Great Southern Café

Had the grits and grillades, and my wife had the mani sandwich. Both dishes were delicious! Service was really great!

Nice/​prompt service, variety of choices and great food. It was a great after our 6 hour drive from Atlanta; we were hungry and needed to feed the kids quickly. They loved it and we loved it.
Very nice atmosphere and you can sit either outside or inside!

Great food, good service. Though we’ve been to Seaside several times this was our first time at Great Southern Café. Everything we ordered was great… especially the shrimp and grits. Diverse menu selection. Also great for kids.

Close to Seaside? This is the place for very good food and great drinks. Bar staff is awesome. Best mojitos at the beach. Wife had strawberry margarita which was excellent. Plan on a long wait but seaside has local shopping to help pass the time. Good service. Family had shrimp yaya, grilled fish special and vegetables are excellent. Average plate price $ 20 – 25 so reasonable price. Would recommend highly.

Great food, pleasant atmosphere. We were there for breakfast. We ate fried green tomatoes with eggs Benedict, biscuits and gravy, grits and vanilla scented pancakes. Large portions, freshly prepared and very good service. Wait was short to boot.

Last year we had a great experience here. This year was not so good. I think it’s a bit over rated for average food. They do have some signature items that are well worth a visit like the grits and the mojitos but, it ends there for me. When you wait an hour and a half and the food is average seems like a waste of time. A good alternative would be to grab some mojitos here and hit the food trucks.

Great food but the down side is it’s always crowded during the seasonbut so is nearly everything in this town. But this place is very consistent with the quality of their food. It’s always good and you can order anything on the menu with confidence. It’s casual and everyone is friendly, plus a great location. Highly recommend!

No complaints. Food was well prepared, wait stalk was attentive, and the key lime pie was the best I’ve ever tasted. Highly recommend

The food is great, but this place gets 5 stars because they dropped the ball and made up for it. Nothing is more annoying than getting home and finding out (after ordering and picking up food for the family) that the restaurant forgot to bag an entrée or appetizer, which happened in this case. But I called and asked for the manager and he delivered the missing item since my family was already sitting down eating. So, since they did the right thing, they get a 5 Star review instead of a bad review and the driver/​manager left our place with a complimentary $ 40 case of Mountain Valley Spring Water… again because they did the right thing.

I would go back again in a heartbeat. Great food, good service, good atmosphere. Pretty busy, but well worth it.
Smoked gouda grits are the best. I know the chef who used to work here and started these, and also had him cater my wedding… you must try these.
To me… this café sums up a wonderful beach town restaurant with amazing food.

Breakfast was awesome the first day. The second day the bacon came out raw and when we told the server he said «I’m sorry s**t happens.» My 10 yr old was at the table with us. Then he brought us out burnt bacon. I mean, it’s a great little spot and not usually a long wait but…

Only had drinks their but the bartenders during the day were amazing! Super sweet and fun. We got mojitos which were made with real mango, none of that syrup crap! Drinks are pricey but overall they were worth it. Expensive drinks on vacation go hand in hand— don’t hold back the Bloody Mary’s looked really good as well. Grab a drink before heading to Seaside Beach.

Very good! Salmon was cooked perfectly, fresh and came with really good mash potatoes and green beans. The grits and blackened shrimp (YaYa Grits?) were to die for! We dined early at 4:00 pm to beat the crowd. There was a nice big crowd waiting by the time we left, so just a little tip if you don’t like waiting. Kids will enjoy this place as well, plenty of options. Service was good and the wait for food was about average, but I could see a big crowd making that a bit longer for obvious reasons. Great location and plenty of good food for everyone’s taste. Enjoy!

Awesome breakfast. Biscuits and gravy are awesome and the bacon and pecan waffles are delicious. Wait staff was great both times as well. Will definitely return.

A Seaside classic and the easily visible «fine-​dining» gem of the Seaside square. The restaurant itself is a whitewashed house with an expansive covered porch that can accommodate larger groups. As it’s quite popular with visitors, wait times can be excessive (2 hours) on popular nights so plan accordingly. Bring a drink outside from the bar which can help pass the time. Mojitos star here in every fruit variety (mango, cherry, pineapple, guava, coconut, melon etc.) and run about $ 11-​$ 12.
Dinner inside can be a little on the loud side due to the acoustics of the room but the porch is a little more casual. Service was attentive and casually dressed which adds to the beachy feel of this place. Most people are «dressed-​up» but I wouldn’t describe the restaurant as dressy by any stretch. Bills can be split up to three ways.
I had the Grits a Ya-​Ya which I really enjoyed. Above average blackened shrimp over very delicious smoked Gouda grits. There was bacon in there somewhere too. On the back of employees’ shirts it reads «Good Grits» so they really aren’t trying to hard to disguise what they are most proud of. Everything is a little on the expensive side but it’s the beach and our group made a night of it. If you travel to Seaside, this place is worth one of your dinners.

