Florida Guide > Night Life
Sunset Sams Fish Camp
If you are looking for a special night out, suitable for the whole family, with lively entertainment and excellent food, then look no further than the Gaylord Palms Hotel.
Whilst this is principally a fish restaurant (you’d never guess by it’s name) chicken and beef also feature amongst the entrees and children are well catered for with their own menu.
On arrival at the Gaylord Palms you can choose to valet park (this incurs a cost) or self park which is free of charge when dining at the hotel. Just remember to get your exit ticket authorised by the restaurant staff when you are leaving.
Enter through the main hotel lobby and walk straight ahead to the glass atrium, turn left and follow the signs for the Key West area of the hotel, passing through “The Everglades” as you go! You will soon come to the lagoon, where SS Gaylord is “docked”, you might spy it’s 60 foot mast towering above the trees before you see the ship its self.
The restaurant has three main areas, the ship, and the dockside patio area, both bedecked with twinkling lights which are very atmospheric when darkness falls, and set back and rather more quiet is the “indoor” restaurant with it’s bright Caribbean décor and a single wall covered with buoys in an assortment of vivid colours. We were fortunate to be seated aboard SS Gaylord, but this was more by luck than design and when we go again we will ask to be seated here when we make our reservation.
There is no dress code and the servers wear brightly coloured Caribbean style shirts with chino shorts. However, you can be comfortable here dressing up or down, whatever your choice you will fit in nicely. Likewise, your party, families, couples, singles (mainly sat up at the bar area) and even businessmen were dining around us. The only event I could imagine being out of place here would be a romantic “dinner a deux”.
We started with a delicious, brightly coloured cocktail, and when the server brought the water we were amused at the asymmetrical design of the glasses, giving the suggestion that the ship was listing to one side.
For appetizers we both chose the “up in smoke cigar shrimp” which, when they arrived, looked more like a laboratory experiment than something you would eat……. . needless to say they were delicious.
Seafood pasta and fresh tuna steak were our choice of entrees, the two of them amazing in both flavour and presentation. Even though we were both more than replete we managed to plough our way through banana split for two and finished off with cappuccinos.
Throughout the evening there was live entertainment suitable for all the family, Island music, a mime artist, jugglers and stilt walkers. A great hit with the children was the balloon modeller who did not just confine his models to the youngsters but created some wonderful “millinery pieces” for some of the adults who were equally delighted.
The bill for the two of us was $115 including drinks, and whilst this may be a little more than your average night out in Florida, we felt it was well worth it!
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