Sometimes you just need to get away for a quick weekend and Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast is the perfect spot to do that. Just an hour out of Jax you can stay close to home, be right on the beach and have amazing food a short walk from your room. As a foodie you’ll be in hog heaven with 7 different restaurants on site to choose from and every style of seafood you can imagine at your fingertips. The folks at Hammock Beach invited us out to get a sneak peek at the opening of their newest on site restaurant, Atlantic Grille. This is the perfect spot to have dinner with a view and it’s also the one on site restaurant that you don’t need to be a resort guest or a club member to dine at.
To start the meal we indulged in an incredible tower of raw and chilled seafood from oysters to clams to shrimp cocktail to chilled crab claws. This is the perfect way to start a meal overlooking the ocean. Every bit of this tower was top notch. If you’ve got a big appetite make sure to kick things off with some raw oysters, clams or the shrimp cocktail.
Seafood Tower
The first dish we dove into was the charred octopus with sunchoke barigoule. Each bite of this dish was packed with flavor. The savory garlic and onion nicely complemented the slightly tart sunchoke. I always joke that if tuna is the chicken of the sea, then octopus is the steak of the sea. This octopus was perfectly cooked and certainly fit that bill. Tender, meaty, flavorful….It was incredible!
Next up was a salad made with red baby greens, julienned cucumber, red onions, purple tomato, Roquefort cheese, with red wine vinaigrette. Normally a salad is the part of the meal I eat for health more than taste. This salad was so much more than something you’d just eat for health. It was packed with flavor and was a mix between an incredible cucumber salad and a high end mixed greens salad plus some of the most beautiful roquefort blue cheese you could ever want.
Following the salad we dove into an incredible Braised Pork Belly with turnip purée, and bourbon glaze. This pork belly was top notch. Every bite started with a taste of sweetness after which the deliciousness of meat plus fatty goodness melting in your mouth followed by a bit of spice on the back end of the bite. The turnip purée was nice and light, a beautiful complement to the heavy pork belly.
Pork Belly
The dessert we got the opportunity to indulge in was The Atlantic Grille’s falling chocolate cake. Even as someone who’s a bit lukewarm to indulgently chocolate desserts I absolutely loved this dish! If you’re a chocolate lover you’ll be in heaven. This circle of chocolate goodness is slightly crispy around the edges and becomes more and more gooey as you carve towards the middle to scoop up a bite. Truly divine!
The Atlantic Grille clearly aims to impress. From the spectacular ocean view to cuisine that will make your mouth water every element of a great dining experience is curator for your pleasure. If like us you love the beach, great food and a quick getaway this may just want to make this your new spot for all 3.
Hammock Beach
Note: From time to time we’re invited out to try a restaurant or to taste new menu items. This meal is usually comped, as this one was. We’re under no obligation to write a positive review or any review at all when we’re invited out to try a place. Every review you see on our site will be an honest review of the place whether or not the restaurant provided us with the meal at their cost.