Entries categorized as ‘Business Lunch’
Jackson’s Restaurant provides the best dining experience in Pensacola. Awarded as one of the best 25 restaurants in Florida, the dining experience they offer is flawless. From the experience of making the recommended reservation to decor and service to the food. Impeccable. Jackson’s Restaurant can easily be compared to any fine restaurant in any larger metropolitan area. While the dining experience will cost you more than most in Pensacola are accustomed to paying (…much more), I am happy to say that it is worth every Ben Franklin you can muster.
Your experience starts with a friendly reservation in which they want to know your full names and if you are visiting for any special occasion. This conversation is akin to the concierge service at a 5-star hotel. When you arrive the door is opened for you. When you enter you are greeted warmly both by the host and the decor. Jackson’s is decorated with an absolute attention to detail. The chandeliers are faux tree limbs capped by candle lanterns. The light is warm and ample while still maintaining intimacy, supplemented by the simply elegant and comfortable furniture. Expect white table clothes and jacketed service. Your table will be attended by no less than two service staff. The atmosphere is now complimented by live piano music (though it did get a tiny bit loud at times).
She had a rib-eye that was absolutely sublime. Great steak is a wonderful thing, but this a different level. I had the Marksman’s Grill, which was sadly better on the menu that it was on my plate. However it was adventuresome and unique with quail, elk, and venison (my favorite), and still quite tasty. We chose a bottle of “J”, Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, and once it had a chance to breath, it went down very easily. (We liked it so much, we walked out with the bottle.) Being a birthday, we splurged on dessert-creme brulee and Rosco’s Amazing Chocolate Stack. While one can never go wrong with creme brulee (though the berries were spectacular), the peanut-butter chocolate dessert took the night.
We apologize that we don’t remember the names of our servers, but they did a great job! Maybe it is a mark of great service that we don’t remember them? In any case, the evening was stellar. A word of notice. Please see the dollar signs below before making your reservation and make sure you understand our price rating. But once you take that note, prepare for the best fine dining restaurant experience Pensacola has to offer.
Name: Jackson’s Restaurant
Location: 400 South Palafox Street, Pensacola, FL, 32502
Phone: (850) 469-9898
Price: Lunch $$-$$$; Dinner $$$$$-15$
Website: www.jacksonsrestaurant.com
Categories: Business Lunch · Dessert · Downtown · Drinks · Food · Palafox · Pensacola · Restaurant · Romance · Romantic Dinner · Seafood · Steak
Tagged: Business Lunch, Dessert, Downtown Pensacola, Drinks, Jacksons, Palafox, Pensacola, Restaurant, Romantic Dinner, Seafood, Steak
This is a relatively new chain restaurant for Pensacola, and in general. There is 10 locations across the south United States. In a nutshell, the food is great but the service is lacking. I’ve eaten here over a half dozen times in the last year (and recently) in a varitey of settings- lunch, dinner, meeting room. Overall this assessment stands true. I ate lunch at Zea Rotisserie and Grill recently with an associate, and we sat for over ten minutes until we were approached for a drink order.That being said, they have some fantastic stuff on their menu. Their dry rub ribs are absolutely excellent and their salads are delicious. The atmosphere and decor are clean and warm, with special touches everywhere. If you can get service, it is the perfect location and environment for a business lunch. The tables are not too close and sound doesn’t travel. In addition, Zea offers something that is curiously rare in a beach town like Pensacola- outdoor dining! Its not a big area, but it is protected and you can actually see the bay! Its a hidden treasure. Ask for it. Zea should work on its training and management programs if it is to experience sucessful growth, but it has potential.Name: Zea Rotisserie and Grill
Location: 605 West Gregory, Pensacola, FL, 32502
Phone: (850) 433-2159
Price: $-$$$
Website: www.zearestaurants.com
Categories: BBQ · Burgers · Business Lunch · Dessert · Dining with Friends · Downtown · Food · Gregory · Outdoor Dining · Pensacola · Restaurant · Seafood · Steak
Tagged: Downtown Pensacola, Restaurant, Seafood, Steak, Business Lunch, Dining with Friends, Outdoor Dining, Dining with Kids, Gregory Street, BBQ, Sunday Brunch, Pensacola, Zea, grill, rotisserie
Eat! is a downtown Pensacola restaurant adding location and services all the time. Eat! is characterized by a trendy metropolitan atmosphere, fine cuisine, and outstanding service. During lunchtime, this place is all business, one of the preferred lunch meeting places in the downtown area. In the evening, the restaurant switches to fine dining and does it well. The deco bar offers a great place to start your evening and relax before dinner.
