The Terrace at Surf Shack

Ambiance was nice. Could use more fans although the portable table fans were a nice touch. Not busy on Memorial Day. Walked right in with a party of eight. Service was great and fast. The burgers are a good size. The seafood cobb salad and taco salad was huge and filling. I liked the tortilla chips on the bottom of the taco salad. Added a nice crunch. I had the Thai peanut taco as an appetizer. Delicious flavor!

The food and service here is great. Drinks were also delicious. For a great price, you can really get a lot. The only down side was the Saturday night entertainment was so loud that you couldn’t talk to anyone at your table without yelling. Overall, a good place to go for a fun and yummy dinner.

We chose this place for our wedding rehearsal dinner, and could not have been happier! We live in DC, and were not able to check out the Terrace in person — we booked it solely based on the photos, reviews of the food, and the awesomeness of Steve Bishop, who worked with us to plan the event.
Being a destination wedding, we wanted a welcome dinner that was open to all our guests, and that was an open-​house style, so that people could drop by any time as they arrived in town. Steve understood exactly what we were going for, so he reserved the terrace and the piano area and set us up with trays of food that were replenished all night. And holy cow, the food! Different types of tacos, some appetizers, a skillet dish.. .we have lots of people with dietary restrictions (kosher, gluten-​free, etc), and he worked with us to develop a menu that could accommodate everyone. And it was all *delicious.* Several of our guests went back for other meals over the course of the weekend.
Steve was really fantastic to work with, as were the staff that served us. It got a little more crowded than we anticipated, but they were able to set aside a couple additional tables inside, and were unfailingly friendly and patient. There were many awesome things that happened that weekend, but the dinner at the Terrace was one of the most successful.

We had lunch here yesterday, it was a tasty treat.
I would recommend ordering from the taco menus on the very last page. Crab loui, ceviche and fish tacos are so delicious and a great value!

Tacos were great! Only complaint was that the singer/​piano player was so loud that it was really difficult to hold a conversation. Would not deter me from returning next time I’m in the area!

Definitely stop into this restaurant if you’re in the St. Armands circle or area. First of all happy hour is from 3 – 6 every day with half priced drinks. And second of all they have about 20 different options of gormet tacos you can choose from. To top it all off, they have a beautiful upstairs patio overlooking St. Armands circle. What more could you ask for?! My boyfriend’s aunt and uncle took us to dinner here during our visit to Florida. We started out with an order of the nachos. They were divine. The queso cheese sauce that they put on top makes the dish. Myself, boyfriend, and his uncle ordered off of the taco menu. I ordered the island lobster taco and surf and turf taco. Island lobster taco consisted of crispy lobster in a coconut curry sauce with shredded cabbage and a piña colada aioli on top. Ok yum. Surf and turf taco had marinated steak and grilled shrimp in a pesto sauce with crispy onions and monetary jack cheese on top. Also yum. All of the cocktails and drinks that we ordered were also delicious. I don’t have one complaint about this restaurant. The food was fresh and delicious, the location and view was spectacular, the service was quick and friendly, and who doesn’t love a good happy hour. I can see how it can get a little expensive if you don’t make it for happy hour or if you order an entrée. The tacos are cheap, but the entrees seemed to be pricier. I completely loved this restaurant and cannot wait until my next visit!

I love this place! I recently vacationed in the area and this was a wonderful place to eat, drink or just have appetizers. They have music at night and the staff were great. I would definitely head back again. The tacos were delicious and the queso was even better.

Loved this place! Sat outside for a snack for lunch. Service was wonderful. Nice view.
Ate the buffalo chicken egg rolls and the lobster bites. Both were amazing! Hawaiian margaritas were great — pineapple was right on the money!
Would definitely eat here again.

Great tacos! I recommend the Turf and surf taco and the tuna one. Nice view of the shopping area too. One of the better restaurants in the circle.

During our visit to Siesta Key the first week of December, we wanted to spend an evening in the St. Armands circle area. We chose Surf Shack because we were in the mood for tacos. We ate upstairs in the Terrace area which is a little less casual than the first floor, but has the same menu. There was live music and the outdoor upstairs patio has nice views of the St. Armands area with nice breezes. Being December, it was cool in the evening, but they had heat lamps that kept it comfortable. Tables were candlelit and it had a fun, lounge type atmosphere. My husband is a big seafood fan and chose the Crab Louie, Gulf Shrimp Ceviche, and Tuna Poke tacos. His favorite taco was the Tuna Poke. He also really enjoyed the Gulf Shrimp Ceviche taco. The Crab Louie taco was his least favorite, just not as fresh and flavorful as the other two. I had a Filet Mignon taco and Jerk Chicken taco, with a side of mac-​n-​cheese. The Filet Mignon taco was very good. The meat was tender and I liked the combination of flavors with the crunch of the haystack onions. There wasn’t anything particularly special about the Jerk Chicken taco. It was very run-​of-​the-​mill in my mind. The mac-​n-​cheese was creamy but I thought it could use more of a sharp cheese that would give it a boost of cheese flavor to kick it up a notch. Overall, we enjoyed our tacos, but wouldn’t say they rated as some of the best gourmet tacos we’ve ever had. The tortillas were very basic and I think a fresher, in house made tortilla would have really taken the tacos to the next level! The tacos are on the pricier side for single tacos. They are a good size, but I think they could be a better value. While it wasn’t a negative experience, I don’t know that Surf Shack would top our of list of restaurants we’d want to visit again if we find ourselves back in Siesta Key. I think I’d try another spot in search of a dish that would wow us!

If you’re a taco fan just head on over. Between my friend and I we had 6 different tacos and we enjoyed all of them. Definitely something for everyone. We loved the queso blanco, mac & cheese side and the lobster taco.
Drinks were well poured also. My friend had sangria from scratch and it was great.
There was great live music on The Terrace that also drew quite a crowd.

