Black Marlin Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Port Aransas

I have performed plenty of reviews on restaurants from New York City all the way to the tip of Florida, and I have to say this by far was an experience that I and my family will never forget. So we walk in from the beach, yes we looked like regular tourist, t-shirts, shorts, ball caps and shoes, no sandals, I can't stand to look at someone's feet when I eat. lol. We asked the greeter if we are dressed to come in for lunch. even though the sign on the door states strict dressed code, we were allowed in. The restaurant was lovely and the decor was your traditional ambiance by the gulf. You know the kind of pictures, shrimp boats Marlins, you get it. we were told we could sit down any where we wanted. the Greeter fallowed us not vice versa. she asked if we wanted drinks, we asked for sweet tea and a coke for my son. We were told abruptly "We do not have sweet tea but I will bring packets out for you" Ok no problem. She came back presented us with our tea and fresh water, we asked if we could order an order of calamari as we decide over the menu what we were going to eat. Ten minutes later our order of calamari was brought to our table. I could tell that the calamari was not fresh, very bland and rubbery, like it came in thawed, was frozen and thawed to cook. Now was the time we were going to place our order for our main meal. My partner and I ordered the seafood platter and our son ordered the grilled chicken Alfredo plus an order of fresh baked bread. Five minutes later our waitress returned back to the table and asked what our son ordered because she erased the order. He mentioned once again what he wanted. I looked at my partner and said"that was weird, I hope she didn't mess up on our orders." The moment arrived when two plates of food was brought to the table with our bread. A couple of minutes passed and my partner did not receive his plate, yet everyone around us were receiving their plates. I stopped our waitress and asked where is my partners plate, "It is on its way out, they are finishing it up now" I started to eat and still no plate has come to our table. Half way through my plate, and no plate yet. I stopped the waitress once again and asked. Her response, "let me go find out" what came next was clearly a slap in the face for the three of us. The head chef came to our table and asked what was the other order? We informed him it was the same as mine. The seafood platter. Five minutes later, the head chef returned to our table and asked again what was the order. By this time I am besides myself. I failed to mentioned that the fresh oven baked bread was so hard that we could not even break it in half. Finally, my partners plate arrived. Then, the finally nail in the coffin, when I bit into what was to be Mahi-Mahi, was actually chicken. I stopped our waitress, who never returned back to our table to see if we needed refills, and I explained to her that someone in the kitchen really needs to know the difference between fish and chicken. She laughed and walked away, only to bring back some exiting news that the person that was responsible for setting up the plates, mixed up the chicken and mahi-mahi. that an order will be out. No refills once again. thank goodness we had water to rely on. Our check came out and this is when we were gong to play the game. We paid in cash, yes cash not card. This really messed everyone up, they did not know what to do. "Someone just put down two, one hundred dollar bills to pay for their meal. "They were so confused and literally had to search for cash money for our change. If you are asking yourself if we provided a tip? Yes we still did. Might have not been a gracious tip that I high end restaurant would see, yet it was still in the eighteen percent range. Restaurants, my reviews are not done, I am...

Update to original post: We went back to Black Marlin twice while on vacation in June 2024. It seems like the chef is now a different one. Compared to any other place on the island, I still give this restaurant 5 stars and it is one of the better places to eat, though pricey. The restaurant atmosphere is now more cozy in the evenings with dimmer lighting and lights at the tables and tablecloths. One night we did not have reservations and were still seated immediately and the other night we have advance reservations. Service was excellent. We did have to wait slightly longer for a second serving of drinks on Father's Day night, but the restaurant was also busier that evening. We had already finished our dessert before the drinks ever came to the table and we were really ready to leave by that point. One of our fave dishes, the Shrimp & Grits, seems to have had a slight recipe change. It is still a good, solid choice, but not as good as it used to be. The sauce tasted different and was thicker this time. We had to get more sauce brought to us on the side because there wasn't enough sauce for the large portion of grits in the bowl. I recall the grits used to be cheddar grits, but these tasted more plain this time. The shrimp was cooked perfectly. My husband ordered the special, an entire redfish cooked with head on with a special sauce. He loved it and the presentation was lovely. The Key Lime Pie on the dessert menu is amazing...it is served in a coupe glass and plenty to share. The grilled chicken alfredo was amazing and my husband also raved about the mahi mahi he had on the 2nd night. Drinks are always well crafted and tasty and have remained so! We really do enjoy this restaurant and do know that different chefs will put their own spin on things. I would like to request that the original shrimp and grits come back to the menu.

This is one of our fave restaurants in all of the Port A! When visiting, we always have one dinner and one brunch at Black Marlin. We were excited this last time to find out that they now take online reservations. The shrimp and grits are the best ever. Our 7 year old daughter has to get her own bowl each time and devours them. Their drinks are tasty and refreshing and they always have a great cocktail menu. Servers are always nice and we love seeing some of the same ones there year after year. The Sunday brunch has a Blood Mary Bar with so many food add-ons you may not need to order any food from the menu. Our daughter adores the croissant beignets and the avocado toast was light...

I’ll chalk it up to Memorial Day weekend but there was a limited menu which was disappointing since I was coming for the ahi tuna tostadas. Kids meal burger was huge and my child loved it. The grilled cheese kids meals were average. My blackened mahi mahi tacos were the best of the four adult meals we ate. The other three consisted of the steak, potatoes, and grilled veggies, crawfish and shrimp etoufee, and the seafood platter. The platter was sub par. Etoufee was unlike anything else I’ve tasted. It was cream and cheesy. Not sure we were in love with it but it was edible. The steak was ordered rare and came out medium with lots of mushrooms that were requested to be left off. We understand it was possible they were premade in the gravy. The crab beignet appetizers came out long after the side salads because it was forgotten about until we asked about it. The drinks were extremely slow and we were having to constantly ask where they were. The “old fashioned” was straight whiskey that was undrinkable. I’m just going to say we will assume it’s all due to the hectic weekend but we were extremely let down, especially for the food being on the pricier side of restaurants on the island.

Since I don’t see a listing for Reds which is an adjoining outside bar that we waited at for almost an hour or so, I’ll leave the review here, too.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I’ll give that bartender 4 stars. She was stressed to the max and was overloaded. Her helper backed out on her and she was swamped with everyone waiting to grab a table in the extremely small restaurant of Black Marlin. She was limited on a lot of things people requested which can be frustrating if you don’t know that her hands are tied and she’s a one man show thanks to the one that didn’t show up for work on a holiday weekend. Her drinks were made much better than inside.

Pictured is a blackberry mule in the copper mule cup and a south side fizz I believe in the glass cup.

Hint: grab a drink (or two) from the bartender at Red’s. You’ll be waiting a while...