A new Pensacola restaurant blog location!

Trying to find the restaurant in Pensacola right for your occasioncan be difficult. Welcome to the best place on the web to find the best restaurants in Pensacola! Whethere you base your restaurant choice on food or atmosphere, romance or family, this blog will help you pick the place to dine in Pensacola.

 We are in the process of migrating our Penacola restaurant review blog to WordPress from and independet server. The old site is at www.pensacola-restaurant.com . Our simple hope is that it will place better on search engines then the old blog, helping more people find Pensacola restaurants than before. This location also provides easier posting, better stats, and more flexibility. We are still settling in, getting comments migrated, and working up to full functionality. Please be patient.

Please feel free to comment on the new location and don’t forget to comment on the Pensacola restaurants you have visited! And remember to post here after eating out! We will be adding a Pensacola restaurant suggestion box in the near future…

Jackson’s Restaurant

Jackson’s Restaurant provides the best dining experience in Pensacola. Awarded as one of the best 25 restaurants in Florida, the dining experience they offer is flawless. From the experience of making the recommended reservation to decor and service to the food. Impeccable. Jackson’s Restaurant can easily be compared to any fine restaurant in any larger metropolitan area. While the dining experience will cost you more than most in Pensacola are accustomed to paying (…much more), I am happy to say that it is worth every Ben Franklin you can muster.

Your experience starts with a friendly reservation in which they want to know your full names and if you are visiting for any special occasion. This conversation is akin to the concierge service at a 5-star hotel. When you arrive the door is opened for you. When you enter you are greeted warmly both by the host and the decor. Jackson’s is decorated with an absolute attention to detail. The chandeliers are faux tree limbs capped by candle lanterns. The light is warm and ample while still maintaining intimacy, supplemented by the simply elegant and comfortable furniture. Expect white table clothes and jacketed service. Your table will be attended by no less than two service staff. The atmosphere is now complimented by live piano music (though it did get a tiny bit loud at times).  

She had a rib-eye that was absolutely sublime. Great steak is a wonderful thing, but this a different level. I had the Marksman’s Grill, which was sadly better on the menu that it was on my plate. However it was adventuresome and unique with quail, elk, and venison (my favorite), and still quite tasty. We chose a bottle of “J”, Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, and once it had a chance to breath, it went down very easily. (We liked it so much, we walked out with the bottle.) Being a birthday, we splurged on dessert-creme brulee and Rosco’s Amazing Chocolate Stack. While one can never go wrong with creme brulee (though the berries were spectacular), the peanut-butter chocolate dessert took the night.

We apologize that we don’t remember the names of our servers, but they did a great job! Maybe it is a mark of great service that we don’t remember them? In any case, the evening was stellar. A word of notice. Please see the dollar signs below before making your reservation and make sure you understand our price rating. But once you take that note, prepare for the best fine dining restaurant experience Pensacola has to offer.

Name: Jackson’s Restaurant
Location: 400 South Palafox Street, Pensacola, FL, 32502
Phone: (850) 469-9898
Price: Lunch $$-$$$; Dinner $$$$$-15$
Website: www.jacksonsrestaurant.com

Zea Rotisserie and Grill

This is a relatively new chain restaurant for Pensacola, and in general. There is 10 locations across the south United States. In a nutshell, the food is great but the service is lacking. I’ve eaten here over a half dozen times in the last year (and recently) in a varitey of settings- lunch, dinner, meeting room. Overall this assessment stands true. I ate lunch at Zea Rotisserie and Grill recently with an associate, and we sat for over ten minutes until we were approached for a drink order.That being said, they have some fantastic stuff on their menu. Their dry rub ribs are absolutely excellent and their salads are delicious. The atmosphere and decor are clean and warm, with special touches everywhere. If you can get service, it is the perfect location and environment for a business lunch. The tables are not too close and sound doesn’t travel. In addition, Zea offers something that is curiously rare in a beach town like Pensacola- outdoor dining! Its not a big area, but it is protected and you can actually see the bay! Its a hidden treasure. Ask for it. Zea should work on its training and management programs if it is to experience sucessful growth, but it has potential.Name: Zea Rotisserie and Grill
Location: 605 West Gregory, Pensacola, FL, 32502
Phone: (850) 433-2159
Price: $-$$$
Website: www.zearestaurants.com

Eat!

Eat! is a downtown Pensacola restaurant adding location and services all the time. Eat! is characterized by a trendy metropolitan atmosphere, fine cuisine, and outstanding service. During lunchtime, this place is all business, one of the preferred lunch meeting places in the downtown area. In the evening, the restaurant switches to fine dining and does it well. The deco bar offers a great place to start your evening and relax before dinner.

