Iguanas Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Georgia

On October 16th, I ate at Iguanas Seafood Restaurant, located at 303 Mallery Street, St Simon’s Island GA 31522. I dined alone, and I ordered the Wild Georgia fried shrimp basket with a side of fries, and water. I of course had to get some of the complimentary ice cream at the end to see what the hype was about. Iguanas is located in the Pier Village area of St. Simon’s Island. It is a tourist friendly zone. Around the area are shops, the beach, and the pier. The outside of the building is vibrant marine life themed, as well as the inside has intricate paintings of the beach. There are multiple sea creatures hanging from the ceiling and lots of plants and fun dust collectors on the wall. It is very easy to find for someone if they are staying on the island. The parking is sometimes hard to find so you may have to walk a bit, but the neighboring stores are fun to look into! Iguanas is a casual sit down restaurant rather than fine dining. The food is seafood focused, especially with their famous Wild Georgia Shrimp. The price range is moderate, not expensive or cheap. It’s a dress casual kind of place giving a more relaxed vibe. It’s a good choice for a family outing or casual meal. Inside, the decor is very beach inspired. There is a covered patio outside, which is where I sat, and seating for bigger parties as well, which shows a lively welcome space. The clientele is definitely tourists and families. The staff was incredibly friendly. They had excellent service, and the food came out at a reasonable time and the waitress was very good at remembering the specials off hand. The staff does a great job making you feel comfortable, but I did have to ask for a refill on my drink once or twice. The menu is stocked with appetizers such as shrimp platters, where you can customize with different wrappings and sauces. Their entrees are mainly seafood, fried shrimp, oysters, crab cakes, etc. The fried shrimp was extremely good. It was crispy and filling, and the sauce you can dip it in was amazing as well. I would say it was the best fried shrimp I’ve ever had, and I definitely understand why they are famous for it. I got the fries and they were excellent. They were coated with a crispy golden brown exterior, and a fluffy interior. They were hot and salted perfectly. The portion sizes are large, but at lunch you can get smaller. I went at lunch time so I didn't have a hard time finishing my food. at dinner you may want to share. The best thing about this place is the complementary ice cream for dessert. You can get a multitude of toppings as well as different flavors of ice cream. It’s a really nice touch. Iguanas offer typical beverages, but they only have Pepsi products. As someone who loves coke zero, this is a complaint I have. I ended up settling for a water, but I would love it if they incorporated coke products! Overall the menu is very strong. Iguanas is open daily from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. They serve lunch and dinner. I appreciate that they are open everyday of the week, and stay open until 10:00 p.m. This gives people who work late a chance to grab dinner. Although my only warning is not to go exactly at rush hours. For example, I went at 11:30, and barely anyone was there. After waiting for my food, more and more people started showing up, which may make it hard to find a table, and you may have to wait. With my experience, I really enjoyed my time at Iguanas. The food had great flavor and the staff overall was extremely friendly. I felt very relaxed and didn’t feel like I was being rushed at all. My only complaint of course is the lack of coke products. Overall, I would give this place a very positive recommendation. It’s a great choice for a casual dinner, especially for seafood lovers. I will absolutely be back, and I would love to try something different on the menu, like the fish sandwich. I think if you are going on a casual date this is a great place to go. I think it’s a great place for friends and...

