Dining Review - March/April 2025

[Noreen411]

Introduction and a bit about our trip:

Noreen - Senior Vice President at an Investment Banking firm in New York City. I will be the author of the report.

Scott - my husband; Independent Contractor

I’m going to post a few pictures of Scott and I so you see what we look like (I love the cute magic shots)









I also started working on a review/travelogue of our trip that I have to finish then get posted.

Our trip included some time doing what we’ve been doing the last few trips and exploring areas we are considering moving to down the road.

We drove from Northern New Jersey.

We were gone for just under 3 weeks and our plans were as follows:
Leave New Jersey Saturday 3/15/25 (originally we planned to leave Sunday 3/16 but thought the drive to Alabama would take 3 days so decided to leave Saturday), arrive in Gulf Shores, Alabama on Monday 3/17/25, spend a few days there including meeting with a realtor on Tuesday 3/18/25. We ended up arriving in Alabama after 2 days driving on Sunday 3/16/25 instead of Monday 3/17/25.
Leave Gulf Shores, Alabama on Friday 3/21/25 and drive to Florida
Leave Florida on Thursday 4/3/25 driving back to New Jersey and arriving home on Friday 4/4/25

We spent the time in Alabama at Staybridge Suites in Gulf Shores Alabama. When we arrived Sunday 3/16 instead of Monday 3/17 as planned, they were able to add the extra night to our reservation keeping us in the same room.

We spent the time at Disney at a sister resort to our timeshare (Vistana Resort) and stayed at Vistana Villages. Both are great properties; we enjoy the large 24 hour fitness center at Vistana Villages so have been choosing this resort when available lately.

We have Disney World annual passes. We have Incredipass as out of state pass holders.

I logged onto Disney’s app 60 days before our trip each morning right before 6am when they opened and would book dinner reservations. I kept checking and changing things as we went along. We continued making changes even when we were already at Disney, including some nights choosing to cancel our dinner reservations and wing it.

I will review the meals while traveling, in Alabama, offsite, as well as the Disney meals. Where you see well written descriptions of the dishes, I copied it from the menu. Once at Disney in the timeshare/villa we normally had a basic breakfast in the villa and some lunches were things like a protein bar and some baby carrots, so I won’t review those meals.

Our normal routine most days was to go to the gym in the morning, come back to the villa to shower and get dressed, than have breakfast before leaving for the park. Since we have annual passes, sometimes we would hop to another park during the day or after dinner.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 3/15/25
We spent the day driving from New Jersey and stopped in Bristol, Tennessee for the night about 5:30pm.

We found Drake’s Restaurant not too far from the hotel so we went there and sat at the bar to eat. We enjoy sitting at the bar for dinner.



Scott had Bourbon. I had Drake’s House Sangria (White): Red or White wine, house Sangria blend of juices, fresh fruit, citrus soda. My Sangria was OK, it was very light.


Scott is pretty boring with his cocktails - his drink of choice is a Martini, sometimes a Bourbon, and once in a while Tequila. I try to convince him to try specialty cocktails if it has the alcohol he likes and he’ll sometimes give one a try, but he knows what he likes and is usually happier just sticking to his basic drinks.

I don’t like the taste of of alcohol so prefer fruity cocktails. Lately I’ve started to drink Bourbon based drinks like an Old Fashioned too.

For an appetizer we shared the Quesadilla: Blackened chicken, cheddar jack cheese, sautéed peppers and onions, flour tortilla, fire-roasted salsa and sour cream. The quesadilla was very good and we were happy that we were off to a good start.


For dinner I ordered the Turkey, Swiss, and Avocado Grill: Smoked turkey, Swiss, house made guacamole and remoulade on toasted wheat berry bread. You had a choice of sides, I chose fries. I asked for no sauce. This was a huge disappointment; it was dripping with butter/grease/whatever they cooked it in. It wasn’t just the sandwich on toasted bread, they grilled it which normally I like (like Grilled cheese) but not dripping like it was. I took a bite or two to try it but couldn’t eat it. The fries were good.


Scott ordered the fried fish minis: Three Drake’s all-American lager battered fish minis and tangy tartar on butter toasted buns with fresh cut toppings. He asked for no tartar. Scott’s choice of side was Macaroni and cheese. Scott loves macaroni and cheese and will get it whenever he sees it on a menu. His dish was better than mine but still just OK.



We had plenty of leftovers.

For dessert we had the Jumbo Cookie Ala Mode. This was tasty.


