Tommy Bahama Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Florida

Tommy Bahama Restaurant has consistently good food and easily accessible in the Grand Boulevard shopping center in Santa Rosa Beach.

On a recent dining experience here, we each had a large salad. One was filet mignon with potatoes and a great deal of lettuce. The second was shrimp with a great deal of Romaine lettuce.

Both were well prepared and the steak and shrimp toppings were cooked perfectly.

Seeing a menu was time consuming on previous occasions. With more experience and probably less patience from customers, on the last couple of visits here we no longer had to go online to see the menu. That makes the visit more typical of past years and generally a more pleasant experience.

On the last several visits for lunch, we were also provided a shorter menu with more options as well as the longer menu. The shorter menu often has different items and at least some of the prices are a little less. We have often ordered from this shorter menu and have never been disappointed. There is the same high quality food preparation we have come to expect at Tommy Bahama's.

While ordering a hamburger at Tommy Bahama's is not a common occurrence with the more unusual choices, their hamburgers are very good. I usually opt for leaving off most of the toppings that come with it from the menu description and, instead, just order lettuce and tomato with the other accoutrements. It was cooked just as I ordered with a good quality of beef and the bun was much better than the normal hamburger bun served in a fast food restaurant.

The restaurant has an extensive menu available and that includes an extensive wine list. There is undoubtedly a wine selection to match almost anyone's taste in wine.

There is also an outdoor dining area. On our latest visit, we ate outside. It was quiet, sunny and warm without being too hot and humid. We were in the shade and the ambiance in this location was delightful.

The decor is always pleasant. The ambiance is not what one might expect in an upscale restaurant. It is usually very loud because of the acoustics. It is usually possible to hear someone at another table with a naturally loud voice. Between the grinding of drink mixtures at the bar, the loud acoustics, music playing over the sound system, and a few loud people, it can be an assault on the eardrums.

The food is excellent, there is usually an extensive wine list and the servers are always very good depending on the size of the crowd waiting and in the dining area. The staff knows the menu, all seem experienced and can easily answer any questions about the dishes available, and they work hard to make sure each dining occasion is a good experience.

The two salads with two iced teas came to a little over $70 (with a tip and a glass of wine) so it is not inexpensive but the food is of high quality. This is sometimes not the place to have a quiet conversation. It tends to be touristy on many occasions and it is often very busy—undoubtedly because it has a unique menu and high quality food.

The bar area is often very busy as well, particularly in the late afternoon. It is a pleasant experience but a lot of people in a relatively small area can be loud as they enjoy the drinks, the happy hour specials and...

Frankly, I am shocked by all the five-star reviews. The food is the only thing that saves this place and I feel like I'm being extremely generous with two stars. I called on a Tuesday morning to make a reservation for that evening. I was told they were booked. I asked for Wednesday and was told the same thing, but I could also just walk in and they might be able to find a table either evening. I proceeded to make a reservation for Friday as we didn't have time to wait. When our party arrived, it took a full 5 minutes for a PLETHORA of hostesses to even acknowledge me. Completely unprofessional regardless of how busy you are. I have never been to a restaurant and NOT been greeted by an employee within 30 seconds of entering. After another 10 minutes, a hostess called my name, I proceeded to approach the desk, she got distracted, and a full minute later, looked at me and briskly said, "Can I do something for you?" We were taken to our table at least 15 minutes PAST our reservation time. Mind you, there were plenty of open tables on the patio, where we elected to sit. The waitress did not arrive for another 10 minutes. Our starters and drinks took another 45 minutes. The food overall was tasty, except for the "lobster" mac & cheese which only had about two tablespoons on lobster on top. Nothing was local, which was extremely disappointing for a restaurant by the sea. The coconut shrimp was delicious as well as the Bungalow salad and asparagus. The chips and salsa were good but extremely small, almost an individual appetizer. Overall the portions were tiny and overpriced. We paid more here than for the same group of people going to eat Hibachi. They also mis-charged us for tip which our bank alerted us of (TB added a 33 percent tip when we elected 20 percent). The entire ordeal took over three hours of unnecessary waiting. An extremely disappointing experience for our last night in Destin and none of us will never return to a...

We are visiting the area and have been to this restaurant on 3 different occasions with different people. The first 2 times were very good. Today not so much. We went there for lunch. I ordered the fish and chips off the special menu. The waiter said they had malt vinegar. My husband ordered the Cuban sandwich but asked for regular fries instead of the Yucca fries. When he brought the food my plate had 3 large fries that were very spicy. The waiter had noticed that they had not given my husband the fries he requested so he did bring them. I had a few of them instead of the spicy fries. It seems weird to serve those fries with fish and chips. The fish was very good. However the waiter did not bring the malt vinegar. I had to wait until he took the order at another table and call him over. He seemed annoyed that I bothered him. When he finally came back to clear the dishes I asked him if it was normal to serve those fries with fish and chips and he said yes but he'd let the chef know. A person at another table ordered fish and chips though and my husband said he could see they got different fries. The service was extremely slow. It seemed to us that each waiter only had one table outside. This also seemed strange to us as the waiter was never around for us to ask him for things. If this was our first visit we would not go back. They charge too much for mediocre service and food we're...