The Grand Marlin

We had my friends birthday party there last night. We were a party of 20. The food was good a little expensive. But the service was amazing our waitress Danielle professional and friendly. She made the dinner worth the price.

My favorite place to dine on the beach! Delicious food and drinks and beautiful atmosphere. Sit outside :)

I called from out of town wanting to set up a nice birthday dinner for my father. The Grand Marlin staff graciously obliged my request and managed for him to have an enjoyable evening beginning with a lovely table, exceptional service and of course a five star meal. The staff here takes care of every guests needs and requests whether it be table side or two thousand miles away!

Appetizers: lobster fingers, crab cakes, ahi poke. All were enjoyable but our fav was ahi poke –it came with crispy rice papers which was the first I’ve seen, pretty unique.
Entrees: I ordered the grouper piccata which was delightful, the Parmesan crusted filet made it fun to eat and it was perfect combo with sautéed spinach and potatoes. My friends seemed to like their entrees as well– seared swordfish and loved&rubbed salmon.
Dessert: We were stuffed but had to get the «best brownie ever!!» Which is your fully stuffed brownie berry sundae. It totally hit the spot
The menu is printed twice daily so some of the items I had my eyes on beforehand weren’t avail so beware of that! Otherwise, it was an enjoyable meal. Fresh ingredients and the water view is awesome. If you want to enjoy the scenic view be sure to say outside –we were afraid of the cold weather so we said inside, but the outside is closed off as well so it wouldn’t have mattered.
As for price goes, standard for semi-​upscale restaurant. With 3 entrees, 3 appetizers, 1 dessert + 2 drinks we paid $ 190 total so it is reasonably priced.
Enjoy!

I love this place, except for Valentine Day Brunch. The quiche I ordered was cold, ordered my grandson a muffin it came 15 minutes into the meal, ask for a second cup of coffee, it never made it to the table. Feel so sad because I really did like this place.

Very very nice restaurant, absolutely spectacular service, we got a miss cooked steak taken off of our bill and out waiter bought us desert. If you are in the area, this is the place to come

I feel like this place it hyped up to be more than it is. It has a great atmosphere. It is slightly overpriced. My husband likes it more than I do. My food has been cold on more than one occasion. I will say the Raw oysters have always been good every time we go. I am not impressed but could eat there again it just is not one of my first choices

My friend and I ordered the crab claw appetizer, scallops entrée, swordfish entrée, and desserts (pineapple upside down cake & brownie sundae). Everything was incredible, including the service, wine lists, and mixed drinks. I highly recommend this restaurant.

My boyfriend and I absolutely loved it here. We ordered the calamari for an appetizer, and they were delicious. The only downfall was they served too many peppers and not enough calamari in ours. He ordered yellowfin tuna with the ginger soy glaze, and he loved it. I ordered the grilled sea scallops with caper brown butter, and they were perfect. The caper brown butter went perfectly with the crushed potatoes and vegetables. The food was far better than we were expecting. We ended the night with key lime pie. Also, the atmosphere was incredible. We will definitely be going back.

Trying to get our waitress a raise. If you come here, try and get Courtney’s table. Not sure if she spells that with a K, but Courtney with the braids. (Ps she doesn’t know I’m writing this, she seems very content with her job but anything to help a sistah out).
Anywho, great recommendation, Courtney, on the Grouper Picatta. Not too crispy with the parmesan, just right! Mashed potatos, excellent. Not a big spinach fan, but had a good flavor. And my La Marca Prosecco was the final touch.
Topsy-​turvy atmosphere, fancy, but comfortable. Sweet lighting, great family feel, and the bar area looks very chill. I would eat some fish and drink a coke while watching sports over there.
Friendly staff, amazing food, and LOTS of fish décor. Fantastic.

Everything was absolutely perfect! I highly recommend this place. Be sure to try the lobster fingers with vanilla bean infused honey mustard sauce, oh so yummy! The food is fantastic, the service is superb, and the atmosphere is wonderful. You won’t be disappointed. I think this is my new favorite place to dine.
Note: It’s recommended that you make reservations before you go.

