Padre restaurants and things to do

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eugene11

250+ Posts
Me and the woman are going to South Padre for the first time. Lived in Texas for 30 years and never been. Kind of stupid. We were wandering what the fun bars/restaurants and things to do are. We can drink plenty but prefer not to go to clubs and such. Just fun bars and places to eat and enjoy the beach and seafood. What about half day fishing trips. worth the money? Just looking for fun things to do.
Thanks in advance.
 
Scampi's is a great dinner spot. Food is ok/good, but the sunset is great.

My favorite breakfast spot is Ted's. Fajitas and eggs. RoVan's is a good breakfast spot too.

A few good spots on bayside near Louie's. 3-4 spots have popped up around there.

Plenty of fishing. Just Google it.

Stuff to do: chill out. Relax. Drive the north end of the island where the road dead ends, horseback riding on the beach, Schlitterbahn, bayfishing, dolphin cruise (boring, but may be your thing).

Great place to go and relax.
 
amberjacks is ok. Miguels Cantina is solid. There is a place called the Sea Ranch that I also like.

Never been to Ted's but Rovans was amazing back in the day, now, not so much.

Blackbeards is there and is crowded all the time but it's been very underwhelming for me.
 
The Palmetto Inn also has pretty good food. Teds is good too (already mentioned).

There's a good pizza place down there, but for all the money on the earth I could not tell you the name right now. Can someone else help me out here?
 
Other restauants are the Lantern Grill for really excellent cuisine, or the casual gulfside Jesse's Cantina. Try the camarones al carbon and wash them down with one of his margaritas.

Be sure and visit the surf shop On the Beach, which has been in business since the late '70's, a rarity on the island.
The owner, Gene Bagley is a renowned Texas surfer, sailboarder and surf traveler.
 
A good "chill out" experience is at Dolphin Cove Oyster bar at the far south end of the island, inside the county park (you do have to pay to go into the park). Definitely a locals place. You just sit there and watch the boats in the channel with the breeze blowing in to cool things off, as it's all open air. You drink beer and have awesome boiled shrimp and maybe a frozen snickers. It's as casual as can be.

On the north end of the island, on the bay side is Parrot Eyes. Same idea, but a bit bigger. During the day you can rent seadoos there and to parasailing. At night, they may have a band. Another place to eat shrimp and drink beer in your bathing suit, and here you can watch the sunset.

I think Lantern Grill closed.

Have fun,

Lee
 
I beleive the Lantern Grill closed its doors a while back. My favorite meal on the island is Scampi's. Cross the causeway for the huge breakfast tacos at Isabelle's, close to the HEB. During the day, get your drink on at Wahoo's or Parrot Eyes (last place on the island), get cleaned up and watch the sun set on the Amberjack's deck. Then head over to Tequila Sunset or Wahoo's to close out. All three are next to each other.
 
At Parrot Eyes, you can book an early morning 1-hr or so sea-doo trip to go see the dolphins feeding. Its pretty early in the morning, but I thought it was pretty cool, some of them come right up to the sea-doo. Plus you get to play around on the sea-doo's at the end of the tour, so it was a pretty good deal for the money.
 
teds breakfast is really good (and cheap). that is all i have, i have very few memories of the times i have been there.
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dolphin cove is a great recommendation as well.
 
Is The Pantry still around? Sea Ranch is pretty good, that's where we used to dock our boat & would always go eat at the bar there after a long day of fishing.
 
Blackbeard's is a tourist trap. Palmetto Inn is so-so. Lantern Inn has been shut down for quite a while. Try WannaWanna Beach Club on the gulf side for great fried shrimp and even better when the Bongo Dogs are playing. Boomarang Billys is also on the gulf and is a good place to hang and have a burger.
 
Thanks for all the tips guys. We're definatly going to go with both of dfw's suggestions. I'm not sure about the dolphin thing though. I told her that i would go dolphin watching if there was beer involved.....lots of beer involved. Guess im getting ****** up the night before. I think we are going to try to hit a different spot every afternoon and evening so it looks like yall have given us plenty of places. Thanks again. I'll check back in when we get back and tell of the adventures.
 
We had a GREAT time down there last weekend. Thanks to all of yall for the tips on places. We stayed at La Copa and had a beach front room with a balcony. the only bad thing was it over looked the pool so there was plenty of kids making noise. I didnt know there were so many kids on the planet. Jesus! The hotel was nice and clean. and we got two free beers each every night we were there for happy hour. The frist place we went was the Dolphin Cove Oyster Bar. That place was easily my favorite bar and beach. The peel and eat shrimp were better then any i have had. They dont serve Corona either. ( i guess a plus for some of ya.ll). Also went to Amberjacks, Scampi's and Ted's. Scampi's fried shrimp was awsome along with the chipotle crab cake. WOW! The peanut butter shrimp was to much like chinese food for my liking (real sweet) but it was fresh and good. Teds was great for breakfast. Love the way they do the tacos so they dont spill all the inards out. Amberjacks had the best Red Snapper Rockerfeller i have had. i could have eaten three of those. My girlfriend( who is an aggy....boo....more on that later) had the crab and shrimp enchilada. That was pretty damn good also. We went to scampis twice for dinner. Atmosphere is great at all these places. real laid back. DONT EVER GO TO COCONUTS!. The food was horrible and service was not good either. The womans mixed drink tasted lke water. Not cheap either. $9.75 for two beers.
We went on a 5 hour 'deep' sea fishing trip. We were only about 3 miles off the coast. I cought a little 12" snapper but the limit was 16" so back it went. Last weekend my girlfriend met my parents for the first time. On the way out to sea on the fishing trip i told her that they really werent my parents and that they were just interviewing her for placement in ***** houses in mexico and that we werent really going fishing, that i was going to sell her to mexico. She laughed and i said i was joking. I then told her that I had thought about using her for bait but was having enought bad luck with the squid. I didnt want to scare all the fish out of the gulf and back to the Atlantic. Stupid aggys.

Oh we also went to On The Beach surf shop. That was pretty cool. Didnt meet the owner but bought some cool Costa Del Mar sunglasses and another pair of Reefs for each of us.
 
Go to the Wanna Wanna Bar. It's beach front and has the best fried shrimp I have ever had. Casual place...I am talking bathing suits. I am in SPI in July and will spend my mornings fishing the bay and the afternoons enjoying a cold one on the beach or at Wanna Wanna.

OOPS...didn't realize you had already gone. Maybe for next time.
 
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