Last weekend we celebrated Father’s Day on Saturday, which is good because we spent all of Sunday trying to keep our garage wall from exploding. A very big thank you to Ken, who came over and helped us patch up the naughty pipe that tried to flood the garage. This is what our wall looks like now.

Not pretty. Soon we’ll have to have a Father’s Day so Dan can enjoy himself. He loved his brand new charcoal smoker, but he didn’t have time to try it out. We were also hoping to take advantage of one of the many Father’s Day deals happening at local attractions. Instead we emptied out the garage, threw out tons of trash, cleaned and reorganized. It was exhausting.

But back to Saturday. In addition to spending time with my parents, we had the pleasure of having Dan’s brother and wife (Jon and Anna) visiting from Philly. So we wanted to eat somewhere on the beach. After much Facebook polling, we finally decided to try Dockside Dave’s on Madeira Beach. The place is pretty small and is not on the beach, but across the street. There’s a tiny patio off the side entrance, but it’s not group friendly. They quickly set up a table for 8. I was a little confused by the metal utensils being served in plastic bags rather than napkins or nothing at all. Anyone else know why they would do that? I’ve never seen that in any restaurants I’ve been to.

Besides the odd silverware vessels, the service was pretty good, but not outstanding. Our waitress was friendly but not always easy to track down. The owner was the first person I spoke to, but I had no idea he was the owner. He just started asking me about highchairs. A “hello” or “welcome” would’ve been nice. But let’s get to the important stuff. The food. The food was great! Seems like most of it was fried, which isn’t a big surprise for a seafood joint. We started dinner off with some Gator Bites (fried gator tail) with a zesty dipping sauce and giant Onion Rings. These two things were crispy without being greasy and well seasoned. I’d say the onion rings were the best I’ve had to date. Make sure you order some when you go.

As for the main course, I had the Grouper Reuben, because I couldn’t bare to pay more than $12 for the regular grouper sandwich. However, I got a lot less grouper on my sandwich and it was hard to enjoy it with all the coleslaw and cheese. I liked it but I’ll try something else next time. My husband had the regular Grouper Sandwich (blackened) and thought it was okay, but Jon had the Grouper Dinner (fried) and really liked it. It looked really good too. We shared some waffle fries and those were good but not nearly as much as those onion rings. Alistair had a hot dog (BIG) kids meal for $5 and Wesley had some buttered noodles because it was a little cheaper, but they could’ve split the hot dog. As for the others, I think they were very happy with their food.

All in all, I liked Dockside Dave’s on Madeira Beach. There’s another one on St. Pete Beach, but my friend @Lizz_Angello says the Madeira location is the better of the two. I think I’ll keep my search up for more awesome restaurants on the Pinellas beaches. So far, my favorites are the Conch Republic on Reddington Beach for it’s food and Sloppy Joe’s on Treasure Island for it’s awesome view of the beach. Click on the restaurant names to read my reviews on the Insure Largo Today blog.

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Dockside Dave’s is located at

14701 Gulf Blvd
Madeira Beach, FL 33708

and

7141 Gulf Boulevard
St. Pete Beach, FL 33706