As a frequent visitor to South Padre Island I have come up with a little dining review for those making it down this summer. These are where the locals go, not many tourist.

#1 WANNA WANNA BAR & GRILL(Best finger food, shrimp, fish,oysters, drinks and watching on the island)

#2 Dirty Al's/Daddy's (Owned by the same people, but Daddy's cajun food rivals any place in New Orleans)

#3 Cap'n Roy's (Award winning shrimp recipes and real, not texmex, mexican food)

Breakfast - Isabel's in Port Isabel. Simply the best breakfast around.

If you want to do some Bay Fishing, contact JR. Scanlan at Jim's pier. Great Guide!!!

Have fun.

It's not how you hit the hole, It's how you wiggle the worm.

Palm St. Pier Bar & Grill

padre island brewing company
blackbeards
d pizza joint

Blackbeards = TOURIST TRAP

shut thy mouth! the food is good. locals do know when to go or not though :P

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Blackbeards = TOURIST TRAP

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CORRECT!!!

Thanks for the timely post as I am taking the family down there next week. How are most of those places for famliies -- I have two 3 year olds and their 75 year-old grandparents...and do all of them allow smoking?

Also, what can you tell me about the following--

Pelican Landing -- was just looking for somewhere convenient to stop after picking up the grandparents from the airport.

Looking for something with outdoor dining on the water -- Louie's, Scampi's (would do their early dinner menu)

Best local pizza delivery? D'Pizza ?

What about Tom&Jerry's?


May now have to add Blackbeard's back onto our list...had read some bad reviews on the net.

Order the locals Ribeye Sandwich at Blackbeards, one of the best eating out values in the Valley. Also the locals Club Sandwich is very, very good.

I will have to respectfully disagree with Blackbeards being a tourist trap. How do you all think it has survived all these years? The food is real good, when the tourists leave that is where the locals tend to eat (I used to be one).

Blackbeards is real particular about their ingredients and their service. I have called that area home for the better part of 20 years, and when I go to eat out my fist choice in the local is Blackbeards.

Tourist Traps/Bait and switch places:
-Sea Ranch
-Scampi's
-Amberjacks

Good places to eat in the area:
-Manuel's
-Isabell's
-Palmetto Inn (Hmm I wonder if I have a preference for a certain type of food)
-Mesquito's

Actually, I really don't know too many others as I usually eat at Blackbeards when I have anything to say about it.

Oh, Al's place in the park is good also.

I do eat at Pelican's Landing due to it being Aggie owned. Their food is OK, but a little steep for my day in and day out preference.

Oh, one really good place for Seafood lunches is Reyes Seafood in Laguna Heights, forgot about that place.

The roast chicken, carnitas, brisket and barbacoa from Mata's meat market in Port Isabel is also very, very good.

Blackbeards is a huge tourist restaraunt but the food is amazing. They are extremely particular about their food purchases and the freshness. Its crowded and bustling but it is a good time none the less. That being said Dirty Al's is also a place to go. Food is great.

mmmm dozen oysters on the half shell + snapper throats + cold miller light at Dirty Al's....

*drool*

PB94. The places I mentioned above are also good for families and kids. The kids will love Wanna Wanna!!!I don't think anyplace alows smoking except Wanna Wanna because it is out side. I also agree with the other posts on here. Black beards is good, we did eat there one night. The Fried oysters were outstanding, just a little touristy for our taste. Always crowded though so that works well with the kidos.

HAVE FUN!!!!

Thanks for all of the responses...I wasn't having much luck with the various reviews I had read on other sites. Also, great to know about the smoking, since we have gotten so used to the smoke free restaurants in Houston.

Maybe I need to rethink my opinion of Blackbeards. I have eaten there on three occasions, the food was cold and the service poor. Because of that, I haven't eaten there in more than two years.

Possibly I just happen to be there at a bad time or something. I'll try it again. We usually take my wife's mother down once in a while for drive on a weekday and eat lunch. We also buy fresh shrimp for my wife to cook for me!

Two places off the beaten path to try:

Reyes Seafood in Laguna Heights for lunch. I think they might have a buffet nowadays or I heard that they did.

Gulf Seafood(I think that is the name)/Oyster bar on Maxan St. In Port Isabel. The Ceviche is very good there as are some of the shrimp dishes. The guy who owns Gulf Seafood, Joe, sent either one or two of his kids through A&M. As good a place as any to buy shrimp and stuff. Reyes also has some harder to find things in terms of seafood.

BTW, it sounds like most of the folks on here are from the upper valley. One place I would strongly recommend anyone in the valley trying is The Vermillion in Brownsville. To me that is the best eat's in the Valley, bar none when you factor in cost, quantity, quality, and diversity. Man, I like their food.

The Vermillion is pretty good. I ate there last week. I hadn't been there for a couple of years and they've really updated the place. the fajita tacos were great and the nachos were good as long as you ate them while they were still hot.

