Pesca Vilano Rooftop

The best fish tacos ever! This is a hip spot to check out the sunset and get on the dance floor.

I’m really disappointed with this place and the kind of DJs they hire. It’s clear from their surveillance footage that there DJ got triggered when I simply asked for a song request. To make matters worse, the DJ involved his bouncer friend to back him up and had me kicked out… the police are involved and I’ll stay classy. How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.

It was a little cold that evening, but amazing, I loved the food! The French had a blast!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Had a really nice time this past few months enjoying Live music and great sunsets on the rooftop of Pesca . There are some wonderful views and great service at this location. The live music was also fun and really enjoyable. I went almost every Sunday evening to enjoy the great Carribean band . Can’t wait till spring !!

Chillakaya Makes you feel like you’re on a roof top island paradise ! Love it ❣️

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

My wife and I came here for our 31st anniversary. A highly rated restaurant. My meal, steak bowl, was very tasty. The steak was tuff. Over cooked I think. My wife had a fish meal. I forget which. She was very disappointed in the taste and quality of her meal. I have NEVER see my wife complain about a meal before. When our waitress (she was great!) Asked how the meal was my wife told her. Later a woman, not a lady, came to our table concerning our dissatisfaction. She seemed to be insulted and left in a huff. Normally a dissatisfied customer is given a discount or a free dessert. Something. Nothing was offered. What should have been an enjoyable dining experience for Saint Augustine residents celebrating their anniversary was left lacking. 🤢

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 5

Amazing location with such a unique variety of food and cocktails. Beautiful view and amazing service. Can’t say enough wonderful things about this location. Really enjoyed the live music On the rooftop. Sunday nights my favorite with the island band . Highly recommended!

The food is fabulous! Their menu is different and a great selection is available. Had great service and really enjoyed the Reggae Band . Wonderful sunsets ..

Kid-friendliness: Very family friendly

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Chicken Wings, Harissa Hummus Plate, Spicy Tuna Tacos

Our waitress was super friendly and the food was great! Highly recommend the bowls. I had the tuna bowl and my husband had the steak bowl, both were fantastic!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Caribbean Bowl, Peruvian Steak Bowl

Rooftop gorgeous and waitress nice. We ordered four food items, none were good, same with drinks. We left to go eat dinner elsewhere.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 1

Service: 3

I wish I could give this restaurant zero stars. My family and I dined at Pesca Vilano Rooftop Restaurant as part of a small wedding celebration, and it completely ruined what was supposed to be one of the most special weekends of my sister's life. Out of the 16 guests, 6 people—myself included—became violently sick after eating their kids' chicken fingers. My four-year-old nephew, who only ate the chicken fingers and none of the other food served at the event, suffered the worst, proving without a doubt that this was caused by Pesca’s food.

The sickness lasted for over 6 hours, leaving many of us unable to attend the most important parts of the wedding day. I’m the maid of honor and spent months helping my sister plan this event. It’s devastating to see so much time, effort, and joy destroyed because of negligence on the part of this establishment.

To make matters worse, the restaurant's management has been completely unprofessional. Initially, they promised to refund all the bills from that night, but they have since ghosted my sister and failed to issue the refund. It’s shocking that after everything this restaurant put us through, they wouldn’t take responsibility for their actions.

At the very least, Pesca should refund the meal expenses. My sister spent months planning this weekend, only for it to be overshadowed by food poisoning caused by their kitchen. I strongly urge anyone considering dining here to think twice—especially if it’s for a special occasion.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

This place and their management are an absolute joke. Katherine and Alison have no idea what they are doing.

Pesca is refusing to refund us a bill of about $120.00 because they don’t believe the food poisoning came from them (a drop in the bucket IF a restaurant is doing well). Of course they are going to deny that! The right thing as a business is to refund us anyway. If a customer is truly insisting that they had a terrible time at your establishment, then you make it right.

I have never had more of a poor customer service interaction with any business/person ever. Again, if you read further in my review, I’ve never even left a review in my entire life! They did not consistently communicate or follow up whatsoever. The past two weeks, I have probably called and left messages 3-4 times as well as my husband. ONLY WHEN I CALLED THE HOTEL WAS I ABLE TO GET THROUGH.

Alison and Katherine - tell me how the six people got sick and that is the only thing they ate in common, while the rest of us did not get sick and did not eat it? Tell me how we had all been together several days prior without incident? Tell me how it is not food poisoning when the type of sickness and symptoms exactly matched and came on at the same time?

Fine, you don’t want to own up to it, how about the other fundamental issues you display? Tell me from a customer service standpoint why you never returned my calls and it took me contacting the hotel to get ahold of you?

I want to add that I agree with the most recent other 1 star review. When our party got up there, one of the first things the bartenders said was we could not order food through them. We would have to go downstairs, order, then wait and bring it up in to-go containers. It was also completely empty besides our party at the time - 4PM Nights of Lights?

How about you refund us for that? For the fact you advertise as a rooftop restaurant, but the customer has to do the work for the food by going downstairs to what is essentially a separate restaurant to order takeout and bring it up? Or how about that your prices do not match the portion or quality of food? We could go into that aspect if you’d like.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
In my entire 30 years of life, I have never left a negative review on a web platform (Google, Yelp, etc.).

Friday 12/13/24, myself, my husband, and 14 of our closest friends and family (2 being young children) went to Pesca rooftop bar around 4PM to 5:15PM.

For backstory, my husband Sebastian is born and raised in Saint Augustine and I went to Flagler. Sebastian and I have been together 8 years and we currently live in Massachusetts. He proposed last December and we began planning a very small, intimate ceremony with only the people mentioned above.

