We turned our attention to Flagler Beach again this month as we decided to try out the Golden Lion, a place we had had in our sights for a while. One of our favorite places in Palm Coast is the Green Lion, owned by the same people, the restaurant that the city, in its infinite wisdom, decided to basically force out of its present location effective in February.
It’s too bad that Palm Coast’s loss is going to become Flagler Beach’s gain when the owners of the two restaurants decided recently to open up a big, new Green Lion next to the Golden Lion location just north of Flagler Pier. There are not a lot of details yet on what the new place will be like but we hope they don’t change the menu or, even better, add more items to it that are as good as they already have.
But, I digress. Our experience at Golden Lion recently had a couple of minor hiccups due basically to some service issues. However, nothing disturbed the positive experience as the food was uniformly good and the value for money was also good. And I don’t usually ding anyone for service these days unless it’s horrendous. The difficulty that all restaurants seem to be having in finding qualified staff points to a systemic problem in the entire industry rather than shortcomings at individual places.
So why would we come back here again? The food quality was quite good, even though we’re dealing with frozen fish — Alaskan pollock and mahi mahi — although both fish were well-cooked which resulted in satisfactory tastes and also textures. It’s more challenging cooking frozen fish (in our humble opinion) so the kitchen staff knows what they are doing and they proved it with all of the other menu items we tried as well.
While the menu is mostly seafood there are some notable exceptions, one of them being the nachos we ordered to start. The large portion was full of all the items you would normally expect to see and was big enough for all four of us to enjoy.
Speaking of portion sizes, the fish and chips made from the aforementioned Alaskan Pollock was easily enough for two people and was perfectly cooked, with a golden brown crispy finish and tender flaky flesh. This seems like it is their signature dish and at $18 it represents great value for money.
In addition to this specialty, a shrimp and chips is also offered as well as a filet mignon. The large menu also contains a number of seafood entries including raw bar items and seafood towers, which we didn’t get to see, and both Maine lobster and Alaskan king crab legs.
Fish tacos were also well represented with four varieties including Thai and pesto grilled shrimp versions. Their burger and sandwich section contains a burger, three fish varieties, a Philly cheese steak and a spicy chicken quesadilla, so there’s plenty of variety here.
We tried some oysters on the half shell as well as the nachos, the fish and chips as mentioned and the soy glazed mahi mahi. All were well cooked and made from good ingredients. Along with the fresh beach air, endless view and some cold beverages it was the recipe for an enjoyable dinner at the beach.
And we look forward to seeing a new Green Lion next to this lion in the near future as has been reported. We’ll see.
Golden Lion, Rt A1A, Flagler Beach, 386-439-3004
