Pirate's Bar And Grill — Restaurant in Dauphin Island

1pm with a 30 minute wait for a table. 4 tables were visible empty and clean. We were told we could go sit by the pool, but not on beach access. We decided to visit the bathrooms and wash our hands and face after a hot minute in the sun. The downstairs bathrooms are decorated in a very coastal/nostalgic, but needed repair, and wasn't clean.

35 minutes later, we had a table. Upstairs was nice, with a very nice view. Mostly what you're paying and waiting for is the view. The food was good, but not great. Fried pickles where standard. Nothing extra good to make it worth ordering a second time. Candy pork belly and shrimp, I can't eat but those are at the table that could, enjoyed it very much. Okra come on now, we're from the south, fried okra taste better than this.... Bland... Anything fried and battered that I tried, bland... Just forget they have it. You'll get better at just about any roadside food truck on wheels. I don't remember, what all the foods are we ordered. They weren't that memorable. I know I ordered chicken that had pineapple on top of it was actually good, the sides ... Not so much. I was supposed to get some toast with it, it came at the end of the meal. I works have guessed they had to wait for the dough to rise and bake, but it didn't taste fresh enough for that. My wife ordered some blackened fish, I think it might have been flounder or Mahi. It came and looked more like lightly seasoned fish. They offered to take it off the ticket, but I'm not looking for a free food I'm looking for good food... Some food was really good, some food was was decent, but some food and the sides were lacking.

I know they were short-staffed, but drinks went dry several times, they didn't come back to check on us. When we got seated, it took them about 20 minutes or so to even take an order for appetizers. 45 minutes of sitting before we got food. Good thing they had good scenery, and we were enjoying conversation with the people we were with. All together, I won't go back.

My restaurant interpretation of the 5🌟 rating system (feel free to use):

I started using this because I don't like seeing standard restaurants with 5🌟. If I see 5🌟 I expect more than standard. Also adjusted for type of business. Sit down restaurants are skewed and critiqued accordingly in comparison to fast food. My wife kept getting on to me for being too critical.

1🌟 = DUMP…. NEVER AGAIN I DON'T CARE IF IT IS FREE (wish there was a no star option). The food you would feed a prisoner, only if you didn’t like them. 2🌟 = Crap, fast food...... Only for If you are in a hurry, tight on $, and/or in a rush. (Think big chain places with $1 menu, not HORRIABLE, and sometimes a decent food comes out). 3🌟 = Okay, worth going on a regular, but has room to improve (Think frequent work lunch spot, Rarely less than Okay, usually Good to really good food) 4🌟 = Very good, favorite "common" places. Nothing EXCEPTIONAL. (Think casual date, Nicer Chain restaurants usually, occasional surprisingly good Fast food) 5🌟 = Reserved for EXTREMELY high quality and/or Exceptional, and  Places that surprise me. (Think first date to impress, anniversary, special occasion) GREAT flavor, great food, ambiance,...

This was the best restaurant experience we had on the island - if you are familiar you understand the context of that statement. The place is grossly dilapidated and looks like the owner couldn’t care less if it collapsed tomorrow but the service was friendly and prompt and the food (despite being overpriced) was good. We enjoyed everything we ordered without complaint. I don’t mind paying premium prices for a premium experience but this place literally looks like a dump all around except that you still pay a premium. No exaggeration- from the outside if you didn’t see people you could very reasonably assume it abandoned. The menu was smaller but decent especially by comparison to other places on the island and you could actually find something fresh to eat here which was great. They actually cook some menu items instead of just deep frying cheap frozen foods like most every other place there. The wait goes by easy if you hit one. You can walk the beach, hang out downstairs and listen to music, or sit outside in the many convenient places they had outdoor seating. The real saving grace to me was the wait staff. Despite how this place looks everyone was very pleasant to talk with and I enjoyed that part of the experience. I imagine they get pretty overwhelmed at times dealing with the tourists but none showed it. They treated us well and gave excellent service. I liked that I didn’t have to feel bad about taking my kids there. The views from the dining room are very nice and even seated near the bar it isn’t a super loud kind of place where you have to shout across the table. During our stay we came back here multiple times because by comparison to the other options this was definitely one of the best on the island. If they cleaned up the appearance I really wouldn’t have had any gripes and it would justify high prices. The view is beautiful and definitely worth a premium price. Im not afraid to spend some money but I at least want to feel good doing it and the appearance was a major distraction for me that also made me question the state of the kitchen but sometimes I guess it is probably better not to know. If you’re agonizing over the lack of good food on the island try...

We were taken upstairs to be seated. There were many tables by the windows which look out onto the beach and water but we were seated by the servers station overlooking what looked like the trash dump. We asked if we could move to another table and were told that they had a wait list. Well, I don't know where the people on the wait list were because those tables were all unoccupied for the whole 45 minutes we waited for our food. Finally.when the food arrived we again asked if we could move to a better table. The waitress said they was a wait list and those tables were going to be occupied. We sat down on one anyway and the hostess who looked like she was in junior high came and wanted us to move. My husband told them that if we got up we were leaving. She walked off. A little while later while we were still eating, a man, maybe the manager? , came to our table and said he had a table of 15 waiting! What a joke!!!! There were only 3 tables occupied and our table would only seat 4. There were multiple large tables pushed together more than enough for several.large parties. He told us we could finish our food - how rude is that! He then asked out loudly how many people at the bar were waiting for a table - Well guess what - nobody was waiting. When we left there were 4 people outside taking pictures of the bay. I have lived on an island where fresh seafood was plentiful and this was not fresh seafood. My fish and my husband's shrimp obviously came from the grocery frozen section in a box. The hushpuppies were so burnt and hard they would have dented the floor had they fallen off the plate. I would definitely not recommend this place to anyone. Rude staff. Dirty sticky floors and high prices for frozen, reheated food. Someone also needs training on how to make iced tea. Oh and they tack on $1.15 if you use a...