Eat! ’s menu offers some items not otherwise found in Pensacola restaurants. For example, try the delicious Rabbit Quesadillas. Yes, that’s rabbit meat! Without fail, all of the menu items are tasty, with some outstanding fare. There is plenty of variety and adventure to be had, as well as standard dining choices that won’t disappoint.

I am constantly impressed by the service. It is highly professional but relaxed and comfortable. Again, a trendy metropolitan atmosphere. This is once you are seated. I am occasionally dismayed by how long I wait at the door before being approached. However, once approached, service is excellent. Ask for Frances as your server and the back room if you have a party of less than six and want some privacy. Outdoor dining, while available, is not altogether comfortable.

Name: Eat!
Location: 286 N. Palafox, Pensacola, FL, 32502
Phone: (850) 433-6905
Price: $-$$$
Website: www.eatmorefood.com

The Global Grill

Though I think this Pensacola restaurant got a rough start and much of the art on its walls is atrocious, we have become quite the fans of The Global Grill recently. It has become a weekly stop and we’ve even begun to develop a regular order. This restaurant has become additionally attractive as we have begun a carb-controlled diet.Let’s first address the atmosphere, which will further explain the ”rough start” comment. The Global Grill is well recognized in Pensacola for its…um…”cooler than thou” attititude. To be sure, it is one of the coolest restaurants in Pensacola, with its hip “tapas” menu, artsy atmosphere, designed decor, and downtown location. The servers are noted for the same hip, artsy, pierced, model-like attitude. And while all this could lend itself to a patron’s feeling of inclusion in a hip set, a restaurant can not survive by decorum alone. The Global Grill quickly became home to a rather happenstance happy hour crowd (still evident to this day), but gained the solid support of some notable Pensacola professionals. The restaurant coasted on this professional patronage and “cool” for some time. Service suffered. Food quality followed.I note all this because I found it offensive. Not because of its substance, but because of its nature- that a potentially great restaurant woud allow itself to stoop that low.Fortunately, someone pulled it all together. Food quality is now consistently stellar. Service, while still quirky (which I like), is superior. The kitchen is remarkably brisk. And better art now compliments the orginal pieces. The crowd is now a better mix of Pensacola demographics and more friendly. Prices remain healthy, but in my opinion. you do get what you pay for.

The only complaints I now have is that the “blue room” is consistently too cold. Let’s see what we can do about that?

Our favorite tapas include:
- Herbed Focaccia with Olives and Feta Cheese
- Crab West Indies and Avocado Martini
- Crab Cakes with Remoulade Sauce
- Peppercorn Beef Brochettes,Smoked Gouda Cheese Sauce

All the desserts are to-die-for. This is the second local restaurant reviewed that you can go just for a late night dessert-only indulgence. The wine list is superb, featuring one of our favorite red vineyards: David Bruce. The Russian River Reserve 2 (Pinot Noir) is a great bottle for a fair price. 

Name: The Global Grill
Location: 25 S Palafox St, Pensacola, FL 32502
Phone: 850.469.9966
Price: $$-$$$$$
Website: www.dineglobalgrill.com

Franco’s Italian Restaurant

There are people in Pensacola that swear upon Franco’s as the end all of Italian food. They say that if you ever want REAL Italian food, not that commercial stuff you get at Tres Fratelli or Carrabbas (both excellent restaurants), Franco’s is the place to go. Franco’s is in a great location, downtown, admist powerhouses like MacGuires, Zeas, Outback, The Melting Pot, and Carrabbas. When you enter you know it is genuine Italian. There is bad art of Italian landscapes on the wall, and a table full of people talking Italian in the back… you know, mobster style. But either it is all a hoax, or these are Italians that don’t know how to cook. The food is tasteless at best. The sauces are acidic. The pasta, while fresh, was thick. The recommended wine was, well, horrible. The service was friendly, but there was an angry man behind the bar about to destroy the cash register (yes, that’s right, an old traditional cash register).We were the only guests. Need I say more?

