Sandos Beachside Cafe & Bar — Restaurant in Destin

Most beachside restaurants exist purely because they’re near water and gullible tourists. Let’s be honest—half of them are peddling microwaved seafood medleys straight from a Sysco truck, garnished with a lemon wedge and apathy. The menus read like a sad poem called “Frozen, Fried, Forgotten.”

But then… there’s Sandos. A glorious glitch in the simulation.

Right off Scenic 98, dangerously close to the kind of beach that inspires country songs and poor decisions, this place somehow decided, “What if we didn’t suck?” And then they followed through.

Let’s talk sandwiches. The "Old 98" is a masterpiece. Turkey, bacon, chipotle mayo—nothing groundbreaking on paper, but together they sing like a beach bum barbershop quartet in perfect greasy harmony. Then you’ve got the “Fuhgeddaboudit”, which sounds like a dare and eats like a dream. Prosciutto, salami, soppressata—basically what would happen if an Italian deli took a spring break and never left.

And the tiki drinks? Actual tiki. Not sad rum in a plastic cup with a single maraschino cherry. These cocktails come with intent. With danger. With purpose. The kind of drinks that make you text your ex or try to learn the ukulele.

Somehow, they’ve also gained unauthorized access to my Spotify playlist. I walk in and it’s Sublime with Rome or Bumpin Uglies, like they tapped into my brain, scrolled past the shameful parts, and hit “beach mode.” I didn’t know I needed that kind of validation from a sandwich shop. But here we are.

Only downside? They close at 7pm. Which feels criminal. Just when the beach gets shady and your fourth rum drink has you questioning your career choices, they shut the doors like culinary Cinderella. Come on, Sandos—keep the dream alive past sunset.

Bottom line: This place shouldn’t exist—but thank God it does. It’s a tiki-sandwich fever dream in a sea of...

Being a local I was super stoked about this new beach bar. I go to the beach often and was excited to frequent Sando's. The drink I had was delicious but unfortunately I was really turned off by the unfriendly staff. I would have expected since this was a new bar, that they would be overly welcoming to their patrons, however it felt like they did NOT want me and my girlfriend to be there. The bartenders were short and rude and giving looks to one another. I was there to spend money and have a good time celebrating my birthday but unfortunately I have never felt more unwelcome at an establishment. Even the owner himself threw in some rude comments towards me and my girlfriend.

I would have loved to make this place a regular spot, but because of the terrible interactions I had with the bartenders and owner, I will not go back and I will not recommend it to anyone.

I also found it very unprofessional that the owner tracked me AND my partner down on social media to harass me about the negative review I made. This made us very uncomfortable. I find this approach very unprofessional, however this seems par for the...

I would give Sandos a 3.5 but I will put a 4 on here. We are locals and we’re extremely excited for a sandwich shop as it’s needed in our area. The menu is great - we think they had a creative idea of sandwiches and the house sauces were good. The prices for just a sandwich and no drink or side was a bit steep but expected for our area. We had brief interaction with the staff but the girl at the counter told us sandwich wait time would be 15-20 (one group of 4 women ordered in line ahead of us but we didn’t know how many had ordered in front of them) we told her no problem and waited in the great atmosphere they created at Sandos. Unfortunately, we waited 46 minutes for our 2 sandwiches and for us this was not worth it. The sandwich was not good enough to wait again - if it’s slow and you want to try it...