the grand marlin of pensacola beach

wonderful and delightful experience.. my husband and i decided to try the grand marlin, it was excellent. our food was hot and delicious; for an appetizer i had the calamari which included not only calamari but deep fried pickles and deep fried banana pepper rings, along with a delicious dill dipping sauce. my husband had the brussel sprouts with the bacon lardons; it was delicious as well. for our entrees i had the grouper piccata and my husband had the shrimp and grits. and if that wasn't enough we also had dessert: the praline basket with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauce, and fresh berries in a praline basket. it was to die for! our server jana did an excellent job. my husband and i would gobackagain.


-----11 may, 2015-----

calamari. in addition to the deep fried calamari there was also deep fried pickles deep fried banana peppers and a little bit of deep fried green peppers it came with a dill dipping sauce that was delicious .

excellence!. we had drinks on the patio overlooking the water. it was roomy with high ceilings and a great bar with plently of bartenders leaving little time to wait. we got there before 6:30pm and it was not crowded yet. huge olives in the martini's. good wine lists. we waited about 15 minutes for our table, which was perfect for us. patrick was our server when we were seated.

the restaurant was also roomy..high ceilings, not tables on top of each other.
the seafood at this restaurant is "right off the boat" fresh! we got calamari and for an appetizers....on the half shell and a few fried (they were flexible enough to make accomodations for our wants). the calamari came with a lime, habenero sauce that was so good i would have bought it by the gallon! the raw oysters were oh so fresh and tasted so good with crackers and their cocktails sauce with lots of horseradish in it. for our meal we have the redfish dish which had a lobster and shrimp cream sauce on the side. it was a bit spicy but we love spicy so we were fine with it. we also had a lettuce wedge with ranch. the ranch appeared homemade and was wonderful. we also had the che'f special which was a yellow fin tuna with ginger soy sauce on it. it was also wonderful. light, great flavor profile, excellent dish. our waiter, patrick, said the parmesan coated flounder was to die for too. i will get this next time as it looked really good.
for dessert we had a chocolate molton cake. it was good, very chocolately but not over bearing. it oozed just the right amount of chocolate. we also had the bread pudding which was the best dessert we have had in a long time. it was lying in a pool of creme brule sauce with fostered bananas on the side. omg!! sooooo good!

we can't wait to gobackto this place. kudos to the chef and our server, patrick, for a job well done.

our meal with 1 entre, 1 dessert, 2 glasses of wine, 2 coffees, 1 salad was $72 + tip

new favorite. we dined at grand marlin tonight, an early mother's day, as we don't care to fight the crowds. beautiful view, attentive but not intrusive service and simply wonderful food. i love a good presentation, though i won't avoid a place if presentation is the only thing lacking. grand marlin's food is as gorgeous as it is tasty. we had an all-seafood night - bbq'd shrimp and oyster rockefeller for appetizers, and four different kinds of fish, all cooked to perfection. while many restaurants use accompaniments to fill a plate, the sides here were a perfect compliment to the main dishes. i have a feeling i'll be dreaming about the grouper piccata - i must figure out how to do that to capers!

i'd heard great things about the praline basket, so we ordered one and four spoons. it wasn't the typical heavy praline (which i love), but a light, delicate thing, filled with berries and a fabulous vanilla ice cream. truly a revelation, and a perfect end to the meal. the waiter says the bread pudding is even better, so i guess we'll have to gobackfor that!

on the recommendation of a co-worker, i made my first visit to the grand marlin with some colleagues. we sat on the open patio with a beautiful view of the bay. this would prove to be the best part of the night.

the menu was impressive - printed daily with lots of fresh fish and other seafood options. i started with the sautéed blue crab claws. they were good but - i must admit - not $20 good considering the portion was on the small side. given another opportunity, i would choose a different appetizer.

the meal kind of went downhill from the appetizer course. one of my colleagues ordered a salad that never arrived before our entrees did. i ordered the grilled cobia, which arrived pan-seated and not fully cooked. the whipped potatoes were so salty i couldn't eat them. the best part of the entree was the broccoli side.

for dessert, i chose the caramel macchiato creme brûlée. the flavor was good and the sugar was perfectly caramelized. however, the custard was loose and borderline runny, indicating that it was a bit undercooked.

overall, i was unimpressed with the grand marlin. i suppose everyone has a bad day but at these prices, you can't afford to have them. the ambience was nice but it wasn't enough to drag mebackfor another mediocre, high-priced meal.

went here while visiting friends for the seafood.  we have been here many times, and the quality is still great.  we ordered oysters and other app's and had a blast!  i also enjoy the wine selection, and the view!  highly recommend this place to locals, as well as tourist.

wentbackhere the month of january 2016.  fab as usual!  hooray for monday night half -priced oysters!!!!

this place is a good time! just went for drinks with friends from out of town and sat outside and looked over the sound, listening to a good band play on the outside bar area. we had appetizers and they were pretty good, but just standard fare of crab claws and calamari, they were both fried a bit too long, but most out-of-towners would not notice and our friends did not seem to either. 

