nick's boathouse

new menu. went last week; started newmenu-- outstanding! great gumbo, oysters rockefeller outstanding and grouper n'orleans fabulous! also, terrific band called "shades."


-----11 may, 2012-----

great water views!. good food -- great place to eat before the wahoo's games! also had great music the night we were there.

best restaurant in pensacola. everything on themenuis excellent!!!

one of the first restaurants we went to after moving our family to the pensacola area was located where this restaurant now stands.  the place was busy, the food and service were good, and we all enjoyed our meals.  six years later, my husband and i decided to try the place again.  (we live over forty miles away, so it was a trek just to get there.)
     we arrived for a late lunch at 2:30 and there were less than ten customers in the place.  the service started out good until we began experiencing problems with the food.  we ordered the loaded fries and they came out very quickly, too quickly.  the fries were placed cold onto the platter, cheese and bacon added on top, and then placed in the salamander until the cheese was crispy.  they were brought to our table and were barely lukewarm.  it took five minutes to find someone to take them back to the kitchen.  what came out fifteen minutes later was a little bit better, but the fries were greasy, the result of frying them in oil that is too cold.
     when our entrees arrived a few minutes later, the problems really began.  my husband ordered the parmesan grouper and what he received was certainly not grouper with the sides that he had ordered.  the parmesan cheese on the "grouper" was under a rather unappealing tomato sauce and it was burnt around the edges.  my husband being one to not rock the boat, decided to eat his meal.  he ordered for his sides the gouda cheese grits and the herbed potatoes.  what he received was coleslaw and green beans!  (the coleslaw was mine and his potatoes were on my plate, so we simply made the switch, though the waitress wanted to take back both plates to the kitchen.)  when the waitress brought the "gouda" cheese grits a few minutes later, they were orange.  (gouda cheese is not orange, but a pale creamy color.)  the gouda cheese grits tasted more like american cheese grits.  the herbed potatoes were microwaved because parts of the potatoes were still cold.
     i ordered the grilled grouper with a citrus beurre blanc sauce with coleslaw and green beans for my sides.  with the green beans i received a large quantity of sliced and steamed onions with copious amounts of black pepper.  some of the beans were still green while others had turned brown.  they had obviously been microwaved since some of them were hot and others were cold.  they were edible, but not very appetizing.  the coleslaw would have been better had it not been swimming in the sauce.  when i tasted the beurre blanc sauce it tasted nothing like butter or citrus.  it did taste like it was rancid with a very strong flavor and smell.  i have made and tasted numerous beurre blancs and that tasted nothing like it!  the grilled "grouper" was cooked on a grill that had not been cleaned and had bits of blackened food that had been cooked on the grill previously.  totally unappetizing!  when i asked the waitress to take the fish away after explaining the problem, she asked rather rudely if i wanted something else.  i asked to see themenuagain (this was our first--and last--time there, so i did not know the menu), and when she returned with themenushe tossed it on the table and walked away.  she returned a full ten minutes later and i placed my order for calamari off of the appetizer menu.
     about fifteen minutes later and long after my husband had finished eating, my calamari arrived swimming in a pool of grease in its tiny little dish.  the sauce served on the side was a wholly unappetizing concoction of some kind of marinara sauce and maybe a thai chili sauce.  it tasted sweet, hot, and tomatoey and had a big blob of unmelted parmesan cheese plunked on top.  the calamari had been cooked in oil that was not up to the proper frying temperature, so it had been in the oil long enough to slightly brown the breading which caused the squid to be overcooked.  after chewing down the rubber bands that they called calamari, we asked our waitress for the check.  five minutes later she returned with the check and disappeared once again.  i went to the restroom and the waitress had still not returned to the table to collect my husband's credit card.  almost five minutes after my return, she picked up the check.  so from the time we asked for the check until the time we got our credit card back was over twenty minutes!
     needless to say, we will never return to nick's boathouse again.

unimpressed.   great view and impressive location,menuwas uninspiring.  same items can be found on menus everywhere, made better.  oysters $2.00 each, twice as much as most places, $18 ny strip petite steak was "sizzler" quality.    veggies and sides not fresh, seem to come out of a can mushy and tasteless.   tacos, burgers, seafood,....a mashup of ordinary..covered in cheese.
overall service was just ok.  way over priced for sub par food. we had to wait for everything when sitting outside.  but even great service could not make thismenuworth returning for.  this is a 4 star location that needs a 4 starmenuand chef to match.   i have no problem paying for quality....but this aint it.