The quesadilla and cookie were the best parts of the meal. We would not go back to Drake’s.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/16/25
We had breakfast at the hotel. They have an included breakfast with a decent selection of options. It’s not a deal breaker if a hotel has this type of breakfast option or not, but it’s a nice treat when they do.

There are both cold and hot breakfast selections, different beverages, etc. This hotel didn’t have the cute waffle maker I usually love at hotels, but they did have pre-made waffles as one of the hot selections.





This was my breakfast:


This was Scott’s breakfast:


Scott also picked on some of the leftovers from dinner last night. The fish mini he had boxed to go, turns out it was a chicken mini instead of fish. They had both on the menu. He ate it but said the fish one was better than the chicken one.

Once we were in Alabama and stopped to get Starbucks for Scott, it was in a little strip mall and there was a cute store called Nothing Bundt Cakes. I had to investigate, cute little Bundt cakes. The lady working there was super friendly, she said red velvet was the most popular so I got a mini red velvet Bundt cake. Turns out this is a chain as we saw other ones throughout the trip. We put the little Bundt cake in the fridge in the hotel and it came to Florida with us; when we ate it, it was very good.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/16/25 Continued
We continued driving and made it to Gulf Shores Alabama and checked into Staybridge Suites a day earlier than planned around 6:25pm. Luckily, they were able to add the extra night and we wouldn’t have to change rooms.

We saw a Longhorn Steakhouse and figured we would go there for dinner. We sat at the bar. It was so bizarre nobody acknowledged us or anything. A bartender/manager walked behind the bar, saw us, and pretty much ignored us. We got up and left. It’s not like they were super busy. If they had said Hello, something like we’ll be with you soon, we would have been fine, but nothing? We left.

We went to Lulu’s and sat at the bar. This was a totally different experience; we were greeted immediately and made to feel welcome. The bartender had a great personality and we enjoyed chatting with him.





I had a Bama Breeze: Cruzan Coconut rum, Ruby red Vodka, cranberry juice and muddled limes. My original drink choice was the Storm Warning but the bartender suggested the Bama Breeze instead saying the Storm Warning tastes like cold medicine. My drink was very tasty. Scott had a Martini. The drinks were served in plastic cups but Scott and the bartender were chatting about Martini’s and how he doesn’t like them if they aren’t in a Martini glass; he would order something else if they only have plastic cups. The bartender was with him on that and said he keeps a few real glasses on hand just for that.



We shared the Seafood trio for 2, choosing shrimp, grouper and Mahi Mahi. It came with French fries, hush puppies, and Cole slaw. We asked them to hold the Cole slaw since we won’t eat it. Scott also got a side of macaroni and cheese. The food was very good.





Scott was thinking of getting the fried blue crab claws when he saw that on the menu but the bartender said that would be too much food, so he skipped it.

We didn’t finish our food but wanted to have dessert. Krispy Cream Bread pudding: bread pudding with a twist served with vanilla custard sauce. This was just OK, we love bread pudding and like Krispy Cream but somehow the donuts don’t really make a good bread pudding.


We enjoyed Lulu’s a lot but the chairs are not comfortable, they are hard wooden chairs. That’s a pet peeve of mine; if I’m sitting down to have dinner I would like a comfortable chair to sit on.

 

[erinch]

Here for the fun!
Getting a chicken mini instead of the fish sent chills up my spine. I Have an anaphylactic allergy to fish, and it it had been the other way around, it could have been tragic for me.

 

[Noreen411]

Here for the fun!
Getting a chicken mini instead of the fish sent chills up my spine. I Have an anaphylactic allergy to fish, and it it had been the other way around, it could have been tragic for me.

Hi. Glad to see you (hear/read/what’s the right term). That’s a great point, for us it was just odd but it could have been a real issue for someone with allergies.

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 3/17/25
We had breakfast at the hotel, Staybridge Suites. They have an included breakfast with a decent selection of options. It’s not a deal breaker if a hotel has this type of breakfast option or not, but it’s a nice treat when they do. There are both hot and cold breakfast selections, different beverages, and my favorite is the cute waffle maker.









Of course I made waffles for my breakfast


This was Scott’s breakfast

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 3/17/25 Continued
Today was an extra day in Alabama since we weren’t planning to arrive until tonight. We went to the USS Alabama.

We had lunch at Big Daddy’s Grill. It looked like a dive outside and we almost didn’t go in, but we are very glad we did.


We both drank soda.

We learned about a new fish today when the waitress told us their special was Triple Tail. She said it’s a light flaky fish.

