the grand marlin of pensacola beach

beautiful and flavorful. this was a lovely dining experience. the sat outside, just on the water and watched sailboats, dolphins and fishermen go by.
the food was super fresh and delicious. the shrimp and grits had a warm, spicy, comfort food flair. i'm usually not a fan of grits, but this was more like polenta, which i love.the tomato and sausage had agreatgumbo flair.
other dishes at the table included the local fresh grouper with salsa verde and mashed potatoes. yum! the salsa was a perfect accouterment, and the potatoes must have been half butter. the swordfish and asian slaw special hadgreatflavor, but i'm not a swordfish fan so the others won for me.
don't miss the cocktails. my mojito was excellent and i'll be trying the white wine sangria with sage and cucumber next time i go!

overpriced & overhyped. let's start at the beginning. first we asked for outdoor seating but the hostess stand is ran by three inexperienced young "cute" girls. they need for professional hostesses in a restaurant that has an upscale look.....anyways we were given indoor seating. they apologized for that. okay, strange start for a place we were told was so locally, highly revered. listening skills are always a problem among younger people and i'm 30. we sit down outside and the table we were seated at was far too windy. we politely asked for another table and they got us seated but the hostess (once again looked 17) wiped down the table....supposedly. it still had food remnants on it and smelled like fish. we got the calamari because it was highly reviewed here on urbanspoon....the menu does not explain it is calamari but it also has pickles and bell peppers as well. the menu does state is has banana peppers on it that's it. also, if you ask for ranch or marinara they don't have any for substitute. the lime aioli is far too sweet for my tastes and the fact that a restaurant doesn't have any ranch on hand makes me glad i didn't order a salad. the calamari ended up seeming like a rip off, too much other fried vegetables and not enough seafood for the $9.95 price. peg leg pete's offers same taste on the same dish for a basket of all calamari not fillers. now, to the entrees. my husband and i ordered the filet mignon & the ribeye. the steaks were phenomenal. tender,greatcuts but no seasoning. this company would have steak lovers flying in the door if they actually seasoned them a bit. we put salt and pepper on them it helped. overall though i would rate steaks themselves a 5 star rating. sides were average.....all in all with my always 20% tip because our waitress did nothing wrong....we didn't dare get dessert at their prices due to poor appetizer and sides being boring...our bill was $94 and at that rate we shall not return again. the chef needs to find the nearest o'charley's chain restaurant and order a louisiana sirloin and take note. o'charley's meat isn't as good but the seasoning makes it amazing.

excellence!. we had drinks on the patio overlooking the water. it was roomy with high ceilings and agreatbar 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,greatflavor 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 go back to 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 heardgreatthings 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 go back for that!

after eyeing the pensacola beach location, i finally made it to the grand marlin. the greeting upon arrival is always warm and welcoming. the staff does everything they can to make your dining experience beyond exceptional.

once seated, my marvelous server ramon, helped me decide on several things and described the food and drinks with clear detail to help me find exactly what i was looking for. with so many tasty options to choose from, i finally decided on the blackberry mojito and bbq shrimp to start with. for the main course i just had to have the sunday special of prime rib with whipped potatoes and seasonal vegetables (string beans). everything was exceptional!

when visiting pensacola beach be sure to swing by the grand marlin forgreatcustomer service, wonderful wait staff, extremely tasty food, and a good drink!

*this is not a sponsored review.

just anothergreatmeal tonight. the gm never disappoints, ever. last week, red snapper, incredible! best snapper i’ve ever had tonight, fried gulf sampler, wow! it was perfect! i’m a local and they’re a favorite!

the blue angle chips had very good flavor. the blue cheese was not over powering and nicely balanced, recommend adding bacon. oysters on half shell was also agreatchoice.

my wife and i went to eat at the grand marlin around 7:00 without reservations. we we seated quickly and received quick service. it was nov 3 but they had good crowd. the restaurant has a fantastic view on the bay and is a nice big restaurant. we both had a drink and shared an appetizer of smoked tuna dip. it was good. we both ordered one of the fish specials. the triple tail served covered in browned butter. this was agreatpiece of fish. it has a sweet flavor and the first time i have tried it. the whipped potatoes were good as was the vegetable. our waiter was helpful and did agreatjob, the manager came by and ask how we were doing. it was agreatmeal experience, well worthy the money.

amazing location,greatview and service.

we ordered the lobster fingers, gulf shrimp with creole mustard and fresh catch red snapper with caper sauce. all was fresh, soft and so good.
one thing i would consider is amount of salt added both to shrimps (probably ingredient of the spicy sauce but anyway) and smashed potatoes.

we also ordered lime moose with crunchy bottom (hope this sounds correct:)) and it was delicious apart from moose:) little too much butter i think or whatever keeps the whole moose in shape:)
i just shoot as have no idea about cooking. only idea i have is if i like something or not:) based on subjective taste and comparison.

to sum it up. service and food really great, location fantastic and without any doubts i would recommend to anyone. i'd rate 5 if there was more attention to salt.

i visit pensacola often, including frequent saturday beach trips, and we get a room and stay overnight just so we can et brunch at the grans marlin on sunday mornings. the brunch is awesome. the crab cakes benedict and shrimp and grits are excellent and flavorful. the chocolate croissant tastes just like the ones i had in paris, and they are baked fresh that morning too. the kids love it, and the blue marlin cocktail is now a tradition for every visit. the service isgreatmost of the time. the restaurant is clean and so are the bathrooms. hemmingway's is good and was my favorite until i tried grand marlin. in my opinion it's the best restaurant on the island.

always a good meal at thisgreatrestaurant! ordered raw oysters, a combo of all baked oysters that our waitress accommodated in a platter for us, crab cakes and filet mignon done perfectly rare! our meal was completed with a delicious fruit praline basket dessert. so far, every meal we have had here were always consistently great....service on some occasions were just okay depending on time of the day.

best ice cold oysters on the half shell in the panhandle! haven't had anything that wasn't delicious. best seafood restaurant in the area!greatservice as well!

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 agreatwater 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 the back of 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-

don't let the tourist area fool you, locals go here forgreatseafood. i would recommend avoiding during tourism season where people want to put ranch on everything. non-seafood is a 3.5. but i'm going to rate the restaurant based on their seafood dishes. view overlooking the bay is incredible. best enjoyed with a seafood sangria. only oddity is 80-90's music playing in the background.

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 agreatsunday experience.


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

inhale a burger!. today turned out to be agreatday 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 go back and 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 withgreatseasoning, 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.