The Beach House

This place gets 3 stars mostly for location. Right on the water, with a nice atmosphere. The food is okay. The drinks are expensive and have basically no alcohol. How do they make a $ 12 martini with no alcohol? I feel that they are only surviving on their location, and convenience to the Hilton and condos next door. It’s too bad really. On the plus side the happy hour $ 4 glass of white wine was decent. I had a burger that was just okay, and my dining partner had a grouper small plate, which was good, but even smaller than expected for the price. The service was on the slow side considering how few people were there at the time. With some work on the food, drinks, and service, this place could be 5 stars.

We are locals to the area and when this place opened we couldn’t wait to go. It has a perfect location with beautiful beach views. However, every time we visited, we had horrible horrible service! The children’s shrimp plate has 4 shrimp on it. The seared ahi tuna salad comes in a huge fresh bowlful of greens and they literally put MAYBE 3oz of a tuna steak on it. We really hoped this place would rock, but there are way better places to eat along 30a that never disappoint. I would highly recommend Stinkys Fish Camp or Grayton Seafood Co! Those are 2 of our favorite local places. The Beach House just didn’t make the cut.

Terrible. Waited, and waited, and waited… No one ever came to help me. I finally got up from my seat and went to the bar to attempt to place an order. The bar tender was busy on his cell phone. The inside restaurant and bar was empty. He reluctantly took my order and gave me the check at the same time. Again, I waited, and waited. Finally, got up from my seat and found a server walking around. Asked if she could check on my order and her response was «how did you get your check if you never got your food?». I explained the story and instead of apologizing for no one ever taking my order, she walked away dazed and confused. I finally received my cold and greasy chips without a drink, napkins, or silverware. I could continue, but you get the picture. What a nightmare! Probably one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had. So sad that this place has prime real estate but such a poor service.

The Hawaiian chicken sandwich was great! Had a great view of the beach from the outside deck and the service was good. Prepare to pay $$ though!

Very good-​easy drop in after a long day of driving. Good margarita and great view! Service was excellent. Peel and eat shrimp was perfect, priced right and generous. Great slaw, awesome hush puppies!!! Worth the walk down the beach. Go!!!

I had dinner on Wednesday 11 November with my wife and another couple. This restaurant is next to the Hilton hotel and was more a choice of convenience than anything else.
I ordered the gumbo and an entrée of shrimp and grits. Both were rather disappointing, in part because they were served at the same time and the small portion of gumbo came in a bread bowl. I ate the shrimp and grits first as I did not want that to get cold while I ate the gumbo — especially since the shrimp and grits was served on an aluminum tray. The gumbo was a bit cool by the time I got to it and was nothing to write home about. The serving size of the shrimp and grits was small, with I think 6 medium to small shrimp and a lump of grits.
The others ordered a grouper sandwich, seafood pasta and another order of shrimp and grits. Perhaps the others were OK with their choices, but I doubt anyone was eager to return to the Beach House.

Pro’s: Beautiful view of the Gulf, cool atmosphere, great bar, extremely nice staff. Traffic light guac & dip was good. Mahi sandwich was good.
Con’s: The rest of the food was not great, some if it downright terrible. The hushpuppies were almost inedible (dry and flavorless), they brought black beans and rice as a replacement but they were only marginally better. My child got a little side of buttered noodles for $ 7 (ouch!). Wife got the Tuna salad which was subpar.
Net net, not going back there for a dining event. This place is best reserved as a walk-​up bar from the beach.

It was just what we wanted for a lunch at the beach. We ordered appetizer stuff, and had a fat Tuesday daiquiri. Food was good, service was good. The views from the deck were great. Right in the beach.

Had the best time over a great lunch! Perfect gem next to the Hilton. The Tito’s Lemonade was great and the grouper sandwich (which our server recommended) was phenomenal. Probably going back again for lunch today!

I hated this place! The shrimp and grits entrée was terrible. The grits were formed into a big brick with sauce on top and the texture was awful. I could barely choke down half of it. My husband got a chip & dip appetizer that consisted of tortilla chips + guacamole, queso & salsa. Doesn’t sound too hard to mess up but they found a way. The salsa and the guac had no flavor and the queso I swear had to be made of Velveeta and Rotel. The drinks were overpriced and tiny, and the vibe in that place was just bad. Touristy and snooty.

This was the WORST meal I have had in quite some time. The Hushpuppies were so nasty that I couldn’t eat them. I tried to eat several because I was so hungry. The French fries had the same ‘rank’ taste that made me stop eating.
I asked for blackened but I was delivered Fried. It happens right, but when my blackened enter came out there was so much butter that I could barely handle it.
The server was nice and the drinks were average. This is the second time I have been to this restaurant and I will not come back. The View is why I come and maybe I should just drink here and eat at Marlins in the Warf. It is great.

