Good choice
Great fried oysters. Great tropical atmosphere (especially the outside dining area).    [19 May 2003 03:45:25]

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Recommended Dishes: Fried Oysters

     ­Anonymous   

The Diamond of Port A
White tablecloths, candlelight and soft jazz are just the star of an impeccable evening at this jewel on the bay! We enjoyed the freshest, most delicious sushi on our first night. We recommend the bank roll which has yellow tail, tuna, avacodo & cucumber. Accompany this with a bottle of Cakebread Savingon Blanc. The fresh catch of amberjack and scallops pasta and freshly prepared vegetables awaited us on our 2nd visit. The wait staff is attentive and friendly. This is an upscale,refreshing alternative to other spots we visited in Port Aransas. Our only regret was no draft beer.    [16 Nov 2003 21:44:26]

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Recommended Dishes: Sushi: the Bank Roll Fresh Seafood: Amberjack

     ­Anonymous   

Pelican's Landing Going Downhill, Fast!
We've been eating at Pelican's Landing for almost 20 years. Each year we've seen changes in a negative direction. Years ago, they boasted a phenomenal wine list. That's gone! Now, it's clearly a mundane "distributor's list." The food portions have shrunk. Last year we had a horrible experience. We were told the wait was 20 minutes. We sat at the bar for 45 minutes and after watching people who arrived after we did be seated, we went outside and approached the hostess in informed us she never told us it was a 20 minute wait, that she had not been seating people ahead of us and that our wait was now 1 minute. How do you arrive at a wait time of 1 minute? Can someone explain that to me because the hostess couldn't. So, we left vowing never to return. Well, we gave it the old college try again on July 22, 2006. Despite our daughter having been warned by a fellow UT student of a horrible experience there the night before where her friend and their entire party walked out of the restaurant due to the rudeness of the hostess and the waitstaff, we tried again anyway. We were told the wait was 20 minutes and were invited to go to the bar. We ordered bloody mary's and I went into the restaurant where I counted................now, get this........10 open tables! There were only 3 tables occupied that I counted! So, it was the old "bait and switch" routine of maximizing profits from the sale of alcohol. The weather had begun to turn bad and there was no one in the restaurant, which is unusual. So, why the wait? When our food arrived, we discovered they'd also managed to screw up the famous "suspended butter" by adding a hideous amount of garlic powder to it. Guess what, despite the fact we learned the secret of "suspended butter" is a powder distributed by Sterling Foods, we could not get the "suspended butter" w/o garlic, i.e. the old recipe they've used for over 20 years. Our waitress was kind enough to go back and melt butter in a plastic tub for us, but it was just a tub of plain, unsalted melted butter. Not quite the dining experience one expects at these prices. So, in my opinion this restaurant continues a downward spiral that has been going on for at least 6 years. The problem is that the summer crowds on the island reward bad restaurants! Huge crowds flood the island during the summer and result in overflow for even bad restaurants. If Pelican's Landing were in San Antonio, it would have folded because competition here for restaurant customers weeds out weak or bad restaurants. Not so on an island w/a captive audience! In fact, Pelican's Landing opened a San Antonio restaurant years ago, and it quickly folded when it couldn't compete. So, I doubt anything I've experienced at Pelican's Landing nor anything I've written here will result in anything positive. There is no excuse for any restaurant these days not to offer draft beer. I'm an attorney but I know why most restaurants offer only bottle beer......inventory control and employee theft and waste! There, the secret is out........they don't want to offer draft beer for those reasons. Screw the customer! The reason is laziness and poor management practices! Pelican's Landing has allowed their wine list to go to hell and still offers only bottled beer w/their seafood, and that is inexcusable given the way everything else there has deteriorated. The least they could do is try to actually bring something extra to the table, no pun intended, but they're safe in their arrogance and refusal to truly make an exemplary effort for their customers.    [01 Aug 2006 11:17:58]

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     ­Anonymous