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 a great gumbo 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 had great flavor, 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 nexttimei go!

great food and people. i am a regular customer at the grand marlin. my husband and i love going there for lunch, brunch and dinner. i think the grand marlin is one of the best restraurants in the area. i have never had a bad meal there and the servers are always super nice. i will say that we always go at odd times so we don't have to wait. there can be a long wait depending on thetimeyou go. i think this alone shows you how popular the place is. i read one review that said they had a better meal at flounders. i guess if you are a tourist and don't know the difference between frozen food and mass market food and the real deal then yes, i guess it wouldn't matter. but, since we have lived here for over 40 years and we fish the area, i can tell you the food at the grand marlin is top notch! not frozen pre-battered junk thrown in a deep fryer!

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 littletimeto 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 nexttimeas 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

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 a great piece of fish. it has a sweet flavor and the firsttimei have tried it. the whipped potatoes were good as was the vegetable. our waiter was helpful and did a great job, the manager came by and ask how we were doing. it was a great meal experience, well worthy the money.

always a good meal at this great restaurant! 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 ontimeof the day.

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 wastimeto 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 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.
fisttimein town, and will be coming back tonight.
i recommend it to everybody looking to have an awesometimeand food at a nice place while visiting the beautiful beaches of pensacola.

poor food/service. we have been to grand marlin more than once because of out of town guest who were staying on the beach. those who receiver such "good service" must have hit the right day. eachtimethe service has been very slow and orders mixed up. at lunch after ordering and a 45 min. wait one of our guest had to leave and ask for her order to go, she was told it'll be just a little longer. there was not a crowd there that day. she left with out it. at lunch onetimei ordered a salad with grilled fish on it. upon getting into the salad i found the greens were old and brown--but very well covered by the other fresher greens. anothertimea guest ordered a hamburger (i know it's a seafood place). after we were served he ask for onions for the burger--- we were charged for the serving of one slice of onion. unless we are almost forced to go there we will not be back.

--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 reasonabletimeand 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 come back to the area just to dine here again, it was wonderful!!!

our firsttimethere and we loved it. the calamari was delicious. the oysters were amazing. wedge salad was very good and huge. could be split with two people. the seafood gumbo was a bit bland but i added some of their fire in the hole hot sauce which gave it a nice kick. the view at night by the water was amazing, especially with the full moon. would definitely go back.

good food + good service = good time. went to tgm last friday, 7 september, and had an excellent outing. we started with the new orleans bbq shrimp; it was delicious. the shrimp was perfectly prepared in that it was an explosion of flavor when you bit into it, not a bit chewy and overcooked at all. i could have had that as my meal alone. i had the months special, lobster boil, and it was excellently prepared. the lobster was what i consider slightly undercooked, which is perfect. over cooked lobster, like over cooked shrimp, can be stringy and chewy only amplified. it was excellent. another in our party had their 8 hour ribs. again perfectly prepared and falling off the bone cooked to perfection. the other two in our party had the loved & rubbed scottish salmon. their only request was that it be prepared medium well instead of their typical medium rare which is how i prefer my salmon and tuna be prepared if it's not rare.
i had a glass of their north drop ale, not bad and they had mandarin mango mojitos. i didn't taste it, but they said they were good (they had two each so must have been tasty). we also shared a wonderful dessert, but can't recall what it was other than delicious.
this is only my secondtimeto tgm and it's better than my first visit, not that my first visit was a bad or poor experience. our server, ramon, was right ontimeand knowledgable about the menu. however, i did have to prompt out of him the months lobster boil special (i had seen it advertised in the pnj weekender insert). again, tgm is a bit pricy, but worth the occasional outing and i would recommend it for an exceptional dining experience. enjoy.

yeesh! we drive in from perdido, because we've read some many reviews on urbanspoon. this restaurant is huge and the parking lot was packed (a good sign we thought). we get seated outside looking ivee the water which was nice as it was a pleasant night outside. our waiter, scott c., came and took our drink order and was pretty quick. he took the order - no issues but then the drinks came. i wasnt taken back when my sapphire and tonic came in a plastic cup no big deal just odd.

