St. Petersburg and Fort Meyers Florida

Mrs. trpt and I will be heading that way in a couple weeks to visit friends and relatives. Any recommendations? I assume at least there must be some decent seafood, but are there any hidden gems anyone could pass along?

This thread might be worth checking out. It's more focused on Tampa/St. Pete and points north, but it's got some good stuff in it.

I've been in Fort Myers a couple of times on business the last year or so and found the seafood to be very good at the Blue Point Oyster Bar in the Bell Tower Shopping Center. It's closer to the airport than the beach. But, the raw bar, sushi rolls and the excellent preparations of fresh fish on the grill make for a very nice dinner in a town that seems to lack great dining options.

The menu:

http://www.bluepointerestaurant.com/med ... dinner.pdf

I don't know if you eat meat but if so, Bern's Steak House, in Tampa, can't be missed. It's an institution. Be sure to have dessert in your private room upstairs. Columbia, in Ybor City, has great Cuban.

Ft. Myers is more difficult. Cru, in the same shopping center as Blue Point, mentioned in the previous post, is my favorite. Cantina Laredo has good Mexican, a cut above Tex Mex. Pinchers Crab Shack has good, basic seafood. Cin Cin has an interesting looking Mediterranean menu but I haven't eaten there in a few years. The Beach Whale, on Ft. Myers Beach, is recommended for lunch, with a pretty rooftop deck and excellent fried Grouper.

If you're willing to travel 25+ minutes to Estero/Bonita Springs, or beyond that to Naples, your choices increase exponentially. I can recommend a bunch if you're interested.

http://www.bernssteakhouse.com/
http://www.columbiarestaurant.com/
http://www.crufoodandwine.com/index.php?c=1
http://www.cincingrille.com/dinner_menu.html
http://www.thebeachedwhale.com/
http://www.pincherscrabshack.com/

Thanks, RevA. The menu at Cru looks good. i may have to give it a try when i'm down there in a week and a half.

Lots of fun is Ted's, in South St. Pete (closed Tues.). They smoke their own mackeral and other fish on the premises and serve it up in an old log cabin-type setting...nothing fancy about the surroundings.

Rev, thanks fir the terrific recommendation of Cru in Fort Myers.

The young chef there, Brian Roland, is a graduate of CIA with experience in the kitchen at Daniel in New York. His sophisticated culinary training shows in an outstanding menu.

I arrived kind of late tonight and was looking for something near my hotel, Cru fit the bill beautifully.

Dinner started with a refershing amuse of strawberry and balsamic sorbet with a tiny cap of mascarpone cheese. I followed that with an excellent filet of local Tripletail, a gulf fish similar in texture to grouper, topped with a fresh and savory crabmeat gratin.

For dessert, I sampled a wonderful banana cream "pie" which was actually a pie crust bowl filled with a banana scented pastry cream and sliced carameized bananas served on the side.

I'm here in southwest Florida for another night, sndf you can bet that I'll eat at Cru once again.

Will, I'm glad you enjoyed it and happy they are still firing on all cylinders. I always worry how my favorite restaurants will fare down there during summer, when business is terribly slow.

My parents spend their winters in Ft. Myers, and they really like a place called Parrot Key.

It's right on the water, by a marina, and none of the seating is enclosed by walls. Very atmospheric. I also really enjoyed my conch fritters.

http://www.myparrotkey.com/index.cfm

I had a really decent meal at
Geo's
1140 Ceitus Terrace
Cape Coral, Fl
http://www.geositalianrestaurant.com/

I say that with food love. Ft. Myers and the area just doesn't have a lot of good places to eat. (they do have a Five Guys though) Geo started this restaurant for that very reason. He is half italian and half greek, so I was suspicious going in that the red sauces would go the greek way with oregano and cinnamon.

I found the red sauce to be well seasoned, and I don't mean with oregano, but salt, and basil.
I tried the calamari, fried crisp and tender, mozzarella fritti, also fried to a nice crisp, the Greek salad, which was very good, although there was a little something funky either in the dressing or cheese, that had a sort of nutmeg taste, I'm sure they were going for authentic Greek, but I don't like sweet tasting stuff on my savories.
The pizza was a NY style, it could have been cooked a little more for my taste. But the sauce and the toppings were proportioned well.

I had a few bites of the artery clogging Veal Chesapeake, lightly breaded veal, topped with lump crab and mozzarella, in a creamy alfredo sauce topped fettuccine. It was too dense and rich for me in all ways, but hey, I didn't order it. All in all a really solid experience. The bar that opens to the outside, will really be a nice addition, once the landscaping goes in next door. All we saw was an empty lot. I can see being a regular here if I lived in the area.

This is my 2nd posting - I'm grateful for finding this site ... am heading to Ft Myers to holiday with my folks tomorrow and got a great list of places in this area to eat (have to laugh at the comments re 'so few & far between' - we've been searching for places now for about 5 years).

I posted some places to try in Toronto on my 1st posting! Hope you get a chance to come for a visit & to try them.

Cheers