Yahoo Autos What are the best waterfront restaurants in Florida? 15 favorites for food, drinks and fun!
Everybody loves a great waterfront restaurant and fortunately we have lots of them in Florida. These are the special occasion kind of places where you can dine while enjoying a spectacular sunset. Or perhaps sip on a margarita while watching a couple of frolicking dolphins.
To help, our USA Today Network Entertainment Team of contributors living throughout the Sunshine State has chosen 15 of our favorite waterfront restaurants. They are perfect to visit pretty much any day of the year and extra pleasant now during the spring.
While we've written about our favorite beachfront restaurants and bars (and beaches) in the past, for this list we've placed some of our favorite oceanfront restaurants alongside equally charming eateries hugging beautiful bays and rivers. Presented in alphabetical order, here's our list of 15 favorite waterfront restaurants in Florida.
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Benny’s on the Beach
10 S. Ocean Blvd., Lake Worth Beach, 561-582-9001, BennysontheBeach.com
One doesn’t get much more “waterfront” than this Palm Beach County favorite. The laid-back Benny’s on the Beach is not only on the beach — it’s perched on the Lake Worth Beach pier. Cue the sounds of rolling waves, wafts of sea breeze and quintessential ocean views.
Cue as well the stellar food by executive chef and co-owner Jeremy Hanlon, a Daniel Boulud protégé whose menus offer an extensive variety of fresh fish and seafood dishes, beachy comfort classics and specials like weeknight seafood bakes and weekend evening paellas.
If you have trouble snagging a table at the original pier location, you’ll find Benny’s new second location just steps away at the Lake Worth Casino building, which also offers ocean views. That slightly more upscale space shares the casual spirit and most of the dishes you’d find at the pier. Once you settle into your seat at Benny’s and check out the views, glance at the tables as well. You might spot a visiting celebrity as diners did recently when Jon Bon Jovi stopped by for lunch. — Liz Balmaseda, The Palm Beach Post
Related: New waterfront restaurant in Palm Beach County carries iconic name
Blue Parrot Oceanfront Cafe
68 W. Gorrie Dr., St. George Island, 850-927-2987; blueparrotsgi.com
The venerable cafe sits right on the beach with a front-row view of the Gulf of Mexico. Blue Parrot has a lower and upper deck and inside dining room where patrons can gaze at the Emerald water and feast on beachy fare such as conch fritters, seafood and fish platters, burgers, steaks and sandwiches. The restaurant and bar, which started as a tiny beer and hot dog stand in the 1980s, is the host of the annual St. George Mullet Toss, which takes place the second Saturday in June. — Rochelle Koff, Tallahassee Table (Tallahassee Democrat)
Related: 16 of our favorite waterfront restaurants around the Panhandle and Forgotten Coast
Doc Ford's Rum Bar and Grille
Sanibel Island, Fort Myers Beach, St. Pete Pier and Jungle Terrace St. Pete; docfords.comNo trip to the west coast of Florida is complete without dining and drinking at Doc Ford's Rum Bar and Grille, which offers four waterfront locations with outdoor seating from Sanibel Island to St. Petersburg. Named after the hero in local author Randy Wayne White's bestselling series of crime fiction books and co-owned by White, Doc Ford's offers a a bright, beach-y sports bar setting elevated by gourmet finger foods, fresh fish entrees and creative cocktails. During a recent visit to the Doc Ford's on the spectacular St. Pete Pier, highlights included a ridiculously good Cuban black bean dip, a perfectly roasted half-chicken deftly seasoned with a Cuban chimichurri sauce, and a panko-crusted fillet of tender local grouper drizzled with a habit-forming honey papaya rum drizzle. Yeah, don't be fooled by the "rum bar" moniker. Doc Ford's does not serve your typical bar food! — Wade Tatangelo, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Related: Best places for outdoor fun in Tampa Bay
Dry Dock Waterfront Grill
412 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key; 941-383-0102, drydockwaterfrontgrill.com
A nationally acclaimed Longboat Key restaurant dating back to 1989, Dry Dock places guests on Sarasota Bay in a famously scenic setting with umbrella tables and open-air covered seating, as well as an indoor dining area with a cozy bar. The restaurant, owned by the Sarasota-based Gecko’s Hospitality Group, also happens to be one of the best in the region for fresh seafood, including stone crab claws and their famed grouper sandwich. You'll also want to consider my personal fave, the Citrus Grouper entree. The fillet is lightly breaded and sautéed, locking in all that juicy grouper goodness, with a citrus cream sauce that lovingly recalls liquified Key lime pie. — Wade Tatangelo, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Related: Best waterfront restaurants with outdoor seating in Sarasota and what to eat, drink there!
The Grand Marlin
400 Pensacola Beach Blvd., Pensacola Beach, 850-677-9153, www.thegrandmarlin.com,
In Pensacola, The Grand Marlin needs no introduction. The restaurant has appeared on OpenTable’s Top 100 Most Scenic Restaurants, Top Al Fresco Restaurants and Best Brunch Restaurants. They’ve even had their chefs nationally recognized in Garden & Gun magazine and on the Food Network. But enough about its accolades, what’s it like to eat there?
The Grand Marlin is one of Pensacola Beach’s fanciest restaurants, but you don’t need to leave your flip-flops at home to enjoy the view. It offers a sophisticated menu in a comfortable setting with amazing views of Santa Rosa Sound. If you'd like to take your time, start out at their North Drop Bar for one of their Caribbean-inspired cocktails before transitioning over to a table. Their menus are printed daily to keep up with the freshest catches, and they even tell you where the market fish and shellfish were caught. — Brandon Girod, Pensacola News-Journal
Related: Best Pensacola waterfront restaurants
Kyle G’s Prime Seafood & Steaks
10900 S. Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach; 772-237-5461; kylegseafood.com
Treasure Coast native Kyle Greene opened Kyle G’s Prime Seafood & Steaks in 2017 in the former Pietro’s on the Ocean in Jensen Beach, where he had been executive chef. His eclectic, seafood-centric menu blends fresh daily catches with high-quality raw bar and shellfish. Highlights include the Tuscan-herb-grilled rainbow trout topped with spinach, roasted tomato tapenade, jasmine rice and lemon butter, as well as the lobster mac carbonara using campanelle pasta with fresh-poached lobster chunks, wild mushroom, peas, bacon and herb-garlic-parmesan breadcrumbs.
It also has an extensive signature drink menu that includes “Kyle’s Day Off,” a 10-day pineapple infused RumHaven Caribbean rum with a splash of lime. There’s plenty of outdoor, oceanside seating and complimentary valet parking. Reservations are required for its popular upscale Sunday brunch. Order the hand-crafted bloody marys or mimosas, with a variety of fresh juices, including grapefruit and pineapple. — Laurie K. Blandford, Treasure Coast Newspapers/TCPalm
Related: Best waterfront restaurants on the Treasure Coast
La Mar
At the Mandarin Oriental hotel, 500 Brickell Key Drive, Miami, 305-913-8358, MandarinOriental.com
One comes to La Mar to be transported to Peru, homeland of the restaurant’s globally acclaimed culinary leader Gastón Acurio. One also comes to La Mar to be reminded of Miami’s own magical setting. The Michelin-listed restaurant, which sits on the waterside level of Mandarin Oriental hotel, offers sweeping views of the city and the surrounding Biscayne Bay. The water views are fitting for a restaurant named La Mar, which is Spanish for “the sea”.
