Seacrest Cafe: Casual Dining Among the Beaches
10343 E. Hwy 30A, Seacret Beach, 231-1363
Hours: Open Tues-Sun 7:30 am to 3 pm Dinner@5pm Mar-Sept


By Bruce Collier November 1, 2007 Issue

I had a little trouble figuring out the exact address for Seacrest Cafe. It’s listed in the telephone directory as being in Panama City Beach, which it isn’t. A tourist map of the beaches of south Walton County puts it on Seacrest Beach, but close enough to Rosemary and Alys Beach to be listed in either one. Inlet Beach is only a short drive away too. For the record, it’s on E. Hwy 30A, so whichever end you enter from, you’ll come to it, sooner or later. These days, Seacrest Cafe serves breakfast and lunch only, Tuesdays through Sundays. The menu indicates that dinner is served at 5 p.m. from March through September. This review confines itself to lunch.

My friend and I ate at Seacrest Cafe on a cool, sunny weekday. Seacrest Beach is on what used to be a sort of tourist frontier, once virtually bare and now filling up with various developments, most in pretty good taste. The restaurant itself sits in a row of shops and businesses opposite the beach side of the highway. You can sit inside or out, at tables and chairs made of strong, sturdy metal or wood and metal. Inside, the cafÈ is large, with plenty of seats and lots of light from windows. The colors are also on the light side, and the walls are decorated with paintings and other art objects. Jazz — the real stuff, not “smooth” — played over the speaker. It was not crowded, but our server (Olga, from Russia), did not hurry us, always a risk when business is slow.

The menu is fairly short, though daily specials are printed on a separate sheet of paper. There are starters, a daily soup, salads, and both hot and cold sandwiches. Beer and wine are also available. We ordered every appetizer on the menu — both of them. One was a plate of house made potato chips and a charred onion and mascarpone cheese dip. The other, “fruits de mer,” was an assortment of seafood — crawfish, oysters, shrimp, and fish, crisp-fried in cornmeal breading, with a remoulade sauce. Both were very good — hot and greaseless, and the seafood would have done for a main course. The chips were thin, and the dip was just rich enough not to overwhelm them.

I decided quickly what I wanted — a sliced steak sandwich. My friend was torn between an egg salad sandwich and a Rueben. She compromised by ordering a half-sandwich of egg salad and a whole Rueben. I got fries on the side (it was potato day for me, apparently) and she ordered a side of fresh fruit. Chips or salad are also available as sides.

The steak was lean and juicy, cooked medium, as ordered, and served on a toasted hoagie with grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, and blue cheese. Half of it, and the fries and pickle wedge, went home in a box. I declined to taste the egg salad — it’s just not my thing — but my friend said it had a nice amount of dill, which made it less sweet than some other recipes she’d tried. Her Rueben had a generous amount of lean corned beef, with sauerkraut and melted Swiss, and came on marbled rye bread with Russian-style dressing on the side. Half of hers went home, too.

Other menu items are salads with chicken or steak, chicken or shrimp Caesar salads, tomato and mozzarella salad, BLT, chicken club, or turkey sandwich, hamburger, fish of the day, seafood po’boys, grilled chicken, and panini sandwiches of tomato and cheese, ham and cheese, Cuban, and grilled vegetables. The soup varies daily, and the specials include grilled fish and pasta selections, at slightly higher prices.

Dessert took some reciting, and this is what I recall. They had key lime pie, chocolate pecan caramel cake, lemon squares, brownies, a sugar-free vanilla cheesecake, and assorted ice creams, including chocolate almond, black forest, cookies and cream, and others. We got chocolate almond ice cream and the pecan caramel cake. The cake was big enough for two (or three, after what we’d eaten), with plenty of pecans, caramel, and whipped cream. The rich and nutty ice cream was more modestly sized, but still a sweet to be reckoned with. Dessert selections probably vary daily.

Seacrest Cafe seems to be positioned to serve local working people at lunch as well as vacationers seeking food within walking or bicycle range. The menu offers a good selection of light and substantial fare, and what’s there is well made. It’s worth a visit, whatever beach it actually is on.

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