23/01/12 - Sea Shanty Cafe & Clear Sky Diner, Mandalay Avenue, Clearwater Beach

Went for a run this morning all the way up past the Aquarium where Winter the dolphin lives and back. It was hard – especially after all the food we’ve been scoffing!

Had breakfast at the Sea Shanty Café on Mandalay Avenue after an hour’s walking and sat outside in the morning sun, Had two eggs (they don’t do poached but can ‘baste them instead…) homefries and toast. Didn’t have my favourite raisin toast. Bad service and non descript food. One of my eggs was rock hard although their pancakes were nice. K didn’t get his coffee re-filled once. Black mark. Won’t be back.

Went to the Clear Sky Diner on Mandalay for our dinner after an afternoon at the beach. This used to be our favourite place to eat in Clearwater Beach but the last time we went, the food was rubbish and the waitress ripped us off with cocktails. We got 2 mojitos that were served in really thin glasses full of ice which meant there was practically nothing in them and she overcharged us. We thought we would try again and I ordered a pork chop with potato salad and seasonal vegetables. The seasonal vegetables were watery (cold) green beans, the potato salad was unbelievably salty it was almost inedible and the pork chop was covered in black charcoal and a revolting mustard sauce. K's flatbread and salad were uninspiring but not awful. I put a review on Tripadvisor and the owner actually contacted me to apologise. Kudos to him as he offered us a free $50 meal which I had to politely decline since we were home in Glasgow by that point! The Clear Sky is quite expensive too although they do cheaper deals in the afternoons. We were practically the only people in the place and the service was shocking.  We'll maybe give it a go next time we get to Clearwater Beach...