slow day, Sunday or off hours you still wait for seating and for drinks even though there is less than 30% of tables filled. Based on food alone they would get 4 to 5 stars. Unfortunately the service erases at least 2 stars.

Came here last night for a dinner with a group of friends, and if it weren’t for the great company this could have been a real bummer of a night. Our group of four got sat right by the heavily foot trafficked kitchen, which is also along the route to the restroom, even though there was hardly anyone else inside the restaurant. The waitress was hard to pin down, and took forever with our drink orders and food. With the lack of people in the restaurant the food took incredibly too long to get out of the kitchen. I ordered The Big Chick buffalo style with mild sauce. When it came out I don’t think it had any blue cheese on it, as described by the menu, and it was so bland! Had absolutely not flavor. I had to ask for a side of medium sauce just to get it to taste like anything.
At one point during dinner there was also a terrible sewage smell coming from the back which was wholly unpleasant and didn’t instill much confidence in the back of the house. When we got the checks we were also mischarged by about $ 8 for a bottle of wine, which needed to be corrected. If you’re going to eat in Downtown Sanford, I highly recommend popping across the street to Hollerbach’s Willow Tree Café instead and spare yourself a headache.

The Blackened Mahi Mahi with dirty rice was very good. The music was an eclectic mix of 70’s and 80’s which was a bit odd (given its 2015) but the atmosphere was laid back and a nice find for downtown Sanford. I liked it much better than Hollerbach which seems to garner high praise.

Had a great experience today and it was our first time here. This is a hidden gem in Sanford and if you haven’t been here I highly recommend it. The outdoor seating is really nice and the ambience is perfect.
There was a girl singing outside named Alex and she was singing acoustically and it was very enjoyable.
The best part of all was our server Ariel she was personable and recommended some great food. The portion sizes are really big and the salad dressings are made in house.
We will definitely be back soon for dinner.

We had lunch at The Breezeway yesterday. We went there because they have live entertainment (which was excellent, BTW). Our server was Tiffany. Several things really impressed me. The food was great, with huge portions. The fried mushrooms are awesome (get the «Tiger» sauce”) The wedge salad was HUGE and very well done — more than I could eat. My wife had the chicken caprese salad — also huge, with a great presentation.
Tiffany was very much on top of everything. I was especially impressed that she was was very attentive to drinks at our table — always quick with refills and checking to see if we needed anything.
Tiffany, along with great food, make this a place you will want to visit, for sure.

Three weeks later, my last lunch in Sanford and I headed back to where I had my best lunch in Sanford: The Breezeway. Today was a much nicer day and so we sat outside in the aptly named breezeway which gave us some shade from the hot sun but still a good bit of wind and a nice view of the traffic on main street.
Rather than the fish sandwich, I went with the «Sanford Special» which is a piece of Indiana-​raised pork, breaded and fried. Well, it was huge. At least 8 or 9 inches square. Yes it was thin, but it was still a whole lot of pork tenderloin. More than half of it went into the box to eat later. Jeez!
As usual, the sweet tea was excellent as was the service. Really enjoyed coming back to The Breezeway!

Second try, epic fail. We had a table of 5 and sat outside. Not enough waiters/​waitresses. And did the cook take a lunch beak? It took over one hour to have our lunch brought to the table. Others who arrived after us were were served before us. I wen to find the waitress and asked about our lunch, her reply: our was next. We continued to wait and two other tables were served before ours. Finally lunch arrived and my salad had old lettuce with dry overcooked chicken. The fish looked greasy that one at our table had ordered. I so much wanted them to be enjoyable. Pro: inside and outdoor area inviting and cute.

Really excellent ambiance and a beautiful day in Sanford! We sat on the outside patio relaxing before our flight home to Tn. My husband and I often compare and rate our selections and for once, I won! While his blackened grouper sandwich and home style fries were very good, I ordered the blackened Mahi Mahi tacos and they were spectacular! A very fresh caught meaty blackened fish… and a fresh made mango salsa not even on the menu yet was a excellent offset of taste. We met chef Justin who came out to great us and said that the sauce was actually for a special tonight he was doing. It also had a hint of jalapeño that gave that just the right kick at the end!
Super excellent place and can’t wait to come back!

We visited The Breezeway on a Friday around 5:30 pm. It was a hot one, so we chose to sit inside. Most aspects of our visit were just OK. The service was ok (but not great), the food was ok (but not great), but the happy hour drink specials were great!
I ordered an Angry Orchard having no idea what the price was (no one ever told us what the happy hour specials were). I wanted the cider, so I wasn’t too worried about the price. Imagine my surprise when my bill showed up and I was only charged $ 2 for my drink. How great is that?
I enjoyed my meal, but it wasn’t anything overly special. I wanted fried shrimp and that was exactly what I got. The shrimp itself was big and tasty, but the breading could have used some more seasoning (there wasn’t much at all). I did really enjoy the fresh green beans that came with my meal. I’m always happy when restaurants serve up fresh veggies instead of canned ones. Unfortunately, the rest of my party weren’t very impressed with their meals at all. Bummer huh?
I enjoyed my meal mainly due to the company, so I’m not sure if the food would get me to come back again. I may give them another try during the winter time as many of the reviews I’ve read talked about enjoying the outside portion of the restaurant. The happy hour could definitely get me back for another shot.