Carmen’s Lunch Bar Cafe

Carmen's Lunch Box Cafe Sidewalk Dining Pensacola Florida

Carmen’s is rated among the Best Pensacola Restaurants Carmen’s is located on historic Palafox Street in downtown Pensacola, Florida. We’ve been by Carmen’s many times and noted there’s always a few people enjoying food, beverages, and conversation at one of the tables set up outside the entrance to the cafe. So we made a note … Read more

Review Peg Leg Petes Pensacola Beach

Peg Leg Petes Pensacola Beach

Dining and Drinking at Peg Leg Pete’s Seafood & Oyster Bar Peg Leg Pete’s is one the most popular oyster and seafood bars in Pensacola Beach. Prior to our visit there, we’ve driven by the place many, many times and their parking lot always seemed full . . . so we figured to try to … Read more

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

Jaco’s Bayfront Bar & Grill | Pensacola, FL

jacos grill pensacola

Restaurant Review: Jaco’s Bayfront Grill, Pensacola, Florida

One of Pensacola’s Best places to eat, Jaco’s is upscale casual dining, overlooking Pensacola Bay and the Palafox Pier Marina. Spacious, comfortable tables and seating with cloth napkins, lemon-slice in the water, and more substantial eating utensils give it a touch of class.

Jaco's Bayfront Grill
Jo getting ready to dig into her tasty Pesto Flatbread.

The overhead heaters and transparent wind screens allow customers to enjoy dining outside even in cooler weather.

Jaco's Bayfront Bar and Grille Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Service was also classy. Competent, friendly and attentive wait staff. Refilling my water glass and stopping by frequently to check in during the meal is one of my service check marks and Jaco’s staff did well hitting these marks. My glass of Yuengling tap was served in a frosted glass and had a decent head of foam on it, another mark of quality service. Finally it was not a long wait for our meal to be delivered and it arrived hot so it had not been sitting under heat lamps for long. We give 5 stars for Jaco’s service.

I had their blackened Mahi-Mahi Taco, a dish I often use as a benchmark to compare restaurants. Jaco’s offering was a little different from many others in that it was served in a hard shell taco vs. a soft shell. I found the hard shell easier to consume without a mess of ingredients squeezing out. My previous Mahi-Taco at another dining establishment necessitated lots of finger-licking! Jaco’s Taco is nicely prepared and presented, as good tasting as I’ve had in the past. Instead of fries, chips, or hush puppies, Jaco’s Taco came with an ample combination of brown rice and beans as a side dish plus a mango salsa relish serving. Nice change of pace from the usual side I get.

Jo had their Pesto Flat Bread that came with Kalamata olives, Italian sausage, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, fresh basil, spinach and Pesto Spread. She found it very tasty and filing.

Jaco’s outside dining deck had overhead heaters which allowed us to be comfortable eating outdoors on a very nice sunny day that otherwise would have been too cold and windy to eat out on the deck.

Decent quality food, top service, pleasing dining atmosphere, all for a relatively modest price. Jaco’s is an excellent value; we rate it among the best restaurants we’ve experienced in Pensacola and Pensacola Beach. And reviewers on Zomato also rate it among the top 5 restaurants in Pensacola.

Links:

Best Pensacola Beach Restaurants

Peg Leg Pete's Oyster Bar Pensacola Beach

According to Trip Advisor, the Grand Marlin is the number 1 rated restaurant in Pensacola Beach. But as it is also listed as the most expensive restaurant in Pensacola Beach we’ve not dined there. But considering its good rating, perhaps we ought to find out “how expensive” it is! 🙂

But we have had a chance to sample some of the Beach’s other top rated restaurants.

Our Reviews of Best Restaurants in Pensacola Beach

Below are reviews of:

  • Flounder’s Chowder House
  • Red Fish-Blue Fish Restaurant
  • Native Cafe.

Review – Flounders Chowder House

Flounders is a beach front casual, seafood dining and entertainment emporium that has been in Pensacola Beach since 1979. It is full of nautical paraphernalia, antiques, and fanciful creations. A former world record 980 lb Blue Marlin hangs from the ceiling of the Marlin Bar. Adjacent to the street-side entrance is the 55 foot former shrimp boat, the M/V Flounder named after its owner Captain Frank Flounder. Frank’s three sons opened Flounders Chowder House after serving their tours shrimping.

