Corpus Christi – This would be our second time to eat at the Saltwater Grill, the first time we had fried plates and they were excellent. I have always been leery choosing seafood that wasn’t fried at a new place, since a lot of places around here do a horrible job. Most of the time it can be blamed on how the freshness of the fish (rather lack of) or dumping so much seasoning it doesn’t even taste like fish anymore.

Good fried seafood doesn’t always translate to good non-fried either, but in this case it certainly did. I had the Grilled Swordfish which came with rice pilaf and vegetable medley (zucchini, squash and carrots).

The rice and veggies were excellent. Vegetable medley is common around here, most places usually over salt it, not Saltwater Grill. The swordfish was superb, not to dry, not over or under spiced, just plain perfect.

My wife tried the Pan Seared Snapper with a Cajun Creme Sauce. I never order this type of fish since it is almost always over spiced and over cooked. Again, another great dish that was cooked perfectly. It also came with the same sides as the swordfish.

I am going backwards here, but for an appetizer we had the Fried Calamari. My wife always orders this (if you have been reading our reviews you already knew that ) and it is one of the better calamari appetizers we have tried. It didn’t have the traditional marinara sauce, it had asian aioli and sweet chili sauces that were very good. I was about to ask for some marinara and ranch but one try and I withheld that request

The atmosphere is nice at the Saltwater Grill, the interior is very classy. The waitstaff was great including our server, Ryan. We will certainly be going back to try some of the other great looking dishes we saw being served.

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Corpus Christi – I will admit it, we went there just for their biscuits The biscuits are to die for.

We did get a pleasant surprise, their calamari appetizer was great! Recently we commented on Laguna Reef’s calamari and this was much better. Probably the best calamari I have had in recent memory.

I ordered a NY strip steak, it was a little over cooked and not very flavorful. Nothing like the steak at Black Diamond Oyster Bar.

The biscuits make up for that though

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Corpus Christi – I am just going to jump right in and start with a horrible salad that came with the meal. Regular salad with ranch dressing. I assume they make their own ranch dressing because it had so much garlic in it the salad was spicy, very spicy. Not sure if this is how they always make it, or if it was just a mishap and too much garlic was added, but it is an excellent way to ruin a meal.

Biscuits, rolls and giant croutons and brought to every table along with some sort of cinnamon butter. Those were pretty tasty. I had read on foursquare how the croutons were awesome, and they were pretty good.

I ordered their grilled mahi mahi, which they state is the best in Corpus. Some bites had no flavor, some had some. Overall, not very good. The rice pilaf, vegetables and loaded baked potato were excellent.

My wife ordered the cajun stuffed flounder. It was OK, a little overloaded on the seasoning but that is always better than not any seasoning like most of the mahi mahi was. Would of tasted much better if they just used regular creole seasoning, I suspect they create their own mix.

The service was mediocre as well. Our biscuits, rolls and croutons basket was never refilled and tea went empty for some time before getting refilled. Not many people dining at the time so it wasn’t due to how busy they were.

I am pretty confident to say we will probably not go back

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Corpus Christi – Black Diamond Oyster Bar has been a long time favorite of Corpus Christi because of their great seafood, especially oysters. I ended up getting a rib-eye steak and was actually surprised at how good it was. It wasn’t the biggest steak, but it tasted great, was cooked exactly how I asked for it to be cooked, had a hint of teriyaki flavor and it was not over seasoned.

I have been to Black Diamond many times in the past and the oysters-on-a-half-shell have always been our appetizer. Normally they are perfect, though last night they had tiny pieces of shell in them. Not sure if it was the shucking job or just how that batch was. Normally they never have that issue.

For one of the side items I got their rice and it was also great. My wife had fried flounder which was perfect. Not over breaded, not over seasoned and not over cooked. The kids meals came with some awesome homemade fries. Not sure if this is something new or if they have done it like this all along, hopefully that is how they always make the fries.

As usual the service was excellent. Ask for Rebecca, she is great.

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Corpus Christi – I have been spoiled for decades when it comes to Chinese food thanks to the late Mao Tai. Since it’s closing, we have ventured off to places we haven’t been in years, as well as the recently new P.F. Chang’s located at La Palmera Mall (Still Padre Staples Mall to me).

First impressions are important, and the interior decor surely doesn’t let you down. I have been to P.F. Chang’s before (1 time) and it was pretty good, a bit pricier than our beloved Mao Tai, and not quite as good.

We ordered Crispy Green Beans for an appetizer. We have heard great things about these and everyone one of them were correct. The battered and fried green beans were great and I had to make myself stop eating them so I wouldn’t be full before the meal came out.

This time I wanted to try something different, one of my favorite dishes, Sesame Chicken. I was going to try their Orange Beef, but it wasn’t on their lunch menu so I went with the chicken.

The egg drop soup isn’t like the traditional soup you find at most Chinese restaurants (or maybe it is traditional and everyone else’s isn’t?). It was darker and I really did not like the flavor, too Soy Saucey for me. My wife loved it though and had both of ours.

The Sesame Chicken was also different than you would normally find. It had bell peppers, onion and light and dark seeds. The seeds seem to be added after the fact. Overall the taste was bland, nowhere as sweet as you find at most places.

My wife’s Beef and Broccoli was incredible, had a great consistency with the sauce. The flavor had a bit of sweetness, again not common with most Chinese restaurants.

The service was great, we had a waiter named Jeff and he was excellent. Prices are a little high compared to other local Chinese restaurants but that won’t keep us from going again. No Sesame Chicken for me though.

Corpus Christi – I know it sounds weird, fast food place in a kid’s hospital. It doesn’t sound so bad when you think in terms of a hurt or sick kid in the hospital longing for a Happy Meal for the toy.

On several occasions the service there was great. The same lady always tended to the register in the mornings, she was nice and worked very hard keeping customers happy.

Typically you don’t find that kind of service at a fast food place, which is why I thought I should mention it as one of the first “critiques” we give.