Took a trip to Florida recently for a business trip and Omar and I decided to extend our visit a bit and spend some time with my sister and her family. My sister has a great house in Coconut Creek, and treated us like royalty, even giving up her spa like bedroom. So gracious! The first night, after a long day of traveling and fighting rush hour we decided to head into Deerfield Beach and eat near the pier. We chose the Whale’s Rib Raw Bar – a quaint hole in the wall – even featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. As Guy likes to joke – No, you don’t actually get to eat Whale here, but they do have some of the freshest and best selection of seafood in the area.
The restaurant has been around for 30 years and is a South Florida staple for seafood. It is a simple, paper on the table, plastic basket kind of joint, that has expanded to include a great outdoor patio area with beer and wine to help us get through the wait.
We were told about a 30 minute wait and surprisingly, for a Friday night we were seated and water coming within 15 minutes.
We didn’t know what to order, so in a hungry glutinous fashion, we all start ordering food to “share”. We started with Whale Fries with “Whale Juice” which is essentially home made hand cut chips with a sauce that essentially consisted of honey mustard and vinegar.
We then opted for a variety of seafood including peel and eat shrimp, Stone Crabs which happened to be in season, oysters, conch fritters and I ordered a side salad. Wow, the food was amazing, so fresh, tasty and plentiful! Just skip the salad next time. It was boring as a plate of bagged greens with some pungent onions and mediocre ranch dressing.
It seemed like they just brought basket after basket of food and hot chips. We all truly felt like whales upon leaving the place. If you find yourself in the Deerfield Beach area, make sure you stop at the Whales Rib. Well worth the drive and the wait!!
Our incredibly stuffed bellies didn’t stop us from meandering to the local ice cream shoppe called Sprinkles & Scoops. I do believe I had the most delicious decadent ice cream cone while I was there. They had a ton of candy and treats along with a huge selection of ice cream flavors. Make sure you complete your Whales Rib experience with a short walk down the block to Sprinkles. It is well worth it.
We uber’d back to their house and crashed early as we know the following day held a wealth of decadent culinary sensations and we needed our rest!
