If your ideal restaurant experience includes large portions of crab or other seafood specialties, you’ll be in heaven when you visit Bayou Bill’s Crab House. A favorite among locals and tourists alike, Bayou Bill’s serves up excellent seafood with a smile.
Bayou Bill’s has locations in both Panama City Beach and Santa Rosa Beach. The PCB edition is undeniably charming. While orders can be enjoyed in the restaurant or requested to-go, it’s worth your while to relax onsite. The tables are just spread out enough to grant a sense of privacy, which is not always available at Panama City Beach’s busy seafood restaurants.
Bayou Bill’s Crab House is about as kid-friendly of a restaurant as you’ll find on the Emerald Coast. Young visitors appreciate the children’s menu, which accommodates both adventurous and picky eaters. Children who abhor seafood are welcome to order chicken fingers, ribs, or pizza. No matter your child’s preferred dinner, it’ll be served in an adorable pail accompanied by a small shovel — the perfect beach accessory or tourist keepsake.
If you’re aiming for more of an adult-oriented experience, hit up the fully-stocked bar. Order a cold beer, a glass of wine, or a shot of liquor on the rocks to make your wait more entertaining or to accompany your meal. Daily specials are offered for the bar’s delicious mixed drinks.
A few of our favorite menu items include the following:
Crab Feast
Bring a healthy appetite to the table, and Bayou Bill’s will make sure you go home full and happy — especially if you order the restaurant’s iconic crab feast. Featuring a half pound each of snow, blue, and Dungeness crab, this behemoth of a sampler will put a serious dent in your appetite.
Grilled Oysters
Not to be outdone by the crab feast, Bayou Bill’s also serves up some of the best oysters anywhere on the Emerald Coast. You’ll never regret ordering the grilled oysters, which arrive at your table topped with a delectable house blend of garlic butter sauce and parmesan cheese. Of course, you can also get raw oysters on the half shell, served with cocktail sauce, horseradish, and lemon.
Platter for Two
Spend your next date night at Bayou Bill’s, where you and your sweetheart will find everything you crave in this specially designed order: fried oysters, shrimp, catfish, clam strips, deviled crab, and even corn on the cob. Like all of the restaurant’s fried entrees, this platter is served with hush puppies, coleslaw, and French fries. As you can guess, portions are sizable — unless you’re actually a party of three, you can expect to go home with leftovers.
Orleans Grouper
Bayou Bill’s prides itself on bringing classic Louisiana flavors to Panama City Beach. Nowhere is that more evident than in the Orleans grouper, which comes topped with a heaping helping of crawfish tails doused in a Cajun cream sauce.
Fried, steamed, broiled, or chargrilled, the seafood at Bayou Bill’s is served any way you can imagine. Treat yourself to the ultimate seafood indulgence at this Panama City Beach gem.
Insider Tips:
-Be sure to check out the live alligators while you wait for a table outside. You may even be able to pet some of the smaller gators. Once you head inside, you and your loved ones can have your picture taken with the life-sized gator that greets every visitor.
-Stop by the gift shop before you leave to pick up a t-shirt or a crab cracker to use on your leftovers when you return home.