Dinner on the first night was Sea Ranch Restaurant
and Bar, one of South Padre’s most famous restaurants.
The bar opens at 4:30pm for happy hour, followed by the
restaurant at 5pm. Try for a seat overlooking the water-
front, the same waterfront incidentally from where their
seafood is delivered.
Appetizer standouts are South Padre Poke which
features ahi tuna marinated in sesame oil and soy sauce,
sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds, and served layered
with fresh avocado and pico de gallo. It is raw fish pre-
pared to taste fresh and light. An ideal appetite enhancer.
Alternatively, Snapper Ceviche takes fresh Gulf red snap-
per ‘cooked’ in the acids in lime juice, flavored with pico
de gallo and garnished with fresh avocado. The melting
of creamy avocado flesh at peak ripeness with tightly
grained sinews of fish flesh is a heartwarming sensation.
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Main courses highlight a Sea Ranch
feature: once you choose a fish dish, you can
then choose how you want the fish cooked.
Pan fried, battered, broiled or blackened. I
choose broiled grouper with scalloped pota-
toes as my included side. The scalloped pota-
toes were magnificently creamy and sweet,
and very hot having come from straight from
under the grill. An entreé also includes soup
or salad. The New England clam chowder
was satisfyingly thick and chunky. I was also
intrigued by the Seafood Alfredo. Not a com-
mon site but browned scallops, Gulf shrimp,
and fresh crab meat over a bed of fettuccine
all topped with Alfredo sauce. Quite enticing.