I’m sorry but marlin restaurant did not work for us.
2 appetizers
3 entrees
1 Apple dessert.
Pork shank was dried, taste and smelled old and I was sick from it. Flounder special was pan seared with too much of oil that protein was holding all the grease. Service was friendly. Overall, food quality was below average.

This may not be the best seafood restaurant, it is very close to excellent seafood restaurants in Pensacola. When you want to have a business dinner with the client, this will be a good choice. The decorations is nice, the interior is upperclass dinning.
We arrive the restaurant and they don’t have the inside sitting ready. We sit the outside bar and order the appetizers while waiting for our seats. It did not take long for calling our table into the formal dinning room.
The have their special cocktail. The wine is half off for a bottle. We have order the blue crab crawl, bacon fried Brussels sprouts, oyster three way. These appetizers are very good. The Brussels sprouts is seasoning with great flavor. The best are the blue crab crawls. They coated crunchy coating and go well with any drink.
For the dinner, I have the grilled lobster tails. It is one and half tails seasoned and grilled to perfect grill mark. It top over the mash potatoes and green bean. Yummy good.
The service is great. Food also came out perfect timing. It definitely worth a try if you visit Pensacola beach.

I will have to say that I was in the midst of my cold when I was here but that did not stop me from having a great time.
Pensacola Beach is a bit different from the other Pensacola beaches because they charge a toll to get on the beach. After spending the day laying on the beach my family decided to go to the Grand Marlin for lunch. In all of my times going to Pensacola I have never been there so I was pretty pumped since they all had really good things to say.
We went on a Monday during lunch. I will have to give pretty big props to our waiter. We were a bit over zealous and just kept on ordering appetizers. But not in a normal way, when he came over we would just wave him down and say, «can we add this on?» It took a long time for us to then decide on «real food» and not «snacks».
I mentioned going on a Monday because they had a special on oysters on MONDAY!!! I got 12 for $ 8. OMG. Yes.
So the appetizers that I tried.
Oyster Rockfeller: Creamed spinach, Pernod, applewood smoked bacon, Hollandaise sauce. I will say that the hollandaise sauce threw me. I just had one that I took from another party member. I was not that impressed by it, but only because of the sauce. The spinach was really fresh tasting. I enjoyed that. The sauce though.eh. I wouldn’t order it or take a taste again.
Salt & Peppers Calamari: Rhode Island calamari, sweet and hot peppers, habanero lime aioli. I ordered the plate of these for myself. Seriously, they were really good. The lime aioli had a little bite to it that I liked. I will say that the calamari was not as bountiful as the sweet and hot peppers in the plate. It seemed that the peppers were the main dish not the calamari. My party really liked the peppers, more so than the calamari, but I would have rather had more of the calamari.
Crispy Lobster Fingers: Vanilla bean infused honey mustard sauce. Ok, I did not eat the lobster part of the dish but the vanilla bean infused honey mustard sauce was something that I could not pass up. I used my calamari to dip it in the sauce. It was really good. I was surprised. When I see vanilla and honey mustard my first idea was not, «yum». But it was really good. The lobster fingers are an entire lobster tail split into three and fried. My family member seemed to enjoy it!
After all of that I decided to then order the 12 raw oysters. They come in a pizza pan looking tray with a lemon, cocktail and horseradish, red wine vinegar, and a side basket of crackers. I drizzled the lemon across the oysters and then dug in. I am not an oyster/​cracker person. I just slurp them up right from the shell. I add the horseradish/​cocktail combo and then just yum. I FOUND 2 PEALS! Yes, they are super small but still! That is exciting! I would have liked cocktail separate from the cocktail so I could add more zing, but I also didn’t ask for more. I really enjoyed them. They were just big enough to fill me up. After that I decided to just order a cup of soup for my «lunch».
Lunch:
Clam Chowder: Rich creamy New England style, Westminster oyster crackers. I really don’t know what to say. I love clam chowder but this one had A LOT of spice to it. Pepper and maybe rosemary? It was slightly overpowering. I wouldn’t order it again.
Dessert. I could not bring myself to order dessert but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t taste what other people ordered.
Key Lime Pie: Light and creamy key lime mousse, toasted macadamia nut and coconut graham cracker crust, raspberry coulis. This was ok. It did not have a very strong lime tang to it. It just was a whisper of the lime. I am a fan of a strong lime taste.
Sweet Potato Cheesecake: Ginger snap crust, citrus ginger syrup, maple whip cream, pecan brittle. This was the reigning champion of dessert for me out of the two. The brittle was amazing, the cheesecake taste was fantastic, the presentation was beautiful. I would suggest you get this!!!
I really enjoyed myself and would come back here again. I think I will add it to my «go to» Pensacola list of restaurants.