don't waste your time or money! . the short story: spend the same amount of $$ and go to atlas or fish house for better food, better service, and better atmosphere!! seriously, this place was no good! items on theremenuwe're knock offs ofmenuitems from successful reataurants with all the same ingredients but just tasted crappy to say the least ie boom boom shrimp instead of bang bang shrimp (bonefish), shrimp and grits instead of grits a yaya (atlas)

my husband, mother in law, my 5 year old, and myself had dinner there on october 6, 2014. we went to maritime park to see the clidesdales and hopped over for dinner afterwards. the place wasn't busy at all. about 6 tables were full inside with a handful full outside. service was snails pace slow, kitchen was even slower. our food came out with the plates scolding hot and lukewarm food.(dead give away that it was sitting in the hot window of the kitchen for entirely too long!!) all of us commented that our food wasnt even hot and we all had ordered the gouda grits. grits all came out the way grits get when they have been sitting for a long while. like a skin on them. gross to say the least. mother in law ordered a beer with dinner and never received it. after we sat down, a large family had gotten up and left. their table was left dirty (plates of half eaten food. far from appetizing!) the entire time we were there and we were directly across from it. i could touch it we were so close to it. i ordered the mahi and shrimp. the fish fillet was very thin. like very very thin. we get mahi frequently from the fish market and it appeared as if they filleted the fillet. i was very disappointed with the food. especially since everything is $20+!! they didn't have a kids menu. but then said they did?! had to hunt the waitress down to get the check because we hadn't seen her since we got our food and we had been done eating for atleast 10 minutes. waitress apologized saying she had tables both inside and outside and they didn't think they were going to get busy with stuff going on at the stadium. but anyone in their right mind could assume that a restaurant visable and accessible from the stadium parking lot would maybe possibly get a few of the several hundreds of people that came to the stadium stop in for dinner. but maybe that's me....

seriously, go to fish house or atlas and get the same style of food that is so much better

were very good.. wonderful rockefeller oysters and my ribeye steak was cooked to order. i didn’t see on themenubaked potato which i would have preferred but the garlic mashed potatoes were very good. the house dressing was tasty.

sunday brunch, i wouldn't !. having never been to nick's boathouse, but having heard good things, i thought i would try it. i had seen an ad for sunday brunch and one item grabbed my attention. the brunchmenuitem was a "gouda lump crab omelette" sounds good huh. well after arriving (parking full and overflowing) humm must be a good place, (i didn't know there was an coupon ad in the paper, buy-1 get-1), put in my name 20-30 minutes - ok. while waiting, i looked around and it is a nice place (they were slammed) and after having two (2) couples taken around my place in the queue, i questioned the (seater) and was seated immediately (bare table salt & pepper - only) and i waited again for my waiter. joseph, finally arrived and (knowing what i wanted) i ordered water and the omelet with hash browns for my side. joseph brought my water (styrofoam cup - out of plastic glasses) and a while later he brought my order. i told him i would need silverware and some catchup, it took several minutes for him to return with the silverware and no catchup - i ask again about the catchup and he went to a side bar and got it. of course by now, the omelet (cold when served) and cold now for sure - the hash browns were little short french fries (guess they didn't know the difference) and they were greasy and cold. i was really impressed with the omelet shaped pile of powdered eggs topped with some kind of white creamy sauce - i did find one piece of something that might have passed for crab meat, but it had no taste and no crab flavor at all. i managed to get some of it down (i was hungry) before leaving. on my way out i gave a buy-1 get-1 coupon (that a lady in the waiting area had given me) to a young couple, because i thought i don't need it since i won't be returning to nick's boathouse. my first visit was quite disappointing enough, i don't need a second bad experience, too many other good places to eat in pensacola.

gulfbreeze regular. great looking decor, but horrible service. my wife, myself and my son went in for a quick lunch. we stood at the front door for about 5 minutes without anyone to even greet us. there was a bar to the right of the door and the bartender just went about his business like no one was there. after about 5 minutes there started to be a line behind us. finally, i had to wave down and he went to get the i presume to be the manager. guy comes back, and we told him we were 2 adults and a highchair, he trots off for another 5 minutes, we had no idea what he was doing.

we get to our table and had to wait for another 5 minutes for our waitress to even show up. keep in mind this is a monday lunch. there were maybe 5 or 6 other tables eating there... so, the waitress shows up and get our drink orders and we ask her for a kid'smenuwhich the manager failed to even offer to us. when it was pretty obvious we planned to also feed our son there. she runs off to get the kidsmenuand serve another table. ended up standing there and chatting with them and taking pictures for the table. so, finally she comes back with the kid'smenuand runs off before we can place our order.

when she finally returns and we place our order, i ordered a soup and an appetizer as my meal, a grilled cheese for my son and my wife had a po'boy. not exactly something that requires long prep time. there were 2 other tables that sat around us that came in after us. guess what, they got their food before we did, and i had to ask where our food was. she said that it was because she brought me the kid menu. are you serious?! the manager walked by as i was talking to the waitress and just had this dumb look on his face and pretended nothing was happening.

needless to say, between the crappy service and had to entertain a starving and tired 2 years old made this a horrendous dining experience. i would have stayed and complained, but at this point, getting my tired son home for a nap was the higher priority.

also, the food was just so-so. if it was the best gumbo i ever had, i might not be as pissed off as i am. so, my advice is that if you have small children, or just don't like having your time wasted by completely inadequate service, avoid this place at all cost.

