Let's face it, you to to The Hangout for the entertainment and atmosphere. The food is okay and the most expensive in Gulf Shores that we've found.
However, the kids love the place, the staff does an average to good job considering the size and volume and the bar tenders are very good. It's got lots to offer all ages, from the giant sand mountain out back to the live music, plentiful outdoor seating, easy beach access, gift shop and surprisingly clean restrooms.
It's worth at least one visit on your next trip to the Gulf.
The Hangout is located right on the beach and for that reason they take advantage of the facts that they get as many patrons as they want. Â The service was atrocious. Â They were not busy. Â Our server passed by us twice, then stopped two more times to say he would be right back. Â He finally took our drink orders about ten minutes later. Â We were sitting across from the drink station and it took him another 5 minutes to get our drinks together or so we thought. Â Turns out he was getting to-go cups of ice water for a family of 8 who he was not serving. It was outrageous. Â He then poured two of our four drinks, left them sitting there and got us our drinks after another 5 minute wait. Â
The food was the saving grace. Â I ordered the grilled chicken sandwich. Â It was topped with applewood bacon (yum). Â It was cooked well without being overly crunchy. Â The menu description said it came with onion rings. Â Lo and behold they meant there were two onion rings on the sandwich and it came with fries. Â Very unclear. Â It was still delicious. Â I got the yellow cajun mustard on the side. Â It was a very overpowering sauce (good move on my part). Â I would replace it with some sort of sweet barbecue sauce. Â However, it was a really good piece of chicken. Â Everyone else seemed happy with their food. Â
Back to the service. Â He asked us twice if we needed anything and then brought the check before we finished eating. Â He did not offer dessert or to-go boxes. Â
So if this was just on food alone, I would give it a solid four. Â But the service? TERRIBLE. Â The prices are just uncalled for with service like that. Â
Overall, location is good. Â Music was great. Â Food was great. Â Service sucked. Â (And I normally find that word profane).
Used to love this place but it's lost something over the last couple years . Aside from having higher prices than most care to pay the whole scene just isn't what it once was . However there is still a certain aviance and beachy vibe with constant music playing and of course the literaly right in front of you beautiful beach ... i guess that in itself is worth the cost
Review Source:It's all privacy fenced in, so we weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into, however, we were pleasantly surprised by The Hangout! Â My husband and I went here one evening for drinks and an appetizer. Â We sat at the bar. Â The staff was very friendly and prompt. Â The atmosphere is lively and inside, the music was good! Â We enjoyed ourselves so much, we brought our young boys and my mother with us the next evening for dinner. Â The food was good and the portions were plenty big. Â Our boys had a blast playing fusball and playing in the sand dune and bubbles.
Review Source:Used to be our favorite place for food, atmosphere, and location! Â However, new menu, new higher prices while food quality goes down! Â Shrimp Tacos tasted like they were a frozen dinner heated up in the microwave, and the hamburger patties between the bun were like hockey pucks, and the martini's were served in a plastic cup resembling the old Dixie riddle cups. Â We were very disappointed! Â Location stays the same, amazing..
Review Source:Our food and service was great. Â Although what we ordered is not exactly what we got. Â Apparently they are replacing their tuna sliders with pulled pork bbq sliders. Â We were not informed of this until it arrived at out table and I asked about it. Â The fried pickles were yummy, and we had the slider parade, kobe beef, fried oyster, and the aforementioned pulled pork. Â Everything was good....BUT, their prices are high! Â It was $40 for the slider parade, which was 9 sliders with a pile of fries and $9 for fried pickles. Â They did knock $5 off for the missing tuna, but still, it is really overpriced.
Review Source:I wish I could rate The Hangout half of a star. Moses is an extremely rude and aggressive employee that myself and our group had the "pleasure" of encountering. He physically touched one of my friends and threatened to have her sent to jail when we didn't move from a closing seating area fast enough. The seating area was exactly that and I couldn't understand why it would need to be closed at 11pm on a Saturday night during Labor Day weekend. Needless to say, we walked out of that joint with a bad taste in our mouths. Stay away from Moses and go to Florabama instead. Twice the size and 10x the fun.
