Pantego Bay

We were a little worried based on the reviews but we were pleasantly surprised. The service was great. our server was really sweet and fast and attentive. I also noticed the other server being very accommodating to a picky customer with no hint of impatience.
My tip on the food would be to stick to whatever is fried. They have a really delicious breading — we think it was potato crusted — and both our fried dishes were excellent. I had the butterfly shrimp dinner and my fiancé had fish tacos — the grilled taco wasn’t as good as the fried.
They have good slaw, beans, and the okra was tasty too. They also bring you a little bowl of hushpuppies as a complimentary appetizer. I thought everything was quite good. It also appears they have a little bar on the other side of the restaurant, which I think would be fun to check out. Don’t be afraid to give this place a try!

Met some friends there for dinner we had a great time. Wednesday is live music on the air conditioned patio.
They serve jalapeño hush puppies to everybody – really good!
Ordered bacon wrapped shrimp appetizer… fantastic!
Red fish was very good, so was Mahi Mahi
We drank Samuel Adams’ «Rebel IPA» in big frozen mugs very tasty!
We had a super waitress named Shelby, she took care of us and was very attentive.
We will be going back.

I needed a quiet place to do some work. The bar at 6p was perfect! I ordered the fried. This Louisianian was very pleased!!!

Finally decided to try this lil place. Food was a lot better than expected. The Cajun shrimp boil was not Cajun flavored but did have a good flavor with a bite. The fried pickles were lacking some flavor though. They give you complimentary jalapeño hush puppies which are good and would be even better fresh. The side salad looked and tasted great. Blackened sea bass was perfectly cooked and tasted wonderful. Hope was out waitress and she was great. She was very interactive with us and made our dining experience memorable. Will definitely be returning.

Visited last weekend for the first time. The service was good, and the waitress was very friendly. But the food was just okay. Not a lot of flavor to anything I tasted.
I’d go back and maybe try something different, but I wouldn’t really recommend it to friends.

Burned hush puppies. Cup of gumbo that was thick like stew and, except for the graininess, relatively tasteless until doused with lots of Tabasco. Fish taco with exactly one bite of fish in it and balance filled with runny cole slaw that dripped pink juice out the other end (I assume from all the cabbage) that made it a complete mess to eat. Soggy french fries. Cole slaw that wasn’t awful but mostly mayonnaise. Beer wasn’t very cold. Only good things were the large glasses of water that neutralized the taste of all and the friendly waitress who kept them filled. Oh, and flies in the dining room were annoying. I really wanted to like this place and may give it another chance but our initial visit was less than impressive.

We tried this place after searching fervently for a seafood reataurant that served boil… having come from the coast, we were expecting one thing, and were extremely let down. The waitress was friendly, however, service was extremely slow… the hush puppies were good. We ordered bacon wrapped shrimp as an appetizer and 2 shrimp boils, a kids grilled cheese, a hamburger, vodka and pineapple (they don’t have cranberry) and a glass of wine and kids drinks… we waited FOREVER for our meals… the appetizer came with the meal, and the shrimp were not worth the price… at all… the hamburger was okay, but the grilled cheese came on a flipped over hamburger bun, which didn’t impress me. The boil was sad, to say the least. The corn was cut so small it was literally bite sized, the potatoes were cut into quarters and were the size of orange slices, and the sausage followed suit with the corn, sizing wise. The shrimp in the boil was okay, but the rest of it was highly disappointing. We paid $ 75 for about $ 15 worth of food… and i was extremely upset when the table next to us got their food within 15 minutes, when we waited a good 30−45… we won’t be back.

Tonight we tried to eat at Pantego Bay. I ordered a fish taco. The fish was old and tasted awful. We were not charged for it, but it was gross. We will not be going back as this is the third time we have had bad food — first were cold crab cakes and then bad soup.

Went back again, hoping for a better experience. This place is still over priced for the frozen fish you’ll be receiving (hopefully not too terribly long after you arrive).

We happened to hear about this place shortly after we moved to the Arlington area. We’re so glad we did. It will be a routine place on our list of favorites. The atmosphere is fun and clean. The service is consistently very good. All staff are friendly and even recognized us on our second visit. We met the owner on our first visit, who wanted to be sure everything was to our liking and to welcome us. The drinks are very great. (even the margarita’s that were poorly reviewed before)
The food is very very good! The homemade hush puppies are great as a starter. All the seafood is terrific, as are the sides, onion rings, and veggies. We’ve been here several times now, and have yet to have anything to complain about. AND, I’m sure that if anything wasn’t perfect, the staff and owner would make sure to make it right. I would recommend this place to anyone over Red Lobster!

Everything was great! The food was delicious, generous servings and reasonably priced. Our waitress was very sweet. Also, they have filtered water which is important in Pantego! The décor is cute, very thematic. This place used to be a Braum’s but you wouldn’t know it. We are looking forward to eating here again soon!

