Big Johns Hotel

The crab cake was delicious, a generous size, and both my husband and I liked the lobster tacos. The pieces of lobster were nicely sized, unlike other places where it's shredded and you mostly taste tortilla. The food overall was pretty decent. The conch fritters were okay, though it was my first time trying them, so I don't have much to compare them with. We stopped after getting a flyer at North Bimini beach for a free drink, which was a strawberry or mango slushy. At least that saved me the cost of a drink, since reviews had said the drinks weren't worth the price. The view was beautiful and our waiter was pleasant, but service was fairly slow. We didn't mind waiting with that view, and it wasn't too busy when we went, so we didn't have the hour-long food wait some people mentioned. The 18% automatic gratuity and 10% transaction fee put me off. The fees help explain why the staff didn't seem especially friendly or concerned about efficiency. Without the extra charges, I'd definitely return.

We hadn't seen a card service fee at any of the other places on the island. Here they added 10% for paying by card, on top of the automatic 18% gratuity, and didn't mention it, so you had to catch it on the bill. We said we'd pay cash instead, but they'd already run the card. Someone told me it's because the owner is American. Go figure.

There was a cockroach wandering around the bar, and my burger was undercooked. I ended up with food poisoning for two days, so this was easily our worst stop in Bimini. It was the first place we tried on the trip. We asked for conch fritters and a cheeseburger at the same time, but my wife finished her fritters long before the burger showed up. Maybe the person taking our order couldn't hear over the deafening music. The prices seemed fair at first, but the bill was a shock. They added a 10% international processing fee even though we paid in local currency, plus an automatic 18% gratuity, and still asked if we wanted to tip more. A meal that should've been about $31 came to over $51. We paid and left, and won't forget the experience for good reasons.

The conch fritters were the best I've ever had. The mahi mahi tacos were fabulous, too, and the service was good.