Eat! ’s menu offers some items not otherwise found in Pensacola restaurants. For example, try the delicious Rabbit Quesadillas. Yes, that’s rabbit meat! Without fail, all of the menu items are tasty, with some outstanding fare. There is plenty of variety and adventure to be had, as well as standard dining choices that won’t disappoint.
I am constantly impressed by the service. It is highly professional but relaxed and comfortable. Again, a trendy metropolitan atmosphere. This is once you are seated. I am occasionally dismayed by how long I wait at the door before being approached. However, once approached, service is excellent. Ask for Frances as your server and the back room if you have a party of less than six and want some privacy. Outdoor dining, while available, is not altogether comfortable.
Name: Eat!
Location: 286 N. Palafox, Pensacola, FL, 32502
Phone: (850) 433-6905
Price: $-$$$
Website: www.eatmorefood.com
Categories: Business Lunch · Dessert · Dining with Friends · Downtown · Drinks · Food · Location · Outdoor Dining · Palafox · Pensacola · Restaurant · Romantic Dinner · Salads · Sandwiches · Seafood · Steak
Tagged: Palafox, Restaurant, Pensacola, eat, Food, dine, Downtown, salad, romantic, dinner, business, lunch, frances, excellent, service, outdoor
O’Brien’s is truly unique in Pensacola. For starters, it is small and intimate. This is not a easy charateristic to find in this town. Its food it delicious, its wine list is magnificent, and its service is (usually) sophsticated yet friendly. That few short sentences say it all. It is one of the few restaurants in Pensacola in which you can truly feel that you are someplace special. Sometimes it shows its age, and falters, but it delivers something that you can’t find elsewhere in Penacola.Recommendations? The entres range from seafood to steak. The atmosphere is “neighborhood fine dining”. Try their specials. The wine list is stellar. Spend some time with it to find some unusual gems. If you have a chance, let Jim O’Brien recommend your dinner and wine.
Name: O’Briens Bistro
Location: 4350 Bayou Blvd, Pensacola, FL, 32502
Phone: 850-477-9120
Price: $$$-$$$$$
Website: na Technorati Profile
Categories: Business Lunch · Cordova · Dessert · Dining with Friends · Drinks · Food · Pensacola · Restaurant · Romance · Romantic Dinner · Romantic Lunch · Seafood · Steak
Tagged: Romantic Dinner, Restaurant, Seafood, Steak, Business Lunch, Cordova, Pensacola, wine, bistro, o'briens
What a surprise! This is a chain. It is not unique to Pensacola. I am not a huge fan of chain restaurants and do not frequent them often (aside from Carabas, but that’s a different review). To further set the stage on this review, I have eaten at this Bonefish location in Pensacola on three prior occasions. I found the food bland and uninteresting on all three occasions, as you would expect at any franchise restaurant.
Last Tuesday however, I had a completely different experience. We dropped in to use a gift certificate, and walked out impressed. We started with the chicken spring rolls. They were tasty but nothing extraordinary. The salad was less exciting, though the bread is always a great touch. We both order the tilapia special, because our server sold it so well. Tilapia Withdrew, or something like that. It is a healthy piece of grilled, but delicately spicy tilapia, covered with a spinach-gouda cream sauce topping.
This plate is fantastic. It rivals anything that the Fish House may create and truly trascends the franchise restaurant fare. We will return to see if this experience can be duplicated. Stand by for that review.
