Calypso Beach Cafe, Panama City Beach Restaurant Review

Part of a Panama City Beach vacation is great seafood dining. I'm not much of a seafood fan, but I always manage to find great food to enjoy in Panama City Beach. This time we hit up Calypso Beach Café & Sports Grille conveniently located across the street from Calypso condominiums.

Calypso offers casual dining with a variety of dishes. TV screens large and small line the walls. Many TV's are tuned in to sports, but remotes are on the table, so we switched the big screen over to American Idol.

We were seated right away, but service was a little slow. Given Spring Break crowds in Panama City Beach that week a little wait was to be expected. The young man who waited our table was courteous and eager to please, although he did fumble the orders a little. I'm not going to fault the service. He had a number of big party tables to work. I've been here before and the service was fine.

I ordered A'la carte'. I wanted creamed spinach ($3.99) and steamed vegetables ($2.99). I was eating light. I got the steamed vegetables and after reminding the young man I got a heaping serving of spinach and artichoke dip ($7.99). It wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but I ate it. It was delicious.

One of the diners in our party ordered smoked tuna dip ($7.99). The menu said it was served with celery and tortilla chips. Calypso's smoked tuna dip was served with fried bow-tie pasta instead of tortilla chips. The manager apologized and explained that it was a menu change that had not made it to the printed menu yet. He comped a heaping portion of Bahamian Coconut Pie ($5.99) for the misunderstanding.

According to the friend who had smoked tuna dip it tasted fresh and slightly smoky. It was just right for dipping, fried bow-tie pasta, chips, or celery.

Another friend chose from the restaurant's Surfer's Chicken menu. He chose Caribbean chicken ($12.99) which was grilled over an open wood grill, topped with teriyaki and marinated pineapple, and served over paella, also known as Caribbean jambalaya. The chicken was moist and tender. The mixture of teriyaki and pineapple gave the chicken a tasty tropical flavor, softened by the paella. This person said they would definitely order Caribbean chicken at Calypso restaurant again.

There were some mistakes with the orders, but overall the experience at Panama City Beach's Calypso Beach Café and Sports Grille was positive. I give it a 3 ½ to 4 out of 5 stars. I will eat there again. I usually do when I go to Panama City Beach. The server made mistakes, but the people who work at Calypso are genuinely concerned that you have a good dining experience. That goes a long way in my restaurant reviews.