Man, I miss those Nachos. Have you ever had the avocado tostadas/chalupas there? Wow, spectacular.

Also the fried fish there is very, very good as is the shrimp. Back in the day it used to be trout, supposedly it still is but from Mexico via snodgrass seafoods. I am not sure, but that is some good eats there.

You can also get brown gravy with your CFS, which to me is a huge plus and makes a CFS great. The roast beef is also amazing.

I guess I am very fond of it due to them serving such good Tex-Mex along with great Texas food such as CFS/CFC and other things.

Scampi's is by far one of my favorites, especially for the following: Oysters Rockafeller - incredible; The Red Snapper Oscar at Scampi's is very hard to beat - it's a nicely seasoned snapper filet with lump crab and an awesome sauce. Their peanut butter shrimp is pretty damn good too. I've never thought of it being a tourist trap being that it's off the beaten path and you have to be lookin for it to find it. Just a suggestion.

And for itailian - Gabriella's in Port Isabel is very yummy as well... It's on the main drag.

I used to love Gabriella's, The Muhs's really turned out some good food. That had become my new favorite as I was friendly with the owners and it was close to the house and the food was really good. I did not mention it because it has been closed since January. Their rent got raised substantially and they opted to just shut it down. Supposedly they are going re-open somewhere else, I hope that they do.

Scampi's used to be really good, and I probably should not truly pass judgement as I have not eaten there since Ron Spier quit being involved. Ron Spier owned both Scampi's and the Yacht Club(arguably the best food in the area along with The Grill Room), they both used the same oysters Rockefeller reciepe, which was extremely good.

The last two times I ate at Scampi's it was a shawdow of its former self, maybe it is better now. My wife went there a while back and was not impressed at all, thus that is where my judgement comes from.

I just remember the days when there were some really good resturants on the Island and in PI. To name a few "The Grill Room", "Cappuchinos", "The Yacht Club", "Latern Grill", "The Old Joseph's", "Gulf Coast Oyster Bar" those places were good only one of them shut down due to going out of business, all the others were sold and run out of business by new owners or had lease problems like in the case of "Cappuchinos" which was owned by the guys that opened Blackbeards.

My info on the Island is a bit dated as I have not been around too much in the last 3 years. But I know the last few years that I was around the dining quality had dropped considerably. A couple of the resturants that I mentioned had a reputation of doing seafood "bait and switch", which is basically calling Pollock or some other frozen fish "fresh snapper" or grouper. Also, some of them switched to cheap farm raised shrimp instead of fresh local gulf shrimp. If you know your sea food you can tell the difference immediately, but most folks can't.

Last I heard Wahoo's was still open. The owners were my neihbors for many years and at one time that was my home away from home. I could always run a tab there, LOL, they knew where to find me.

Sadly, I don't think The Wahoo Saloon has many days left. Actually, the economic downturn might have saved it for a while. The Wahoo sits on leased land, the owner had first right of refusal for a purchase, well I understand the property got sold and Wahoo's owner was not willing the pay the crazy high price. Supposedly there is a major plan in the works to do a whole toursity bay front development on the bay front, and several things are slated to be gone, among them Wahoo's and Jim's Pier. Again, this is all, albeit somewhat reliable, hearsay.

"gulf coast oyster bar" was the best. They would cook your catch and present it in a beautiful display. And the biggest fried stuffed jalepenos I have ever seen.

Daddy's is there now.

I hope they don't bulldoze Jim's Peir, a landmark.

It seemed to me alot of places did not reopen after dolly. B & A Seafood lost 3 of their shrimp boats and moved on, What a shame.

We bought fresh shrimp in B & A the other day and it was in a different building. I didn't ask but I suppose the other building was not in good shape after the hurricane. I was told by some of the folks that live in SPI that this was the best place to get fresh shrimp.

Too bad the old Marchans closed...I used to eat there sometimes.

This is kind of a secret and please do not pass on to the multitudes. The best place to buy "fresh" shrimp is Harry's bait stand on the left as you cross the little bride in PI going to the Island. He gets some "eater" size shrimp from the bait shrimpers that shrimp in the bay daily. I don't think the bait shrimpers are allowed to catch or sell eating shrimp, so there is some possibility of it being a small legal issue. But man fresh, never frozen shrimp are hard to beat. I prefer bay shrimp as they are saltier and to me have a little better taste and are not as muddy as they don't have the big gulf to burrow into.

FYI, I would say that nowdays any shrimp you buy anywhere will have been frozen and thawed at least two times, and more than likely three to four times. Also, gulf shrimp are "brined" and "dipped" into some interesting stuff to cull the catch and seperate the shrimp. Then, unless they are on an "ice boat" of which I don't think many operate in Texas anymore, they are packed and frozen at sea only to be thawed when sorted again.