Diners have a choice of seating: an open-air outdoor deck adjacent to their beach, a covered outdoor deck, and inside seating. There’s also a separate, cafeteria style Sushi Bar. The stand-up Tiki Bar is out on beach and the more spacious Marlin Bar is in the open-air covered area.

The sand beach fronts on Pensacola Bay and includes a long pier with boat docking facilities for guests arriving by water. The large beach area also hosts a volleyball court and a kids playground area within view of the restaurant so Mom and Dad can keep an eye on the kids while they dine. The entertainment stage looks out over the the deck, but no one was performing the day we were there. But Jamaican music played in the background on their PA system.

flounders bar and grill
The former Flounder’s Shrimp Boat welcomes visitors to the restaurant.
Beach Volleyball at Pensacola Beach
Beach volleyball in front of Flounders Chowder House
Founders Restaurant Pensacola Beach
Dining on the deck at Flounders Chowder House.

Rating Flounders Food & Service

I had the Grilled Mahi Taco Salad and Jo chose her favorite burger basket, a Mushroom & Swiss Burger w fries. The food portion size was large and the quality good, but not outstanding. We’ll give it Four stars. The wait service was prompt and friendly. A fun, family friendly, entertaining place to spend an afternoon or evening. Next time I’ll have to try their signature Floyd Flounder’s Phenomenal Chowder, a past winner of the Great Florida Chowder Cook-off.


Red Fish, Blue Fish Restaurant

Red Fish Blue Fish is another funky beach front dining and entertainment also located on the Pensacola Bay side of the island. Like Flounders it has an extensive white sand swimming and lounging beach, in fact maybe a little larger than Flounders. As with Flounders you can be in the open-air patio, the covered deck, or inside away from all the elements. There’s no volleyball court but there are corn-hole game sets on the patio and on the beach.

The day we were there a country-pop trio was performing on the outdoor stage. They had a Simon & Garfunkel style of close harmony and a wild electric fiddle that I loved. It was an idyllic afternoon, good food, good music, sun, beach, ocean breezes, and a very tasty Bloody Mary.

Our lunch was Grilled & Blackened Mahi on a bed of steamed asparagas, rice & spinach. Excellently prepared and decent wait service. We’ve had and enjoyed Grilled Mahi at other Gulf Coast eateries and the dish served up by Red Fish Blue Fish didn’t disappoint us.

Red Fish Blue Fish Pensacola Restaurant
Relax on this funky bench outside the entrance to Red Fish Blue Fish
pensacola beach
The Patio of Red Fish Blue Fish Restaurant in Pensacola Beach is where everyone wants to be.
Red Fish Blue Fish Seafood Grill
Some great tunes out on the Patio of Red Fish Blue Fish

Native Café

Also a bit away from the hustle and crowds is the best breakfast spot in Pensacola Beach (also serves lunch until 3pm). Nestled in a plain jane strip mall east of Pensacola Beach’s entertainment center, Native Café is easy to miss unless you know about their reputation. We found out about them on Trip Advisor where they are rated the #2 Restaurant in Pensacola Beach behind the Grand Marlin, which is the top rated place to eat in the Beach – but is also the most expensive.

Their artsy marquee was matched with a funky, artsy and intimate interior. Some light jazz played in the background adding to the unique café atmosphere.

Native Café is family run, operated by fifth generation Pensacolians, Joyce and Charles Brown and their children, Josef Wiggins, Jesse Brown and Arin Brown. Their commitment to good food, a fun atmosphere and good service has people like us going to an effort to find them.

Native Cafe Pensacola Beach
Native Cafe’s South Western Motif
Native Cafe Fish Sandwiches
Delicious Mahi-Mahi Tacos in the foreground, Mahi-Mahi PoBoy background.

Rating the Native Cafe

We were there for a late lunch. Jo had their signature PoBoy Mahi-Mahi sandwich basket that included a side of fresh veggies. I had their famous Florida Fish Tacos, which contains sautéed Mahi which chopped cabbage, tomato, and bell peppers and 2 kinds of sauce. Excellent taste, large portions left us stuffed. Great food coupled with fast, friendly service stands up to their #2 rating. Love the artsy coffee shop atmosphere and their choice of music. 5 stars. We look forward to returning the next time we are in Pensacola Beach.


