PORT ISABEL - Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves one Friday night as I took my seat at Pirate's Landing.

The moment I entered the restaurant, I was drawn into a sense of adventure by the pirate standing near the door and the potpourri of laughter and conversation, the hullabaloo of restless silverware and scraping plates, smells of seafood and creative alcoholic concoctions.

The young woman at the door asked how many were in my party. I told her I was alone and she left for only a few seconds to find a table for me. She quickly returned, grabbed a menu and directed me to a table for two next to a wooden railing. I sat near a carved wooden image of a man staring in my direction with crazed eyes beneath a broad-rimmed hat and grasping a bottle on his left knee. He held two fingers to his lips as if drawing from a cigar that seemed to have disappeared.

My waiter took my drink order for a cup of decaffeinated coffee and I looked over the menu, filled with a colorful assortment of listings. I was first drawn to the seafood listings that included char-grilled mahi-mahi, Creole crab cakes, stuffed flounder, coconut shrimp and numerous other listings. There was also chicken fajita, beef fajita and shrimp fajita, and customers could also request a combination of two or three of these.

Appetizers included cheese sticks, fried calamari, chicken strips, fried crab cakes and stuffed jalapeños. I could also have chosen oriental chicken salad (grilled chicken breast on top of fresh spring salad mix, julienne carrots, pineapple chunks, walnuts, sesame seeds, and Chinese noodles); char-grilled tuna salad with crisp greens and grilled sashimi tuna steak; smoked salmon salad, shrimp Louie and taco salad.

There were also numerous "samiches" (sandwiches): club samich, southwest chicken samich, oyster po-boy, and Pirate's Reuben (sliced corned beef, melted Swiss cheese, sauerkraut with thousand island dressing on grilled rye bread). However, I had been here just a couple of weeks before when my friend had ordered the Caribbean chicken sandwich and had raved over it.

The dish did sound appetizing: fried chicken breast with grilled pineapple, cilantro, crisp bacon and Monterey jack cheese with a Caribbean sauce.

I love meat and pineapple combinations. The whole thing sounded delicious and I placed my order. While I waited, I observed a long row of tables crowded by families with small children. They sat beneath a long mural of pirates in baggy trousers and red head wraps burying a chest filled with glistening jewels while gulls fluttered overhead and a ship sat anchored offshore.

The scene appeared to infuse the children with wonder as they chattered away, a sort of piracy of their imaginations taking hold. Their waiter soon brought a large platter filled with plates of fried fish and shrimp and baked potato, including a paper boat brimming with fried fish.

"Mustard?" asked one of the adults, and the waiter brought it right away, along with a second tray of dishes. Everyone suddenly quieted as they absorbed themselves in their meals, while laughter erupted from another part of the restaurant. Outside, beneath the descending sky, the causeway warmed into a cool glow and the cool sheen of water confirmed a sign on the wall that read, "A bad day on the water is better than a good day at work."

My meal arrived and I knew right away I would have to take part of it home. The monstrous sandwich and the side of waffle fries amounted to at least two meals and possibly three. Split in two sections, the sandwich was piled high with a thick mound of hot chicken draped in dripping jack cheese, topped with a slab of bacon that emboldened the flavor of the whole meal.

I would like to have had a few more greens in the sandwich, but it was delicious, and the chunks of pineapple punctuated the flavor with a delightful carnivalesque aspect that I thoroughly enjoyed. The fries were also very good, thick but a little soggy, and very tasty.

I sat and read my book for a while, eating slowly, my waiter checking on me every few minutes, a waitress frequently filling my coffee cup. The family at the long row of tables soon vacated, leaving a menagerie of exhausted plates piled with shrimp tails and crumpled napkins. The wait staff quickly removed the memory of the little party that had just taken place there, returning the tables to their original places, just in time for the arrival of a young couple with a small boy. The woman, her light auburn hair falling across her black dress, placed a paper pirate's cap on the boy's head, but he soon removed it, waved the piece around and discarded it, opting then to focus his attention on a piece of bread, under the watchful eyes of the pirates burying their treasure.

I think Pirate's Landing is a great place to enjoy good food and good conversation, and to people watch. There seems to be a continuous carousel of families moving in and out of the restaurant, and the broad imagery makes it a fun place to visit.