Sam’s Seafood & Steaks

We love this place! Fish is always fresh, and the steaks are thick and juicy! We recommend their butter and garlic sauce on the steaks! Friendly and professional staff, and we always run into people we know here! Not fancy, but very comfortable! One of our favorites!

Mahi mahi fish tacos, grilled grouper, hot sauced shrimp were all hits. Fried foods were good aka soft shell crab and fries. Our waitress was friendly and sweet. If you’re in the area, skip the chain restaurants and give the locals a try. It’s casual family food… nothing crazy fancy, and we ate everything they gave us happily.

After a visit at Joe Patti across the street, we discovered Sam’s. We were visiting for lunch and were a little sticker shocked at the prices on the menu. The prices reflect those that would be on the menu of an upper scale seafood /​steak restaurant. In other words, this place is expensive.
Shrimp was the order from two of us and the third ordered a cheeseburger. The orders came with a couple sides. For sides we ordered cole slaw and baked beans. The cole slaw was served like a salad is normally served — way ahead of our meal. We were a little surprised but that’s okay too. Cole slaw was good and beans were okay.
Then, we turned our attention to the protein — shrimp and cheeseburger. To begin with the cheeseburger was a huge chunk of meat with good seasoning. However, it was served almost raw and without the cheese.
Next, was the shrimp. There is nothing more gross than being served shrimp that hasn’t been deveined. To be served shrimp like this from a seafood /​steak specialty restaurant was so unexpected and nasty. We’ve never ordered shrimp from a good seafood restaurant and not had it cleaned. It may not be a health issue but seeing the shrimp intestine (poop) vein was not appetizing. So, our first task was finishing the job of the cook. (It had to be a cook because I don’t believe any good chef would allow that out of the kitchen.) We deveined our shrimp. Shrimp was battered and deep fried. Batter was flat.
Server indicated the restaurant was more for locals and evidently the vein didn’t bother the locals. It’s hard to believe that but the cook struck out all the way around.
Server offered to take both shrimp plates off our bill but we declined. She did take one off. However, we still paid for the cheese. This was probably the worst meal out we’ve had in a mighty long time.
We would not go back.

***AVOID THIS RESTAURANT ***. I got 2 grouper dinners TOGO.. 21.99 apiece and then they charged me 4.50 «TOGO CHARGE», WTF, really to put my over priced food in a styrofoam box! And let’s talk about the food, grouper was bland, slaw was ok and grits were far from cheese grits more like instant grits! Certainly NOT a meal worthy of $ 54.00! More than disappointed more like pissed! Will NEVER visit this establishment again. Oh, and to top my experience off, I called back to inquire about charges and the girl put me on hold and never came back!!!
UNFREAKIN’ believable!!!

Sucked. Horrible. Intensely displeased. If there was one word for «I’ll never go there again for as long as I live because I was incredibly disappointed after years of wanting to try that place only to be very let down», I’d use that word right here.
You know… for a place being literally ACROSS THE STREET from a fish market, you’d think they could get some seafood that wasn’t previously frozen AND genuine AND cheaper!
Been coming to Pensacola for a lot of years and passed this placed many times and always thought I’d really like to try that place. Looks nice. Looks like where the locals go. Looks like it might be reasonable on their prices. Looks can mislead. NEVER judge a book by it’s cover.
So we decided to give it a shot among our MANY other choices we could have made. BAD MOVE.
We walked in the joint and it was small and cozy, much like a mom and pop seafood diner one might see in Southern Louisiana, the décor was nice with the taxidermy all around, the waitstaff was polite and sat us immediately. Then we took a look at the menu and pondered over the next 5 minutes if those SKY HIGH prices were gonna be worth it, but we figured, «Hell, good food is worth the price».
So we ordered.
My father and I got the New York Strip and I got a side of grilled Scallops (note for later, I LOVE scallops), my step-​mom and Brolaw got the stuffed grouper and my sis got fried shrimp and fries.
I ordered a beer and it was cool, but not cold, so I got a sprite instead after that.
When the food came out, everything LOOKED pretty good except for little things that just didn’t sit right with me. Like… why was my medium-​rare New York strip a pale grayish color? Why were my scallops perfectly round and all the exact same size? I’ll tell you why. Because the meat was old, it WASN’T prime and probably previously frozen and the «scallops» were probably cut stingray AND previously frozen.
This place is literally ACROSS THE STREET from a fresh fish market, I remind you.
My dad and I ate our steaks and he actually had to put salt on his. Made it taste a little better, he said. My sides of baked beans were ok and the cooked green beans were the only thing I actually enjoyed to it’s fullest. My step-​mom said her grouper was the nastiest fish she ever tasted and she loves grouper. Also, she wasn’t sure there was any cheese in her cheesegrits! My poor brother in law will eat ALL of just about anything he orders and he couldn’t even finish the first piece of fish. All of this stuff was probably frozen.
Brother in law took maybe 3 – 4 bites of his fish and barely ate his sides. When the waitress came to take his plate, she just took the plate; she didn’t even ask him why he didn’t eat his food. I don’t know about you, but in Louisiana, if you barely ate anything off your plate, the waitress is gonna want to know why, AND she’s gonna want to know what that restaurant could do to please you. This left a very bad impression on all of us.
The only thing that was what we would call «Good» was the hushpuppies that my sister had gotten with her fried shrimp. She said even her fries were too salty and overcooked to eat.
Look, maybe this place is a hit with the locals and maybe they go there when they get tired of fresh seafood, I don’t know, but this place and their high prices wouldn’t last in New Orleans or anywhere near southern Louisiana, so if you’re from here, don’t bother. For the $ 34 I paid for a 14oz New York strip and six «scallops», I could have gone across the street and got a better cut of cow, at least a dozen REAL scallops and took them home and had a damn fine meal and got a six pack or two of fine brew on the way home.
Lesson learned.

First time experience and was a little disappointed based upon the reputation. Divey appearance on the outside however clean on the inside. Came for a late lunch and was told before I sat down they were out of mullet. I ordered a blackened shrimp po-​boy with cheese grits and a cup of gumbo. The gumbo was terrible. No seafood in it at all… Claimed to be shrimp gumbo but not 1 shrimp and no rice… The rue was think and tasted like it was several days old.
The shrimp po-​boy was served on super thick bread. Too thick. The shrimp were of good size but the blackening was not done right and over powered the po-​boy. Not sure if the cook was new or what.
The cheese grits and service was good. I doubt I will be back. Much better options available for a better price.

Onion rings home made… delish
Gumbo is okay… Nothing to rave about
Scallops grilled were delish
My husband had the platter and he enjoyed it.