Other Top Rated Pensacola Beach Restaurants.

Peg Leg Petes Pensacola Beach (pictured at the top of the page)
Bustling, pirate-themed seafood restaurant featuring a children’s play area & raw bar

We’ve driven by Peg Leg Pete’s several times on the way to and from Fort Pickens. The parking lot was always full so we never stopped as we figured there would be a long wait for a table. They get good reviews on Google and Trip Advisor so one of these days we have to give them a try. (We finally did in 2020 – see our review)

Grand Marlin
The Grand Marlin is at the tip of peninsula that juts out into Santa Rosa Sound with a terrific panoramic view of the cove between the island and the Gulf Breeze peninsula. Highly rated by Trip Advisor for the quality of their food and service. But warning you also pay top dollar for that four star rating. With extensive docking facilities it is a popular dining and entertainment spot for boaters. One of these days we’ll dig into the Piggy Bank and stop there for dinner or lunch.

The Pensacola News Journal recently posted some announcements of new Pensacola Beach Restaurants recently opened that included The Drift Casino Beach Bar & Grille.

Pensacola Beach Links

shotgun house
Pensacola’s historic district is loaded with beautifully restored homes from the 1800s.

Pensacola Visitor Links

See More Florida Gulf Coast Restuarant Reviews

What are your favorite Pensacola Beach Restaurants & Bars? Let us know in the comments below.

Your Gulf Coast Travel Guide, Ross Reinhold

Top Pensacola Restaurants and Pubs

Pensacola Dining Reviews:

Below are our reviews of some of the top places to eat in Pensacola: Fish House Restaurant, Hub Staceys, McGuire’s Irish Pub, and Jo Patti’s Seafood. Below those reviews are links to our reviews of five more Best Restaurants in Pensacola. But first a slide show of some of these famous places to dine.


Slide Show of featured Pensacola restaurants

Top Places to eat in Pensacola: Joe Patti’s Fish Market, Hub Stacey’s Tavern, McGuire’s Pub, The Fish House Restaurant, Carmen’s Lunch Box Cafe

  • Fish House Restaurant Pensacola
    The Fish House Restaurant is on Pensacola Bay. A huge aquarium separates the two dining rooms.
  • Joe Patti's Fish Market
    Joe Patti's Fish Market busy fresh seafood service counter stretches for about a hundred feet. In the far right side of the picture is their Sushi Bar.
  • Joe Patti's Deli Market
    Joe Patti's Deli Market. In addition to Joe Patti's huge seafood Market they also have a large deli area with meats, sausages, cheeses, and loads of special condiments.
  • Hub Staceys Tavern
    The popular Hub Staceys Tavern is across the street from the Seville Square Park. In addition to inside dining, they have a covered sidewalk dining area.
  • McGuire's Pub Pensacola
    McGuires Pub is one Pensacola's most popular places to eat and drink. Fun atmosphere and good service.
  • McGuire's Pub Money Ceiling
    The Money Ceiling at McGuire's Pub. Many thousands of dollars, some say a million, hang from the ceiling.
  • Carmen's Lunch Bar Restaurant
    Carmen's Lunch Bar Restaurant also has a sidewalk cafe that is the perfect place for dining on a nice day.

Dining Review: the Fish House Restaurant – Pensacola

Offering, in our experience, some of the best dining in Pensacola, the Fish House Restaurant is on an inlet of Pensacola Bay and is walking distance from the downtown historic district. There is an outside dining and entertainment deck (The Deck Bar) overlooking the docks but the weather was too chilly for that so we ate indoors. It is a comfortable dining atmosphere with skilled and friendly wait and service staff. The beer was served in ice cold steins, a touch I appreciate. For me one mark of an attentive wait staff is having my water glass refilled without asking, this happened three times.

The food was excellent. We ordered the crab and lobster cake appetizer, which at first I thought was a modest size for the price ($13) but we were surprised how filling it was, and it was tasty – worth the 13 bucks. Both Jo and I ordered the Grilled Salmon. While not from the local Pensacola fishery, it must be flown in daily because it is advertised as “fresh.” It certainly tasted fresh, moist and served hot. Our sides were a grilled medley of veggies, plus cole slaw and black-eyed peas. All very tasty and good portion sizes.

