The Original Old Bay Steamer

Been to this restaurant several times. Went when it was it was under another name before. The actual restaurant is cute and has a great atmosphere. Sitting outside on the deck is delightful. Our waitress was excellent. I highly recommend the fried goat cheese appetizer. It is delicious! I ordered West Indies salad. It was horrible! The crab was minced like tuna fish. Another friend ordered boiled shrimp. They were over cooked. The shrimp in the shrimp tacos was overcooked also. IF I ever go back again it will be for a drink and the fried goat cheese.

This place is awesome. They have a great menu, bar, and welcoming servers. It’s a place I feel like I can bring my family to, but also a place I can grab a beer with the guys. Will definitely be coming back! The food was great too, and for a good price!

We have been to Pelican patio several times. We have always found it to be very good. Nice drink selection, live music on the patio. I believe that it has now gone back to the Original Old Bay Steamer menu. It is owned by Tamara Wintzell who is the proprietor of many restaurants in Fairhope. The Original Old Bay Steamer was a favorite of ours so I cannot wait to go back and try the menu. Will update my review then.
We went to the New Original Old Bay Steamer for dinner last night. We started out with the fried crab claws… they were excellent! I had the Crab and Shrimp… it consists of a cluster of Snow Crab and 6 Royal Red shrimp. It was fantastic.
We sat on the patio and the atmosphere was great. The only issue we had was when it got dark, there was not enough light. We had to use our phones in order to read the menus. All in all a great experience.

This is the second time we have tried this place. I felt I needed to come a second time to be fair.
Unfortunately, the second visit worse than the first. Food was mostly average but easily overpriced for what you got. My wife and her friend ordered an amber beer, (which our waitress told us it was on draft) and the waitress then brought two IPAs (in bottles) instead. We told her, and she cleared the bottles away but then brought back two more bottles of Amber. Not draft. This in itself is not really a problem, but we had also asked two times for glasses which she never brought. The waitress took so long to visit us at our table that I just ended up going to the bar asking for glasses myself. Our waitress had also forgotten to put in our order for our appetizer. Additionally, I had ordered a dozen oysters which she never brought. When I asked her about them, I got some hilarious excuse that the oysters were stuck together in the shipment and they were having difficulties getting them apart. Seriously, I’m not making this up. Then she asked if I still wanted them.!! I was like .“were you going to inform me… Ever??” Far be it for you to tell your customer he isn’t getting the food he ordered. Anyhow, I told her I still wanted the oysters, which after all the excuses, magically and suddenly appeared two minutes later. To top it all off, the bill was incorrect. It’s really a shame, because this is the type of place that I want to really like it. It’s got a great location and an awesome patio. I just wish they could get some staff that gave at least five minutes of attention over a customers hour-​long sitting. Too bad.

Average and forgettable food that is slightly overpriced. Service was fine. Many other better options in fairhope.

We have gone to this restaurant before and the food was good for lunch. The service is a little slow. For dinner we waited 1ht and 30 minutes for our order; then my meal was missing the sides! They brought my sides after I finished the main course! Too long of a wait for food that was mediocre.

The server was good about getting things I asked for and keeping our drinks full. The onion rings were good, as were the curly fries. My burger was awful. I’m pretty sure my meat was old. I don’t think my dog would of eaten it. We sat on the patio, we really enjoyed it. Tables were kind of dirty and it didn’t look very clean inside either. Very over priced for the quality. Doubt we’ll be back.

Wow! The food was worse than I even expected…
Where do I begin… BAKED OYSTERS! So here in Fairhope, when a menu says «baked oysters topped with crab». We expect blue crab! Oh no, the oysters were topped with a tiny bit of snow crab! They were tasteless and disgusting. The waitress asked if everything was ok, and when I made an eek face, her reply was «they do look different than normal»! Hmm… ok?
Also, the oysters were dry and definitely not freshly shucked.
Next, ahi tuna tacos: once again, tasteless
Duck quesadilla: I loved this menu item at one of tamara’s old restaurants. But apparently things change. The duck was dry and all you could really taste was the frozen spinach.
So, from all of this food we threw away more than we consumed. ¼ of the quesadilla, ¼ of the tuna tacos, and ½ of the oysters we ate…
On a good note, my 7 year old nephew was in town and ordered the AYCE crab legs. He said they were wonderful!

Good spot for a Saturday afternoon. 4 of us had dinner and drinks. The Ahi Tuna with Wasabi was wonderful. Amber the waitress was very helpful.
Bloody Mary happy hour specials.
Live music and outdoor under the massive oak tree. I recommend it.

