Pelican's Reef Raw Bar and Grill Review

The best fish I've had my entire life. Insanely fresh. Everything is phenomenal here. It's gets very busy, but service is fast. One of my favorite restaurants period

Always a great meal with awesome wait staff. They tend to your needs, but don't hover over you. Food always comes out hot and in a timely manner, even when busy. Would recommend Pelican Reef as a must visit to friends.

Good fresh seafood. 1st time there and I'll go back.

Loved everything we ordered!! Good food, good atmosphere! The Stuffed Sole and Blackened grilled Walleye were amazing!!!

Food is outstanding, great service too. You may need to wait a few but it's worthy.

The Reef Top has become a regular stop for us. The food tastes great with an array of interesting and always fresh ingredients. Their seafood dishes are consistently spectacular. Jordan and Jodi rock the bar with exceptional service. Love this place!

Consistently good every time. Good variety on their weekly specials. Got seafood enchiladas and they were great. Shrimp in every bite. Good beer and wine selection too.

Probably the best Seafood in Cincinnati.

-Calimari is S tier.
-The go-to is the Blacked Shrimp

The ceasar dressing is house made, so if you love ceasar salads you will enjoy the salad. Definitely one of the better ceasar salads I have had. ADD BLACKENED SHRIMP.

Have you ever seen a shrimp so perfectly blackened? Well. You have not. That is why you are reading this review. You wanna know how good the shrimp is. Well I'ma gonna tell you that it is good shrimp. Not the fried shrimp, which is still pretty decent. The blackened shrimp is where it is at. Put it in the Pasta, or put it in the Salad. That is the best. Delicious.

The staff was friendly, they had a pretty beer and drink selection. The stuffed grouper was delicious.

The food and service here was sooo good! They were packed when my mom and I went but they accomadated us upstairs until a table was ready downstairs. I odered an Apple/Orange cider and mozzarella sticks and got the blackened salmon with honey bourbon sauce along with a ceasar salad and fries...oh it was sooo good I couldn't even eat it all as the portion was a nice size so I had the rest the following morning. Definitely worth the visit if you are in the area and the music was good too.

Best seafood in town! Everything there is delicious!

Fabulous. Great Ambience, Awesome staff, outstanding seafood.

The food is awesome! Tastes fresh and delicious every time. I also love the laid back atmosphere and the open bar. Great place to go on a Friday or Saturday night.

Favorite seafood in Anderson Township. Highly recommend the Cajun grouper sandwich!

Good place if you're looking for different types of seafood. This place is not the Casual all-you-can-eat place this is more of a different types of fish all around the world place. Definitely not you're Joe Crab Shack or your Red Lobster. The atmosphere is said to have more of a dive bar feel but I feel like it had a I own a yacht and I play golf feel.

We are very disappointed. Today is my mom's 65th birthday. She has been very depressed due to the pandemic and hitting that milestone of being a senior. Her favorite restaurant is Pelican's Reef and we had planned to get take out all week for her birthday tonight. We all looked at the online menu and wrote down our orders. I called the restaurant around 7:20 and was told they had suspended taking any orders for 30 mins due to a back up in the kitchen. They said to call back in 30 mins and try again. We waited about 25 minutes and called back, only to be told they were not taking any more orders for the rest of the night. Now here we are at 8pm at night, starving and extremely disappointed. It's a Thursday night. I can't understand how they could possibly be too backed up to take any more orders the whole night. It really ruined her birthday.

They have an excellent variety on their menu.
Pricing for their food is fair. Pricing for their drinks alcohol drinks is high. And $3 for a not very good coffee is outrageous.

Calamari is excellent. Service was a little slow. Grouper was good but perhaps a little bland.

Very good food and friendly staff. Was a pleasant experience!

Great seafood. Great service. Then go upstairs and have a Key Lime Pie Margarita. Absolutely TO DIE FOR!!!

Great food, always fresh seafood and salads, friendly service, going for years and always a tasty experience and worth the wait when crowded

Excellent food and great service. This was my first time at the Pelicans Reef and I know it will not be my last.

Only had drinks upstairs, however the service was top notch. The cocktails are not stingy on liquor and the crowd was fun. Worth a visit

Had the south western salad with grouper
Superb

Absolutely amazing food and service we will definitely be back!

Awesome place!
Food and service outstanding!

