Apalachicola Seafood Grill | Best of the Gulf Coast

Local Color

Apalachicola has all manner of good seafood restaurants, plain and fancy. For local color (along with four-star food) in a totally laid-back setting, you can’t beat the Apalachicola Seafood Grill. A corner-store town lunch room surrounded by a raised sidewalk, it has a short counter where locals come to chat & chew as well as a scattering of oilcloth-covered tables. Souvenirs for sale include plush toys and amusing signs, such as “No Whining Zone”

Oysters Always Are in Season

Oysters are available raw, steamed, or grilled by the dozen. Or have them fried on a sandwich or in a basket. The Grill’s fried oysters are remarkably sweet, nutty, gentle. If we wanted to convert someone who thinks he doesn’t like oysters, these would be our argument. On the side comes hunky, homey potato salad with lots of bacon flavor.

Everything Grilled Is Great

This kitchen really knows how to fry, and shrimp can be ordered fried or coconut fried. But the preparation that sends me into orbit is grilled. Modest-sized, but huge flavored, the shrimp come spangled with oregano and parsley. You’ll taste a tingle of pepper spice and a wisp of smoke in their seasoning. While they are remarkably tender, they aren’t the least bit flabby. What a joy it is to sink teeth into one. Grilled grouper is equally wonderful. The firm, flaky fish yields the deepest sort of flavor satisfaction in every bite.

Dixie Gumbo

Another out-of-this-world dish is Apalachicola gumbo – spicy, robust, earthy, loaded with beautiful oysters and shrimp and forkfuls of flatfish. It is aggressively seasoned but with none of the complicated folderol of Creole gumbo. Instead, it glows with cordial Dixie charm that is more Mobile Bay than New Orleans.

For the Fish-Frowner

If you don’t love fish, look at a section of the menu titled “Not Seafood (who knew?”). It offers burgers, BLTs, Philly steaks, and grilled cheese sandwiches. Other non-seafood specialties include chicken & waffles and red beans & rice.

One other note: The menu asks, “Please remove crying or screaming children from the dining room.”