Critic's Review
You hear people mention the Pelican Grand every now and then, but I'd never been there before in any capacity. It's sort of in a lost part of town; midway between Sunrise and Oakland. It's that place you pass on the way to Shooters or Martorano's. The temperatures are finally suitable for outdoor dining, so I thought I'd do something oceanfront.
With hotels, my first concern is always parking. I'm not going to go to a hotel for lunch and get stuck with a $10 valet charge. The Pelican Grand has a bunch of metered parking spots right across from the Hotel (on the same side of A1A). The main picture is taken from my spot. So $1 worth of quarters gets you an hour.
The hotel itself is old; it looks like an old building with a fresh coat of paint, which is pretty much what it is. It's not clear where the restaurant is; there's 2 restaurants off the lobby. There's a bar off to the left, which is an area that overlooks the pool. There were some tables with menus and I was thinking that it looked pretty crappy; but the menu was for Post Cards, which is the casual pool restaurant. Around the corner and down the deck is the "other" restaurant; it looks largely the same with better views and tables for 4 instead of 2. It's country style; wicker chairs and railings with posts.
I asked for a Pelligrino, but they only have Voss. Not bad stuff but overpriced mainly because of the fancy bottle. Now realize at this point I'm thinking I'm in a pretty good hotel restaurant. The seafood bisque sounded good, so I ordered that along with a grilled red snapper sandwich. The sparkling water came out with a fancy tumbler with a slice of old, dried out lime. It was the first sign of things to come.
While I can't say the hotel was as nice as I'd expected, the view was pretty nice.
The soup came out first, and if first impressions are everything, I can't say I was impressed.
This dish is described on the menu as "Seafood Bisque: with a saffron aioli & basil infused oil drizzle". I expected something a lot more delicate than this; this was more like something I'd expect at one of those log cabin seafood houses from yesteryear. It didn't taste bad, but it wasn't the quality I expected.
Next came out the fish sandwich.
Whoa, look at this mess. While the fish fillet looked fine on the surface, what was I supposed to do with all of those onions? Under the onions were some semi-ripe tomatoes; Is it too much to ask for ripe tomatoes on a $14 sandwich? I'm not sure I wanted raw onions with a fish fllet, so I took off the onions to start. I had a bit of trouble cutting the sandwich in half. While the fish was cooked skin-on, it wasn't cooked to a crisp,and it was still a tough sheath. I had to remove the skin. The fish was slightly overdone on the thinner side of the filet; a typical problem with amateurishly prepared seafood.
The carrot slaw, which I mistakenly ordered since I didn't want fries, was just plain awful. Aside from the ill-advised recipe of carrots, raisins and almonds, there was nothing to pull it together. I expected something with cabbage, not just a bowl of julienned carrots. My bad, I guess, but no decent restaurant would serve this junk.
I think my server detected my dissatisfaction from the mound of stuff I left on my plate, and she asked if I was staying in the hotel. I told her no, and that my meter was running out, so I made a quick exit.
I can say with conviction that this was the worst $30 lunch I've had in recent memory.
This place won the 2011 "Best Brunch" award from New Times. I'll bet my hat that they've never even been here. Because there's no way this place is the best of anything.