The Iguana is a cute, beach-like restaurant with an outdoor patio and bench seating. Unfortunately, the weather was a little chilly and as a group of 6 we agreed to the hour wait for inside seating. We watched the benches empty until we were the last group; we reminded the staff we were still waiting. It seemed they may have skipped us but were quick to get us a table after the hour wait. Still in great spirits and excited by the reviews; we decided we would try several items. The manager Mr. Mike drops by our table to tell us he wants us to have a great experience; handing us coasters. On one side it states I love Iguanas, so tell everyone and on the other side, is red with the word MANAGER in bold. He explains any issues, flip the coaster over and he will be there. We ordered drinks immediately at seating and asked for 2 trays of the shrimp sampler appetizers. Water and drinks arrive within 5 minutes-we then order additional appetizers (calamari, clam strips and garlic bread). The waiter is a sweet boy, who checks in often. We are now finished with our drinks and no appetizers at 30 minutes into sitting. Our waiter checks in and we explain that we now need the manager as we are now over 30 minutes waiting. Mike comes to the table and it is explained that we are now 35 minutes waiting on the first order of appetizers & we have finished our drinks. Mike is gracious; states he will find out what is going on with the order. The 2nd set of appetizers arrive but not the original order. The waiter takes a 2nd drink order and within minutes our shrimp appetizers finally arrive. Mike apologies, explains that with COVID, reopening, DoorDash and to-go ordering; they sometimes get bumped to the front; he's apologetic, but grateful to see business coming back. We agree. Mike states he will refund all the appetizers; to which he does. He repeatedly checks on the table; and a good banter is back in play. The appetizers were delicious. The calamari and clam strips were cooked just right with a good marinara sauce. The shrimp sampler platters were delicious, just unfortunately cold since there were delivered so late. I would not dismiss the shrimp platter, still great tasting, and Manager Mike comped it due to the issues. Now for meals; the orders included shrimp & grits, blackened scallop alfredo, blackened shrimp alfredo, surf & turf with fried scallops. -The shrimp & grits were phenomenal. The grits are served block-styled deep fried with grilled shrimp and a cheese/cream sauce. -The blacked alfredo meals were amazing; noodles heavily sauced with a slight Cajun spice with grilled blackened grilled shrimp or scallops -The steaks were cooked perfectly and the fried scallops were crunchy on the outside and still tended inside All meals were large portions and well worth the money. Outside the hiccups in the beginning; the atmosphere was fun, vibrant and lively; then add the delicious food and drinks. We were so full from the meal, we could not enjoy the complimentary ice cream bar. In closing, Manager Mike, knows how to take a bad situation and correct it. He is an active participant in the management and absolutely a great part of their success. We would highly...

I hate to say it, but the food quality at Iguana's is getting to be very average to below average compared to other SSI restaurants serving the same food, however, the prices keep creeping upwards. We keep hearing recently they have been voted the best shrimp on SSI, so that's what I ordered, simple fried shrimp. My wife ordered an oyster starter and jumbo blackened scallops for her entree. The oysters arrived just out of the fryer, really hot and crisp...the best item of the night. Then 10 seconds later, our meals arrived, so the timing could have been better. This was GA/Alabama game night, so the crowd was very light, so much so that we were seated immediately. So maybe the kitchen was lacking orders, causing all of ours to arrive at once. So the shrimp, highly touted recently on the radio, arrived warm and chewy, not just out of the fryer like our oysters. Disappointing. The seasoning was bland to none with little shrimp taste. I don't send food back for a lot of reasons, so I ate the shrimp as served. My wife's jumbo scallops...I told her it's a good thing we ordered the jumbos because what arrived was about 12 quarter size scallops about 3/4" thick, maybe 1" ...she ordered blackened. They arrived in a watery black pool of blackened water, as if they were stewing in a hot water bath in the kitchen instead of being grilled to order. The taste was very briny, like there was no scallop flavor at all, just warm blackened, salty, water taste. Overall, the meal was a bust, one the free ice cream could not save. We are local and support all of our restaurants, but we can't justify dropping $100 for disappointing food. Our last visit to Iguana's was in July and we were not excited about the food then, but the radio advertising lured us back for another chance, and now I wish we had chosen another place. I really hate to say anything negative, but I hope Iguana's will re-think buying lesser quality food to save money, while charging more. When all of the 1 visit tourists are gone and you rely on local residents to support you through the winter months, I think you should consider much less menu items, everything cooked to order, focus on a seafood experience people expect instead of just serving seafood, and have your expeditor refuse to send out marginal food. I don't want to see any restaurant fail or suffer, so hopefully this will come across as...