Windjammers on the Pier — Restaurant in Santa Rosa Island

Windjammers on the Pier.- where your flip-flops are welcome, your drink’s always cold, and the sandwich that’ll haunt your dreams is a glorious beast called the Blackened Redfish Po’Boy.

Windjammers ain’t some overpriced tourist trap with plastic forks and a Jimmy Buffett cover band phoning it in. Nah, this place is perched right on top of the Pier- where the breeze hits just right, the seagulls scream for fries, and every bite comes with a side of oceanfront glory.

Alright, I’m kicking things off with the mini crab cakes. They roll out six of these little beauties, packed with lump and jumbo crab meat like they’re tryin’ to start a party in your mouth. They hit ’em with their own secret seafood spice mix, just enough to wake you up without slappin’ you silly, then toss a lemon wedge on the side and a cup of house-made citrus aioli that’s so good you’ll be lookin’ for stuff to dip in it long after the crab cakes are gone.

Now let’s talk about that po’boy.

We’re talkin’ a thick-cut, blackened-to-hell-and-back filet of redfish—the kind of fish that fought hard and tasted even better for it—laid across a proper piece of Gambino bread, straight outta New Orleans. Not that sad, soggy baguette nonsense. This is the real deal. Crispy outside, fluffy inside, big enough to double as a flotation device if you eat the whole one.

They dress it up the traditional way: lettuce, tomato, pickles, and a big ol’ slather of remoulade that kicks just enough to make your eyebrows raise but won’t send you runnin’ for a glass of milk like a coward. Get the half if you’re tryin’ to keep your shirt buttoned. Get the whole if you’re livin’ right and don’t care who sees you unhinge your jaw like a snake to take that first bite.

And the vibes? Immaculate. Open-air seating, Gulf breeze in your hair, maybe a little sunscreen in your drink, and the sound of waves crashin’ underneath while you eat like a damn legend. Folks fishin’ off the pier behind you, kids runnin’ wild, and a beer in your hand that tastes better purely because you’re not at work.

So if you’re on Navarre Beach, do yourself a favor: get the Redfish Po’Boy. It’s a sandwich, it’s a spiritual experience, and it’s the reason Windjammers has locals comin’ back barefoot and blissed out,...

We visited this restaurant around 8:30pm and asked the hostess what time they closed before being seated. She informed us that they stop seating at 9:30pm and was very friendly, which started things off on a good note.

Unfortunately, the rest of the experience didn’t live up to that first impression. It took about 5–10 minutes after being seated for our server to take our drink orders. When I asked her about the ingredients in the tuna dip, her response was, “I have no idea. Do you want me to ask?” — which didn’t inspire much confidence. When she returned with our drinks, she simply said, “They didn’t tell me what’s in the food.” At that point, I decided to order a different appetizer.

It took a long time to receive the appetizer, and oddly, it was brought out by someone else. Less than a minute later, our entrées arrived — also brought by a different staff member. At that point, we had both the appetizer and our meals sitting on the table, and no opportunity to ask for anything else (like ketchup) since the food runner left so quickly and the server wasn't around. We ended up having to ask the bartender for ketchup because the server took so long to arrive back to the table. When she finally showed, I mentioned the timing issue of our food and asked her to take the appetizer back.

As far as the food goes, it was a mixed bag. My shrimp po’ boy and fries were actually quite good. My partner, on the other hand, said their burger was dry and lacked seasoning.

Overall, while the hostess was great and my meal tasted good, the service was disorganized and inattentive, and the food was inconsistent. There were also no fans, at least in the area we were dining at (it was so hot that we eventually lost our appetites). We left feeling very disappointed, and unfortunately, it was one of the worst service experiences I’ve...

This was the second time I have been here. I raved about this place the first time we visited 2 yrs ago. I brought my whole family back to experience it. When we arrived it was about 1:30 in the afternoon. I requested to sit upstairs with the ocean view. The hostess told me they could not accommodate a party over 10 ppl upstairs. I asked if we could split 6 and 6 or something like that and just sit next to each other. Again, I was told they could not do that and we would only be able to go downstairs and throw a few high top tables together. My family really wanted to eat here so we agreed. As we walked downstairs, there were 2 large tables that could seat 8-10 each that were empty. They set us up downstairs by the bar and next to the generator (which went off every few minutes drowning out the conversion). The bartender was our server and took at least 10 minutes to wait on us. After ordering drinks, we waited another 10-15 minutes to receive them. She then took our order and stated multiple times "I need to know if you will need extra sauces or anything because I can't go back to the kitchen for anything you need later". The food arrived in fairly good time and the food was fantastic. However, the bartender never came back to check on us. She was swamped at the bar and was doing her best to keep her head above water ... let alone get away from the bar to wait on us. We had to go up to the bar multiple times to ask for napkins, refills, and the check. To make matters worse, my brother in law went to the bathroom half-way through our meal and there was a party of 12 seated upstairs. Go here for the fantastic food. Do not go with a large group though. We easily spent $200+ with drinks and food but got stuck downstairs with horrible service and views of the trashcan and generator. Extremely...