in the past we have come here many times and have done everything from brunch to very late, last ones left in the restaurant type of thing, and the food is good most of the time. we did have one bad experience with some oysters but it happens. 

i suggest having brunch or dinner outside on the deck when the temperature drops a about 10 degrees in the fall, and if you want to have a great water view, you will have to be seated outside in the bar area (frequently a loud band will be playing) or in their air conditioned overflow dining, in thebackof the restaurant, so be sure to ask for it. the main dining room does not directly overlook the sound, but instead the bob sikes bridge and pensacola beach rd. you can see the sound, you just are not right on top of it. 

at the end of the day, this is a solid seafood restaurant, and for nicer dining on the beach it is hard to beat. there are other seafood restaurants on the island that are better, but one in particular offers a much more casual dining experience. to find that one, think of a one legged seafarer. happy dining.
-b-

visiting from baton rouge. nice to have fresh seafood! grouper piccata and brussel sprouts were amazing! nice portions for the price! fantastic service, wonderful spot for a romantic sunset date night meal. we will bebacksoon!

good brunch - as always. the plates are always pretty, and the brunch is a no brainer for a perfectly sunny day. the lobster "fingers" are worth the trip alone. the poached egg dishes are also tasty. no doubt this is one of the best local places for seafood. service seems to be typically spread pretty thin, but it's still a great sunday experience.


-----27 jun, 2012-----

inhale a burger!. today turned out to be a great day to head to the beach, the sky was so perfect it meant braving the heat and enjoying the fresh air. the deck was actually as cool as indoors, because of a steady breeze coming off the water. i was assured that can't be counted on all of the time, but for today i lucked out.

i've had their burger a good while back, and remember liking it a lot, and given that it received such high marks from the nwfl burger tour, i decided that it was time to gobackand take notes. one of the biggest complaints from the group of judges was that they didn't have onions on their burger, but i had no such problem. i simply asked and my server happily complied.

the burger itself looked good, but didn't stretch out to the edge of the bun. once i took a bite i was in love, the meat was a very perfect med rare with great seasoning, the bun was toasted, and everything was pretty well in proportion. the condiments were also really high quality. they have homemade pickles too. all in all, this is now one of my favorite pub size burgers in town.

loved it!!!. food was great, best ice tea.
service and location are excellent.
price is just right for the quality of restaurant.
fist time in town, and will be comingbacktonight.
i recommend it to everybody looking to have an awesome time and food at a nice place while visiting the beautiful beaches of pensacola.

a great restaurant! one of my new favorites. i wentbackagain the next night. i've had the oysters on half shell, lobster fingers, lobster mac and cheese, mojitos, grouper piccata, lobster, salmon, and wahoo. all of them were very good and very fresh. i like the honey mustard beure blanc sauce with the wahoo. the praline desert was really good too. the atmosphere is really nice and kind of a fine dining chicago style with dark wood and furniture with paintings and metal accents throughout. the place was really clean with shiny ya kitty flatware and everyone was very pleasant and professional. there is a live band outdoors in the bar area around 8:00. bring your checkbook, you'll drop some cash here, but to me it's worth it. this is an upscale morton's or ruth's chris style of restaurant, but more on the seafood side. if i have to criticize, i would like linens on the tables and for someone to scrape the crumbs off when they pick up your plate. other than that, i love it and will be back.

good seafood. this was our first visit to the grand marlin. the grouper piccata was excellent. we had bbq shrimp as an appetizer and enjoyed it. i will gobackbut will request inside next time. although the view from the deck was nice, the atmosphere is more casual than we wanted. with entrees priced at $25-30+, i expect tablecloths and glassware that isn't plastic. service was a little lax. for example, our appetizer was served and then we had a five minute wait for silverware.

our new favorite place! food was incredible. service was awesome! jimmy was our waiter and best we've had in town since comingbackhome in march. will bebackweekly!

snobby waiter. we tried this place tonight, we had a horribly snobby waiter, the food was bland, cold, and all and all not good. we wont bebackand defiantly would never recommend this spot to anyone.

an excellent dining experience!. ate here after reading the great reviews on urban spoon and wasn't disappointed. the group piccata was amazing, the service was professional and pleasant and the atmosphere was lovely. my favorite on pensacola beach, hands down. will bebackwhenever i can.

--loved the grand marlin--. me and my wife came here on vacation a couple of weeks ago and were immediately seated by emily, one of the many lovely hostesses there, we sat along the window while she let us know where the restrooms and who our server was along with answering some of our questions about the local area and hotels. very helpful. the view we had was absolutely breathtaking, my wife and i found it very romantic. our server, kaya was extremely helpful and was able to detect what we would absolutely love on the menu. we ended up getting the steak, which was cooked perfectly, and my wife had the shrimp and grits, and she said it was some of the most succulent she had ever tasted. our food came out in a reasonable time and our drinks were never empty. once again, the view was beautiful, sunset and water front. and of course we couldn't resist the dessert! we has the praline thing with icecream and it was delicious, fresh fruit surrounded it and you could eat the bowl it came in. we would definitely comebackto the area just to dine here again, it was wonderful!!!