Fleur de Lolly: Dining Out Gulf Coast: Uncle Ernie's, Panama City, FL

Uncle Ernie's Restaurant is located on St. Andrew's Bay in Panama City, NOT Panama City Beach. It's a short drive, but well worth the time it takes to get there. You can walk around the marina and enjoy the sites while you wait for your table or to "walk off" your dinner after you're finished dining.

Our party of 8 was seated upstairs and Dion was our server. We remembered him from last year's visit and were happy to have him taking care of our table this year.

While we were selecting our meals from the extensive menu, bread and olive oil/basil for dipping arrived. It was delicious!

We started with an order of fried crab claws for the table.

These are almost always sold for market price so make sure you request the current price for these before ordering them in any restaurant.

These were delightfully crunchy and were seasoned well. The batter was light and allowed the crab flavor to shine.

With my dinner I had the option of two sides and I selected the Soup of the Day which was Seafood Chowder.

Their version was very smooth, no discernable bits of seafood or potatoes, but it was rich and hearty. The flavor was well balanced in that it was seasoned "just right."

Now about this time, things went awry. As I mentioned earlier, we were dining upstairs. The kitchen is downstairs. My end of the table was directly beside the staircase coming up to the second floor dining area. I had been keeping one eye on all the runners who were literally running up the stairs with large trays of food.

Four diners in our party had their food delivered and were about to dig in. We were told the remainder was on the way.

And that's when it happened. One poor young woman, running up those stairs, made the turn too quickly. I watched as the food on that tray, almost in slow motion, tilted and crashed all over the stairwell. I felt so very sorry for her. Yes, that was the remainder of our meals. We encouraged the ones who had their food to eat while it was hot and we patiently wait until the rest of our meals were recooked.

It was worth the wait.

For my other side dish, I had steamed broccoli. Again, the vegetables were perfectly cooked, not crunchy, but not mushy either. The addition of parmesan was a nice touch.

I splurged at this meal. I ordered the Seared Diver Scallops with Imperial Sauce.

Now at first look, you might say, "She only had four scallops!" However, these scallops were larger than half dollar coins. They were nicely seared and the Imperial Sauce was the best I've ever eaten. Rich, buttery, and the perfect pairing for the scallops.

Aren't they beautiful? They tasted even better. I chose wisely!

Sweet Harold had his fried Gulf shrimp at long last! His meal came with fries and cole slaw.

He was very happy with his entire meal. That man loves his fried shrimp.

After the delay in getting our food, we were given two slices of Key Lime pie as an apology for our wait. We ordered one more slice and we all shared in our desserts.