The Bait House Tackle and Tavern – Clearwater, FL

Today we spent the afternoon at Sand Key Park on Clearwater Beach.  We saw good reviews on Yelp for the Bait House Tackle and Tavern, so we decided to check it out for lunch. 

We couldn’t find it at first – the entrance was a little wooden shack that was dwarfed by a nearby yacht.  If we hadn’t read about it online, we would have thought it was just a bait shop.

Once you walk through the main shop, there is an outdoor bar and deck with a beautiful view of Clearwater Bay.  It was extremely hot out today – especially after an afternoon of tubing at the beach, so it was nice to cool down with some Sam Adam’s Summer Ales.  They served us our drinks with nice Bait House koozies. 

I ordered the peel & eat shrimp and Lance ordered the grouper sandwich with kettle chips.  The shrimp were gigantic and served over ice so they were nice and chilled.  The grouper sandwich was excellent as well.  We weren’t expecting to have such high quality seafood at this unassuming little restaurant, but I’d recommend it to anybody visiting Clearwater. 

If you spent the day fishing, they will actually prepare your catch for you if you’d like!  They also offer weekly baskets of fresh organic produce through the Caladesi Co-op which supports local farmers – if I lived in the Clearwater area I would love to participate. 

The Bait House Tackle and Tavern is located at 46 Causeway Blvd, Clearwater, FL 33767 and is open Sunday  through Wednesday 7am  - 9pm and Thursday through Saturday 7am – 10pm. 

Hula Bay Club – Tampa, FL

Last night we had dinner at Hula Bay Club.  It is a Hawaiian style restaurant located off Westshore Boulevard next to the Tampa Harbour Marina, so it has a nice waterfront view. 

They have specials most days – Thursdays for “Ladies’ Night” they have $3 margaritas, martinis, and mojitos and $5 sushi and appetizer specials.  We started off with mojitos and their Molten Martini – an appetizer of crispy shrimp tossed in a spicy sauce and served in a martini glass.  It reminded me of the Bang-Bang shrimp at Bonefish – would definitely recommend it. 

I got sushi for dinner – the shrimp tempura roll and Kilauea volcano roll.  Lance got the Mojo roast pork beach tacos. 

 

The presentation of mine was great but it wasn’t super memorable sushi – I much prefer Yoko’s if I want really amazing sushi.  It was actually a lot of food though so I ended up taking leftovers home.  Lance’s flour tortillas were all stuck together when he first got them, but besides that the pork tacos were pretty good too. 

 

In general, I’d say the food is maybe 3 out of 5 stars, but the view and tropical drinks are a nice way to relax and feel like you’re on vacation.  If you want to just come for a drink, you can go to the adjoining Duke’s Retired Surfer’s Island Bar. 

Hula Bay is located at 5210 W Tyson Ave, Tampa, FL 33611.  The restaurant is open Sunday, Tuesday – Thursday 11am – 10pm and Friday & Saturday 11am – 11pm (the bar has extended hours).