Beach & Station Street Grill

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

This past weekend hubby and I took a last minute trip for our anniversary. Stayed at a hotel on North Padre Island and spent some time around Corpus and Port A. While on a guided fishing trip in Port A, the deck hand recommended Beach and Station Street Grill. I checked the reviews online and then we decided to go. Saturday night we arrived around 9pm I think, and they said we would be their last customers of the night. Parking was right up front and we only waited about 5 minutes for them to bus a table outside on the deck. They were extremely friendly considering we were their last people. Like others have said, on the outside it doesnt look that amazing. The place across the street had a line aroudn the building and live music outside and loud music inside. Not this place. Very chill, quiet, not much lighting, and plastic furniture. But having eaten at lots of "hole in the wall" places that are amazing we have learned to not "judge a book by its cover". Our server was nice, the guy cleaning the tables was nice, the lady who works inside and handles the money was nice, one of the cooks was nice, and the stray dog that comes to visit seemed nice. On that aspect, 4.5 stars. People were just being themselves. Pretty nice and pretty typical islanders. Food did take a while. We started talking to the server and he commented on how often people complain about this. Well look, when the place is full (which it definitely was not when we were there), things will take forever. Just like they do ANYWHERE. Having worked at a major restaurant chain, on busy nights tickets are usually about 45 minutes. I think our food took about 20-25 minutes. But I was enjoying a Land Shark beer and just relaxing. Nice breeze, nice people, all that. Hubby ordered Gills Specialty blackened with friends and red beans and rice and I ordered a bowl of gumbo, thanks to other reviews. Both of these - 5 stars. Hands down. Weve been to other touristy places in Port A over the years and that atmosphere just doesnt do it for me. The prices are outrageous, its so busy, service is typically awful, and the food isnt better than a Long John Silvers. But this place is absolutely amazing. Everything was cooked perfectly and according to the server thats because they dont start on anything until you order it. Literally. The shrimp dont even get peeled (except the gumbo of course). The fish was flaky and moist, shrimp were huge, both had great seasoning. Fries tasted kidna like jack in the box curly fries = good. Red beans and rice were very unique to us and even had ham in them. Amazing. Gumbo had everything promised with wonderful spice. It was thicker and lighter than gumbos Ive had. The roux was creamy looking. But it was the best Ive had in my life. Now, to go here you need to evaluate yourself. If you are one of those princesses or princes who wants everything stat and white linens, sorry, not the place for you. But if you want to go to a local place, with real people who live their lives and work hard to give you great food, this is it. Enjoy!

CH

Christopher De Leon

While the food was really good, they seem to intentionally not tell you its cash only until you sit. This almost forces you to use their ATM. When their ATM ran out of money they suggested we go to the restaurant across the street who had the same kind of ATM and that one was out and we were directed to yet another similar ATM. My assumption is theyre run by someone on the island and they all the restaurants are being shady in order to earn their fellow islander some money. We had waited for 45 minutes to sit and could have easily gone to an in network ATM and avoided their fee had we been told at check-in about them being cash only. Once we sat we (a Hispanic family) noticed a seriously different level of service from the same waitress than was given to the white tables. In protest of their poor service we left less than the 18% ($22) tip that was put on our receipt leaving $15, an employee ran to our table as we walked away from our table counting the money and yelling at us that we had stiffed them, writing down our license plate threatening to file charges for theft of service. They made a huge scene in front of other customers over $7 of tip. This is the most ridiculous thing Ive ever witnessed muchless had happen to myself. If you want great food and great service go to "Shell" 1000x better experience there and we were happy to leave a 30% tip there.

DA

David Mitchell

Dont get me wrong...the food was good. But dont go there on a crowded weekend! We originally had a party of 10...I was treating my children and their children to a Sandfest weekend. When we arrived at Beach Station Street Grill we were told we would be seated soon. We were..however we were seated at two separate tables of five. We ordered around 6:45 and an appetizer came out fairly quickly. Then there was the wait. Before we were served a reserved table at the end of deck came, ate and left. I inquired and was told that they had fried baskets and stuff so were served first. So...it doesnt matter what order your order is placed...easier foods dominate. Then my sons table was served around 8:15. About an hour later our food finally came...one dish at a time. It had been well over two hours since we had ordered. The waitress kept telling us it would be right out (which it wasnt) and that the kitchen was very small...that they were more of a "beach hut" than a restaurant and that the locals loved them. Hmmm.. To make matters worse. My son had picked up the tab for all of us (thank you Josh) and paid a mandatory 18% tip, presumably for large parties. We were a party of five and my sons table (several feet away) was a party of five. Surely they don;t tack on 18% for everyone! As I said, the food was good. The wait staff were disingenuous and dishonest.

SA

Sarah Adamek

We came to this place expecting a good experience because of the reviews. We ate dinner and found that the experience was not good. The first thing we found out was we had to have cash to pay and had to use the ATM. With coming here for the first time we dont know how much everything costs. We arent going to carry cash with us everywhere. The food was ok and expensive. I have had better crab legs at Red Lobster. The restaurant was small and the service was minimal to non-existent. She never asked about the food and filled out drinks by reaching across the table. She did not split the tickets to get us to pay separately. I was still eating as she brought the ticket over expecting us to pay. She did not give us the correct change and when we paid she was hovering over the tables. She expected 18% tip. Grabbed the ticket before we were done and got very rude with us complaining about her tip. The server told us that we were not welcome and to go to what-a-burger next time. She then made the comment that we didnt have have the money for a tip. We left and the manager came after us wanting to talk about the service and why we did not leave a good enough tip. She went on about how servers live off the tips, and how they expected more. I was a server and would never do this to a customer. I would suggest to not come here.