It's not Red Lobster or Joe's Crabshack, alright! It's what we call "a hole in the wall" on a strip mall.
The prices are about the same as Red Lobster, but the value for the money is not worth it.
I had the coconut shrimp basket and sweet potato fries that were over cooked (over fried) dark and dry and fried in the same oil because you can taste it on the sweet potato fries.
The New England Clam chowder is out of a can and not home made, in my opinion. The conch soup taste like chili or minestrone.
However, my husband had the stuffed grouper and he said it was good.
Our service, given by Molly was also great.
In conclusion, we tried it once and will never be back.

I can't believe I haven't been here sooner! This is some seriously good food. My wife and I tried the Baja fish tacos and the fish and chips. This is the best we've had in Cincinnati. Being from the southwest we have a high bar for fish tacos and these met that! The fish and chips was so crispy and moist. Plus, those pepper fries are so good. I was told that the Ceaser dressing, a house made version, was good with the fish and it was true! It has a sweetness that isn't common, but we lived it. Can't wait to go back and try more of the menu.

Great food, great service, reasonable prices. Upstairs bar area nice. Can't wait to go back

We arrived at 7:00 on a Saturday evening. We were told the wait could be up to an hour. They do not take reservations however, when we called them earlier in the day they told us it wouldn t be a problem. At 7:50 we checked on our place in line and was told there was still 6 tables ahead of us. At 8:20 we checked on our place in line and was told their kitchen closes at 9:00 and they would not be able to serve us. Seriously? They could have told us at the beginning sorry but we wont be able to take care of you tonight. Instead they acted as if we were being an inconvenience and not very polite. We will never go back.

My wife s from Newtown and we visit Cinci from time to time from Cleveland. We ve always found it tough to find a non-chain restaurant around Newtown and the Eastgate area where we usually stay. The most excellent barkeep Josh at the Holiday Inn recommended Pelican s Reef. The place was packed on Saturday night, but we were seated in about 20 minutes. The service was excellent and the food was wonderful and nicely priced. Definitely a repeat the next time we re in Cinci.

Had the fried oysters and my wife had the beer batter cod sandwich. Both were excellent. Excellent service too. Will be back.

The meatloaf & mashed potatoes were incredibly delicious!!!

Delicious food (Signature salad with grilled shrimp) and excellent service. Nice place to lunch.

Food was fresh and hot , great tasting ,service was also great thank you !

Good fish tacos and fries. Good iced tea. Daily specials and outdoor seating.

Pelican's Reef has great seafood and I especially love the beer battered Cid sandwich.

Good food. A little pricy. Upstairs noise level is really loud and makes it hard to even be heard at your table. Downstairs more tolerable. Parking often a,problem. Wheelchair accessible but not recommended upstairs. Kids okay

Food was delicious, service ok. Hard to find from road, need better signage.

Have enjoyed this restaurant many times over many years-not the case on recent visit!! The owner seems to have her favorites but generally not friendly, she brought my order out incorrectly and was very abrupt and unapologetic. After waiting 10-15 minutes while my friend finished her lunch mine came out, still no apology. Have worked in a customer service business for many years and would never treat anyone like that!

I've seen fish here. More fish than you could possibly imagine. Fish as far as the eye can see. Lots and lots of fish...I guess, would be my main bullet point.

Casual atmosphere with tasty fresh seafood. Had 1/2 pound shrimp steamed and was the best I've ever had.

This visit was a take out order for us. They ARE doing a good job of social distancing and cleanliness based on this AND other visits there and we'll be back for a meal there soon. Food was delicious as always. It was ready on time and remained hot for us to enjoy. I had their gumbo soup followed by coconut shrimp with apricot key lime dipping sauce (YUM!!) and Scott had Lobster bisque with fried onions rings. Excellent as always.

Best calamari I have found in the tri-state. It is always perfectly cooked. I still haven't had a meal I didn't like. I keep going back because of the friendly wait staff and the food is delicious.

Their seafood is great here. It's a shame it has to close for a while, but I will definitely return when the virus panic is over.

Food is always fresh and tasty, the waitresses are always friendly and helpful. the restaurant as a whole is always a fun place to be. We will be back!

One of Cincinnati's hidden gems. Best seafood in the area. Reasonable prices and great drinks. Never had a bad meal here.

Great environment. Ate upstairs which was a little noisey but our server Grace was super sweet and very attentive.

The fried food was swimming in oil. I won't be back.