this is the best fried fish basket i have found in the pensacola area. i also sampled a potion of the pensacola club which had great taste. both are greatmenuitems and i will recommend to all.
my fish basket was mahi (joe patti's souther fried fresh catch) and came with a generous portion of fries.
i sat in the bar area for my lunch meal and joey was my server. he was ok, spent most of his time somewhere other than the bar area (not sure if he was waiting other tables or what he was tasked with) but he only came by every 10-15 minute to check up on me. there were only 3 people in the bar area.
overall - this is a great place to dine. i plan on returning here. great food, great view of the bay, and decent service.

very beautiful surroundings with greatmenuand wonderful service. food was delicious and enjoyed our server joe. very enjoyable afternoon!

i haven't been to pensacola in about two years and went in hopes of going to the crab trap. it was called something different but still opted to try it out. i have to say i will never be going back. we had our wedding rehearsal dinner at the crab trap and the food was much better then. i ordered crab cakes, which were the worst crab cakes i have ever had. theirmenuselection was very minimal. their vegetable side looked like it was just frozen mixed veggies from a bag. and they had no other veggie choices. service was great and the atmosphere is still good, but under the new name/ownership food has taken a turn for the worst! certainly not worth the higher price tag.

not bad, but disappointing. my fiancée and i joined some friends a week ago on saturday night for our first visit. our friends frequent often, and the restaurant was suggested since our dining companions really liked the crawfish poboy. when we were seated we were given new menus that did not include the very sandwich our friends came for and we were told that the restaurant had lost their chef and they could no longer make the crawfish for the poboy, and the loss of the chef resulted in having to change the menu. to this i was very perplexed......did this chef posess such talents that no one could be found to replace him/her? was this person the last holder of the sacred crawfish knowledge? has this person been kidnapped for ransom to the highest restaurant bidder? i fought the surging need to form a search party and regained my senses. i then thought surely they have a sous chef or two who posess the ability to carry on themenuas it was. could it be more likely that the restaurant was having problems with its vendors and could not get all the items for the old menu, after all, we were there on a saturday night at 6:30 and it was pretty dead.
as for the food it was not much to talk about. the fried pickles were good, but the pecan crusted grouper was not. the sauce over the fish was quite tasty, but the grouper was fishy, suggesting that it might have been past its prime. the ceasar salad was pretty pedestrian, and nothing special (see photo) and had to be asked for twice. my fiancée's fish tacos were quite good and may be worth going back for, but they wanted to serve them with fries (don't get it), and she never received her cup of gumbo, not sure if we were charged for it since i didn't take the itemized receipt and due to great conversation, forgot about it until we left.
the restaurant was well appointed, and pleasant, but pretty dark. too many restaurants make this mistake which drives away people older than 40 who have small children, and become increasingly farsighted (needing readers, i had mine) and need more light to read menus.
i did have a good time all and all, but with very high prices for pensacola i expected higher quality food and service. since they lost their head chef i will consider a return visit once they iron out the kinks and the new chef sets a new menu. i wish them luck in their search and i might return if my suspicions are incorrect and they are still open. will reserve my vote until then, (i see potential) but if forced to vote now, it would be thumbs down.

lunch prices. went there for lunch yesterday and was shocked when i got my bill.
$19.00 for a bowl of spaghetti and a glass if iced tea. no garlic bread or side dishes.
just a bowl of spaghetti. too high for lunch prices. it also was not priced on themenuor the special board in front. listed as a special but no price. suprise.

poor beginning. we went last evening (thursday) about 7:30p.m with a party of four two young ladies at the hostess station were busy conversing with what appeared to be a departing friend. only after the lady left did one of the hostess ladies finally acknowledge our presence (the least of our problems as it turned out)

we were seated and givenmenu(but no wine list) and then we waited & we waited. a sweet young waitress came, we asked about wine choices - "oh, they did not give you a wine list??" and brought one to us. upon our inquiry she told us the new restaurant, kitchen crews and staff had been on board for a week and a day. restaurant was moderately busy but certainly less than full.

order for drinks was taken, waters eventually came - no wines, we waited, waitress returned with a nice serving of the house bread and left. we waited, no water, and no table service. waitress returned to take food orders, asked for table service, waters and wine. waited some more - table service & water were brought but no wine served. answers aboutmenuwere readily provided. one guest questioned medium vs medium rare regarding hamburger and was assured medium would still be pink in middle. order was placed, still no wine - "i will be right back -- empty wine glasses were brought but no wine - eventually individual wine servings were brought - nice tough the individual service containers.

food came shortly afterward. french fries were cold and mushy. hamburger was well done, gray in middle, and dry- came entirely to quickly to have been freshly cooked and served, flat breads were warm at best and very dry, soup was less than tasty. flat breads appeared to be a pre-baked crust with topping added and placed under a warming light to head and then served. when waitress finally returned to check on us , a request for hot fries was promptly filled with fries that were hot but had very mushy interiors, were overly seasons, and less than crisp on the outside. a request for a coke drink refill took a good five minutes.

we never saw anyone who looked to be a manager type working on the floor. saw no one, other than our waitress, stopping by our table or any other table either inside or outside to touch base with customers.

it is a shame, the previous restaurant made maximum use of the well designed building in a beautiful settings in an ideal location to provide an most enjoyable dining experience. frankly, we will need to see many very positive reviews before we return again or recommend this restaurant to others.