We ordered the Kids Blue Crab claws with hush puppies so Scott could try the claws he wanted without a huge portion. These were very tasty.


We shared the Build your own basket which comes with hush puppies, coleslaw, and your choice of a side item. We chose fries and told them to hold the Cole slaw. We chose fried shrimp and grilled triple tail for our basket.



This was really good. The Triple Tail was a great surprise, we both really liked it. Neither of us ever heard of it before, maybe it’s native to this area. It’s as she described, very light and flaky, not too fishy.

For dessert we shared the fried apple pie with ice cream. It reminded me of the apple pies McDonald’s used to sell. It was still good just not what I expected.



We were very impressed with Big Daddy’s Grill. The waitress was very friendly and helpful explaining the different fish to us and the food was very good. My only complaint would be the uncomfortable chairs.

We spoke with the realtor and confirmed our plans for tomorrow then drove to the beach. It was great having this extra unexpected day to explore.

Later that night we originally drove to DeSoto which was recommended to us but when we got there we weren’t really super hungry and Scott wasn’t feeling it. Maybe another night we’ll try it.

Instead we went back to Lulu’s and sat at the bar



Scott had a Martini. I had Pirate Princess: Vodka, Peach Schnapps and Coconut Rum with pineapple and orange juices. This was another good cocktail choice.


For dinner we shared the ”Pa-Menna” Cheeseburger: A juicy seared burger seasoned with Lulu’s salty pepper seasoning blend. Served with “Pa-Menna” cheese, bacon, and a fried green tomato. Served with Lulu’s Wow sauce. We asked for the sauce on the side. We also ordered Gouda grits. The burger was fantastic, we both enjoyed it. The grits were interesting, Scott loved them. They have an odd consistency to me.


We didn’t order dessert, we were stuffed.

We are really enjoying Lulu’s

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Yay, so excited to see another report! You guys always find such yummy options. Can’t wait to see more!

 

[Trish24]

Introduction and a bit about our trip:

Noreen - Senior Vice President at an Investment Banking firm in New York City. I will be the author of the report.

Scott - my husband; Independent Contractor

I’m going to post a few pictures of Scott and I so you see what we look like (I love the cute magic shots)

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I also started working on a review/travelogue of our trip that I have to finish then get posted.

Our trip included some time doing what we’ve been doing the last few trips and exploring areas we are considering moving to down the road.

We drove from Northern New Jersey.

We were gone for just under 3 weeks and our plans were as follows:
Leave New Jersey Saturday 3/15/25 (originally we planned to leave Sunday 3/16 but thought the drive to Alabama would take 3 days so decided to leave Saturday), arrive in Gulf Shores, Alabama on Monday 3/17/25, spend a few days there including meeting with a realtor on Tuesday 3/18/25. We ended up arriving in Alabama after 2 days driving on Sunday 3/16/25 instead of Monday 3/17/25.
Leave Gulf Shores, Alabama on Friday 3/21/25 and drive to Florida
Leave Florida on Thursday 4/3/25 driving back to New Jersey and arriving home on Friday 4/4/25

We spent the time in Alabama at Staybridge Suites in Gulf Shores Alabama. When we arrived Sunday 3/16 instead of Monday 3/17 as planned, they were able to add the extra night to our reservation keeping us in the same room.

We spent the time at Disney at a sister resort to our timeshare (Vistana Resort) and stayed at Vistana Villages. Both are great properties; we enjoy the large 24 hour fitness center at Vistana Villages so have been choosing this resort when available lately.

We have Disney World annual passes. We have Incredipass as out of state pass holders.

I logged onto Disney’s app 60 days before our trip each morning right before 6am when they opened and would book dinner reservations. I kept checking and changing things as we went along. We continued making changes even when we were already at Disney, including some nights choosing to cancel our dinner reservations and wing it.

I will review the meals while traveling, in Alabama, offsite, as well as the Disney meals. Where you see well written descriptions of the dishes, I copied it from the menu. Once at Disney in the timeshare/villa we normally had a basic breakfast in the villa and some lunches were things like a protein bar and some baby carrots, so I won’t review those meals.

Our normal routine most days was to go to the gym in the morning, come back to the villa to shower and get dressed, than have breakfast before leaving for the park. Since we have annual passes, sometimes we would hop to another park during the day or after dinner.

Very excited to see this, Noreen! It was wonderful getting a chance to meet and you Scott last month!

 

[Sajchinook2015]

Sunday 3/16/25
We had breakfast at the hotel. They have an included breakfast with a decent selection of options. It’s not a deal breaker if a hotel has this type of breakfast option or not, but it’s a nice treat when they do.