Review Source:I'd like to give this a higher rating but the food was so so which is not what you're looking for at a restaurant. The band on the main stage was OK, they did have a good selection of music. At 11p it becomes adults only. The two man band they had over by the bar was really good. The atmosphere there was nice.. some wood benches to sit on under the palms and a fire pit going. If the prices would come down slightly and the food quality would go up it'd be a 5star.
Review Source:The Hangout is a fun place for kids. Â The food is okay but nothing great. Â The day we went there was a wait between 1-2 hours. Â There is a bar, gift shop and a lot for kids to do so the time flew by. Â
The wait staff is good although very busy between serving food and breaking out in dance here and there.
I would recommend The Hangout for families for sure but more for the entertainment than food.
We were looking for breakfast and saw the sign that said pirate breakfast so we stopped!!! It was so cute, our 4 year old loved it, there were pirates and princesses who handed out eye patches and other pirate goodies then they took the kids on a treasure hunt which was so fun and sooo cute!!! They even had a real treasure chest that was really buried and contained little bags of fake gold for each kid, it was so fun and so cute!
The breakfast was really good too it was all you can eat for 11.95 per person + drinks and the kids were free, we thought it was a great breakfast with great entertainment great food and a great price!!! We would love to do it again and I would recommend people with kids give it a try!!!
The location right on the beach is fantastic, and these guys did a great job of serving up food and drinks to workers and attendees of The Hangout Music Festival. It was crazy busy every time we stopped by, but our server was calm, cool and collected. The gumbo was REALLY good, with plenty of spicy kick.
Review Source:Although this is a cool bar, with lots of things to play with and be entertained, the food is only alright, and is completely overpriced.
I had one of their beers which was ok, nothing special, after I enquired about several others on the menu that they didn't even have stocked.
Service staff was friendly and did a great job.
Do you like loud music, terrible food, long waits and people dancing by your table while you are trying to eat that terrible food? If so, this is the place for you! How bad is the food? Who knew you could mess up a caesar salad and a piece of chicken so badly? I had no idea how bad it could be until I ate here!
Review Source:Nice environment for the family. Â The boys had a blast, we even won a hat during a large group game that the house dj did. Â The food is so-so and the kitchen really doesn't get too creative outside the menu. Â Price was to be expected for beachfront. Â They have a cool outside area with a couple of stages for bands and acts along with games for the family like ping pong and such.
Review Source:Visited with my two daughters and my mom in June. The "extras" of the establishment were pretty cool....the play area for the kids...the bubble machine..bungee jumping....that was entertaining enough for them.
But if you get down to brass tax and want to talk food....NO GO. This isn't the place for a great tasting meal to match the prices. Â My girls did not like their food. The shrimp tasted like chlorinated water and the breading was too spicy for a child. Mom's tuna salad was decent...but my fish tacos...I left half of it on the plate.
Only memorable because of the festivities and fun stuff for the kids.
I would go back...but only for the atmosphere...and to enjoy a few beers oustide at one of the picnic tables to listen to the live band and watch my kids play on the sand dune or in the bubbles.
The Hangout is certainly not my favorite place to eat in the Gulf Shores area, but somehow everytime I'm down there I usually find myself there.
This is not the kind of place you should go if you're looking for a quiet meal with the family or significant other. Its loud (unless you go at off times during off season), crowded, and there is often a lot of line dancing going on which the staff will try to include you in on. Its a cool place if you're into that kind of thing. It sits right on the beach, which is nice and perfect for the type of place this restaurant is. Theres also a big outdoor area with a bar, a stage for live music, and a kids playground, so its not a bad place for most kinds of "hanging out" you might want to do.
