By NBC 6 Investigative Reporter Jeff Burnside

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"Is that what I think it is?” NBC 6 Reporter Jeff Burnside asked the server at Coco Reef Grill in Sawgrass Mills Mall as she was bringing his meal.

"Yes,” she said with a big smile, “it's the grouper sandwich."

She’s right. But, without identifying ourselves, we ordered grouper, snapper, mahi mahi (also called dolphinfish) and tuna at 10 South Florida restaurants. We took samples right at the table and brought them to the Guy Harvey Research Institute DNA lab at Nova Southeastern University's Oceanography Center.

Of 10 samples, four were not what we ordered, which mirrors a widespread problem for government inspectors.

Related Content: Grouper Inquiries In Florida Restaurants | Restaurants In NBC 6 Grouper Test

"It's dishonest,” said John Fruin, Chief inspector for the Florida Department of Agriculture’s lab in Tallahassee, “and consumers are being ripped off."

Quarterdeck

"Here you go," said the server at Quarterdeck in Fort Lauderdale near Las Olas. We ordered grouper sticks.

"And it's grouper?" Burnside asked the floor manager on duty.

"Yeah. It is grouper,” he said.

But we got a very different answer from Mahmood Shivji, who runs the DNA lab.

"We had never seen this is any of our other testing before," he said. The results say it’s green bumphead parrotfish from Asia.

Quarterdeck management immediately pulled it from the entire chain and made angry calls to the supplier. "It makes me upset,” store manager Sean Maher said later in an interview. "I just don't want to have the perception that we're trying to put, you know, a substitute item in there. Which we're not."

Accepting the blame for the parrotfish?

Quarterdeck’s distributor, Sysco, bought it from South Florida-based supplier Pacific Coral Seafood, who may fire their Indonesian supplier as they have others who sell them mislabeled fish.

Does Pacific Coral executive John Fadigan think his company may have been ripped off by one of its overseas suppliers? He paused and said, "There is always the possibility.”

Lulu’s Bait Shack

"Oooh. Famous Lulu's grouper?" Burnside asked the server at Lulu’s Bait Shack on Fort Lauderdale Beach.

"Yep!” she said proudly, “famous grouper. There ya go."

We ordered grouper entree for $14.95. The DNA did not match any common species of any fish. Shivji added, "but we know with complete -- with 100% certainty -- that it was not a grouper."

When Burnside told the Lulu’s manager that our meal was not grouper, he accused us of ordering something other than grouper.

"If you guys ordered grouper, you have to have grouper. That's it,” said the manager, who identified himself only as Hector.

Ocean's Ten

On Ocean Drive in South Beach, at Ocean's Ten restaurant, we ordered a snapper sandwich. But Shivji said, "It turned out to be tilapia."

When Burnside went back and met with the manager, he brought the chef to the table.

"Is it possible though that you're cheating your customers?" Burnside asked.

"No. Not at all. Not at all.” The chef took us into the freezer. It says snapper right on the box. "What is on the menu,” he said, “that's what I serve.”

"Although not in this case," said Burnside.

"Not in this case,” the chef replied, “because maybe the provider sent us the wrong stuff."

The snapper at Ocean's Ten is also imported by Pacific Coral Seafood, but they refuse to take the blame this time.

"Right,” said Fadigan emphatically. “We don't have tilapia at all. We don't import tilapia. We don't touch tilapia. It's nothing that we carry."

Doral Seafood

At Doral Seafood restaurant, we ordered the grouper because the restaurant had been cited by the state before for fish substitution. The DNA says it happened again.

"It turned out to be a catfish," said Shivji.

Doral Seafood manager Maria Teresa said she'd warned her supplier.

"If this happened before,” asked Burnside, “why is this happening again?"

"No,” Teresa said, “we are, we fixed the other problem."

The six rrestaurants that served what we ordered are Monty's Coconut Grove, Sushi Rock Fort Lauderdale, Coco Reef Grill and Tiki Bar in Sawgrass Mills Mall, The River Oyster Bar near Brickell, Billy's Stone Crabs in Hollywood and Dockers in Dania Beach.

So, how do you avoid a rip off?

The experts offer these tips:

• Go to finer restaurants and seafood markets.
• Grouper is thick and chunky.
• Imports, especially from Asia, are riskier.
• Be suspicious if it's very inexpensive, or if it's the "catch of the day."