It was an amazing night and we were so excited to get married the next day (12/14/24) with these same people by our sides.

Instead, of our 14 guests - 6 of them got SEVERE food poisoning, from of all things chicken tenders. One was my 4 year old nephew who is now scared to eat a full meal. Another was my brother in law who couldn’t even get out of bed. All three of my sisters got it, one of which is a Type 1 diabetic that contemplated going to the hospital. And finally my dad, who was our officiant and could barely make it through the 20 minute ceremony but did it for us.

Again of the 16 people we had planned a YEAR to have this weekend with, 6 of them were severely food poisoned by Pesca. They threw up basically the entire contents of their bodies, didn’t sleep, now have extreme guilt, are still recovering days later, could not make any other weekend festivities including our wedding dinner, could not be fully present for the any of the day basically and I do not blame them one bit. Sebastian and I will never get this weekend back or what we had dreamed it to be.

I warn everyone that

My wife and I are local and tried Pesca recently. The restaurant is deceptively amazing. It currently shares an entrance with a local hotel on Vilano Beach, just over the bridge (ample parking). The food was awesome with inspired Caribbean & Latin flavors designed by local Chef Michael Luigi, the Owner. We thoroughly enjoyed the Vilano Fish Tacos and Peruvian steak bowl. We are looking forward to returning as well as enjoying happy hour at the rooftop bar!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Vilano Fish Tacos, Peruvian Steak Bowl

Pesca has a pretty view of the city but is that all it is good for?
We came here on a Saturday afternoon and we were one of the only people there. We started with the Chicken Empanadas, they were fresh and had good flavor. For Entrees we ordered Short Rib Mofongo and the Peruvian Steak Bowl. Short Ribs were a bit dry and needed a sauce. We ordered Chimichurri on the side and that definitely helped with flavor. The Peruvian Steak Bowl has great potential but right now there are just too many things going on. There was a black rock in my Rice (be careful when eating this) that looked just like the Rice so I was too worried about eating anymore after that bite. The Fries should be removed or replaced with something else and it needs a sauce to tie it together. Too many different flavors and textures that don’t match. The waitress was nice but seemed upset of nervous everytime she talked to us.
Overall, I think Pesca is still working out a lot of kinks and I’m not sure that the Owner truly knows the direction he wants to take the Restaurant. It seems to change every time we have come in and it doesn’t necessarily seem to be for the better.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 2

Service: 3

This place and their management are an absolute joke. Katherine and Alison have no idea what they are doing. Pesca is refusing to refund us a bill of about $120.00 because they don’t believe the food poisoning came from them (a drop in the bucket IF a restaurant is doing well). Of course they are going to deny that! The right thing as a business is to refund us anyway. If a customer is truly insisting that they had a terrible time at your establishment, then you make it right. I have never had more of a poor customer service interaction with any business/person ever. Again, if you read further in my review, I’ve never even left a review in my entire life! Nor have I ever asked for my money back from a restaurant. They did not consistently communicate or follow up whatsoever. The past two weeks, I have probably called and left messages 3-4 times as well as my husband. ONLY WHEN I CALLED THE HOTEL WAS I ABLE TO GET THROUGH. Alison and Katherine - tell me how the six people got sick and that is the only thing they ate in common, while the rest of us did not get sick and did not eat it? Tell me how we had all been together several days prior without incident? Tell me how it is not food poisoning when the type of sickness and symptoms exactly matched and came on at the same time? Fine, you don’t want to own up to it, how about the other fundamental issues you display? Tell me from a customer service standpoint why you never returned my calls and it took me contacting the hotel to get ahold of you? I want to add that I agree with the most recent other 1 star review. When our party got up there, one of the first things the bartenders said was we could not order food through them. We would have to go downstairs, order, then wait and bring it up in to-go containers. It was also completely empty besides our party at the time - 4PM Nights of Lights? How about you refund us for that? For the fact you advertise as a rooftop restaurant, but the customer has to do the work for the food by going downstairs to what is essentially a separate restaurant to order takeout and bring it up? Or how about that your prices do not match the portion or quality of food? We could go into that aspect if you’d like. ORIGINAL REVIEW: In my entire 30 years of life, I have never left a negative review on a web platform (Google, Yelp, etc.). Friday 12/13/24, myself, my husband, and 14 of our closest friends and family (2 being young children) went to Pesca rooftop bar around 4PM to 5:15PM. For backstory, my husband Sebastian is born and raised in Saint Augustine and I went to Flagler. Sebastian and I have been together 8 years and we currently live in Massachusetts. He proposed last December and we began planning a very small, intimate ceremony with only the people mentioned above. It was an amazing night and we were so excited to get married the next day (12/14/24) with these same people by our sides. Instead, of our 14 guests - 6 of them got SEVERE food poisoning, from of all things chicken tenders. One was my 4 year old nephew who is now scared to eat a full meal. Another was my brother in law who couldn’t even get out of bed. All three of my sisters got it, one of which is a Type 1 diabetic that contemplated going to the hospital. And finally my dad, who was our officiant and could barely make it through the 20 minute ceremony but did it for us. Again of the 16 people we had planned a YEAR to have this weekend with, 6 of them were severely food poisoned by Pesca. They threw up basically the entire contents of their bodies, didn’t sleep, now have extreme guilt, are still recovering days later, could not make any other weekend festivities including our wedding dinner, could not be fully present for the any of the day basically and I do not blame them one bit. Sebastian and I will never get this weekend back or what we had dreamed it to be. I warn everyone that either the staff or kitchen is not equipped for proper food safety and this could easily happen again. Alison and Katherine - your responses and how you have handled this have truly b