Bongos Beach Bar and Grille — Restaurant in Saint Pete Beach

My husband and I were only going to be in the St Pete/Clearwater area for 2 days, we knew that picking a good spot for dinner was important. If you don’t care for the details skip down to my pros and cons at the bottom of post.

I was pretty set on eating right on the beach. Of course this lovely Memorial Day weekend hasn’t exactly been the sunniest. Which is why we really appreciated the fact that all the tables had large umbrellas over them. Most certainly intended to shield customers from a blazing Florida summer sun, but it kept us and our food dry through the -just as equally famous- Florida drizzles. Regardless, it was perfect for enjoying some good food and drinks on the beach. The moody skies and the light rain were welcome by us. We got there around 6:30pm and maybe because of the weather it was really calm. We immediately picked a table smack dab in the sand of the beach. THREE STARS JUST FOR THAT! Can’t beat eating with your feet in the sand!

Stephanie was our server and she was really sweet and attentive. Not very “smiley” but I don’t judge attentiveness or friendliness based on smiles but on the vibe of the server. She was genuine and did her job superbly. I’m sure it’s not easy serving out in the sand, the sun and the rain.

Drink: We ordered a rum runner. Sadly, It was “eh”. The drink was this adorable citrusy orange color and had a lime and fat orange slice on the cup which I appreciated because I just love citrus slices on drinks both for aesthetic and yumm factors. HOWEVER, the drink was weak. It’s meant to have two types of rum in it. And it wasn’t one of those drinks where you go “oh ho ho! This tastes like juice but will cause trouble!”. No. It was just weak and needed just a little more kick. I’m not a big fan of really “rummy” drinks... so for me to say that... well it says it all.

Food: we ordered Cuban nachos, coconut shrimp and a california burger. We were happy to choose three items off the menu that were all meant to be “Bongo Specialties” or house favorites, whatever you wanna call it.

The Cuban nachos were way bigger than we expected. And can I just say....the. cheese. was. the. best. Straight up some of the best nacho queso I’ve ever had. Delicious. And the mojo pork on there was DA BOMB! Juicy and flavorful. Now the rice and the beans on the nachos were not up to par. They tasted like canned beans and that plastic tasting rice you heat up in those microwaveable packets... not fresh. As for the guacamole.... man. That was the biggest disappointment.

Guac rant: like really, if you are going to offer people guacamole, whether in a family and friends setting, a party setting and especially in a restaurant setting..... the.guac.must.rock. Nothing worse that flavorless guac. You might as well just throw sliced avocados on there instead (ew).

So this guac rant leads me to the California burger which, as you can imagine, also had guac on it. The same flavorless guac. I asked for medium and it was well done. Which, is better than asking for medium and getting rare I guess, but still frustrating. As for the flavor of the patty: there wasn’t any. We’ve thrown better tasting patties on the grill in the back yard. Search Sandbar Bills if you’re looking for a similar beach vibe but a better burger.

Finally we have reached the reason for star number 4: coconut shrimp and honey blossom orange dipping sauce. Just get them. Don’t think about it... don’t think about how they’re kinda pricey, how they only serve you 5 “large-ish” sized shrimp (def not jumbo shrimp), how the dipping sauce sounds kind of interesting but not interesting enough to try it. JUST GET THEM! I wish there was an option to buy a larger order of just that and have it with a nice cold beer.

Pros: Sitting on the beach Coconut shrimp Service Ambiance

Cons: Weak drink Sad guac Overcooked burger

We do recommend and we will be back but we’ll avoid the guac, stick to beer and get the fish and shrimp tacos. And of course, 2 orders of...

Rarely review anywhere except in a positive light. Long post ensues. My gf and I came off the beach at about 630 ish. There were at least 4 tables(6 tops) open closest to the water in the sandy area. We asked to be sat at one of those to put our feet in the sand. We were told "sorry those are reserved" . We asked by who because one of the tables wasn't bussed. We were told "we keep them available for large parties". Our response well its slow do you have any in the sand we will eat fast and there is no one waiting? We were then told. "Yes but we have to seat you in the back". So the hostess took us to the farthest back table. The couple next to us was smoking so we asked if we could just go to one of the others. We were told no. So we sat on the patio. Anyways about 15 minutes later an older couple 50+ was sat at the very table we asked for. It remained just them. 10 minutes after that. Another couple 50+ was sat at another vacant 6 top table. Some of the other 6 tops remained vacant for over 2 hours. We approached the manager and asked why that happened. And we were told again "a table just got up". Lol. We are early 20s and can't help but think that played a part. I guess if you look 50+ your in luck for the VIP seating.

Anyways the food was good. Its a little pricy but the portion size was good as well. Our waitress Kristen (sp.) was fantastic. Drinks were strong(good problem to have).

See attached pic of the lucky couple who won the VIP seating and all the...

My husband and I were greeted and seated by the friendly hostess quickly and the waitress and waiter (trainee) were also very friendly! They quickly let us know that the calamari and Philly cheesesteak weren’t available. Didn’t care because we looked at the menu online ahead of time and had already picked out what we wanted. Pulled up the menu from the handy QR code on the table only to be disappointed that the menu has been cut back extensively and of course what we had picked wasn’t on there. There was another table to the left of us that was overrun by flies and the guests sitting at that table had to abandon it. Very quickly the table had been swarmed with the flies. Honestly… it was sort of frightening how many there were taking the table over. The waiter in training did his best to fix it but there was nothing he could do. They slowly started taking over our table as well and we had to ask for a box for our app and get our food to-go. We were told that they didn’t have lids for our drinks as well. We get that the waiters had no control over this but it definitely wasn’t an enjoyable experience. When we finally got back to our room to enjoy the food, it was terrible. The fish tacos and fish sandwich tasted like nothing and we ended up throwing it out after a couple bites. All in all, we’re disappointed after a $60 dinner that we were excited to close out our vacation with. The owners need...