After searching for what felt like forever to find a highly recommended spot -- even Port A Escapes…read morelisted this place as a must‑try -- we decided to give it a shot. I've traveled all over the world and up and down the U.S. coastline, and I understand beach‑town dining can be hit or miss. But this experience left us genuinely confused about the glowing reviews. We walked into a tiny establishment where the bar was fully staffed and drinks were flowing, yet we couldn't even get served food. Alcohol seemed ready to go, but the kitchen was moving at a pace that made no sense. We were told food would take over an hour. For a place this small, that's baffling. It made me wonder if the rave reviews were written through "vacation goggles" -- sunburned, tired, or a few drinks in -- because from our sober perspective, nothing about the service or setup matched the hype. Maybe the "excellent" part of the name refers strictly to the bar, because the grill definitely felt off‑duty. We ended up leaving without ever getting food. Not the experience we were hoping for.

Right off the bat, I have to say, probably the best burger I've had in Port Aransas and all the…read moretrips we've made here. This is one of those places where you walk in, stand in line, place your order and go find a seat. When your order is ready, they'll bring it out to your table. Staff is very friendly and the evening we went, there were three or four young men that were taking food to the tables and clearing tables and they were all very friendly and helpful. We went on a Saturday night, and there was a good flow of people in and out the entire time we were there. We didn't have a hard time finding a table initially, but the place filled up quickly. But there are five or six other restaurants within a block to two blocks around this place, so there was a lot of foot traffic and a lot of people eating out in that area. I ordered the bacon cheeseburger and I have to tell you that is one of the most amazing burgers I have had in the last few years. Amazing! The burger was cooked perfectly and had several strips of crispy bacon, melty cheese, lettuce, pickle, tomato, and red onion, and the meat was seasoned perfectly. I got the fries, and they were crispy seasoned well and extremely tasty. I told my wife as we were sitting there eating that this place was definitely on our list of eating establishments the next time we were in Port A, and you can bet we will be down there for another burger.

It's clear why this place had a long line. It's clean, the…read morevibe is immaculate (active but not rowdy or too loud), cute/artsy, it has comfortable chairs and plentiful tables. As for the food/drinks, they were solid. They make their sandwiches and then refrigerate them and then panini them when you buy them. I am not usually a fan of coffee shop sandwiches but gave these a chance because they're actually made here. PRISTINE! tasty! My husband loved the chipotle chicken wrap so much that he went back for another one after devouring the first. The only bad thing was that their chai tea base is tooooo sweet. I literally asked them if they use a sweetener, to which they said no. They did acknowledge it was sweet and agreed to give me some hot water to water it down. Overall- very great experience. We will be back next time we are in port aransas.

This coffee shop is in a really cool location not too far from the beach and definitely has a lot…read moreto offer. The atmosphere was fun, the staff was super friendly, and the young crew working there were clearly hustling and doing their best during a very busy rush. That said, the wait times were just too much for me personally. I waited over 30 minutes just to get to the counter, and then another 25 minutes to receive the rest of our order after the drinks came out. My son absolutely loved his mocha Frappuccino and ham & cheese croissant, so that was a win. Unfortunately, as someone who drinks coffee regularly, I wasn't especially impressed with my drink, and my everything bagel came out extremely over-toasted and almost gooey inside. I really don't want to knock the place because it genuinely has a cool vibe and hardworking employees, but the long waits and food quality just made it hard for me to want to come back. If you have patience and don't mind a slower experience, you may enjoy it more than I did. I will say that the breakfast items are super overpriced.

Summer dresses The Gaff up for Christmas! Brad plays all the best songs for the crowd. Great…read morebartenders, serving up some pizza and their french dip sandwich. Really enjoyed the night!

What a fun place. I love this bar! Nice people too. The Gaff pizza was excellent with pepperoni,…read moreonions, bell peppers, hamburger, black olives, mushrooms.... Outstanding! Beers were nice and cold. We had a fun night.

Amazingly fast service. Ryan V was our server, we got our drinks in less than a minute after…read moreordering them. No joke. The blueberry lemon drop martini is to die for. Shrimp tacos are a staple, husband got the Fins burger and it was HUGE!!! Fries were so crispy. This place is awesome and can't recommend it enough if you're visiting Port Aransas

Great wait staff, food, and view of the ocean. It was affordable and family friendly.read more

We really wanted a donut but the Palace was closed so we stumbled on this place...and we are SO…read moreGLAD we did!! It absolutely deserves 5 stars. The hazelnut croissant was so good...but so was the chocolate one. And the cinnamon roll. Everything we had was so good. It was so good, we came back the next day too! Friendly service--they even made our kids a hazelnut croissant when they were out in the display! Everything was delicious--you can't go wrong.

We grabbed a few pastries and headed to the beach because it was so loud in there! The fruit…read morefilled was my favorite but my husband said the cinnamon roll earns high marks too.

"Coach's Island Bar and Grill in Port A was absolutely amazing! The food was fresh and delicious,…read morethe drinks were great, and the atmosphere was fun and welcoming. A special thank you to our servers Sheila, Emily, Xavier, and Tiffany for providing such friendly and outstanding service. They made our experience even better, and we can't wait to come back on our next trip!" (Let's GO A&M)

Great food, friendly staff, loved the kids meals, pineapple mimosa only $5! And yes the pancake is…read moreawesome like everyone mentions! They must have moved to a different building or expanded because it looks different inside than a lot of yelp pics show.

