Tonight, a friend and I hit up one of our favorite places for happy hour; Bonefish Grill. We especially love it on Wednesday’s because their signature dish – “Bang Bang Shrimp” is on special for $6 an order.

For those of you that have never heard of Bang Bang Shrimp, they’re basically popcorn shrimp covered in a spicy cream drizzle; they’re delicious!

You really cannot beat this happy hour – everything is super cheap and you leave feeling STUFFED. Most recently, they upgraded their old happy hour menu to a new bar menu with really cool and unique dim sum-like options. There’s a selection of different wonton-shelled tacos, steamed buns, tostadas, oysters, lamb lollipops, mac n’ cheese bites and a doughnut dessert option.

We ordered a mix of our classic favorites and some of the new items to try. Since it’s Wednesday, we split an order of our favorite item – Bang Bang Shrimp. We also each ordered Bang Bang Shrimp Wonton Shell Tacos. From the new menu we tried the mac n’ cheese bites and the pulled pork steam buns.

The Bang Bang Shrimp and Bang Tacos were awesome as usual – definitely on point!

Loved the new items for the most part but I’m sure this will go through some tweaking. The mac n’ cheese bites rest on top of a sweet chili glaze. I like both of these items separately, but together it was just a little odd. The bites were still perfectly hot and crispy when they came out and aside from the sauce, they were awesome.  Like I said, I like the sauce too, but it would’ve been better on shrimp, scallops or chicken – not mac n’ cheese.

The pulled pork sliders were probably my least favorite. 1) I’m not a huge pork sandwich fan and 2) In order to use a bamboo steamer properly, you need to remember timing. It was a two-stack steamer; the bottom shelf housed the pork and barbecue glaze, the top had the steamed buns. Even though I’m not a pork fan, it was amazingly tender and the sauce was pretty flavorful (as my mom says – would’ve been good with rice!). Bonefish has always been good with flavor so I was definitely pleased with that. The buns were pretty dry; oversteamed. I still have faith that next time we go, it’ll be better because they’re known for taking something and running with it (in a positive way).

Now I’ve been talking about how this is happy hour; so no drinks? Wrong. They have quite the menu of drinks on their special menu including some awesome happy hour drinks. Tonight I went with their Vino special; $3 house wines. Yes, that’s not a typo, $3 for a full glass of wine; you can’t beat it! I love it and their White Zin pairs well with all of the spicy-flavorful seafood. I learned recently at a wine pairing that sweet wines + spicy food = bliss. Totally true.

The bread is the real winner of happy hour for people that like deals – it’s amazingly fresh ciabatta (I think?) and comes with seasoned olive oil; and it’s free! We had two servings! Love it!

My favorite thing about happy hour was catching up with my friend! We both have crazy busy lives and it’s always nice to take a pause at times, count our blessings, and catch up.

We left completely stuffed but yet ready for next time.

If you’re looking for a great, cheap happy hour, then this is your place!

My personal view of BoneFish is what I’d expect a Californian restaurant to be like; fresh ingredients, very FLAVORFUL food, good drinks and a very casual yet refined atmosphere. If you’re my friend – let’s go sometime! It’d be fun.

#SpenceDoesHappyHourCheap