I’d rate the pricing structure as mid-size yet a very good value considering the quality of food, service, and comfortable ambience of the restaurant. We will certainly dine here again.

Fish House Website: The Fish House Restaurant


Dining Review: Hub Staceys Pensacola

While walking around Pensacola’s Historic District, we happened to stumble upon a neighborhood pub called Hub Staceys , which is across the street from Seville Square. That day the park was hosting the annual “Smokin in the Square” BBQ competition and festival. Wonderful aromas were wafting in the air as competitors were beginning to smoke their entries. Unfortunately we were a day early to sample the “contestants” but Hubs sidewalk signboard advertised BBQ pork sandwich on a pretzel bun. So that plus the aroma’s from the Square was enough to bring us in. Hubs is an old wood-sided corner building that looks like it has been a neighborhood bar for a long time. Inside it has a funky and friendly atmosphere befitting its neighborhood bar location. The BBQ sandwich was good but on our visit Hubs won’t win awards for attentive service. Staff was friendly but they are content to wait for you to flag them down to place your order or get a refill. In their defense, the place was reasonably busy due to the festival in the park, but I suspect that local tradition is that you speak up when you want something!

Website: Hub Staceys


Dining Review: McGuire’s Irish Pub – Pensacola

McGuires is routinely voted one of the top 10 Florida restaurants. It is noted for its steaks and burgers as well as a few Irish specialties. The pub atmosphere is olde english, dark oak paneling and pictures, plaques, and memorbilia covering all the walls. The pub is large but broken up into several small, intimate dining areas. But its ceiling (and some walls) is most distinctive. Hanging from the ceiling (and pinned to some walls) are dollar bills, an estimated 1 million of them! Rumor is the practice was started by the first waitress who celebrated the opening of McGuires by pinning her first dollar tip to the ceiling. Jo had her usual mushroom and swiss burger; I had the Reuben on Rye recommended by our waitress. Both were top notch, served hot and moist in a reasonable amount of time. The portion sizes were extremely generous, so much that we took half our sandwiches home with us. Host and wait service was prompt, friendly, and attentive. The parking lot was quite full for a Thursday afternoon about 3pm, testifying to the quality of their food and service. Bonus – McGuires brews their own line of ales. After doing the sampler I chose their stout. Four and half stars.

Website: McGuire’s Irish Pub


Jo Patti’s Fish MarketCaptain Joey Patti’s Seafood Restaurant

Jo Patti’s Fish Market is Pensacola’s large and busy ocean-side fish market carrying an amazing variety and quantity of seafood as well as a decent selection of condiments to accompany a seafood dinner. If you have never been to a large busy fish market before, it is worth a stop just for the experience – even if you aren’t shopping. If you are shopping, you take a number and get served when your number is called. In addition to seafood, they have a decent sized deli area with a good selection of cheeses and sausage. Next door is Anna’s Wine Shop. The Fish Market did offer a Sushi Bar, but neither Jo nor I are fans of raw fish, so this wasn’t an option.

We stopped at Joe Patti’s Fish Market with the intention of having lunch there as we had heard good things about their seafood offering. The Fish Market is a large building along the water front and hard to miss. What we didn’t know at the time and did not discover until we got home was that Joey’s Restaurant is not in the extensive Fish Market complex, but located a block and half away west of the Fish Market among several nondescript industrial-commercial buildings. So Joey’s Restaurant is another review we have to do in the future.

AL Fresco Outdoor Cafe

The Al Fresco outdoor dining patio, is pictured at the top of this page. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you about the food quality or service since we came upon it between meal times . . . but the ambiance is really cool. An outdoor cafe with umbrellas, palm trees, potted plants, and surrounded by 4 vintage Airstream Travel Trailers turned into Restaurant-Food Carts. Each of the Airstream Restaurants offers a different style menu. A fifth restaurant, the Shux Oyster Bar, also offers indoor dining options. Located at the intersection of Palafox and Main Streets, Al Fresco is near the waterfront, on the way to the Plaza De Luna pier. It is only a few blocks from the Historic Pensacola Village, and near downtown Pensacola as well. Next time we are in Pensacola on a nice afternoon, we have to catch a bite to eat here.

More Reviews Top Pensacola Restaurants

Roscoe