Dirty Al's - South Padre Island

After a week on Soth Padre, this place is our nominee: best deal on the isl for blackened fish fries. The large plate make a good lunch for two (at our age anyway). Staff are friendly; service is quick.

We’ve dined here before during previous vacations. Our experience this time around didn’t match our prior outings. Perhaps staffing issues were to blame. We enjoyed our combo appetizers but were so-so on our dinner entrees. I ordered the combo basket of shrimp chicken — they brought me fish chicken — it wasn’t worth pushing back since they were short staffed so I kept the basket — the fried fish was good but the chicken was average — perhaps they use the same oils fryers. Our server was friendly and did his best to keep up the extra demands of double coverage. One curious note — I ordered a Corona which was delivered to the table with a heavily salted rim (bottle no glass) this was a first for me so I tried it anyway. Located on the bayside south of the bridge tucked between fishing tour boats…. Not the same views one finds at locations on the bay farther north on the island.

The restaurant has generous portion sizes, serves fresh food, and has a welcoming staff. I highly recommend trying the seafood botana and fried mushrooms. It is my favorite seafood spot on South Padre Island! We tried the oysters, appetizer sampler, Rockefeller oysters, grilled shrimp, and seafood botana with a substitution of half onion rings and half blackened fish. Every dish was fantastic and cooked to perfection. I cannot recommend this place enough!

We love coming to Dirty Al's every time we visit the island! Our favorite dish to order is the botana teay, which comes with a generous serving of fried fish.

We decided to try this restaurant based on a recommendation from a family member we were visiting. They mentioned that the food was affordable. We ordered the grilled fish and it was quite good. My wife also enjoyed her meal.