This is also not the kind of place you go for amazing, healthy, or even cheap food. Its overpriced bar food, really, lots of sandwiches, wraps, and the like to suit all your fried food needs. The food isn't bad... but its nothing special, and I hesitate to say it is worth the price. I'd also say that I've usually waited a longer than average time to get this type of food, but the service is usually friendly, and theres a good amount of buzz going on around the restaurant to keep you occupied.
This place has a lot of different things going on. Restaurant, bar, souvenir shop, kids playground, DJ in the restaurant yelling things out while you eat. Not sure what they are trying to accomplish here. This place was quite loud and with a server who can't speak up, we had a difficult time ordering. All I know is that you can't substitute french fries for their homemade potato chips (which were under seasoned and boring), so don't bother asking. Because of the atmosphere, service and lack of substitutions, I gave this place two stars, but the burger that I ordered gave them one more. I don't remember the name of the burger but it was to die for. Juicy, great flavor. I scarfed this burger down in record time. I would go back here just for this burger!
Review Source:I have visited Orange Beach / Gulf Shores for the last 25 years. Â I can tell you firsthand that restaurants (or even quasi-restaurants like The Hangout) have to have killer food. Â It should be easy - this area is celebrated for the quality of the seafood.
The Hangout attempts to mask it's awful (and I don't use that term lightly) food through a variety of methods, ranging from fun to mildly annoying  to completely off-putting.
The Hangout has an audio system running throughout the premises that alternates between a band on a central outside stage and a DJ perched atop the main dining floor. Â The night we were ere, the band was actually pretty decent, playing a smorgasbord of 90's and 00's stuff. Â The DJ was truly atrocious, however, screeching at patrons to dance along with some of the employees to various tunes. Â The DJ could be fired immediately and The Hangout might be worthy of another star - yes, that annoying and loud - all for the sake of trying to artificially create a "scene" that might turn over time into a legacy. Â Doesn't quite work that way.
The Hangout then makes it's final offense by charging literally two to three times more for it's very poor food than the area's gems like Sea and Suds, just half a mile away. Â
I guess I understand why, when I looked around before leaving at the legion of employees, most of which weren't doing anything except talking amongst themselves. Â Maybe that's why our meal was brought out over an hour after ordering.
Maybe you'll read this review during the decision-making process on where you'll eat while visiting Orange Beach. Â if so, you will kick yourself for going to The Hangout unless you're so hard up for things to do that you'll resort to anything. Â And if that's the case, you, like The Hangout, are simply in the wrong place.
I have been to the Hangout twice. Once for nothing more than sitting at the bar people watching and drinking beer. That was a good time. The second time was to order food and sit down. Very disappointed to be seated so far from the view in an empty Restaurant; in addition, thought the food was way overpriced. It was disappointing. So. I resolve to go back for so fun atmosphere and people watching. But not likely to return for a sit down meal.
Review Source:Ok, if you're looking for a cool place to "hang out", have a few beers and people watch, this place is for you. If you actually want decent food and good service, you'll have better luck winning the lottery. We live in GS and have been here numerous times, primarily to take friends visiting from out of town. However it's become a running joke as to how bad the service and food will be. Now my wife and I have a private game we play where we bet how bad the staff will screw up our order, and how bad or mistaken the food will be.
I understand it's marketed directly at tourists but is it really hard to make easy comfort food? And service is service. We're not dining at a fine French restaurant, make sure our drinks are cold, the food is hot and it's right. It's not rocket science.
Now the up side. There are inside and outside bars with a huge fenced in yard with a large sand pile. If you have kids, don't expect them to want to stay at the table. You can eat inside (under the big ass fan, yes, it's called that) by a window, or actually outside. Depending on weather and wind, outside is always nice as the kids can go crazy and the adults can keep an eye on them without having to bird dog 'em. Bands play there and they are usually worth the time. Parking can be a PITA depending on time of day, weekend, etc., because your vying for beach parking in the same lot. BTW, bring $5 for the privilege of parking.
