More Best Restaurants in Pensacola

Carmen's Lunch Box Cafe Sidewalk Dining Pensacola Florida

In this post oF Best Places to eat in Pensacola, we review: Triggers Seafood, The Ruby Slipper cafe, and Another Broken Egg Cafe. Following those reviews are links to four more Top Places to Eat in Pensacola.


Dining Review: Triggers Seafood Restaurant. (now Wolf Bay

When we are in Pensacola in our motor home, we generally spend some time staying at Big Lagoon State Park near Perdido Key. A few blocks west from the entrance to the park is Triggers Restaurant.

Triggers Seafood Restaurant, Pensacola Florida

Viewed from the outside, Triggers isn’t going win any architectural awards. You wouldn’t guess it is one of the best restaurants in Pensacola. A plain-looking box that years ago was a convenience store and bait shop. But in 1987 Glenn and Carol Ard bought the building to house their dream of starting a seafood restaurant. Glenn and Carol, their daughter and son-in-law plus an array of other relatives have created a successful authentic seafood restaurant, with friendly staff and a comfortable dining atmosphere. The interior has a nautical theme with comfortable tables and chairs, adequately spaced from one another so your dinner conversations aren’t easily shared with neighboring tables.

Our most recent visit was in March of 2017. Jo had their Seafood Platter and I chose the Mahi-Mahi Taco basket. Your entre’ includes a choice of two sides. Our fish was served hot, moist, and was flakey – easily cut with your fork. The veggies were crunchy, not overly cooked. Portion sizes were generous. Overall rating: excellent service, top-notch food, comfortable seating. We are not alone in loving Triggers; they also get some good reviews on Urban Spoon and Google Plus. It would get stronger reviews on other lists of best restaurants if it weren’t so far off the beaten path.

Note March 11, 2020: After more than 30 years in business, the Ard family closed Triggers Restaurant and sold the building. The structure was bought by the owners of Wolf Bay Lodge, a family owned restaurant chain, and significantly remodeled and re-opened as Wolf Bay at Perdido in the same location as Triggers. Like Triggers, the menu features seafood. Recent reviews are generally favorable, but we’ll have to visit them to see if we would rank them among the top 10 places to eat in Pensacola.


Dining Review: The Ruby Slipper Cafe.

Ruby’s is located next to the al Fresco outdoor cafe near the corner of Main Street and Palafox. The Cafe gets good reviews on Trip Advisor and it is convenient to the historic district and public parking areas. So during our visit in 2016 we thought it would be a good spot for a hearty breakfast out. When we are Rving, breakfast is usually something simple like cereal and fruit so we were looking forward to something more substantial like my favorite: eggs-over-easy, a slice of ham, whole wheat toast and hashbrown potatoes.

The Slipper’s breakfast menu featured a number of more exotic, fancy food dishes at prices we usually pay for dinner fare. But after a little searching, we did find some more traditional breakfast choices. Jo went with a build-your-own 3 egg omelete that offered a large number of alternative add-ons. Her choice was tomatoes, onions, and swiss cheese and a side of fruit. It also came with a large biscuit. She was happy with her meal. I should have followed her plan but I had my mouth fixed for eggs-over-easy with toast, ham and hashbrowns. The closest I could come to that was their Southern Fried Breakfast. Not a good choice. Chicken sausage, a heavily breaded deep-fried green tomato, grits, and a gooey biscuit just didn’t cut it with my eggs-over-easy . . . that were done a little too hard. And getting served lukewarm coffee didn’t help matters.

Our postage stamp sized table for two was crammed in very close to other diners and was in a very noisy part of the café, making conversation difficult. The tiny table with no spare space, noise, and being smack against our fellow diners plus average to below average attentiveness of our server lowered our review rating substantially. And compared to the price of our meal, we have to give the Ruby poor marks overall.

Based on our experience, we cannot verify Ruby Slippers best restaurant rating. In fairness, while other reviewers have also complained about the noise level, comfort, and less attentive service, many customers have found the more exotic menu and specialty drinks just what they wanted. However for our upper Midwestern palates, we are still searching for a decent place for breakfast in Pensacola.



Dining Review: Another Broken Egg Cafe 

Upon reading the above comment on our search for a decent breakfast spot in Pensacola, a manager at Another Broken Egg Cafe on Gregory Street who urged us to try them next time. We took her advice in March of 2017.

Another Broken Egg Cafe Pensacola Florida
Lots of space and comfortable seating in 3 different dining areas.