Love Pelican Patio! Our server was great and the burger and onion rings were, according to my husband, the best in Fairhope! He’s from Fairhope and loves his food! They also washed out our baby bottle we left. It’s the little things that make this place so great… and the fact there is outdoor seating!

While vacationing here in Fairhope, my wife saw the menu online and was exited about trying it. We were told to sit anywhere and as we walked in we noticed the dining room was open to the patio and there was a young man playing guitar and singing. It was at a volume loud enough that you couldn’t have a conversation with your table mates without shouting. He had a decent voice and played fine but my god, every single song was a slow droning melancholy copy of the one before it. The peppiest number was «I’m On Fire» by Springsteen and it was even more depressed sounding than the original. If I hadn’t known better I’d have thought we were at a funeral. It may have been the management requesting this particular set list from the young man so it may not have been his fault. Either way, there was no way to get far enough away from the music enough to talk.
I was happy to find out they serve Pepsi instead of Coke but what the server brought me was watered down and completely devoid of any carbonation. Redemption came on this one however when she returned with a fresh glass of ice and a real can of pepsi.
The sun was going down and the interior lighting was so dim that I could barely read the menu with my reading glasses on over my contacts.
There were some interesting things on the menu. My wife ordered an appetizer of some dates filled with Chorizo and wrapped in bacon. She thought they were an interesting taste but not necessarily a great taste. I tried one. I didn’t think there was anything that could not be saved by adding bacon but I was wrong. I just wanted to wash the taste out of my mouth.
We both ordered snow crab legs ($ 16 for two clusters). She ordered Corn on the cob and new potatoes for sides. There was no choice of mashed or baked potato so I wanted a salad. I found that there is a $ 1.50 up charge to sub a salad which upon interrogation, the server admitted was simply a small bowl of lettuce with dressing. I ordered curly fries and coleslaw.
The fries were frozen out of the bag just like Arby’s or other fast food fries except it appears they tried to add some other spice to them, maybe in a feeble attempt to distinguish them from fast food fries. They just tasted weird so I pushed those to the side. The coleslaw seemed fresh but also had an odd spice that just didn’t work.
My wife said the new potatoes were flavorless. Her corncob was stone cold.
Now for the crab legs. They were pretty small clusters but 16 bucks isn’t outrageous as long as they were good. They weren’t. It’s not that they couldn’t have been good because the crab boil they used was really tasty but they were overcooked so you could not effectively snap them and pull out the meat. You had to spend several minutes fighting each leg segment, painfully peeling and digging for the meat which just fell apart into crumbs. I never got one satisfying full bite of crab meat to dip into the melted butter. Just crumbs that I would try to press into something I could chew. I threw away many of the smaller segments because it just wasn’t worth all the effort to mine a few small crumbs. We were halfway done before the server brought us crab leg cracker tools. Apparently they only have a few pair and they were being washed.
After the sun was completely down it was so dark in there, especially at our table that you could’t see your hand in front of your face so the struggle to peel and dig and pick at the crab legs was that much more difficult.
The place had all but emptied out and we were still there trying to wrestle a bite of meat out of the crab legs when the service staff started engaging in loud laughing and horseplay which just added to the distracting volume level of the young man still playing his sad songs on the patio. It was as if they didn’t know there were patrons remaining in the restaurant but they were 6 feet from us. Our particular server was competent and very sweet. I don’t blame her for any of this and I don’t believe she was one of the horseplay group.
I finished the last of my crab crumbs and was literally exhausted but felt like I had not had a bite to eat. The bill was $ 54 after the $ 8 tip for our server. We left there and went directly to Arby’s where I got a $ 3 roast beef sandwich that was 100 times more satisfying than anything we had at dinner.
Maybe this place stays in business because it’s in a tourist area serving many first and last time customers like us but I would pay $ 54 not to go back.

Great burgers and seafood. Best happy hour in Fairhope. The staff is great — nice abs friendly. Best burger — the Church Street Bliss Burger.

Solid 4 stars based on a party of 4, lunch during a rain shower during the festival. Place was slammed but our server, Theresa was very friendly and attentive. Bloody Mary’s were very good. The other couple had grilled shrimp tacos which they said was very good. We had fried oysters that were expertly prepared. Crispy outside but not over cooked. Perfect. I would recommend The Pelican to locals and visitors alike.

Nothing special about the food. The service was decent. But the place was not very clean. I would not go back.

