Lucky Pelican — Restaurant in Sarasota

My dad and I went to the Lucky pelican for the first time they did not take reservations. It’s first come first serve so we figured we get there around six pm. The parking lot was totally full about a walk quite a distance to get the front door once inside the place was packed at 6 o’clock at night, which was odd, but everybody looked like they were eating and enjoying themselves. We got a table for two quickly because they were more people ahead of us, but they were tables of four and six. So we sat down and we looked at the menu and for a real shabby dining room just one big room and a lot of little tables. They have a very expensive menu and it’s mostly geared to seafood so we sat down and we ordered calamari’s, and I had the salmon fish and my date had the grouper fish. Wow the food came out quickly, but the calamari were tasteless. We left 3/4 of them . and we started on our food. Well, my salmon dish was laying on top of a bunch of vegetables, string beans broccoli and what I thought was mashed potatoes. It wasn’t it was couscous. I don’t eat couscous so I love that. I lifted the salmon off the vegetables so I could have access to both at the same time once I lifted the salmon and I saw the vegetables were so overcooked they were actually burned I mean, it would look like a pile that should’ve been thrown in the garbage can instead of putting our plate and serve to a customer so I put the vegetables aside and I took a fork for to see if the salmon was any good well I wasn’t lucky because the salmon not only was overcooked it was chewy and tasteless again I took two forkful and I just put everything aside. I couldn’t eat anything on my plate and the waiter came over. Is everything OK? I said well this is happening. This is happening. This is happening and I’m sorry, and I took my flight away and my date had her dinner and she ate half of it and left the other half. It was just a total waste of money to go to this place. I would never go back again and I recommend that you don’t either if you know what’s good for you. There’s too many other good restaurants of equal expensive menu...

We loved it so much, we made sure it was our last meal before heading back to Wisconsin!!

We were visiting my family in Lakewood Ranch and looking for seafood after a long drive. My brother suggested Lucky Pelican - "it's next to the hotel you worked at!" - Great, Friday night - we were expecting a huge wait. It was 15minutes, the COVID-19 policies were perfectly executed and we were able to sit outside. The menu looked amazing so we started ordering. BLOWN AWAY!!!

The clam chowder is some of the best chowder I've ever had in my life. Better than anything I've had in the Northeast and better than Disney's clam chowder (we use this for our comparisons). We got some of the best oysters around. The peel-n-eat shrimp were perfect. And now we're getting to the entrees.

All of them were so ridiculously good! My dad got the roasted cod - perfectly done; my partner ordered Dixie's "Ocean Burrito" - oh my gosh what flavors; and I ordered Blackened Swordfish with Spicy Crawfish Sauce. There was an explosion of flavor in my mouth. I wanted to order two more of these. The sauce was perfect, the fish was so tender, and the the crawfish were just the right amount of "kick-ya-in-the-tookas" to make you sweat. I raved about this for the rest of our vacation.

Then, because we were in Florida, we HAD to get the Key Lime Pie - - I will tell ya, it was some of the best dang Key Lime Pie we had over the course of 10-days in the state. It was tangy but not bitter, so creamy and smooth, and the whipped cream was ridiculously good! We ordered extra!!

The service was also one of the best parts of our experience. Friendly and conversational. We felt taken care of every moment of the night. We also didn't feel rushed and everything was paced perfectly!

We enjoyed it so much we came back the last afternoon of our trip to get it in one more time. We went for lunch and it was all just as good! We are adding Lucky Pelican to the list of must-dos when in Florida. Don't walk, run to get a spot and some of the best, freshest seafood...

Well, where to begin? I have eaten at the Lucky Pelican a number of times and things always went well. Not this time. We were a party of 4 and I ordered scallops, a favorite of mine. Everyone got their entrée. I took a bite of a scallop and immediately knew something was wrong. It tasted of ammonia, which is a sign of spoilage. I thought maybe this was just a single bad scallop and I bravely bit into another one. Same result. Very strong smell and taste.

I called over the waiter and explained the problem. I suggested he notify the kitchen so that the problem would not affect other diners. He showed no interest in this and I ordered another meal. By the time it came, about 20 minutes, everyone had finished and I had lost my appetite. I had it wrapped.

The interesting part comes next: I suggested that I not be charged for the scallops (no problem he agreed) along with the replacement meal since our experience at the Pelican was unsatisfactory. He said he couldn’t do that. I asked who could. He said the manager could not either. Only the owner had the authority to do this and he had left for the evening (it was 8:00). I asked to speak with him. They got him on the phone and he refused to comp the meal over the phone but said he would come back to the restaurant to discuss it in person.

We waited another 20 minutes for him to arrive. Upon arrival he said, “I just wanted to see what you looked like.”???? He explained his position but said this one time he would write off the charge. (So far so good but did he have to come back and see us personally and why didn’t anyone at the restaurant have the authority to do this since it should be a rare occurrence and can only generate good will.) He then added, “I don’t think you are a good fit for this restaurant and I don’t want to see you here again.”

Well, I’m 63 years old but there’s a first time for everything. Thank goodness there are other restaurants in Sarasota. Given this fact, maybe others should consider another...