We were not disappointed. Broken Egg has a very spacious interior with dining rooms, good spacing between tables, and large comfortable booths for those who prefer this kind of seating. Pleasant background music at the right volume level. Exceptional service from a team of wait staff each with different roles, although they also overlap to better serve the customer. The team included an order taker, a server, coffee and water servers, and two different managers or hosts who stopped by to check how we were doing. Water and coffee was refilled frequently and we had staff stop by five times to ask if we needed anything. We felt like visiting royalty.

We had scrambled eggs, hash browns, and toast with our coffee. You could tell the scrambled eggs were made fresh – not manufactured in large quantities and then reheated like you find in most motel breakfast offerings. The prices were reasonable and the menu offered a wide variety of breakfast options from all sorts of traditional to more exotic and heart healthy versions. Price was reasonable and portion sizes decent. (See pix, also do a TripAdvisor review)

Another Broken Egg Café is the #4 rated Best Pensacola Restaurant in Trip Advisor and we agree with their top rating, at least for breakfast but I imagine their top-notch service carries through to lunch and dinner.

More Reviews of Best Restaurants in Pensacola.

Other Pensacola Restaurant Best Places to Eat in Pensacola.

We still have a number of Pensacola pubs and restaurants we need to sample and review. On Palafox Place Street on our to-visit list is Carmen’s Lunch Bar Restaurant  (shown at the top of this page) It has attractive sidewalk dining and also dining indoors in the restaurant itself. As the name suggests its focus is on lunch (serving 11 am to 4 pm) but also offers a nighttime Tapas menu (as well as beer and wine) from 4 pm to 8 pm. Gets good reviews on Yelp, Urban Spoon, and other restaurant review websites, so it is another top-rated dining places in Pensacola we have to try.

Within the downtown and nearby historic districts, there are lots of other unique and interesting places to eat and entertain. We enjoyed the outdoor patio and craft brews at Pensacola Bay Brewery, however unfortunately they offer no food service.

Pensacola Bay Brewery
Good brews, nice patio, but no food service.

Three other Pensacola dining and entertainment places that get good reviews are also located along Palafox Street: the Global Grill a tapas bar, Jackson’s Steakhouse, and Jaco’s Bayfront Bar & Grill – see our review.  You can see profiles of other restaurants at the Pensacola Visitor Center website.

Happy to hear recommendations from other Pensacola visitors. Make your Comments below.

Visiting Pensacola Florida

Pensacola: Things to See and Do
Pensacola Restaurants & Pubs
Pensacola Golf Courses
Smokin’ on the Square
Naval Aviation Museum
Historical Pensacola Forts
Fort Pickens Campground
Pensacola Beach
Gulf Coast Scenic Drive, Part 1
Gulf Coast Scenic Drive, Part 2

Roscoe

Fixing Leaky RV Waste Water Value

See our RV Motorhome Reviews: Best Class B Camper VansBest Class C Motorhomes, Top European Compact RVs and see our list of Top RV Shows

Fixing forever the Nasty Sewer Valve Leak

We are among the RV motorhome owners who are frequently hassled by a slow leak in either or both the gray and black water holding tank valves.

In our case, it has been the persistent small leak in the gray tank valve. Sometimes it produces a small drip from the cap that covers the outlet to the sewage system. Because I know it is gray water, I’m not too bothered by it. But my wife is; she worries other people at the campground might see it leaking. Other times the cap doesn’t leak but when we are at a RV dump station and open the cap to install the sewage dump line and rush of gray water comes splashing out. That is an additional nuisance we both object to.

In my case I’ve tried various solutions like filling both gray and black tanks with vinegar and soap solutions to better flush out the drain lines. Sometimes bits of material get caught in the tank valve that prevent it from closing properly. When this didn’t provide a lasting solution, I broke down and ordered and installed a replacement gray valve. That solution didn’t last either.

On our unit, and I suspect many other RV layouts, the gray valve is actuated by a long cable. You push or pull on the handle on one end of the cable and the other end is attached to the gate valve. There seems to always be a bit of slop in the cable system; hard to “feel” that the valve is being entirely closed. I guess a final solution would be redirect the entire gray tank plumbing system so we have an separate outlet for the gray valve and can install a directly operated gate valve that doesn’t need a cable. Big job and it means the process of emptying the RV tanks will now be a two piece, two step system, hooking and unhooking the flexible sewer line two times to handle each of the tanks.