So if you're looking for ambiance, this is the place. If you want food and service, eat before you get here.
A huge restaurant/ bar, and way oversold and overpriced for what it is. Kind of like Lulu's but not as bad yet. But then, I am living in Mobile and have lots of choices when it comes to great seafood at low prices, so, naturally, I do resent the jacked up prices at the beach.
We ordered 2 of their specialties --- the Mediterranean salad (nice lemony dressing but definitely not worth $11), enough to share. And a Shakashaka shrimp poboy -- delicious but I wouldn't make a special trip to eat it. We also ordered 2 crabcakes to go ($13); they say their crabcakes are made with Lump crabmeat ... I doubt that; but they were not bad, the pineapple-jalapeno relish was refreshing.
If I ever get another $50 gift card to the Hangout for having rented a condo/house for a few nights like I did--- thank you Meyer! --- I'll go eat there again. Otherwise, no thank you.
Redeemed.....
The first time I went in 2009 it was average. What I remembered most was that the ice tea was a "mix". Any restaurant south of Mason Dixon should be ashamed to not use fresh brewed iced tea. Not that difficult. Â Thus, this was a deduction of 1.5 stars for me.
However, they are redeemed and they brew their iced tea now....
Summer of 2010 I went back reluctantly and had the blackened mahi fish tacos which were very fresh and just short of excellent. Â Fresh, crisp napa cabbage. Hot cooked chunks of Mahi. Black beans that were not canned and not over cooked. All topped with fresh cilantro and a cool aioli. I requested them to hold off the cheese. Â Good call - didn't miss it & would have overwhelmed the taco. All encased in a piping hot tortilla.
The salsa was fresh but average. At least they don't use average salsa from a jar. They get points for making home made.
Kids chips were home made and fantastic.
Wife's chili was, surprisingly, really good.
The service was actually outstanding.
This is a fairly new restaurant in the area but was originally open many years ago in Gulf Shores, I can't remember the details because our bartender was telling us this as we waited for a table. We went the week of opening in 2008. Â Then back the next year a few times. Â I agree that the atmosphere is the best thing about the restaurant but the food is pretty good too.
Great location right on the beach with lots of souvenir shops within walking distance. The food was one of the best meals while on the trip. The burger was the favorite at the table. The coolest part really was the atmosphere: wide open dining room with lots of spaced out tables, the inside large bar is near the opened windows so you get a great view and breeze, there was a beach-like area, a cantina like bar, and a cool bar with fire pit and havannah beds. VERY Unique.
The atmosphere definitely is what makes this place. The food is typical bar food: nothing all that spectacular but not all that terrible either. Overpriced for what it is and if there's a storm in the area, expect that you'll be sitting in pitch-black as the power goes out regularly there. Thank goodness I had an iPhone with a flashlight app, because after 10minutes of darkness it made for an impromptu candlelight effect for my husband and I.
The service isn't so great and the surroundings definitely make it prone to being a tourist trap, but the fact that it's directly on the beach and has a kickass store for kitche finds, are it's redeeming qualities.
Our experience was good overall.. The dance lines entertaining, the guest participation was also great.. Drinks cold and so was the beer... BUT the food was despicable.. There is NO excuse for poor undercooked shrimp on the coast nor old frozen tasting crab claws.. I was embarrassed to have brought friends to this place after having to send back the seafood... I cannot recommend unless you want to only drink and watch the "show"
Location GREAT, parking  limited. Pay 5 bucks next door which was free last year....
Went here on vacation and had a good time. Â The food is ok but it is the atmosphere that makes the place. Â It is wide open and they have nice couches and even canopy beds outside for you to relax on. Â I would definitely suggest this place as somewhere to have a few drinks at when you're in Gulf Shores - but would suggest going elsewhere for food.
Review Source:
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