Name: Franco’s Italian Restaurant
Location: 523 E Gregory St, Pensacola, FL, 32502
Phone: (850) 433-9200
Price: $-$$
Website: na

The Melting Pot

 

Another chain that delivers! The Melting Pot is not mainstream, even in larger cities than Pensacola. Dinner at The Melting Pot can not be “grabbed”. You have to commit to it. You are there for two and a half hours minimum. Your service is attentive and thorough, they may even have to teach you a few things. Because of these time/labor factors, you are going to pay a few dollars for your meal. The quality of the food? Well, that is up to you, because YOU cook it at your table!If you have never eaten a fondue dinner, Melting Pot is designed to introduce you. Fondue parlors are few and far between, even in large metropolitan areas, so the Melting Pot may be your only opportunity. In fact, I find it a bit surprising that Pensacola has such a cosmopolitan venue.The basics are thus. You engage in a three or four course meal that is cooked exclusively at your table in a fondue pot. Your first course is typically a cheese course. A mixture of chunk cheese and spices is brought to your table. It is tossed into your fondue pot and melted down. You are given some skewers and a variety of breads and vegetables to dip into the pot. Your meal continues in this way with a meat and veggie course (or two) based in a variety of broths or oils, and a dessert fondue. With this last, you are absolutely remiss if you do not have chocolate and a ton of it.The Melting Pot in Pensacola boasts a rather sophisticated mid-range wine list. You are going to drop $25-$45 per head on dinner. You might as well do the same with one of the great wines in that range. Take your time eating the meal, sip the wine, dip the food. 

One more thing. You needn’t go for dinner. The Melting Pot is probably the single best place to go for a romantic dessert, and not just in Pensacola, where it is probably the only place. A couple glasses of wine and a chocolate fondue will have you drooling over each other. Or it would create great memories for a group of close friends.

Name: The Melting Pot
Location: 418 E Gregory St # 500, Pensacola, FL, 32502
Phone: (850) 438-4030
Price: $$$-$$$$$
Website: HTTP://www.meltingpot.com/

McGuires Irish Pub

Talk about atmosphere? McGuires Irish Pub has it in spades, or should I say clovers? This is a true Irish pub, in every corner of its massive and growing number of dining areas. Loud and noisy, but also intimate and conversation, McGuires Irish Pub begs you to drink just one more beer. Brewing seasonals and standards onsite, there is plenty of beer to choose from. If you like your beer you may want to consider getting your own mug. If you are not a drinker, try the root beer made in house.

Not known just for its beers, McGuires is Pensacola’s best steakhouse. Super prime cuts of meat and superior spices help this place dominate the steak market admist a number of chain steakhouses (Outback is across the street; Dmaon’s went out of business next door). Their burger menu with 25+ excellent burgers is perfect lunch fare. Though you must be warned the burgers are HUGE and often quite sloppy.

One more thing to note: A McGuires tradition is to write something on a dollar bill and staple it to the ceiling. At last count by the IRS, there is over 700,000 dollar bills stapled to the ceiling of McGuires Irish Pub.

Name: McGuires Irish Pub
Location: 600 E. Gregory St., Pensacola, FL 32501 (downtown)
Phone: 850.433.6789
Price: $-$$$
Website: http://www.mcguiresirishpub.com/

Fish House

If we had to pick one restaurant that would best represent Pensacola, it would have to be the Fish House. Located on the water, this restaurant has outdoor waterfront dining, delicious fine seafood menu, and lots of local flavor. For starters, though the food is fine dining quality and presentation, the atmosphere is decidedly casual. There are many business suits for lunch and the same at dinner, but you’ll always find shorts, flops, and suntans.

It is the Fish House, and they serve the best seafood in Pensacola. This is quite an accolade, as I consider Pensacola seafood some of the very best in the world. But not only is the Fish House good at fish, it is good at everything. For example, their burger sits as one of the best I have ever had. Their steaks are also superior. While the supremacy of the food at the Fish House waxes and wanes with chef moods, it never drops below excellent. The grits in the best in the South.

The Fish House offers indoor and outdoor dining. Indoor dining is marked by a crowded, white table cloth atmosphere and massive fish tanks. Outdoor dining happens on one of many levels of decks, covered by a variety of umbrellas and wide canvas strips. It is heated during Pensacola’s very short winter, and the ocean breeze cools it after noon during the summer (though one should pick summer lunch seating carefully). Delightfully, the Fish House decks sit on the east side of the building.  While this precludes a sunset view, it does often a quick cool down at dinner time.

The only complaint that I may have about Fish House comes in the “local flavor”. The Fish House is a favorite watering hole of local socialites and wannabes, and they don’t mind starting early. What this means is that by early evening, the bar areas can be quite loud and somewhat obnoxious. If you prefer more peaceful dining, be sure to request seating away from the bars.

That being said, the Fish House is the first place that I recommend to visitors to Pensacola, my first choice for a business lunch, or a great place to go with Friends. On the right evening, it can be romantic as well. Regardless, you will have a superior dining experience.

(Well-kept secret: Fish house has the best burgers on the face of the earth. Really.)

Name: Fish House
Location: 600 S Barracks St # 10, Pensacola, FL 32502
Phone: 850.470.0003
Price: $$-$$$$$
Official Website: http://www.goodgrits.com/