The Ultimate Solution to the Leaking RV Holding Tank

Well American innovation has finally come to solve our problem. It is a new product from Valterra RV Products. It is the T58 Twist-On Waste Valve. It is designed to replace your existing RV drain cap and it contains a secondary direct action waste valve. Your existing cap then twists on the open-end of the Twist-On-Waste Valve. The new valve gives you an effective second line of defense against the nagging leaky valve problem. What is nice about it is even if there is gray or black water built up behind the new valve, when you remove the cap to hook up your sewer line no water will come splashing out.

For less than $25 and minimal labor installing it, this nagging leaky valve problem is a thing of the past. You can order that new  Valterra T58 Twist-on Waste Valve from Amazon here

Installation is simple. Just unscrew and remove the outer dust cap from your present valve. Then screw on the Valterra Twist-on Valve in place of the cap you just removed. The valve handle component will rotate around to work at any angle. The place your old dust cap on the Valterra. That’s it. Now you have two lines of defense against that nasty dump valve leak.

RV dump valve replacement
Remove the dust cap from your present valve.
rv dump valve
Twist on the Valterra valve and install your dust cap on the end.

*We earn a modest commission on Amazon sales, that is paid by Amazon and does not increase the price of the product.

Guide to Buying an RV Mattress

Grant River Corps of Engineering RV Campground

mississippi river sunset

RV Campground Review: Grant River Recreation Area – Potosi, Wisconsin

Grant River is one of our favorite Corps Parks. Located on the banks of the Mississippi River, it has nice mature trees offering lots of shade options for the camp sites. Modern full service washrooms with showers kept spotlessly clean. Lots of frontage along the river with benches every 100 feet or so offering a pleasant places to sit and watch the river roll by. There isn’t a lot of activity on the river itself, largely free of the sound of jet skis and power boats charging back and forth disturbing the tranquility. But there is an adjacent boat launch for fisherman and a large parking area for trailers.

grant river campground
Spacious, well-planned camp sites with shade at least part of the day.

The sites are level and concrete and the road throughout park is paved. The heavy, substantial picnic tables are well-maintained and stand on a well-drained gravel pad with a fire-ring and grill. The sites are electric-only with 20, 30, and 50 amp service. No water hydrants at each site, but several hydrants are sprinkled throughout the campground for convenient refilling. There is adequate spacing and green space between the camp sites. A few of the camp sites are dedicated for tent campers and provide very adequate spacing away from other camp sites.

grant river campground
This may be an original Shasta camper. Looks in good shape.

Just north of the campground is a day use area with a picnic pavilion, a boat ramp and dock, and lots of parking space.


grant river corps park
Watching the sun go down at Grant River Corps park

Things to See and Do at Grant River Corps Park

Besides hanging out at the campsite, we enjoy hiking around the park, enjoying the scenic views of the river, and biking both around the park and to the Potosi Brewery for a brew or food (see our review). The National Brewery Museum is also located at the Brewery and is a fun and interesting look at the history of brewing with stories and pictures from former breweries in Wisconsin and across the nation.

Potosi Brewery
One of our favorite things to do at Grant River Corps park is dine at the Potosi Brewery

For bikers, the rustic rural road that runs from Potosi’s main street to the park isn’t that busy with traffic and is a scenic bike ride over a mostly level terrain. More enthusiastic bikers can take the return trip along Brewery Hollow Road (a Wisconsin scenic rural road) back to the campground. And even more enthusiastic bikers can take the scenic River Road 20 miles north to Cassville and the Stonefield Village Historic Site.

When we have the grand kids or grand nephews/nieces with us they enjoy fishing from the banks of the river and the park playground that has slides, swings, climbing gym, volleyball court, and horse shoe courts.

Provisions like ice, beverages, and basic groceries are available at the Pine Point Store 4 miles away in downtown Potosi.

One Downside to RV Camping at Grant River

While we consider Grant River an A+ campground, some campers would downgrade that vote due to the fact of frequent trains running by. Seeing the trains is a neat experience for kids and train aficionados, but the noise of them passing can disrupt what are otherwise a very peaceful nighttime atmosphere.

All along the upper Mississippi River there are railroad tracks with active freight trains running day and night, so one downside of any campground near the Big River are the periodic trains that run overnight.

grant river campground site map
Grant River Camp Site Map

See our list of Best Great River Road RV Campgrounds from Dubuque, Iowa to Prescott, Wisconsin

Links to Nearby Travel and Visitor Attractions: