Pier 19 Update

The hubby and I made it over to Pier 19 for lunch on Monday.  It was a beautiful day on the island - pelicans floating in the bay and perched on the pilings by the pier, sun shining...great day for sitting in a restaurant jutting out onto the Laguna Madre.

We enjoyed fairly good service - although the person who took our drink order didn't get enough info, resulting in a second person re-taking our order.  Was within moments though, so that was okay.  The hubby wanted iced tea and the choices were regular, sweet tea, raspberry tea, and green tea.  He ordered green tea.  I ordered a Diet Coke.  His green tea turned out to be sweetened green tea...and he doesn't like sweet teas.  But when it was about half gone, the waiter offered a refill and he asked for a different tea - stating he didn't care for the green tea.  I always want to say why when I don't like something (so they might learn to tell people green tea is sweetened) but not so the husband.  We had a good laugh on me; we were talking about tea and my hand went to the sweetener...and I put a packet of Sweet n Low in my Diet Coke - argghhh.  Oh well - it wasn't awful...just tasted like an overly sweet Diet Coke...kind of like some of the store brands.  What an idiot I am! 

I ordered a medium Fried Shrimp Basket with onion rings and the hubby got a Shrimp Po'boy.  Food came out hot and in a fairly short amount of time (I never looked at my watch, so that's a good sign).  We both ate one of our onion rings first.  They are just delicious at Pier 19.  Huge and delicious.  I slather mine in ketchup and have to fold it in half to get it into my mouth.  Yum.

Medium Shrimp Basket - $9.99

The onion rings and the hush puppies are delicious.  The shrimp...gotta say, it tasted like frozen shrimp that someone over-breaded to make it look bigger than it really was.  They were split down the middle, flattened, and the breading was packed into the center so it looked like a jumbo shrimp...and it was probably more like a medium shrimp.  More breading than shrimp meat.  Only one in my basket was not like that...and it was the only piece of shrimp I give a thumbs up to.  That's too bad - because they used to serve good shrimp!

My hubby, as I said, had a shrimp po'boy.  Now, this restaurant is owned by the same folks that own Pirates Landing - and they have a FANTASTIC shrimp po'boy.  I noted that the bread at Pier 19, while looking similar to Pirate's Landing, was grilled and flattened - not the fluffy homemade looking bread of their sister restaurant...hubby said two things (altho he ate every bite) - it isn't as good as Pirates Landing and the shrimp wasn't the same, nor as abundant here - "they scrimped on the shrimp" - were his words :-).  It was just "okay".  He noted the tomato slices on the side were really excellent tomato though! (he hates an anemic tomato)  He must have liked the onion rings since he ate all of them first.  There were only 3...but really, you can't eat any more than that, they are so big and thick.

The unreliable food quality continues to be an issue at Pier 19.  Service is attentive and prompt so two thumbs up there.  Also, a continuing problem seems to be hair in the food.  I overheard our neighboring table getting comped for their meal because they had a hair in their food. (see link in first sentence of this paragraph for our experience with this issue last year)  Fix the shrimp quality and hair issues dudes...it would really make a return trip happen a lot sooner than it probably will now.  You have a great location - nice wait staff - and a good menu...but quality food and hair nets are a must.  I won't spend $30 for lunch when it's questionable food.  There are a dozen other places I can go!  I like Pier 19....bring it back up to snuff!!!!!

The pelicans were on full display outside the door...so I'll end with a shot of these lovely and entertaining birds - which you can almost always find floating off Pier 19!