Butter Greek tacos were good! Fish was a bit fishy. Burger was dry. The calamari was different but probably the best dish we had here. Extra crunchy. Can’t beat the view while u dine in!

Have been back many times. Food has improved, service is friendly and timely. The new light bulbs are fantastic and the bartender Sean T. Always takes care of us and keeps us coming back!

Strengths:
Beautiful view of the gulf. Friendly staff. Music in patio added to the ambiance.
Opportunities:
Beer was flat and warm. Table was wobbly which made eating an adventure.
Summary:
Easy to eat place right off beach. Go for convenience, not for the food. Not the place for your 1^st beer.

Avoid if possible. We were forced to eat here as we were staying at the resort and hanging at the pool/​beach all day and this is onsite. We only ordered chicken fingers, fries and their Traffic Light. The breading on the chicken, guacamole and salsa were extremely bland. Not sure if the cheese dip was good as they didn’t bother to serve that part of the appetizer. The fries were okay but if you screw up french fries, it’s time to close your doors.
This place has a captive audience and capitalizes on it. I wouldn’t dream of making a special trip to frequent this place. But when in Rome…

This was our first visit to the Beach House. Service was GREAT! Staff were all very friendly. We ordered shrimp and grits which was very flavorful. The best were the grouper tacos! For dessert we had the coconut cream pie Yummy! Great view plus great service with the bonus of great food equals we will be back!

Not good. Who ever reviews this place has low standards! Best part is the view and location next to the condo at Sandestin resort and beach. Lower your standards for food and you will be satisfied. Grouper cheek tacos have an ounce of fish. Not much fish and 90 percent is coleslaw/​cabbage and had to ask for a sauce to go with it. A bland white sauce derived from a ranch dressing was delivered. Terrible. Hush puppies have corn and over seasoned and OVER Fried like Rock hard. Server was funny but good. Ordered beer before dinner came then canceled after dinner was done because it wasn’t delivered. No check back on how dinner /​food was. Lower your expectations and go for the view and only buy drinks served in cheap plastic glasses and you I’ll be fine.

Went here today for the first time and it was a major disappointment.
First off it was raining so we went in to seek shelter and grab an appetizer till things blew over. This place was a mad house! I heard one of the waiters say they have never had a wait and they seemed slightly disoriented. I asked the bartender to be put on a waiting list and she sent me to the hostess station, where she was no where to be found. If you wanted to be put on the list you had to search for the one with the iPad stop her and ask to be on the waiting list. The staff was very friendly but seemed green, I don’t think this place has been open very long so they are clearly still working out the kinks.
My two stars is not based on how they handled the crowd, in fact the location and the fact that all workers seemed helpful and hard working gained them a star. Although they seem un prepared it was all hands on deck and all employees seemed to be working hard to seat people and get orders. I blame management and lack of training.
The main reason for the rating is the food quality, not very good. We ordered the traffic light appetizer which was cleverly named due to the green guacamole yellow queso (although listed as queso blanco?) and the red salsa.
Let’s go down the line. First off the guacamole had potential, it had all the necessary ingredients but the lime juice I believe was not fresh it must of been a cheap bottled juice, which gave it a bitter unpleasant aftertaste. The queso was awful it tasted like straight Velveeta and or at the very least 95% cheap American cheese. Finally the red salsa tasted as if they took every tomato product they had and blended it all together, it was very thick and hardly resembled salsa. The chips were the only thing good, they seemed to be fried to order, but I literally had to stop eating it. This was simply not good quality and did not seem fresh, very disappointed, because it’s generally a straight forward dish.
Aside from this they automatically add a 20% tip to the bill regardless of party size or what is ordered. I did not notice this on the menu. I understand including a gratuity for a large party but for two people who share an app?
This is a plain case of a restaurant with such high potential that fell short, I will not return and would be weary of ordering anything else other than drinks. It may not be fair to give such a review after only sampling one menu item, but that menu item made me not want to order more, or have the need to return…

Great food! We have our staple restaurants we like to go to when vacationing in Destin but we decided to try The Beach House because it was really close to our hotel (the luau) and it was on the beach… needless to say Very Impressed!!!
Food was excellent– we had the blackened grouper sandwich with mango chutney and avocado… and hush puppies… absolutely delicious! Some of the food we have had at other places was a bit dry… but this was moist, melted in our mouths, and had a gentle kick to it…
Second the atmosphere was very relaxing… more so than other restaurants on the beach. You can set on the deck, stare into the beautiful water, and enjoy a cold beverage. Finally, the wait staff were very friendly and helped to entertain our 10 month old daughter. We will definitely return!

Our server was awesome, the nachos are aMazing and it isn’t overpriced beach food. We will be coming back and recommending it to everyone we talk to on the beach!