Sarasota Dining
Haven't been in a while. Any new places wirth checking out? What's the best seafood restaurant thes days?
mcro
Nov 06, 2009 06:11PM
9 Replies so Far
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For seafood: Zoria has rebranded/rebooted itself as Main Street Oyster Bar and it's very good. It's not just shellfish -- there's a broad fish menu as well. The prices are at the moderate price-point level and that includes the wine list. At a recent dinner everyone enjoyed his/her prepared fish. Except for me: I had ODed on fish over the prior several days and went for the goat cheese covered hamburger. It was superb.
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That is about the only new(?) place that has opened. A lot of closings through. I have not eaten there yet, but after Longboats reply I will give it a try. All the other Zoria's have been very good. There is a very small place called Oh Mama Mia in Gulfgate that is not bad, it's sort of a fun place and the prices are moderate. The restaurant that they have listed below (that is new) is not the one on Gulfgate, as you can see.
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Another seafood place worth mentioning has opened on Longboat Key -- a sister to a restaurant in Sarasota of the same name -- The Lazy Lobster. It takes the space of the now-closed Cafe on the Bay in the Centre Shops. I consider it in a step down from the Main Street Oyster Bar (that I wrote about earlier today) but it's a pretty good, medium priced restaurant, sort of a busier Barnacle Bills. At 7:30 PM on a recent Wednesday night it was jammed -- with people waiting. That said, they did honor reservations and thankfully we had them. I'm told that the original restaurant in Sarasota doesn't have a full bar but the Longboat one does. The manager hails from Cafe L'Europe and he knows what he's doing. My prediction: this place will be very, very busy in season and will absolutely require reservations. They told me that they’ll seat new arrivals until 9 PM. (941) 383-0440. http://store6.geomerx.com/lazylobster...
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Just FYI we went to Barnacle Bill's in downtown Sarasota last Sunday. We sat down outside for 15 minutes and were ignored by the waiter. We went inside to see if we could get some attention. We were seated immediately then ignored for another 15 minutes. We got up and left.
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A few other Sarasota dining tidbits:
Chef (and part owner) Jeff Trefry has left Cork and gone to the Ringling complex where he’ll cook at Treviso and manage the overall food service function. Cork is now owned by some real estate agents and they’ve brought in a manager from the Polo Grill. The new chef is an internal promotion. I used to love Cork (upstairs) and lunch (not dinner) downstairs. That said, when the head chef leaves it’s a new restaurant. I hope Cork maintains its excellence but that’s an open question that remains to be answered in the dining room.
The chef of the now closed Canvas Café has now taken over the kitchen in the Bijou Café.
The First Street Chophouse is set to have a soft opening on November 6th in a space next to the Opera and opposite the Bijou Café. It previously was another restaurant whose name escapes me. http://firststreetchophouse.com/defau...
Once again the Beach Bistro was awarded the highest Zagat rating for food and service in the state of Florida.
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Thanks or the information. We will have to check out Main St Oyster. Always had a goos dining experience at Barnicle Bills but its getting old.
Love Beach Bistro, but it's not in the budget for this trp. It is a truely wonderful place & deserves the praise it gets.
What about the Dry Dock? ?It was recomended by a friend
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We found Dry Dock overpriced for the relatively bland little blobs of food.
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I take visitors to Dry Dock for lunch as you can get a simple sandwich outside on the bay in very pleasant surroundings. I have never been to dinner as, based on the lunches, I can't imagine that the dinners are anything special. And in season there are long waits with no reservations. This said, there are others on this list who in the past have recommended Dry Dock. I do own a Dry Dock tee shirt and like it a lot. ;-)
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Lazy Lobster is nothing to write home about, but since it is on the low end I'm sure that it will be busy. I have eaten there once, that should say it all!
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