I had bookmarked this place quite a while back and we never visited until tonight. My hubby stopped in for lunch one day a few weeks back and he really liked it. He is by far the more «foodie» of the two of us.
We were greeted immediately and shown to a booth. The right side is the «bar» section which had dim lighting, booths and tables. We didn’t venture inside but I suspect there is a bar too!
The left side is more the dining area, with fishing stuff everywhere, bright lights, booths and tables. Our server was Hope and she was a gem!
Hubby started with ½ dozen oysters on the half-​shell and proclaimed them «good»!
One of my sides with my dinner was a salad, which Hope presented to me early so I could eat with hubby. The salad is served in a bowl and Hope served that on a Plate, which kept me from having to struggle to keep the salad confined to the bowl… great added touch. 1000 Island Dressing (aka Padre Island here) tasted like Kraft… I was hoping for homemade but it was still ok.
Hubby ordered fried catfish, with roasted red potatoes and corn on the cob. Lucky me took the veggies home because he was full!
I orders the chicken fried chicken, at the suggestion of Hope, and found it to be huge… took up over ½ the plate… hot, freshly cooked, flaky batter that held on to the crispy of it… all blankets in the very smooth, velvety white gravy. Onion rings tasted frozen, non-​exciting but passable.
Hope was polite, professional, welcoming and quick. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and will be back… next time, I am trying the burgers!

Give this place another chance; I think you’ll find great food, reasonable price, excellent margaritas, all of which can be enjoyed on the party porch!
A great place to meet family and friends.

It is good for people who enjoys fried food. I was not sure what to get so I tried their fried oysters and I taste more of the batter than the oysters itself.
It’s very greasy, I’m not sure of its fresh or not but don’t recommend it.

Really cute décor, clean, fast friendly service and staff. If I were rating on those things alone it would be at least 4 star maybe five, HOWEVER, then there is the food. YUCK. I ordered the lunch special combo of catfish and butterfly shrimp. The shrimp didn’t taste fresh or devined. The catfish was muddy, and the oil tasted old. Fries were good though. Other than that it might be a good place for a beer and oysters but I won’t be back.

This place is straight up bad. Came here with family while down in Dallas, and was very disappointed. The hush puppies that came out in place of bread were actually a pretty good start, and a «small» frozen margarita was giant and tasty, but after that it was all downhill.
Our server took the bottle of beer and literally poured it into a mug to the absolute brim, so that you had to sip it to even be able to lift it up. I thought this was maybe a one-​time mistake, but she did it every time. The food wasn’t much better either. I got the fried crawfish which really were just fried batter, there was almost no meat to speak of, it was really a big let down. The cole slaw that it came with was pretty much all mayonnaise, I had one bite and decided to let it go uneaten. Fries were soggy and just not good. The rest of the table had a similar reaction to the food (fried oysters and a fried oyster po-​boy). I would not be in a rush to come here, there are certainly better options around DFW (though I will say, the price was very good).

Decent food and decent prices!
Not the best seafood selection, lacking crab or lobster entrees for being a seafood restaurant… Ordered the beach boil, pretty tasty, satisfied nonetheless. Waitress today was bubbly compared from last visit.

Not sure why this place is getting a bad rap. The service is absolutely fantastic, they have this sweet chiller fan thing out on the patio so you can enjoy the out-​of-​doors even in the heat of the summer, and best of all, the food is damn good. The crab cake could be a little thicker but it’s freshly cooked and FULL OF CRABMEAT. The french fries are excellent and their drinks are tasty. Give Pantego Bay a shot, you won’t be disappointed.
(but skip the hushpuppies, they leave something to be desired)

This place isn’t as nice as it use to be. It was sold recently to another local restaurant owner and it’s lost it’s pizzaz. The bar was dirty, the bartender was busy with no back-​up and the kitchen was behind on orders. I ordered the city tacos and they were good. B. had the crab cakes which were cheap crab fried pancakes (disappointing). If you live in Arlington, try it but don’t go out of your way to come here.

The old Pantego Braum’s has moved down the street. With a new paint job, a sailboat out front, and a patio added to the front, we have the new Pantego Bay Gulf Coast Café. It’s run by a local artist who draws all the goofy Texas themed stuff that you’d see in car wash lobbies in decades past. I’ve been waiting for these guys to open for ever. On baited breath. Seriously. Anxious. And it finally happened.
The location is great. There’s no sign that it was a Braum’s. It’s colorful, fun, and reminiscent of a 1980’s Chilis/​Fridays. The patio is a little crowded, but very nice with the shutters open. Actually, that’s kinda how the whole thing is. The main dining area and the bar are both very nice, but a little cramped. Still, it’s a great vibe.
Well, it was first week jitters, I guess. They opened on a Monday and we were in on Friday. They admitted it’s still soft opening and that they’re working out the kinks. This is understandable. We were there for over two hours. Silverware didn’t come until well after the meal (a problem every table had). Food was cold. Orders were wrong. Drinks were slow. Bartender and staff have no idea what they’re serving in the bar. I ordered a Deep Ellum IPA. They were out and offered me a Lakewood Temptress Imperial Stout because «they’re pretty much the same». Took forever to get to-​go boxes. Took forever to pay. Similar to what others have said — just about everything went wrong.
On the other hand, they sure tried to win us over despite everything imaginable blowing up in their faces. We got extra rolls. We got porkchops, fried okra, and green beans. When my order was wrong, it was apologized for with onion rings. I mean, really. Instead of the usual lame offer to comp a drink or something, they just kept stuffing me full of food. It worked.
The seafood sampler was pretty good. As were the sandwiches. The porkchops, other than being cold, were actually very good. The bar is full of quality Texan beers and liquors. The only disappointment of the night was my Big Roy. A chicken fried steak wrapped in bacon and made into a sandwich sounded incredible. It wasn’t. They admitted to messing it up, but I have no idea what went wrong. It just wasn’t very good at all.
I was stuffed with other goodies, though.
I’m gonna give it a few weeks. Their grand opening is in the not too distant future and we’ll see how they recover from this opening week nightmare. Hopefully a glowing re-​rate is in the works.