Dolphins Waterfront Bar & Grill at Cape Crossing — Restaurant in Merritt Island

*Updating my review - after two years and having moved to the area, we decided to give this place another shot. 100% Night and day from the last time we were here. Our server (Chris A) was awesome. He greeted us right away with a couple of waters with lemon, he gave us the lowdown on the specials, and was attentive and friendly with a great smile and great energy - he made the entire experience a pleasure. Our food was excellent. We had the Hawaiian Sautéed Garlic Shrimp appetizer and the Tingley burger with sweet potato fries - all were delicious! We ate every last bite and then finished with the Haupia pie which was the most delicious thing I’ve eaten in a very long time - it’s a buttery crust topped with an absolutely perfect chocolate mousse that is silky smooth and melts in your mouth like butter, topped with fresh whipped cream and sprinkled with toasted coconut. It was absolutely fabulous. So good. I will be dreaming about that pie. Overall our visit was fantastic, so I’m upping my review to 5 stars. Will definitely add this restaurant into our regular rotation.

——————————————————————- Our visit here started out so awesome - the venue is beautiful and we were seated near the water where we got to watch dolphins jumping, which was so cool. Our waiter was very friendly and accommodating - up until the point where he dropped off our food and then it’s like he completely forgot we were even there. Most of the food was just okay, nothing I would ever order again - the ceviche was an exception however, it was delicious and the chips that came with it were fabulous - and it was plated beautifully. The kalua pork tacos were dry and not very flavorful - they could have benefited greatly from a little salsa or hot sauce, but the waiter never came back to check on us. The salmon was dry and overcooked and the sauce tasted like lighter fluid. The brussels sprouts were very flavorful and delicious but mushy/overcooked and a little too salty. Or maybe they just seemed salty because we were never able to get our drinks refilled, i dont know. I’d really wanted to try the pie they had on the menu that day and our waiter said he would “save me a slice” but then when he finally came back to our table - almost 40 minutes after he’d dropped our food off - he’d completely forgotten about it and I was too annoyed at that point to sit there any longer (we’d already been there almost two hours by then) so we left and went somewhere else for dessert. I think this place has the potential to be awesome, especially with the proximity to the water, but the food and service definitely need some...

The name of this restaurant should be " Dogs n Dolphins" This was my first time coming here. I had heard quite a lot about this restaurant. What a shame it didn't seem to live up to a lot of the hype.

We showed up around 5:30 p.m. ( it's 7:10 pm now) we were seated relatively quickly. And that's when things started to go south quickly. Nobody seems to know who our server was. After 10 to 15 minutes of waiting somebody finally stopped at our table once my friend flag them down trying to find who was our server. Our server wound up being a guy who had been talking at another table for about 7 minutes while we were waiting. Dakota finally got to our table got us our drinks an iced tea and a cranberry juice. I had questions about the menu certain items and I must say Dakota was very honest about the menu items. I personally did find the prices to be very high especially when the fish that I was questioning most likely wouldn't be worth $40 The other thing I noticed is the restaurant became a dog park.

Yes that's right a dog park. I don't know why people think it is appropriate to bring their pets to a restaurant. If you cannot leave your home to go to a nice restaurant and eat without your family pet the don't go out. A service animal is one thing, I know I've had a service animal, and that is absolutely fine if and I say if that's what they are a service animal. But when you are strutting around throughout the restaurant pulling your dog to follow you, or the dog is jumping up on the railings where other people are sitting next to you those are nothing more than household pets and they should not be allowed in a restaurant especially an upper scale restaurant I don't recommend blackened chicken it was extremely dry and I barely had any chicken on this humongous bowl of lettuce. For the amount of money that's being charged for a house salad with chicken they could do a lot better without a doubt. I gave three stars because my cranberry juice tasted on the fresh side and the salad greens and the blue cheese dressing we're pretty good. However 6 scantley thin pieces of blackened chicken so dry. 1 things for sure I made the right choice and not getting a $40 plate with a piece of pretend swordfish. If the chicken is overcooked and dry to the Bone imagine what a piece of fish would come out like. So I really thanked Dakota for his honesty and he assured me not a problem I really don't think I would come back to...

Update on our second visit; date of 4-1-2023. If this was our first visit we would change our rating to maybe a 3 instead of a 5. But, I'll go with a 4 to give room for improvement and because the first visit was so much better. However, food pricing doesn't usually go in a better direction. Maybe up the plating and taste on some items.

Today got a little more crowded so the service was a little confusing and slower but everyone was nice. With some people bringing out drinks and food that wasn't our person, it made for a little more waiting time for things you discovered you needed.

I ordered the Tuna Poke Bowl again and it was still good, just dry. After some time passed, I finally got to ask for some soy sauce and that made for a delicious experience.

However, hubby ordered the SEARED YELLOWFIN TUNA at $17 and it was a very small amount of food with horrible plating. Nothing to get excited about visually and tasting didn't make it better. If anything was added to the plate or maybe a smaller plate, at least you would fill like you were getting something that the chef took pride in.

After being left hungry from the appetizer, hubby ordered the bowl of SEAFOOD CHOWDER at $8. We weren't a fan.

Definitely give this place a try. The waterfront is so beautiful. The drinks were good and priced well.

This place is awesome. I have to go back to take pictures of my food next time because we all ate before I remembered. Well, I can tell you that the place is beautifully laid out right next to the water. Many table options and a great large bar area. The boat traffic was so much fun to watch. But, the food was soooo delicious. I had the Tune Poke, hubby and our friend had the Loco Moco. Our drinks were great and our server was very attentive and fun. I believe his name was Matthew. I will double check next time. Anyway, if you are in the area you should check them out. Worth more than one visit. So much to choose from. You can also dock your boat if your out on the barge canal and grab and...