Fudpucker's in Destin Review

While in Panama City, Florida, for a wedding, I tried to stick with restaurants that I don't have locally. Although, it wasn't my choice to go there, Fudpucker's is one of the restaurants that I went to.

The bar and grill style restaurant has two locations- 1) Destin and 2) Fort Walton Beach.

I was at the Destin, Florida restaurant location during my dining pleasures...

This particular location has 8 different dining rooms, over 400 seats, about 3 or 4 floors, and an outside dining area. Whether you're going with just a few friends, like I did, or a large party, the place can definitely seat you.

Personally, I wasn't a fan of going of a few sets of stairs in order to sit at a table, but that's where we sat. We went for a lunch meal, and the place was fairly crowded, so if you're planning a large party come early, as they don't do reservations.

While you're there, you'll want to check out the alligators outside, the Fudpucker Trading Company store, and the music (when they feature their local bands). Keep in mind that in regards to the logo shirts, they're fairly expensive, charging abuot $16 for a kid's t-shirt and $22 for an adult t-shirt, but they are famous for their designs and tongue twisters.

I have posted a few different designs below, so that you can get a gist. The shirts come in many different colors and tons of designs.

If you're looking fora restaurant to take your kids while you're on vacation, you may want to consider this one, as there are several things for the kids to do. There is a playground right next to the outdoor deck, a game room, and a place where the kids can get up close and personal with the gators.

With all this, the restaurant sounds great... But, what about the food?

The Food:

Of four girls, we all got pretty simple meals. We all got starter salads- 3 with ranch and 1 with thousand island dressing. You needed 2 cups of ranch, but for the most part, the salad was pretty good for a simple side salad.

When I ordered my food, I substituted my fries for the side salad. It added $1.69 to my total. I wouldn't recommend doing this. You can get the fries with your meal and the side salad as an extra for cheaper or about the same price.

As for my extra meal, I ordered the Ultimate Grilled Chicken Wrap. The wrap included grilled chicken pieces wrapped with smoked bacon, Monterrey Jack cheese, fresh lettuce, tomato, and the special Sensual Sauce. When I ordered, my wrap, I ordered without the bacon, but the other girls ordered with bacon. (I just don't eat bacon.)

The chicken itself didn't have any flavor. All of the Sensual Sauce (which is made of mayonnaise, Creole mustard, and a little bit of honey) was at the bottom of my wrap, so it didn't help the chicken wrap at all. I was still hungry by the end of my meal but that's because I was only able to eat half of the wrap; I just was not pleased with it at all.

But, on a side note, the Sensual sauce was pretty good. I'm always leery of anything with mayonnaise in it, but what I did taste of the sauce, it was good.

The other girls all agreed that the chicken had no flavor or seasonings, but their wraps had the sauce throughout. It must have just been mine without the bacon that threw the cook off his game.

I did sneak a few fries, and they tasted a little like large Burger King fries, which was needless to say pretty good if you like Burger King fries. The other girls loved the fries, and I'll admit they were pretty good, much better than the chicken wrap.

Recommendations:

Would I recommend the place? Why not, I'd say give it a try. I wouldn't rate Fudpucker's a 5 star restaurant, but if you're in the area, give it a try.

Personally, I really wanted to try the popcorn shrimp, but the plate was a little more than I wanted to spend for just popcorn shrimp. Fudpucker's seemed to want to charge a pretty penny for their seafood plates. But, if given the opportunity, I would still go and try a shrimp platter, just to give the restaurant a proper chance; it is a local Florida restaurant, and when in Florida one should really get seafood.

I'd also try an appetizer, as you can't grasp the full concept of a restaurant without an appetizer, but again no one wanted to split on with me, and I wasn't paying for a $8-$9 appetizer by myself plus a meal. My meal alone was near $20 (and that was with a sweet tea, no alcohol), which doesn't seem like much, but for one person, that's more than the food and dining experience was worth.

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