Posted by Jill Gaupin
I stopped in at one of my fav lunch spots recently - Smiling Fish Café at Gulf Place in Santa Rosa Beach - for a quick bite. My Smiling Fish Café standard is one of their wraps, which I always order with a side of their baked potato salad, but decided this time to be a good girl and go with the Panko-Shrimp Caesar Salad ($11.50) instead. I'm glad I got out of my comfort zone!
I wish I had a picture (sigh...my camera was not with me on this day) to share - a generous portion of hand cut romaine was dressed with a lemony-garlic Caesar dressing (which, if I had to guess, I would say was homemade), grated parm, and croûtons. On top, and the best part of the dish, sat at least 1/2 dozen perfectly sautéed panko-crusted fresh shrimp (FYI - panko is a Japanese breadcrumb that makes THE best bread crumb coating on just about everything that can be coated!) In all honesty, I could've eaten a bucket full of these things with a few lemon wedges and a chilled glass of rose. The dish was excellent and definitely worthy of SoWal Scene's stamp of approval as a "Quick Bite" to try!
Smiling Fish Café at Gulf Place specializes in Casual Coastal Cuisine and is located at 37 Town Center Loop Suite C-8. Their phone is 850.622.3071. No website but Chef/Owner George Barnes can be reached via email at gumbo@mchsi.com. They are open Monday-Saturday, from 11:30a-3pm. They offer daily lunch specials priced from $12-$14. Tuesday is "Local's Night" - dinner is available from 5:30-9pm.
* UPDATE *
Read the Walton Sun's July 10, 2008 review of Smiling Fish Café.
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About Jill: Jill, publisher of SoWal Scene, is a '95 graduate of L'Academie de Cuisine, a nationally acclaimed culinary school located outside of Washington D.C., and was at one time an aspiring pastry chef in the D.C. area. No longer cooking in a professional setting, Jill considers herself a 'professional foodie' and started the South Walton Foodie Group in 2004. Jill and her husband, Olivier (a 24-year veteran of the kitchen himself), spend an extraordinary amount of time cooking, eating, dining out and drinking wine with friends and family.