I'm very dissappinted, I've been coming here for years and the food is typical "to die for". Actually, it's some of the best seafood in the Cincinnati area. However, I chose to get the chicken alfredo this time and the alfredo tasted like it was right out of the can. The daiquiris were weak and watery and the rice was crunchy and undercooked. This experience has changed my perception of this place. To add insult to injury, our waiter seemed annoyed by us inquiring about alternative items on the menu. Try higher people other than high school kids with no etiquette or people skills. Do better pelican reef

Awesome place to eat. The staff is wonderful and pleasant.

Ordered the cheeseburger, took a couple bites as i was hungry and working, not really paying attention at first. About the third bite i realized it tasted a little weird. The meat was RAW, not even medium rare, it was RAW. Server refunded the money but i am now hoping that i don't get sick from eating this....

This place is always top notch. Great food, atmosphere, and wait staff.

Comfortable atmosphere. Friendly service. Best grilled scallops EVER.

They have a great COVID distancing layout inside. I love the beer-battered cod sandwich, and since I'm not really a fish eater, that's a real compliment !

We eat here after coming back from Florida as it reminds us of many beach places that keep you coming back for more. The staff is always friendly and the food is great.

I actually enjoy their food and service, excellent location next to my residence. The workers are always friendly. Highly recommended.

This happened on Sat. night, Nov. 11th. We put our name in for a table. We were told it would be a 45 minute wait...no problem. We went to the bar & ordered drinks. An hour went by. Finally my husband went to check on our table....the manager had blacked out our name! She claimed later that she had gone around...including the upstairs calling our name.....not true. After an hour and 15 mins. we went to the front, asked about our table....the manager herself admitted to blacking out our name....no apology....nothing.
The food was so, so. Service, Okay. Will I go back? Nope...totally unprofessional & rude.

I've traveled all over the East coast and have never had better seafood (especially clam chowder, of all things) than at Pelican's Reef. The service is slightly slow at times but not enough to make me take a star off, it's just because they're so busy. Their chefs are top-notch and their clam chowder is even somehow more authentic and delicious than that of New England itself. I HIGHLY recommend the tuna. I also recommend arriving early, because they are packed almost every day for dinner. The bartenders are also top-notch in terms of service. Say hello to Star for me.

The owners are the best..the food is amazing. I am coming back to Pelican's Reef a lot

Every dish is incredible. Ask when the blue crab is in season. It is amazing. Try everything, just work your way down the menu. Desserts are so delicious.

We had soft shell crab and Yellowfin Tuna an both meals were AMAZING. Even the coleslaw, asparagus, and chocolate eclair were perfect. Service was wonderful and atmosphere was relaxed. We are from out of town but would come back again.

The shrimp basket is my new favorite!!! the coconut shrimp is the way to go and a key lime pie

This was our first visit to The Reef. I was impressed with the variety of drinks as well as menu items. We shared the calamari as an appetizer, they serve it with some awesome chili sauce as well as marinara. It was really good . Everyone in our party enjoyed their food, including two different kinds of fish sandwiches, chicken, and pasta with fries for my son. The salads and large selection of sides were tasty and inexpensive. I had the seafood stew, it was unbelievably delicious. Our waitress was friendly and attentive. It is hard to find seafood this good anywhere, let alone in Cincinnati. Can't wait to go back!

It was a nice environment and seemed to be overly staffed in my opinion but yet they were still very friendly but getting a refill was next to impossible I even made the slurping sound with my straw and still could not break up the personal conversations among co workers but other then that it was still very good food and a nice place to watch sports drink a beer if it's your thing or get some seafood I would recommend this place but the staff definitely needs to be more attentive to customers

Service was lacking in the beginning at front desk, took time to be noticed, then she was not the most pleasant hostess, table was excellent service, food was good but Crab cakes, were balls, and very small, so over price for the crab cakes (balls) basket!!!!!

My first visit....The place had distanced tables and very clean atmosphere. The food was amazing in both taste and presentation. The Caesar Salad is very good. The lobster fritters with Jalapeno tartar sauce is delicious. Their Crab cakes are more Crab than cake and that was delicious and that fresh ocean taste with the twice bake potato and asparagus was soooo good.
Their coconut Shrimp was great as you not only had the flaky coconut texture bit could taste a hint of the coconut. The shrimp comes with a pepper sauce that is not as peppery as it is sweet and delicious. This was indeed awesome food.