I could be wrong about some of these process, but I think these are still the same steps that are used today.

Yes they moved across the street in the bait shop. They always owned both. The guy inside said that they can no longer pack your catch like they did at B & A because they are a bait shop and something about the laws won't let them. I went down the street to another bait shop and they packed it and froze it for me as well as shrimp, crab and scollops. Did a realley nice job for me to bring back home. Name was Cuevos Seafood Market. The food was Great!!!

I agree with the freezing a few times. That is what you get at HEB. It has to be 3 - 4 weeks old. The shrimp I get at SPI still has the salt water taste and has the sweetness of lobster. Also, to everyone out there, If you get shrimp at HEB PLEASE DO NOT BY THE STUFF FROM THIALAND OR ELSEWHERE. You are just hurting our shrimpers. They are labled. Save the TEXAS Shrimpers!!!

Flash, Almost all shrimp are frozen at sea one time, hence the term "freezer boat" as opposed to "Ice boat". When shimp come up they are mixed in with a ton of cull or bycatch, in order to sort that stuff the catch is dumped into a tank that is ultra salty water and some chemicals that help preserve the shrimp, from there the shrimp are seperated and frozen Those shrimp are then again semi thawed out and sorted for the count purposes in order to market them, then they are frozen by the packing house and sent off to wherever. Which includes most seafood places, which thaw them out and put them on ice. Your right, the shrimp at HEB and other places are probably more thawed and frozen than others, but almost all commercially bought shrimp have been frozen and thawed(not to mention brined)a few times.

I doubt that many places are buying shrimp directly from a boat, although people have that idea at times, it may not even be legal.

I love shrimp but commercial shrimping is an extremely distructive way to catch a resource. I have worked on a shrimp boat and the amount of stuff that comes up in those nets, small snapper, grouper, starfish, flounder, croaker, whiting, not to mention turtles is pretty astounding. I am actually for farming shrimp, even thought their taste is not anywhere near as good as wild caught shrimp. But make no mistake about it, the bycatch ratio for a pound of shrimp is staggering. Why do you think the offshore fish follow shrimp boats around? They are floating dumpsters of death.

Agree 100% RGV. I am just saying the shrimp bought around the coast has not gone through the many frozen states therefor, fresher. Can you imagine how old and many times the stuff from the far east has been frozen. It just upsets me that HEB is a Texas company and imports this stuff.

About 20 years ago, my father in law used to buy cases of beer from time to time and take them with him out to the basin. He would come up along side a shrimp boat and trade a case of beer for five to ten pounds of shrimp. He said they weren't supposed to do this but they did it anyway. My mother in law would not cook them but my wife would fry them so I got the best of the deal. :-)

Flash, yeah I am big time against groceries stores seafood counters. You are dead on buddy. I can promise you they waste more than they sell and have it mostly to appear to be all inclusive, at least up there in South Texas that is my opinion.

The stuff from the far east, South/Central America and so on and so forth is usually farm raised and they do it very cleanly and quickly. That is why the price is so GD low. One day the shrimp are out there swimming around in their own doodoo and the next their home is drained and I. flungDung getting paid 3 dollars a day cleans em', sorts em' and packs and freezes faster than you can salmonella.

The price of farm raised shrimp is going to put the large processers and boats out of business. I think a small cottage industry serving the finer resturants up north and a niche market will continue to exist, but that is a about it.

Valleyrat, oh yeah. I have done some serious shrimp boat trading offshore in my day. Beer, cig's, rum, and girlie magazines were all very cherished by the guys on the boats. You had to time it about right, about 9:00-10:00 in the AM, when the Capt. and chain man and all others had racked out and all that was left was the green headers and maybe one deckhand, cleaning up before they racked out. Show up with an ice cold 12 pack and lock and load baby. A case used to get you a 5 gallon bucket full. Usually about 10-15 pounds, at about $5.00 a pound back then that was $75 worth of really fresh shrimp for a case of Buckhorn, Texas Pride or something similar. Not a bad trade. It was actually illegal to do and I do know one person that got in trouble for it. It is a federal violation of the Magnumsun or something Act.

I have had shrimp boats trade me all kinds of stuff for things. I once traded a new boat compass and fuel filters to a Mexican shrimp boat for 300 pounds of really good shrimp and about 100 pounds of snapper. Nowdays they would waterboard your ass for that or something.

Man, in the days of my youth it was Oysters and Beer for dinner every day of the year (with a lot of shrimp thrown in).

we got about ~100 pounds or so of LARGE shrimp last year while offshore for a 24 pack of miller lite.

Never leave port to go offshore without some booze, cigs, porn, or even toilet paper to trade for a crapload of shrimp.

RGV AG,

Is the Palmetto Inn still a good place to eat? I haven't eaten there in many years.