Did brunch with drinks and loved it! So my girlfriends and went for drinks and dinner too! Loved it some more!
Loved everything they had with fried green tomatoes. The bartenders were fabulous! Great drinks and seems like it’s always a good time here!
Also love the salt scrub offered in the washrooms :) a very nice touch!
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I was asked to write about my dining experience, so here it is…
Whenever you are dining here, expect to wait. This place is always crowded, but the food is worth the wait.
At brunch, we were seated in a timely manner. The wait was less than 30 minutes, during early May. Once seated, the server brought our drinks in a very timely manner and all the drinks were great. Our table full of ladies thoroughly enjoyed them. We shared beignets. They were perfectly warm, fluffy, and fantastic. What a treat.
The dinner wait was an hour. Yes, a full hour. However, we bought drinks at the bar and wondered around the shops that were open at that time until our table was ready. The restaurant was very crowded. The server was not the quickest. Our table of 8 ladies enjoyed our wine while we waited for our food to arrive. It took a long time. It was late in the evening, so a few of the menu selections were not available. My order was correct, but the orders on either side of me came out wrong. At the time our food came, it had been at least 40 minutes since our order had been placed. Everyone was so famished that we just ate what came. The server did try to correct the order, but my friends did not want to wait.
I believe that the server was trying her best. However, it did seem as though the restaurant was understaffed.
All in all, it was a good dining experience, but it wasn’t the best. Our expectations were not very high, as we could see how overwhelmed the restaurant was. We were also a very laid back group that didn’t have anywhere to be or children to entertain.

Want to talk about delicious? This place was great. Definitely try the GRITS YAYA! Best key lime pie I ever had and its not green.

I have been twice in the last two days and both times have been stellar. Now take my 5* review with a grain of salt as both times were for lunch and both times I was blown away by the quality of the gumbo. And it’s not just the gumbo that is excellent as the oyster Po Boy and the YaYa à grits were outstanding and the crispy frog legs very good (they could have been excellent but lacked proper seasoning.)
The gumbo, oh the gumbo was sooooooo good. Perfect consistency, well stocked with shrimp, crab, and vegetables. My only minor, and they are seriously minor, complaints would be that the shrimp was over cooked (hard not to be when soup is made ahead), and there was very little if no okra or sausage in it.
The YaYa grits were excellent. Six well sized shrimp and perfectly cooked and spiced shrimp adorned with a great sauce. The oyster Po Boy was also delicious. Oysters fried perfectly, bread great texture with only gripe being is it was a tad small. Totally delicious though.
I really LOVE this place and I would adorn it with such praise even if it were not for a friend of mine that I bumped into the afternoon after our lunch. Without prompting, he said to me «I’ve got to tell you, I had the best gumbo today!» Why is this so important you ask? Because he grew up in New Orleans. Nuff said.

Pros: Guava mojitos were amazing– fresh and tart! Shrimp grits ya ya was banging, and the catering manager was very accommodating about opening a side porch for a very large unexpected group (30 – 40 guests) and service was lovely!
Cons: Originally we sat down at one of a few large open tables (after seeing neither a hostess or a wait to be seated sign) and were told by a server, «We do NOT seat ourselves… «In a huff. Then the teenaged hostess was quite rude while we were attempting to figure out if the wedding party had been called ahead, not even letting those of us who were there sit at the empty table and get a drink; this was only rectified when the catering manager recognized us and worked to accommodate the side porch. (Which she did an excellent job of). Only other con was the crab leg appetizer sautéed with sherry and cream that just wasn’t good. The heavy sauce drowned out the taste of the seafood and the crab legs themselves were almost impossible to eat. Very messy!
Overall– I think I just picked the one stinky dish… Drinks, service, and everyone else’s food was reported as excellent!

Fantastic way to spend a Saturday Brunch — the Shrimp and Grits and Oysters and Grits (Grits a ya ya) are out of this world !! Jesse is a great server and made the experience awesome !!
Oysters on half shell great and the their hot sauce is tremendous — nicely done — no wonder why it’s best dish on emerald coast