I made reservations at the Grand Marlin for me and the BF about a month and a half before our trip so we had plenty of time to get excited about it. By the time Saturday evening rolled around we were super pumped! And starving since we hadn’t eaten all day.
We walked up the stairs and gave our name at the desk and went to the bar to wait. There’s an inside which looks a bit more formal and then there’s a large outdoor deck seating which seemed more casual. But like a more upscale casual rather than swim trunks and tank top. So ladies, sundresses or nice shorts and men jeans or shorts with a nicer shirt would be fine… at least it would outside. Anyway, the bar outside was big and inviting so we perused the wine list and started on some wine while waiting for our table.
We made reservations at 545pm so that we would be there for the sunset and we asked for outdoor seating. They sat us on the edge in the corner which was a perfect view of the water. The sun was actually setting on the other side but you still get to see the colors change over the water. So they definitely honored our request when we made the reservation and we were pleased.
We knew from the jump we were having seafood so we went ahead and got a bottle of white wine and perused the menu. (Note that we giggled like we were in high school at the drink called The Taint.) We ended up ordering a half dozen raw oysters on the half shell and crispy lobster fingers for appetizers, I got the red snapper and I believe the BF got the scallops. Did I mention we were hungry? How was it?
Oysters — Yessssss! These were so fresh. What a great salty, briny flavor. And when I put the Grand Marlin hot sauce on it… well…it was fucking delicious. This is worth the trip right here.
Lobster fingers — I know, who knew that lobsters had fingers? Heh. Basically this was fried lobster and it came with a vanilla bean infused honey mustard sauce. The vanilla added a unique flavor that at first I didn’t like so much… but I kept trying it and it grew on me. It added more sweet flavor than your usual honey mustard.
The snapper was also fresh and delicious. Perfectly cooked and covered with salsa verde sauce (at the recommendation of the waiter). Loved it. It came with these awesome lemon olive oil mashed potatoes and green beans. I ate every last bite and it was great. The BF’s food was also perfectly cooked and super, super fresh. We were fat and happy campers after this meal… and also tipsy after all that wine! Yay!
Our server was also great — he was informative and chatty when we wanted him to be, but also left us alone when we didn’t. Service overall, from the front to the bartenders, was spot on. AND they even went to find the BF’s phone when we had to come back and ask if they had spotted it… I did say we enjoyed the wine, right? Ha!
If you are visiting Pensacola Beach and want some fresh seafood in a more upscale, classy atmosphere then you have to come here.

Honestly some of the best seafood I’ve ever had. The oysters are delicious. I also had the grouper which was also amazing. And the service is top notch. And you can’t beat the view on the water. Will definitely come back

Fresh, fresh, fresh seafood!
The restaurant location is beautiful! It is situated right next to the bridge with inside and open air porch seating. The porch seating is by the far the best choice and completely open to the water and looks back toward Pensacola Beach. At night the lights and the water are really beautiful. The full bar and seating is on the porch as well. This is a seafood place so if you don’t care for it, I would not stop here. They pride themselves on freshly flown in seafood twice a day. The shrimp appetizers were excellent — apps $ 10 – 13. The salads very fresh $ 8 – 14. I tried the market fish about $ 30. It was fresh, but not especially flavorful — next time I will have it blackened. Seafood lovers will adore this place, landlubbers not so much. The service was excellent.
I would go back for the atmosphere and the view — outstanding!

