More Best Restaurants in Pensacola

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

6 thoughts on “More Best Restaurants in Pensacola”

  1. I recommend to try margaritaville on pensacola beach Frank and Lolas restuarant is inside the hotel.. Best brunch in town.. Executive chef Eric Troup is a fabulous chef and his brunch menue is great.. Daily chef specials always something new and differnt..

  2. We would love for you to visit us and review Carmen’s Lunch Bar! We hope to see you soon! Thank you for the mention! MariCarmen Josephs
    Chef/Owner Carmen’s Lunch Bar

  3. My choice ,enjoyed it each and every time I went,family feel,food and service was fantastic. Wonderful,the place is David’s Catfish House on Navy Blvd.I am looking forward to return to Pecola,just to eat at David’s.

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