It had been over 4 years since my last visit to Bahia Cabana. Normally at this time of year, its WAY too hot to consider an outdoor eatery with no A/C, but it was a cloudy 87 degrees today; quite unusual for July in South Florida.
My first hurdle was a relatively new Parking Meter that is just a colossal piece of shit. I got a spot directly across from the hotel and the meter is right there also. However the meter couldn't read any of the 4 singles that I had in my wallet; 3 of which were crisp, new bills.
The reader clearly didn't work, and I don't like putting my CC info one of these always-broken beasts. So I got in my car and figured I'd go to Dos Caminos instead. Then I figured I'd try the Pay By Phone app, which I have on my phone but have never used before. So I went back to the meter and punched in the number and all of the info; and I found out 2 things:
1) There's a 20% service charge to use the App? Really, the city isn't eating the fees for it's stupid meters? What kind of morons are paying 35 cents extra per hour to use an app to park?
2) They don't take American Express.
Great. Why don't we just fire all of the parking enforcement people and use the money saved to have free parking? So I get back into my car; off to Dos Caminos again, when I notice a boatload of quarters in my change bin. I had 7 quarters, so I figured I'd risk one seeing if it could read coins. Finally, Success!
It looked like rain but I took another risk and took the good camera with me; across the street and over to the valet area where to "cabana" entrance is located. The Valet is free, but I don't like to have to clear the valuable from my car when I go out to lunch.
Up the fancy walkway and you're greeted by some borderline rude signs; one of which makes it clear that your pooch is not welcome. What's interesting is that there was a dog wearing a bandana running around on the dock; probably a "service" dog.
There's a pool on the patio, but I'm not sure when the pool bar is open. The entire pool was taped off today.
There's no hostess; you just sit somewhere and they find you. The place is fan-cooled, so finding a table where your stuff isn't going to get blown off the table is challenging. I waited until most people left before taking a picture.
If you're on the intercoastal and you don't feel like chugging over to Bokamper's, you can come by boat.
A server dropped off a menu and I ordered an iced tea. They have some decent specials; today they have a foot long hot dog that I considered. I also considered the fish; they had snapper and grouper as choices.
I asked for "extra lemon", and it appears that they cut a wedge into 3 pieces. I hate cheap restaurants. I settled on the jerk chicken sandwich. $8.95 with no side. You can add fries for just $1.95.
Music is loud. Karyn White, Lady Gaga, Pink Feat. Mostly garbage. Luckily the daily rain held off.
The food came out in about 15 minutes.
The peppers and onions were obviously freshly grilled, but the jerk stuff shouldn't be on the vegetables. I initially tried eating this as a sandwich; it's served on a Kaiser Roll which is a favorite.
I ultimately gave up on the bread and ate the chicken open-faced. The chicken wasn't marinated in the Jerk, which is really required. It wasn't bad. But it should have come with cole slaw or some sort of side.
This is what all restaurants were like in Fort Lauderdale 25 years ago. Many others have evolved. The Bahia Cabana hasn't.
Review 5/4/10
Bahia Cabana is a "resort" with a large outdoor party area, bar and restaurant that is open to the general public. The restaurant is quite popular and its size lends itself as a good place to have events for fairly large numbers of people.
They call it "Key West Style", which means that its on the water and its old and crusty. Its got that multi-color pastel thing going on. The bar area has all sorts of signs and the stools are painted in wacky colors to give it that key west feel.
The bar area is a bit crusty for me, and there tends to be a lot of smokers here. But if you're looking for a casual place for lunch with a view on a really nice day, this is a pretty good choice. The food here isn't bad either; the sirloin burgers come with fresh lettuce, ripe tomatoes and creamy and not terrible cole slaw.
Its better than that junk they serve at 5 guys, I can tell you that. They have a full menu and the prices aren't too bad. They also serve breakfast although I haven't seen a menu. This is basically the restaurant for the hotel, so its open morning, noon and night.
As a whole, a very casual place for waterfront dining with decent food.