Name: Bonefish Grill
Location: 5025 N 12th Ave., Pensacola, FL 32504
Phone: (850) 471-2324
Price: $$-$$$
Website: http://www.bonefishgrill.com/home.asp
Categories: Business Lunch · Cordova · Dessert · Dining with Friends · Dining with Kids · Drinks · Food · Pensacola · Restaurant · Romance · Romantic Dinner · Romantic Lunch · Salads · Seafood · Steak
Tagged: Romantic Dinner, Restaurant, Seafood, Steak, Dining with Friends, Cordova, Pensacola, grill, bonefish
I’ve had mostly great though mixed experiences at this Pensacola Beach restaurant. Let me first say that until you get to the roof bar, this restaurant is well furnished and decorated. Lots of Key West style wood beams and earth tones- not the neon-pastel Caribbean stuff. Most tables give a sense of seclusion and intimacy, even the outdoor dining area. All this lends itself to a great atmosphere makes us expect great food and service.
Great service is almost always executed. Even the new server I had once indicated that she knew what she should have been doing, though she didn’t do it. The servers are professional, friendly, and attentive without being intrusive. Larger parties are well doubled and tripled with service.
The food is not always so well done. Its up and down and around, like it depends on which chef is on that night. The fish is not always tasty and is sometimes quite bland. This is inexcusable for a place name after Hemingway that sits on a beach. I will say that when the food is “on” is on par with better seafood in the area, though not the best (see Fish House and Altas reviews).
One thing that Hemingway’s has a wealth of is location. Spectacular views of the Santa Rosa Sound are available and this is one of the few restaurants in Pensacola with a sunset view. (That is a strange thing, is it not?). The roof top bar lends even better views, though as noted earlier, the utter lack of ambiance around this bar leaves a HUGE amount to be desired. This rooftop bar is another place that Hemingway’s has completely dropped the ball and is missing an opportunity to clinch the spot of the best restaurant on the beach.
Let me say that last, but not least, Hemingway’s has some absolutely delicious desserts. It is worth going just for dessert, coffee, and drinks. And yes, the Key Lime pie, is some of the best you’ll find anywhere in the world.
Name: Hemingway’s Island Grill
Location: 400 Quietwater Boardwalk, Pensacola Beach (west end of boardwalk on sound side)
Phone: 850-934-4747
Price: $$$
Website: none
Categories: Business Lunch · Dessert · Dining with Friends · Dining with Kids · Drinks · Food · Outdoor Dining · Pensacola Beach · Restaurant · Romance · Romantic Dinner · Seafood · Steak
Tagged: Business Lunch, Dessert, grill, hemingway, hemingway's, island, Outdoor Dining, Pensacola Beach, Restaurant, Romantic Dinner, Seafood, Steak
Now I am about to say that Horizen offers the best sushi in Pensacola, but I want to qualify my statement first. Pensacola is a town of superior sushi. Its about the very fresh fish we have here and our long relationships with the Japanese via the Navy, and that is long and complicated. Suffice it to say that in a town of great sushi, Horizen edges out the competition. Why? I think its the sticky rice, but I am not sure.
The Tiger Roll is the item to get on this menu. Never have I eaten here and not ordered a Tiger Roll. It is a house specialty. There are other standard sushi rolsl that are spectacular as well. I have never had bad sushi here. I can’t say that for any other sushi house I have eaten at. And I have eaten at Horizen more than any other sushi house.
However, I have had bad service here. I have had horrible service here. It has dramatically improved since they brought they brought some of the Front of the House managers over from Hunan, but it is still hit or miss. If the restaurant is busy, the three to four sushi rollers can’t keep up. It can take an extraordinary amount of time to get your order. Enjoy the Japanese wine selection, the sake, and some seaweed salad.
If you find waiting long lengths for your food inexcusable, as I do, don’t write Horizen off, just don’t go during peak hours. Its great for a late lunch or dinner. Or on a Monday or Tuesday evening…
Name: Horizen
Location: 3103 E Strong St., Pensacola (just behind Hunan on the east end of Cervantes)
Phone: (850) 432-7899
Price: $$
Website: http://www.horizensushi.com/
Categories: Business Lunch · Dining with Friends · East Pensacola · Food · Pensacola · Restaurant · Romance · Romantic Dinner · Romantic Lunch · Seafood · Sushi
Tagged: Business Lunch, Dining with Friends, East Pensacola, heights, horizen, Lunch with Sweetheart, Pensacola, Restaurant, Sushi
Talk about atmosphere? McGuires Irish Pub has it in spades, or should I say clovers? This is a true Irish pub, in every corner of its massive and growing number of dining areas. Loud and noisy, but also intimate and conversation, McGuires Irish Pub begs you to drink just one more beer. Brewing seasonals and standards onsite, there is plenty of beer to choose from. If you like your beer you may want to consider getting your own mug. If you are not a drinker, try the root beer made in house.