This place must have turned for the better because we had a great experience. Between 4 of us, we split the crab claws, dates, and fried goat cheese. The crab claws were good but the other two were unique and delicious.
I had the fish tacos with a medium rare tuna, they were light and tasty. My father had the duck quesadilla which was quite rich and filling but offered a range of decadent flavors. Our waiter, Anna, was quite polite and attentive. She was also gorgeous and personable. I will be back whenever I am in town.
I held a star back for a couple of minor flaws that’s aren’t even worth typing.

Stopped in one afternoon to kill some time and some brain cells. Sat outside on the patio, because that’s what you should do when at a place named PATIO. No pelican on the menu, so no idea why it’s in the name.
Ordered some beer and wings. Beer came fast, good and cold! Wings came later and they were raw. oops. Bloody uncooked wings are bad. Sent them back. Ordered the fried Goat cheese and it was great! Best thing I had that day! Got more wings and they were done right. I was worried they would be over cooked, but they were not.
Live music on the patio was nice. Not too loud and we were sitting very close. Nothing to say about the rest of the food, it wasn’t very good. I would come here again to hang out on the patio and drink some beer.

I’ve been to this place three times and have waited to write a review. Overall this place is cool… Location is nice, happy hour specials on beer wine and wings are good, and the food is decent. But the fact I call the food decent makes me want to go elsewhere. Here is a list of what I’ve ordered or tasted and my opinion on taste.
Dip sampler: chips were stale, cheese was watery (found a hair in it too), tomato «bruschetta» salsa was ok.
Hot Dates: excellent! Best thing I’ve had on their menu.
Duck quesadillas: very tasty and worth the order!
Shrimp Po boy: not the best ever but it was very good, this may have to be my choice if I go back.
Turkey burger: Dry. Looked like beef. Pretty bad burger overall… Very over cooked.
Sweet potato fries: very delicious! Love them!
Tuna tacos: good but not great. There are other places in town to get the same thing that tastes better.
Waitress was nice but never brought the water we ordered. Overall we have not been impressed any time we were here but this most recent time was the worst of the three.
My suggestion: go for happy hour, order the Hot Date appetizer or the duck quesadilla, then go elsewhere for dinner.

1 Star For Location/​Ambiance, 1 Star for Service.
I have been to this restaurant several times and the service is always good but the food hasn’t been so consistent. Tonight’s experience was the last straw.
A friend of mine always says: «Most folks don’t mind mediocre food if they get good service in a nice atmosphere.» This was true for me in regards to Pelican Patio.
The past 2 times, I have ordered the veggie pizza and the crust has been tough with a bitter after taste. I didn’t say anything to the server. Tonight, I decided to get the tangerine salad with chicken tenders. It was a canned mandarin orange salad with rubber chicken served on a bed of yellow romaine with a lot of white spines, brown mushroom slices, a few mealy tomatoes, and expired shredded cheese that tasted moldy with a side of the lowest quality balsamic dressing. I decided to send that back and opted for the queso and pico de gallo. The queso was bland and watery and the pico was obviously store bought and old. And, oh! The chips were stale. I wasn’t surprised. My husband was surprised that his usual choice, the patio quesadilla with chicken left much to be desired tonight.
I think it’s time for the owner to come and do a quality control refresher with the kitchen staff. We certainly have no intention of returning until they do.

Previously this site was home to Mateer’s, which was pretty great. It was subsequently purchased by Tamara of Tamara’s Downtown, Tamara’s Bar & Grill, and the defunct Tamara’s Steamer… at which point it became Aurora’s, and had a lame selection of «tapas» (which totally were not tapas) plus small pizzas and a dessert martini menu (hey there, 1999, nice to see you again). Now Aurora’s is gone and it’s Pelican Patio. Same owner? Dunno.
Menu is very, very similar to Tamara’s Bar/​Grill — the same few salads, same fried or grilled seafood platters with the usual cole slaw/​potatoes (zzzz), the mini pizzas it had as Aurora’s. There are a few slightly more interesting/​unusual appetizer selections; we foolishly got the spinach artichoke dip, the recipe for which must’ve come off of a Philly box, because it contained large undifferentiated globs of plain cream cheese. Turkey burger with applesauce and bacon was… kind of disappointing. It wasn’t stuffed with it, as described, just had some smeared on the bun. The lettuce was pre-​shredded romaine, probably bagged stuff for use in salads, which is extremely annoying on a sandwich. At least the curly fries were good, I guess.
It’s a shame this place can’t seem to get much traction — the location is terrific, and the huge patio dining areas are lovely. But extremely so-​so food combined with a LOUD singer/​acoustic guitar player covering K-Tel’s Most Annoying Hits Of The Seventies makes it a big miss. $ 25 plus tip for a turkey burger, spinach dip, and an iced tea… and I would’ve much preferred Hardee’s.