Lelo's Island Bar — Restaurant in Port Aransas

What a great little gem amongst a sea of little diners and restaurants. We hunted that day for a place that looked fun. Was dog friendly (on the outside patio) had good food and a great atmosphere. After driving by it twice, decided to give it a shot. We ended up staying all afternoon. I would have rated the service higher, but only because you sort of have to serve yourself. You must go to the bar and oder/ pay for drinks and food. At least they bring it to you when it's ready. Lol. We ordered some unusual specials because we saw a lot of patrons playing it safe. A couple dishes caught my eye. First a grilled Ahi Tuna Pita with a garlic Aioli sauce. The tuna was melt in your mouth and cooked absolutely perfectly. Shockingly perfect. I will order fresh sea food anytime they offer it there. Unbelievable great dish for such a little diner/bar. I also had the Pablano and Aioli grilled Cheese burger. We also had the jalapeño cheddar bites which were so good. I believe they were home made. Who cares if they were frozen, they were delicious. My burger was a glorified smashburger but the Pablano and Aioli took it to new heights. There is some talent in that modest kitchen. The tiki bar theme and ice cold beer on tap was precisely what we wanted. What we didn't expect was the fair prices and the super friendly staff. There was an unstoppable good mood and good juju in the air. The rash of golf cart traffic was the only annoyance. The parking is very limited and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before a golf cart hit our car. I will definitely be back. It will be a for sure go to during a Port Austin weekend. Next time I will be trying some of the staple menu items and I'll park further away! But I will definitely return. The management, not sure if she was the owner was so much fun to watch. Even when overwhelmed by numerous drink requests and specialty cocktails, she went out of her way to serve everyone and let those in line KNOW that they would be receiving great service when it was their turn. There was a lot of young staff. Don't expect five star service. But you will enjoy your time for a good price and interact with great people. Thanks for being dog friendly . 👏👏👏👏 I give you four out of five claps for a...

I want to start off by saying that this place is very cute and they did a great job in designing/ decorating it. However, everything else sucked. If you need ANYTHING you are expected to get up and get it, which is stupid if you’re sitting outside since there’s no condiment station or something. The girls working here were nice, but aside from taking our order and running out our food for 2 seconds, that was the entire interaction we had with them. So they’re not really “wait staff”. They stood around talking behind the bar for the most part. I understand that it’s a “place order at register” type of pace, but they didn’t ask if we needed anything like sauces, napkins, or plasticware when they brought everything out. I think they need to put more effort into what their bartenders/servers are expected to do. If you’re in a tip based industry, it’s expected that one would WORK for their tip. I only tipped because it’s the right thing to do. Not because they earned it.

Now, for the food… don’t come here! The food is bland and incredibly over priced. This is very obviously a tourist trap, which we expected, but they could at least make sure that their cooks know how to season some ground beef!! Our burgers were sooooo bland. My boyfriend was pretty mad because we spent $54 for two people after tip. I got the poblano aioli burger, and it was so freaking dry. Same with my boyfriend’s jack and coke burger. The chef was stingy as hell today with the sauces, I guess. The table next to us ordered a mushroom Swiss burger and we overheard them express their discontent as well with their dry and bland burger, and especially with the price!!!

Overall, I’d suggest spending your money at the Whataburger down the road. Way more flavorful and half the price. Also, I’m sure you can get way bigger cocktails somewhere else for the outrageous price they charge. They also charged almost $3 for a coke and it was 80% ice!!! Yeah, definitely not coming back. 2 stars instead of 1 cause the place is cute,...

We occasioned Lelo's Island Bar (LIB) for dinner while in Port A for a family vacation over the Thanksgiving holiday. On a side note, it was fairly crowded and our party of eight had to sit outside on a chilly evening, no heaters present. I get the whole "it's off season," but if you want a good number of diners year-round, a few heaters in the outside seating area would be a welcome addition.

That said, the place has a way cool "tiki bar/island" vibe. Lots of specialty shots and frozen drinks. Good beers. It's a place where you order at the bar, and they bring the food to you when it's ready.

We had a couple of martinis and "painkillers," all very good libations. On the food side, we shared cheese curds, the steak bites and a patty melt. All deelish! Special note about all the fried food (curds and fries) all nicely seasoned, fried well, and served piping hot! We like HOT when it comes to fried food, and LIB does the fried stuff right!

The steak bites were very tasty, nicely seasoned and cooked medium rare. You cannot tell from the picture, but there were lots of bites under the sea of fries. The patty melt was also good, toasted well, and the "insides" (meat, cheese and onions) were well cooked. Another good entree... the "littles" and the teenagers had burgers, all reported they were good.

Some observations overall... good venue for families (when the weather is good), play area and lots of games outside next to the patio. Games not just for kids, but for grown-ups too! When the weather is good, the patio would be a great place to hang out for a while, have some food and cocktails, and watch the folks play. We'll definitely be back, and shoot for a beautiful sunny day next time around! Recommend LIB, good times,...