Pensacola seafood restaurants: 10 seafood places that show off local culinary expertise

Living on the coast, we can nearly trip over a plate of good seafood just walking down the street.

But while seafood is easy to come by, there are always local favorites that seems to rise above the rest.

Below are 10 of Pensacola's most-talked about seafood restaurants, each have something unique to offer.

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Café Nola

Where: 400 Quietwater Beach Road, Ste. 14

Café Nola has brought some Louisiana cooking to Pensacola Beach. The restaurant’s owner Cy Whitney was raised in Gonzalez, Louisiana, and focuses on authentic Cajun foods he remembers from childhood. Some of the Louisiana favorites include New Orleans-style shrimp, red beans and rice, crawfish etouffee and jambalaya.

Fishing hole

Where: 15 Brent Lane, Pensacola, and 3974 Avalon Blvd., Milton

The Fishing Hole has served the Pensacola area for 10 years and opened a Milton location just a year ago. It’s a traditional, Southern-style seafood restaurant that provides a relaxed and warm atmosphere. The original menu started simple enough, with mullet, catfish and tilapia being the three biggest draws.

Now, the menu boasts mahi mahi, grouper, red snapper, flounder and oysters in addition to chicken and pasta dishes.

The Fish House

Where: 600 S. Barracks St.

The Pensacola Fish House has been around for over two decades and is well known beyond the Panhandle as a great seafood restaurant, as it attracts more than 500,000 visitors a year. The award-winning restaurant has an inventive menu with daily seafood selections, sushi, sautéed Gulf shrimp and its world-famous Grits á Ya Ya.

Kingfisher Sandwiches

Where: 1500 Barrancas Ave.

Kingfisher Sandwiches is a sandwich-based seafood restaurant that sources from the best local ingredients available and makes all its meals from scratch. Some of the local favorites on the menu are the crab cake sandwich, fish sandwich, mullet and shrimp burger.

John Seafood

Where: 6399 N. Ninth Ave.

John Seafood is a relatively new seafood restaurant that opened last year on North Ninth Avenue. If you’re looking for another place to grab some Cajun cooking then be sure to add this one on your list. On the menu, you’ll find Cajun-style seafood boils and plenty of fried fish.

Peg Leg Pete's

Where: 1010 Fort Pickens Road

Peg Leg Pete’s is a pirate-themed seafood restaurant that has a kids' area to keep them busy and a raw bar. It opened in 1991 and used to only sell oysters, shrimp and some sandwiches. Today, the restaurant is a sister business to Sidelines Sports Bar, Maria’s Fresh Seafood Market and the LaFitte Cove Marina. Locals love the restaurant for its great prices, unique atmosphere, live music and the fact you can pull your boat right up to the marina and dock for lunch. Entrees include snow crab, mahi-mahi, grouper, lobster, shrimp, oysters and plenty more.

Grand Marlin

Where: 400 Pensacola Beach Blvd., Pensacola Beach

The Grand Marlin is an upscale seafood restaurant that offers a daily menu of fresh seafood caught locally. The atmosphere inside has been described as tranquil and relaxed, despite its more high-end appeal. In 2018, the restaurant made OpenTable’s list of 100 Most Scenic Restaurants in America and more recently, one of its former chefs competed in the finale of Food Network’s Beachside Brawl.

Some of the menu favorites include the crispy lobster fingers, grouper piccata, key lime lobster tails and the TGM signature praline basket.

Paradise Bar and Grill

Where: 21 Via De Luna Dr., Pensacola Beach

Paradise Bar and Grill on Pensacola Beach is an award-winning restaurant that has an open-air bar —mandatory for most beach bars — and it’s located just behind Paradise Inn. Paradise is another location you can boat, walk or drive to and it frequently hosts live music from local bands to enjoy with your drinks and meals.

Locals enjoy the shrimp po'boy, mahi-mahi basket and shrimp salad.

Shaggy’s Pensacola Beach

Where: 701 Pensacola Beach Blvd.

Shaggy’s Pensacola Beach is a waterfront bar and grill that offers a mostly-seafood menu with laid-back vibes, a dog-friendly atmosphere, frozen daiquiris and an extensive craft beer menu. Some of the local favorites include the fish tacos, shrimp tacos and redfish Bahama grill.

Drift

Where: 41 Fort Pickens Road, Floor 2

Drift is a newer restaurant on Pensacola Beach that uses a modern twist to the traditional coastal restaurants scattered along the beach. It’s a more upscale restaurant that focuses on the coastal cuisine of crudo (Spanish and Italian for “raw”), small plates, prime steak, crafted cocktails and, of course, seafood. Some of the favorites are the lobster mac, ahi tuna steak, coconut crab cakes and crab cake benedict.

Captain Joey Patti's Seafood Restaurant

Where: 1124 W Garden St.

Captain Joey Patti’s Seafood Restaurant started after one of Joe Patti’s sons and daughters, Joey and Josie, and opened around 1989 and has served Pensacola ever since, with a minor hiatus after Hurricane Sally tore the roof off the original location in 2020.

Fans of Joe Patti’s have either already eaten here or have a good idea about the quality of the food served at Joey’s. The recipes are all still the same recipes Josie created decades ago, and the seafood is as fresh as you’d expect from Joe Patti’s.

Some of the most popular meals include Basa/Swai, salmon salad, the seafood platter #2 and the signature dish, shrimp and oysters.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola seafood places: 10 favorite local seafood spots