This place was recommended by a friend who lives nearby. Man are we glad he did! The location is superb! The décor and ambience is very nice. We had a table looking right out onto the water and it was open so we were smelling and breathing in the ocean air. The restrooms were clean and nicely decorated. Bath salts for your hands to wash with is a very nice touch. They have a gift shop to buy them in if you like them. The service was great and so was the food. I wish we lived nearby to make this our date place! If you are in the area, I highly recommend trying this out! make sure you sit in the open deck area by the water… that alone is worth the trip!

The view, the view, the view!
The atmosphere couldn’t have been better for this beach-​side restaurant.
A co-​worker and I went here after getting off work at lunch and we thoroughly enjoyed not only the location, but the food as well.
FOOD:
I ordered the salt and pepper calamari. THE BOMB. It came with a sauce (can’t quite remember the name) but it was on point and definitely worth trying. I also ordered the shrimp and grits! My goodness! Despite the fact the waitress said they were good (of course they always say their food is good), she couldn’t have been closer to the truth. They were better than I expected. The shrimp were fresh and well seasoned.
ATMOSPHERE:
I went at roughly 11:30am on a thursday and it was not a lot of people considering they had just opened 30 mins prior. We sat outside of the main indoor portion of the restaurant and the view was amazing.
Definitely worth going if you’ve never been.

I really wanted to love this place but I couldn’t find enough things I loved. However, I do plan to come back and update my review. Any place with this good of reviews deserves a second chance.
We got the following drinks:
Dark and Stormy –a great ginger beer mix of rum. It was also under $ 7 which is surprising and great.
Blue Marlin-​This was ok. It was very sweet just as I’d expect a blue drink to be and had hints of pineapple in it.
We got their baked oysters-​nothing special. Everyone on the island has a twist they add to their baked oysters, but this place. They weren’t bad but not the best we’ve had all weekend either (we must have tried 6 versions by now).
Fresh oysters on the half shell– these tasted nice and fresh, that’s how fresh fish rolls.
For dinner I got the Shrimp and Grits– I was surprised to hear that this is a signature dish. No one in my table liked it. It had a strong, bitter taste and the tomatoes just didn’t go well with it. I’ve had shrimp and grits all over the US, this was the first time I have been disappointed by the flavor style.
Flounder Piccata –now this was very good. The grits that come with it go with the buttery flavor and the capers. It all balanced together nicely and it was a generous potion of fish too.
Swordfish-​we also got a swordfish selection. This was grilled nicely and the flavors where nice and savory. Another dish I would recommend to anyone.
Praline Basket –this was my favorite dessert. It was a caramel praline basket filled with ice cream and fruit. We couldn’t stop eating the crunchy edible basket.
Banana white chocolate bread pudding –this was ok. It just tasted like it was missing something.
Brownie Sunday-​another dessert that was ok. In fine dining restaurants, there is usually a twist to all the dishes. However, this was just a regular brownie with vanilla ice cream.
Overall we had great service. We had one slight snag but the manager came by to fix it so all is well. No point in divulging details when it’s under control. 3 stars not because I was unhappy, but because I couldn’t find enough things that we liked and wanted to come back to.

Also, über die Preise kann ich nichts sagen, wir waren eingeladen.
Aber wer nach Pensacola kommt, sollte sich ein Essen im GRAND MARLIN gönnen: Seafood at ist best und eine exponierte Lage direkt über dem Golf. Schon toll!
Über das Essen kann ich durchaus etwas sagen, das war nämlich klasse. Der Freund hatte Austern — offenbar köstlich. Die mit Käse überbackenen Chips waren fast zuviel als Vorspeise, so reichlich. Die Fischfilets auf Salat waren wie es sich für die Wasserkante gehört: frisch und lecker.
Wie so oft in Amerika, kommt auch hier die Bedienung an den Tisch, stellt sich vor und verspricht, den ganzen Abend alles zu tun, damit wir uns wohl fühlen.
Und das alles bei d e r Aussicht!
Nett die Idee, sich in den Waschräumen die Hände mit Salz zu waschen. Haben wir an der Golfküste öfters angetroffen.
In der kleinen Boutique erstehe ich ein Paar tönerne Untersetzer als Souvenir an ein sehr schönes Open Air Essen.
Volle Punktzahl hätte es gegeben, wenn die Tische schön eingedeckt gewesen wären, aber für draußen war das nicht vorgesehen.