Just ate here with my fiancée and thought it was great! Lobster bites and the three dip with nachos were great starters. Definitely got more lobster than I was expecting for the price. I then got their NoLa gumbo which was delicious! Great flavor and tender meat. We finished off the meal by splitting one of their seafood baskets with scallops, shrimp, and beer battered cod. Great food, and a great experience! Also Shoutout to Bill our waiter. Great job and great knowledge of what was good.

Stopped in on a busy July 4 and got top notch service and great food. We sat at the bar upstairs and chatted with the bartender Jason. We loved the buffalo chicken eggrolls, queso, jerk chicken tacos, and longboard fish tacos. Drinks were great, atmosphere was great, and we stayed long enough to see the live music start up. Cool table to sit up close to the live music. Plenty of outdoor seating for when it’s not so crazy hot. Excited to have this place on the circle — too many places have failed in this spot but I really think this one is hear to stay (fingers crossed)!

Bravo Bill! Our waiter!
We live in Sarasota and are spoiled by all our great eateries. It’s hard to impress this group… The Terrace at surf shack did just that. The food was outstanding. Hogfish, tacos, lobster bites to mention a few. The drinks are amazing as well.

We stopped in the day before to check out the menu and have a couple drinks. So glad we stopped in! The menu is varied enough for all in the party to find something and several items sounded so good it was hard to pick just one thing! We had the Nachos and the Onion Rings as appetizers — nachos were amazing! I had to try the shrimp burger since the concept sounded interesting. I enjoyed it. There’s a choice of seasoned, blackened, or fried and I chose seasoned. It was good but I think I would have enjoyed more with raw onions and a bit more seasoning.

Last week I was in Florida with my family for girls vacation.
We ventured into St Armand’s Circle for dinner one night and chose this little gem for our meal.
The younger girls in our group chose this place given the menu provided at the door, we opted to sit upstairs by the piano bar. Once we got upstairs we were informed that the menu was different than the one we saw at the door.
I ordered the salmon with siracha sauce, rice and asparagus, it was decent, nothing exciting, though it was what was recommended by our server. One of the girls had the maki salad and loved it. Another had a very plain nacho plate (her choice) with all of the sauces on the side — picky eater, I can’t vouch for her choices… but she enjoyed the small amount she ate. Auntie had a prime rib with rice and broc and enjoyed it very much. I cannot recall what mum had, though she raved about it the whole way home.
The place itself was quite quiet inside — the patio was a bit busier. There was a pianist who showed up at 7, Randy. He was great! He took all of our requests and was very entertaining.
Would have enjoyed the patio, but a few of us were a little too sunburnt to sit outdoors.

This place is a great new addition to the circle. We unexpectedly showed up during happy hour, and I was pleasantly surprised. Their Margs are awesome, we tried the moonshine as well as the fruity one, they were both delish! We had the buffalo chicken egg rolls to start… Absolutely loved them. It was like buffalo chicken dip all rolled up into an egg roll and I couldn’t get enough. Then we went on to the tacos, I had the jerk chicken, surf and turf, and. Bang bang shrimp. These were all great. I especially loved the unique flavors in the jerk chicken, it had plantains and an awesome sauce. We will definitely be back here, while I hate fighting the st. Armand’s traffic, I might be willing to for this food and drinks!

It was good — worth trying again
Seems like they have some quirks to work out, like the waiting and making kind of odd excuses instead of just apologizing and correcting (nothing major)
Burger were good, fries were great, fish was fresh, they have Stella on Tap!
Good alternative to the Shore Diner just a slightly different vibe. I’ll be back

A later evening dinner was thoroughly enjoyable.
The drinks were great, and the food is an eclectic menu with something for everyone. They are sensitive to food issues.
A mahi salad was delicious and the salmon dish prepared superbly.
To top it off there was live music with a wonderfully versatile performer.
He had guests singing along at the bar and diners applauding in the restaurant.
Very nice modern ambience as well.
A welcomed addition to our favorite restaurants list in Sarasota.

Came hungry in search of a place to have lunch for our party of 10 and had never seen this place before. After checking out the lunch menu and finding out they had roof top dining, decided to check it out and we were very glad we did. It is pretty small so we were glad they were able to seat us right away.
Don’t remember seeing this place before and as not reviewed yet, I’m thinking it is fairly new. Located at St Armand’s Circle, two doors up from Kilwins ice cream store and next to the Wyland art gallery.
The ambiance is modern and our table was next to a very hip seating area complete with a fire pit which is a nice touch but surely won’t be needed much in the summer time. There is a bar upstairs as well. They feature a bistro type menu for lunch and dinner. It is open air but you are covered from the blaring sun, best of both worlds!
The menu was small but filled with great options for vegetarians, seafood lovers and carnivores alike. I tasted the crab guacamole which comes with house made baguettes, a nice touch. Never thought I’d enjoy crab in guac, but it works. Also tasted the corn bread that comes in a cute skillet, you can taste the quality and freshness of the ingredients.
I ordered the special which was panko crusted mahi mahi served with a mango salsa along with wild rice. They also offered it as a sandwhich, grilled or blackened. The fish was fresh and flavorful. They will accommodate changes as my cousin asked if she could get the mahi mahi on a salad instead. Others ordered the burger, nachos, tacos and not sure what else but everyone enjoyed their food.
Our server was on point throughout, however, at the end of the meal she got visibly annoyed when we asked for separate checks as she had tried to bring one check. That should have been her first question and never assumed. Do you really think one person is going to pay for a party of 10? So the rolling of the eyes was unnecessary but still going 5 stars for the overall experience. The menu changes so will be sure to come back.