Not known just for its beers, McGuires is Pensacola’s best steakhouse. Super prime cuts of meat and superior spices help this place dominate the steak market admist a number of chain steakhouses (Outback is across the street; Dmaon’s went out of business next door). Their burger menu with 25+ excellent burgers is perfect lunch fare. Though you must be warned the burgers are HUGE and often quite sloppy.
One more thing to note: A McGuires tradition is to write something on a dollar bill and staple it to the ceiling. At last count by the IRS, there is over 700,000 dollar bills stapled to the ceiling of McGuires Irish Pub.
Name: McGuires Irish Pub
Location: 600 E. Gregory St., Pensacola, FL 32501 (downtown)
Phone: 850.433.6789
Price: $-$$$
Website: http://www.mcguiresirishpub.com/
Categories: BBQ · Burgers · Business Lunch · Dining with Friends · Dining with Kids · Downtown · Drinks · Food · Gregory · Pensacola · Restaurant · Seafood · Steak · Sunday Brunch
Tagged: Downtown Pensacola, Drinks, Restaurant, Steak, Business Lunch, Dining with Friends, Dining with Kids, Gregory Street, Burgers, Pensacola, McGuire's, Irish, Pub
If we had to pick one restaurant that would best represent Pensacola, it would have to be the Fish House. Located on the water, this restaurant has outdoor waterfront dining, delicious fine seafood menu, and lots of local flavor. For starters, though the food is fine dining quality and presentation, the atmosphere is decidedly casual. There are many business suits for lunch and the same at dinner, but you’ll always find shorts, flops, and suntans.
It is the Fish House, and they serve the best seafood in Pensacola. This is quite an accolade, as I consider Pensacola seafood some of the very best in the world. But not only is the Fish House good at fish, it is good at everything. For example, their burger sits as one of the best I have ever had. Their steaks are also superior. While the supremacy of the food at the Fish House waxes and wanes with chef moods, it never drops below excellent. The grits in the best in the South.
The Fish House offers indoor and outdoor dining. Indoor dining is marked by a crowded, white table cloth atmosphere and massive fish tanks. Outdoor dining happens on one of many levels of decks, covered by a variety of umbrellas and wide canvas strips. It is heated during Pensacola’s very short winter, and the ocean breeze cools it after noon during the summer (though one should pick summer lunch seating carefully). Delightfully, the Fish House decks sit on the east side of the building. While this precludes a sunset view, it does often a quick cool down at dinner time.
The only complaint that I may have about Fish House comes in the “local flavor”. The Fish House is a favorite watering hole of local socialites and wannabes, and they don’t mind starting early. What this means is that by early evening, the bar areas can be quite loud and somewhat obnoxious. If you prefer more peaceful dining, be sure to request seating away from the bars.
That being said, the Fish House is the first place that I recommend to visitors to Pensacola, my first choice for a business lunch, or a great place to go with Friends. On the right evening, it can be romantic as well. Regardless, you will have a superior dining experience.
(Well-kept secret: Fish house has the best burgers on the face of the earth. Really.)
Name: Fish House
Location: 600 S Barracks St # 10, Pensacola, FL 32502
Phone: 850.470.0003
Price: $$-$$$$$
Official Website: http://www.goodgrits.com/
Categories: Burgers · Business Lunch · Dessert · Dining with Friends · Downtown · Drinks · Food · Outdoor Dining · Pensacola · Restaurant · Romance · Romantic Dinner · Romantic Lunch · Salads · Sandwiches · Seafood · Seville · Steak · Sunday Brunch · Sushi
Tagged: Downtown Pensacola, Drinks, Restaurant, Seafood, Business Lunch, Dining with Friends, Outdoor Dining, Burgers, Sushi, Lunch with Sweetheart, Seville, Pensacola, fish, house, marina