everything is a la carte - no salads with entrees but you can replace a rice side dish with a salad for $3 more. no biggie. the salads came at the sametimeas one of our dinner mate's shrimp cocktail. now the problems starts. the shrimp cocktail ($12.95) came looking pretty hastily and sloppily prepared. there were shells and legs still on 3 of the 4 shrimp. the caesar salads were absolutely dry - not a bit of dressing. all thistimethe waiter has not stopped by to make sure we are ok.

the entrees arrive. the shrimp and grits were interesting but not the style you would expect in new orleans. it was served in what was best described as fisherman's stew.

the other 2 people at the table got coconut shrimp. i tried one and agreed that they were heavily breaded and flavorless. did i mention the mounds of jelly? the jelly tasted like sweet and sour sauce at a chineaw restaurant. as an added bonus, the shrimp were to come with a black bean side dish. the beans were not cooked....at all.

scott c. came about 15 minutes after the entrees were dropped off. we were through with it at this juncture and asked for the bill. when we dropped it off, i asked about the beans and told him what happened with those plus the salads to which we told me that i should have said something. no apology, just a shifting of blame onto me.

the manager came and tried to make it "right". he gave me a full court press to come back with a $40 gift card ( our bill was $109). thankfully scott put it against the bill and we left disappointed.

i'm serious when i say that i think that a lot of the diners at the restaurant are willing to be forgiving but the prices and quality are just not worth it. it's a shame given the great water front location.

disappointed, but they did try to make it right. let me first start off saying i was so excited to go here. it was highly recommended by a few friends, and so my husband and i made reservations and off we went. when we arrived we were graciously met and sat by the hostess, and within seconds greeted by jimmy our waiter. he was fantastic. he recommended the blue angel chips ½ order, which were great to start with and got our drink order. at the sametimegave us some ideas for our dinner. we soon were mulling over our dinner options, with some dietary, and a lot of allergy restrictions, when jimmy came back i had to pick his brain again and he gave me some other ideas. when jimmy arrived at our table with our drinks i was kind of taken back because they were in plastic cups, now i am not snobby, but when your paying $20 and much much more per plate for dinner you kind of expect your drinks to be in glasses not plastic (small issue in comparison to the other issues later on). my husband ordered his usual bread pudding before dinner, and our blue angel chips came out, which were good. the bread pudding arrived, and it was probably the best my husband has had in pensacola. now to dinner, my husband had the coconut almond crusted shrimp and he stated it was good, but he reports who can ruin fried items. he said it was not the best he has had as another major restaurant up the road had better shrimp. when my plate was sat down in front me, which was sea scallops grilled they were all raw pink yes pink except 1. the girl who brought them out stated “i looked at them and they looked fine in the kitchen.” jimmy soon came over and agreed there was a problem, and took them back. about 15 to 20 minutes, the sea scallops came back out, i believe some of them were the same scallops that i sent back, and at least 2 of them were still not done and they were still raw. the manager came back over and stated were take care of them and that sweet tooth. by now my husband has completed almost all of his dinner, and i was just kind of done with it all. now jimmy was great. he came back over and asked if he could bring me something else, and i stated no. the sea scallops were either still raw or so rubbery that they seemed like they were recycled from someone else’s plate (i am sure they were not).
now i can say, not only did they take it off my bill, they took the bread pudding off the bill and sent us home with something else. jimmy was great. i was just so disappointed with the seafood, as that is the reason we went there. i think if i we go there nexttimeit will be there for the bread pudding, to see jimmy, and the appetizers not the seafood.

fabulous meal on the deck.... firsttimein pensacola beach area and urbanspoon did not let me down. beautiul location and the outdoor deck was fabulous and casual. pleasantly surprised with .50/raw oysters on monday night (was not advertised anywhere, facebook - or mentioned by server) but when i ordered she let me know they were on special. fish was cooked to perfection and flavorful

**location did not come up on my gps, but it is right next to the toll booth on the water so might help someone else in finding.

first off we loved the food, it was well prepared and presented. one thing we were surprised about was that all our drinks were served in plastic cups! when we go to a resteraunt of this caliber i don't expect to have plastic cups brought out to me. other than that the food was excellent and the wait staff friendly and knowledgable. one recommendation, make a reservation, the estimated waittimewas an hour and a half; luckily we had made reservations and got seated immediately.