Schooners — Restaurant in Upper Grand Lagoon

We’re usually very wary of tourist area restaurants. In the off-season, it can be particularly precarious. Our friends recommended Schooners as they were offering 50% off between 3 and 5 every day during February (I don’t know the exact conditions, but our bill was half off all but the onion rings).

We got there at 2:30 and although a line was quickly forming, we got a table fairly quickly. Our wonderful server, Melany, didn’t mind that we just drank water until 3:00 either. She has been serving at Schooners for 6 years, and as I looked around, everyone was waiting for the 3p start time.

Everything we ordered was quickly prepared and very tasty. The onion rings were humongous, and although I still need to exhaustively validate their claim to having the best key lime pie anywhere, the pie was the best I’ve had so far. I ordered the Surf & Surf - redfish and shrimp - expecting a filet and maybe 4 or 5 shrimp. Instead, I got a large filet of flakey, well prepared redfish and 16 decent-sized, butterflied shrimp! Cyndi ordered a grilled chicken sandwich with fries. She really liked their fries. Our friends had gumbo, Greek salad and crab cake dinner. No one had any complaints.

If I had any criticism it would be that the coffee for dessert took too long to arrive; I had finished my pie before the coffee came, but that’s really digging for a dig.

What impressed us all the most is that between 2:30 and 3:00 all 100 tables (our rough estimate) were filled and the kitchen still managed to adroitly prepare and serve everyone quickly and with a smile. From the hostess to the bartender, everyone working at Schooners was nice and happy.

Maybe it’s...

I’m torn between giving 3.5 stars and 4 stars. The location is great. The food was good. The service needed improvement and honestly, I think it was just our server. If I remember correctly, I think her name was Jody. One thing I advise against is showing your frustration to your guests because it’s busy and you were given too many tables at once- literally her exact words. It was my birthday dinner and I dealt with the unwelcoming, frustrated attitude of our server… who was in the MIDDLE of taking our order (literally words were coming out of my mouth) when she TOOK OFF RUNNING to take ketchup to a gentleman sitting at a table next to us because she realized she forgot it and he was getting up to grab it from another table. I honestly thought she saw someone choking or something by the way she took off. Nope. Just a ketchup delivery. I also overheard her go back and forth with a gentleman because he wanted his fries substituted for coleslaw and the coleslaw was left off the plate. I think she truly just had a grumpy attitude and was spewing misery onto the guests that night. As for the food- I had the grilled grouper sandwich and it was okay. The bun was honestly the best part of the sandwich. If I had never dined here during previous trips, I’d be trying to figure out what was so great about this place. I know the server had A LOT to do with this experience so I won’t write the place off completely. I will however ask to not be seated with her on my next visit. The views are always spectacular though, even when the...

The food was fantastic. I ordered the grouper dinner That came with fries and two hush puppies. The wife ordered the drunken shrimp I believe And my daughter ordered the fried shrimp With fries. All this was sitting at the table with full belly's happier than a fat kid with chocolate cake.

The wait time on the food was not bad at all with the amount of people in that restaurant. Our waitress, bless her heart she was busier than a one-legged man and a butt kicking contest. She did her absolute best to get what we needed even though we didn't see her much and I'll leave it at that. Seems like they need more help in that area but she did fantastic for what she was working with.

Lastly, we couldn't believe the wait was under 20 minutes as I drove by finding a place to park. There's a lot of people waiting which turns out, not a bad wait when you're sitting in One of their many chairs on the beach. Parking is a bit of a struggle, Not a whole lot of places to park that I was aware of so good luck. There were parking garages but I believe they belong to the resorts. The parking lot They had a cross from the restaurant was completely full and had a limited parking. At the end of the day, we wanted to find a spot that had great seafood and this place delivered. We knew there's going to be a long wait no matter where we went and this one wasn't, this place delivered. So all you really have to do is find a place to park and be a little patient with your waiter or waitress and I promise you you'll leave that...