The atmosphere was great and had a fun beach-town vibe. The home made French fries were so yummy,…read moreand the drinks were cold and refreshing -- perfect for a hot day. They also had a live band playing. They were just okay, but still fit the laid-back beach atmosphere well. Be prepared for crowds though. It was very busy, and the lines to order were pretty long. Overall, still a fun spot with good food and drinks.

We wanted to hit this place on this visit so we took a shot on a Thursday thinking a smaller crowd…read more First we only had the big pretzel because we ate a late lunch. The pretzel and cheese were good. Now the downsides. It was full outside and there is no table service, so took about 25 minutes to get a drink. That should never happen, but only one bartender for over 100 people will cause that. He was good, but the cards were stacked against him.

Great service! Being on island time has kind of thrown off our internal clocks, we lost track of…read moretime, and when 7pm rolled around we realized we were hungry lol We knew what we wanted MacDaddy's BBQ, during our 7 hour drive to get here we pulled up Yelp to search for some new restaurant options, and after seeing the photos and positive reviews we knew this spot was on our list! What we didn't think about was it being a weekday and closing times, we just goofed! So anyway once we realized the restaurant closed at 8:00pm according to Google we got a little worried, being that I work in a restaurant I know how overwhelming it can be to see customers coming in less than an hour until close, fortunately my hubs double checked here on Yelp and then their website and found the closing time was 8:30pm, so we hopped in the car and got there as soon as we could, and we were relieved to see a few people still eating, and another arriving just after we pulled in. There was a little curfuffle once we were sat, the hostess initially offered us a table with bench seating, but one of us isn't able to sit on a bench due to disability, she kindly offered us a table with chairs, in what appeared to be a different servers section, we were close to the TV on the same wall as the front counter, anyway, after sitting a few minutes Johnathan greeted us and took our drink orders to get us started. The ambiance is so relaxed, there was trivia on a couple of the TV's good music, and lots of cool merch to buy, some of the shirts really made me laugh. We quickly made our selections, hubs got the one meat and two sides and opted for the pork ribs, they were cooked to perfection, and he was delighted considering that we were there the last hour of the day, he really enjoyed his meal, I too opted for the one meat and two sides, selecting the regular sausage, and it was delicious. The highlight was Johnathan, he was friendly, made recommendations, and offered dessert, which we couldn't resist, deciding on the German Chocolate cake, with a side of ice cream. We had to take that to go, we couldn't eat another bite. They have two choices for BBQ sauce, hubs got spicy, and I got regular, and I am glad cuz I'm a yellow bellied tender foot, I tasted the spicy and it IS spicy so for all of you that enjoy the heat, I think you will like their, tomato forward sauce. I usually like to dip each bite of my sausage in BBQ sauce, this particular flavor was just different, I think I will have to try it again, it wasn't typical Texas-esque smoky BBQ sauce, more like ketchup as the base and then flavors and spices added to make it their own, we did find it slightly odd that BBQ sauce doesn't automatically come with the meals, we had to ask for it, but one of the things I REALLY like about MacDaddy's layout is it's a TRUE sit down restaurant with servers vs going thru a cafeteria style line to get our food, ironically as we drove down and talked about wanting to find a BBQ spot, and in that conversation I mentioned that I'd love to find one that's not self serve, being that one of us is disabled it can add a lot of extra work for the other, we come down twice a year if possible and have been doing so for at least 10 years, and had never found a dedicated BBQ place, we have now, the food was good, the service was friendly and the vibe was casual and relaxing, we will definitely be back!

Delilah was delightful, the food was subpar today, we've eaten in here several times and had…read moresignificantly better experiences, today my corn bread was very hard on the outsides, the brisket was more than 50% fat. The mac and cheese was delicious per usual.

Great customer service from start to finish. We stopped by a couple of weekends before spring…read morebreak, so there was no wait time, which made for a very relaxed experience. The atmosphere was nice, quiet, and very clean. The lunch menu was somewhat limited but still offered a good variety of options. We started with the shrimp cocktail. Six shrimp served on a bed of ice with a tangy cocktail sauce. It was fresh and flavorful. I ordered the poke bowl, which was absolutely delicious. My husband's lobster roll was warm, buttery, and generously portioned. Overall the food was tasty and the service was great. We'll definitely be back!

I visited and sat at the bar for a late afternoon snack/drink. I immediately spotted the drink I…read morewanted, the crown and cutless which reminds me of a painkiller but with banana liquor and added grenadine. I had originally tried to come here for dinner the previous night and sort of glad I didn't bring my big group here as their prices are a little high woth a big group and the wait is crazy long. Entree prices range from 28-62 for most items, unless you order basic fried seafood or their pasta dish. I did grab some oysters while I was here. The bartender indicated they were farm rasied from here in Port Aransas and similar size as east coast oysters, which I prefer. The oysters ended up being very good and clean, but they are definitely briny. The oysters are served with just cocktail and horseradish..nothing special. Their lemon is covered with a net to capture the seed, which is a common feature at nicer restaurants. They also open your Tabasco bottle for you. I enjoyed my cocktail, but it is something I have made at home, so it wasn't anything too special for me.

Gluten free!!!! This is the only place you can get a gluten free breakfast sandwich or any GF…read moresandwich between Port A, Aransas Pass, and Rockport. The girls who work here are so so sweet and the place is SO cute!!!! We order our food and drinks and sat outside to enjoy. I was very happy with what I ordered. And my husband's croissant sandwich looked amazing too! Mine Gluten free bagel Caprese sandwich Pumpkin spice soy milk steamer (just steamed milk no coffee) His Croissant breakfast sandwich Smoothie Iced black coffee with two shots

I love shore cafe when I am staying at cinnamon shore! Great coffee, breakfast, and lunch! High…read morequality and consistently good coffee.