Our last day in Florida was spent over at the Space Coast, visiting the space center and hanging out at Cocoa Beach Pier.  We ended the day with dinner at Sunset Waterfront Cafe and Bar.  It was a great day!

This is a great beachy place to eat!  It’s on the bay side of Cocoa Beach, and we had a great view of the sunset!  Here’s a brief progression of the views we enjoyed during our meal:

We sat outside on the deck, enjoying these views, and listening to an awesome, soothing acoustic set performed by this guy (whoever he is…he was great!):

Matt and I started with the bacon-wrapped shrimp appetizer they had on special that night:

These little suckers were GOOD!  The bacon was just a little crispy, although not burnt.  The shrimp inside were plump, juicy and delicious!  I could have eaten a whole plate of them!  The sauce on the plate was a teriyaki/barbecue fusion thing that was just okay.  I tried dipping the shrimp in it once, and preferred them without.

Next was the salad.  Nothing exceptional here, but better than normal.  I can usually taste whether a salad is a “bagged” salad or if it’s fresh, and this tasted fresh to me.  Plus it wasn’t icy cold from being prepared earlier and refrigerated all day.  I hate when that happens!  It makes the salad all wet and too chilly to enjoy.  This was decent as far as side salads go, but not as good as what I would have made at home.  🙂

Matt ordered the special – French onion encrusted grouper, served with vegetable medley and rice.  Matt really enjoyed this dish.  The one bite he allowed me to steal revealed that the flavorful crust was fried perfectly and the grouper inside was very moist and tasty.  His rice “wasn’t bad,” but we have learned from previous posts that he never really expects much from rice anyway.  Actually, when I asked him to tell me about his rice today (more than a week later), he said, “I don’t recall rice being on my plate.” Ouch – sorry rice!  He just didn’t love ya!  As for the vegetables, they were way overcooked.  Mushy, not very colorful and very watery.  Blech!

With hopes that I would get some more awesome shrimp, I ordered grilled shrimp for my meal.  This shrimp was just okay.  It was smaller than the shrimp used in the appetizer.  It had some good spices added to it, and it was really yummy.  I don’t know – I guess I was really hoping to find some huge royal red shrimp like I’ve enjoyed so many times at The Point in Perdido Key.  These were nowhere near that good, but they weren’t bad either.  The vegetables were just like I mentioned above – watery, overcooked, blech.  I ate them all anyway, because I like the vitamins and fiber.  The slaw was pretty good.  I’m not a huge fan of cole slaw, so it takes a lot to impress me.  This wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but it was decent.  The dressing was nice and not too heavy.  I hate it when slaw is swimming in dressing, don’t you? Ick.

Much like my other food review from our trip, I am giving this restaurant a decent review based on atmosphere -not so much on food.  I really enjoyed the meal because of the service and setting, but the food could have been better.  It seemed like it would have been a great place to hang out at night with friends also.  Their bar area was really fun!

Katie’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5