There are both cold and hot breakfast selections, different beverages, etc. This hotel didn’t have the cute waffle maker I usually love at hotels, but they did have pre-made waffles as one of the hot selections.
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This was my breakfast:
View attachment 964136

This was Scott’s breakfast:
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Scott also picked on some of the leftovers from dinner last night. The fish mini he had boxed to go, turns out it was a chicken mini instead of fish. They had both on the menu. He ate it but said the fish one was better than the chicken one.

Once we were in Alabama and stopped to get Starbucks for Scott, it was in a little strip mall and there was a cute store called Nothing Bundt Cakes. I had to investigate, cute little Bundt cakes. The lady working there was super friendly, she said red velvet was the most popular so I got a mini red velvet Bundt cake. Turns out this is a chain as we saw other ones throughout the trip. We put the little Bundt cake in the fridge in the hotel and it came to Florida with us; when we ate it, it was very good.
View attachment 964137
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Nothing but bunds is so awesome,

 

[Noreen411]

Yay, so excited to see another report! You guys always find such yummy options. Can’t wait to see more!

Thank you. Plenty more to come but it takes me a while to get it done.

 

[Noreen411]

Very excited to see this, Noreen! It was wonderful getting a chance to meet and you Scott last month!

Hi. It was so great to meet you too; it really made my day. Scott hasn’t stopped telling people that someone actually knew us from my rambling. I’m always taking pictures of our food even when we go out at home.

 

[Noreen411]

Nothing but bunds is so awesome,

I’m going to see if there is one closer to home

 

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 3/18/25
We had breakfast at the hotel.
My plate: I tried but didn’t like their eggs; it was a weird consistency, but the English muffin with some peanut butter and jelly was good along with a bit of fruit.

Scott’s plate:


We spent the day with the realtor looking at houses and areas. After our time with the realtor we drove to and walked along Orange Beach.

That evening for dinner we went to Big Fish restaurant which the realtor recommended.


We sat at the bar. Everyone was very nice and welcoming from the bartender to the man sitting next to me who gave us some additional recommendations for restaurants, beaches, etc.

Scott had Bourbon. I had a Glamourtini: Smirnoff Vanilla Vodka, Peach Schnapps, a splash of OJ, topped with champagne. This was a nice drink that I enjoyed.


One appetizer was the Blue Crab claws sautéed in white wine butter sauce served with garlic bread. This was very good; very different than the fried version we previously tried.




The second appetizer was their Award winning Ginger Glazed shrimp skewers - garnished with cucumber salad. Scott loved the cucumber salad. I thought the dish was a bit on the spicy side, still good but a bit spicy for me. I’m a wimp when it comes to spicy food.


For an entree we shared the Triple Tail which was described on the menu as Gulf caught, flat, firm filets, not thick, mild and sweet. There were different ways you can have it served such as sautéed, fried, big fish style or bronzed. The bronzed option was listed as the best way to have it so that’s what we chose. It came with mashed potatoes and spinach. We are really enjoying Triple Tail and this version was just perfect. Two pictures to show it from different angles.



For dessert we had the Honey Cake which the realtor said we had to get. This was a great dessert.


This was another fantastic restaurant. The food was great and the people were super friendly. Once again the seats were not comfortable which seems to be a trend at all the restaurants.

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 3/19/25
We had breakfast at the hotel but I forgot to take pictures.

We stopped at the Coffee Loft which was recommended by the bartender in Lulu’s. It’s a very quirky looking place.


Scott had a capuccino and I had an Iced Caramel Macchiato. Scott wasn’t crazy about his cappuccino. I thought this was a great iced caramel macchiato, rivaling Starbucks which is my go-to


We spent the day doing various things, from the Fairhope Municipal Pier walking the pier then nearby trails, to a beach, then stopping at the Foley Train museum (which was already closed for the day).

We saw Yabba’s Wacky Snack Shop so went to investigate. We ended up just getting a piece of fudge and I forgot what kind it was. The fudge came to Florida then home to New Jersey with us. We kind of forgot about it and other than the little nibble we tried the day we bought it.

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 3/19/25 Continued
For dinner that evening we went to Local and Company restaurant which was another recommendation from the realtor.


We sat at the bar. The bartender picked up my NY accent right away and mentioned he spent some time in Brooklyn, NY (where I grew up) and mentioned Roll & Roaster. Wow that brought back memories, I haven’t had Roll & Roaster in ages but they used to have fantastic roast beef sandwiches, burgers, fries, etc.

