Agua Verde Cafe and Paddle Club aka: Agua Verde

It is nice to be on the water. The food is not too expensive. Their drinks are quite good and their food is what I would call “fair”.

Good food! Always go for fish tacos (especially the shrimp or catfish!), i’ve always been dissapointed when i try other things. Margarita’s are great as are salsas and sides. Its always packed when its nice out, so there may be a wait.

There may be a wait for a kayak on a sunny weekend too. But not usually too bad, from my experience. Fun to go through the cut and into the arboretum!

good food, right on the water, nice views, fun place.

Pros: The different salsas were very very good. The mango quesadilla was very good especially combined with the aforementioned salsas. The catfish tacos likewise were very good. There were a lot of vegetarian options that were clearly marked on the menu. They strive to use natural and organic foods; I dunno if that means they always do. You can rent kayaks downstairs. There were a lot of kids there, so perhaps it is a good place for kids.

Cons: The place is crowded for dinner, and you can have a long wait for a table. The service is minimal. I believe they just have counter service for lunch which I think would fit the place better (so you don’t expect service), but that would probably be unworkable for dinner crowds. The chips they serve are some mediocre commercial variety. They have limits on the salsas; are people running off with it? That might only be for takeout though. The mushroom tacos were Pretty Bad. The taco dinner portions were on the pretty small side. The margarita and mango margarita that we had were the weakest mixed drinks I probably ever had. Someone told me later that the servers mix them up so they can be erratic.

All and all, I found the experience kinda mediocre. There were some high points, but there were enough low points for my personal value/price ratio to run into the “not inclined to go back” area. In some ways that is disappointing because some stuff we had was rather good. If I were to go again I would go when it is not crowded (true for most restaurants, though), get beer or water instead of the mixed drinks, not get the mushroom tacos, and perhaps try something other than the taco dinners.