Critic's Review
Lauderdale By The Sea is a place that's interesting the first time you go there and then it just makes you Yawn Out Loud. The fact that 101 Ocean is still here tells you one thing; Nothing much changes in this little section of town, even though much has changed.
The first thing that's changed is the parking. You used to be able to come down here and park in the street; put about 75 cents in the meters and hang out for an hour. Now, it's $2.00 / hour, like this is downtown Boston or something. In season you can't get a spot by the beach, but off-season nobody is going to come down here and pay more than Fort Lauderdale beach to eat at these crappy venues.
Mulligans was dead as usual; there was some lady who had sectioned off part of the sidewalk for her daughter to play while she smoked cigarettes. A real class act. Every time I come here I leave without going anywhere, because I'm not paying $12 for a Mulligans omelet and I'll never eat at any of the Village Grille owned places. Not Ever.
I figured I'd update some photos when I saw Aruba's sign offering 50% off lunch. They used to have 2 for 1 but stopped a while back. I had to check the fine print. 50% off what, a $200 purchase? But no, the sign said 50% off up to $12.99. "with purchase of a beverage" Why $12,99? You mean if I order something for $16 I pay full price? Dopey stuff, but I wanted some jerk wings.
More of the fine print said "at the bar only", so I had to sit at the bar with a big camera. The good thing about coming here in the summer is that it's not very crowded, even at lunch time. Plus Aruba is a big place.
This place is left in the 80s in more ways than one. They should have ripped these bars out and put an open-air thing in here years ago. Remember when bars used those hanging wood things for their glasses?
Corona Light on tap; Sweet. They have a fancy way of suspending the lime here. Very classy.
The normal prices here are absurd; I don't know why people want to stay in LBTS. The menu is wrought with recipes from the 70s, which would be fine if they weren't charging 2016 price .$13 for a burger, $31 for a strip steak. $15 for a "California" chicken club.
I asked about the special to make sure, and he explained that they give you "up to" $6.50 as a discount. So if you order something for $10 you get $5 off and if you order something for $20 you get $6.50. I'm always baffled at how proprietors come up with this stuff; why not just print up a lunch menu rather than confuse your customers? Ah, but this is only at the bar and only if you know about it. Restaurant tricks galore.
I knew I was having the wings; I'd had them years ago and they weren't that good, but for $5.50 they'd be good enough. I remembered that the sauce they gave with them wasn't any good, so I asked for blue cheese. No problem.
No live music in the summer I guess? They used to have a guy with the steel drums. No music at Anglin's either. They painted the streets, raised the parking and cut out all of the fun stuff they used to have here.
A runner brought out the wings. I noticed the orange sauce that clearly wasn't blue cheese. "I asked for Blue Cheese" I told him. The bartender sang out "Yes, there was no way for me to put it in"...."Blame it on the POS", I quipped. He just made a face. Apparently the POS is from the 80s also. He can't put in a special request?
The wings were clearly better than the last time. These were real jerk wings. The orange sauce was predictably bad; like orange Mayonnaise. The runner came back with the blue cheese right away.
These wings were quite good. A guy next to me ordered a crab cake and I just shook my head; the wings were clearly a better choice. And quite a haul for $5.50. I only ate about half of them before I asked for a box. Only half a beer also.
Of the 4 people next to me, one had a NE Patriots iphone case and another had a Red Sox T-shirt. I tried to query them about their background but they weren't very smart. Typical Red Sox fans.
I asked for my check and joked "I'm surprised your POS can handle the complicated special". He just made a face and said "I gave it to a manager to adjust it".
Just like in the 80s.
Conclusion
Lauderdale By The Sea is a place that doesn't interest me at all. Older folks who prefer a lazy town to the tattooed party crowd at Fort Lauderdale Beach can be found here, but the bad restaurants make it a mystery destination. Anglin's trying to pass itself off a an "organic" kitchen. Mulligan's. 101 Ocean. Yuck. Word is that the Country Ham and Eggs people have been kicked out of the space for a higher rent payer. The only reasonable place on the street will be gone soon.
Meanwhile the Village Pump and Village Grille remain. Good Grief. At least you can get $6.50 off at lunch at the Aruba Beach Cafe.
The rating here is tricky. Its on the beach, 4 stars, but kind of dumpy, so a downgrade to 3. The normal prices are no bargain, but the lunch special brings reels them in. But you have to eat at the bar, so no relief there. And the staff tries to fight through the cobwebs.
Review 9/13/11
The Aruba Beach Cafe is the only place in Lauderdale By The Sea that is actually on the Beach. It looks like a small house from the outside, but its really quite large. There are 3 bars; 2 upfront for casual dining and a more formal one in the rear. There are tables throughout as well.
I'd been to Aruba a few times before, usually just for appetizers and a beer. They have live music after 4pm although sometimes there's a steel drum guy earlier; My favorite app here are the Jerk Wings.
Unfortunately the wings are served with some sort of caribbean mayo which doesn't work with the tangy wings. If I order them again I'll ask for a ranch or blue cheese dressing.
One Sunday I decided to try their "Breakfast by the Sea", and I'm sorry that I did. You can read the full writeup on it here. It was the kind of disaster that made me vow never to return.
But time heals all, and I heard that they have a 1/2 off lunch special. It's your typical old florida kind of deal; murky in it's implementation and completely unadvertised. If you're not a local or regular you'll know nothing about it. It's something like 1/2 off up to $13 or something; they take $6.50 off of your bill if you have more.
I usually sit at the front bar were you can watch the people at the beach, but this time I decided to sit in the back. It was hot outside and the A/C felt good. The restaurant was fairly busy at 2:30; mostly vacationers and retirees taking advantage of the cheap prices.
The have a lot of TVs but they're mostly at bad angles; none of them were on CNBC or the news. This is not a high-brow crowd.
I wanted to try the conch chowder, so I ordered that and a "Rumaki" special they had. The chowder was $5.95.
The chowder was actually very good; not as spicy as I'd hoped but a venerable offering. The potatoes were a small dice and it had just enough conch to be a nice soup and not a sloppy mess. They also threw some fresh parsley on it that added a nice, clean contrast. I liked the soup.
The Rumaki, which is usually chicken livers wrapped in bacon but often replaced by scallops, was a scallop version that was served with an "Asian Slaw" and a spicy teriyaki.
The scallops were pretty good; the teriyaki was indeed spicy; more like a hot sauce. The slaw was incompetently made; just raw cabbage with dressing thrown on it. Un-marinated slaw should not be served to or eaten by humans.
They have valet parking for $5 and you can get "VIP" parking for $10. I'm not sure what that is; maybe you don't have to wait as long for your car?
It was better in the '70s as the Wharf Restaurant......