I had an Old Fashioned and Scott had a Martini


One appetizer was the Fontina & Funghi pizza: Sliced Fontina cheese with roasted creminis, stewed oyster mushrooms, crispy shiitakes, fines herbs and truffle oil. The bartender recommended this and suggested we add sausage to it. We took his suggestion and it was really good.


The other appetizer was also recommended by the bartender from the bar menu the Fish Taco: crispy fish taco with chipotle sauce, Napa slaw and shredded cheddar jack. Another solid recommendation


For dinner we shared the Pan Roasted Duck Breast: Pekin Duck breast with city cornbread stuffing, cranberry purée, autumn greens salad with confit leg and poultry jus. I’m not usually a duck fan but Scott really likes it. After all the appetizers I wasn’t super hungry so was fine with trying the duck. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.


For dessert we got the Homemade Apple Bread Pudding: Seasoned with cinnamon, brown sugar and nutmeg served with vanilla ice cream and English toffee sauce. This was decent but not our favorite bread pudding.


The restaurant owner stopped by and he’s from New Jersey originally, had a few restaurants in the city (NY city) then moved to Alabama. We chatted with him for a while and he loves Alabama.

This was another great restaurant, but the theme continues of uncomfortable chairs. I mentioned to Scott that I may want to buy a little cushion to bring with me next time we’re in Alabama LOL

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 3/20/25
We had breakfast at the hotel

I had the waffles that I love making and some fruit


Scott had cereal and some fruit


We went to OWA then to Shell Beach

We were hungry for lunch and trying to decide where to go. We passed this upside down sign (intentionally upside down) and I read about this place before. It sounded touristy but why not give it a try…Lambert’s Cafe, Home of the Throwed Rolls

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 3/20/25 Continued
We put our name on the list at Lambert’s Cafe and waited to receive a text that our table is ready. It’s definitely a fun atmosphere. I had Scott sit a bit sideways so I could get the name of the place in the picture from the back of the seat.




We both ordered soda which is served is huge cups



Rolls are tossed at you, not in a bad way. A guy is walking through pushing a cart of rolls and tosses them. He must have amazing aim since sometimes he was throwing them across the room and people were catching them; I doubt everyone is that good of a catcher. I know I’m not and even I caught the roll he threw at me. These rolls were super soft, hot, puffy, basically everything you want from a roll.



Employees are walking through the restaurant offering various things for you to eat. The first person that came by asked if we wanted fried okra. We never had that before so figured why not. We didn’t have plates yet so she put it on a napkin for us. We were both surprised that the fried okra was good.


Thoughout our meal other people came by offering various things but we didn’t have any of the other offerings, there was macaroni and tomato, potato and onion, and some other things.

Scott ordered the Golden Fried Chicken: a generous amount of white and dark fried chicken piled up and served with 2 sides. He chose macaroni and cheese and cornbread. He said the chicken was decent and he liked the macaroni and cheese. He pulled a bit of the chicken off the bone for me to try (another pet peeve, I won’t eat food on a bone or if it looks like it did when it was alive).


I ordered the Roast Beef: Old fashioned pot roast piled up with mashed potatoes and 2 sides of your choice. I chose fries and corn, was thinking about the peaches and the waiter said he’ll bring me some peaches too. I didn’t like my food. The fries were good but that was about it. I didn’t make a good choice, there was a lot on the menu to choose from



This was definitely more of a touristy/gimmicky place that served a lot of food. I’m glad we tried it but we won’t go back. The best part of the meal was the rolls; I would get those rolls to go. They also have uncomfortable seats.

The guy throwing the rolls posed for a picture for me


Scott had me laughing since he called them flying muffins

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 3/20/25 Continued
Later that evening we went back to Lulu’s for dinner. We weren’t super hungry after lunch at Lambert’s but wanted something. We sat at the bar.


I had a Storm Warning: Cruzan coconut rum, Raspberry liquor, blue curaçao with pineapple juice and sweet & sour mix. This was an OK drink. Scott started with a Coke.


He also had a Bourbon. I mixed my drink before his bourbon came so it’s not as photogenic in this picture.


We shared the Grilled Gulf Shrimp Quesadilla: Jack-cheddar cheese and sautéed peppers and onions. Served with Lulu’s sassy salsa. This was a really good quesadilla, we weren’t sure about shrimp in a quesadilla with cheese but it worked.


We really enjoyed Lulu’s, the drinks, the food, the bartenders, just the overall experience was great; except the hard chairs.