What's the best waterfront restaurant in Sarasota area? 10 favorites I love to recommend
While I love to recommend restaurants occupying various locations across Sarasota and Manatee counties, most of my all-time favorites serve fresh seafood while offering the opportunity to spot a pelican, dolphin, or enjoy a spectacular Gulf of Mexico sunset, perhaps while enjoying live music.
Yes, as I've said before, everything tastes better on the water, and this is a list of my 10 favorite waterfront restaurants in all of Sarasota and Manatee counties. Actually, it's a dozen favorites if you include my two bonus picks at the bottom, devoted to a couple of funky bait shops that happen to serve good food.
These are all dining destinations offering lots of local history and Old Florida charm. They're all flip-flop-friendly while ranging from pricey to affordable. Each restaurant serves fresh seafood as well as other tasty dishes such as burgers, deep-fried hot dogs, and Key lime pie. They overlook the Gulf of Mexico, Sarasota Bay, and various points along the Intracoastal Waterway.
Each of these restaurants is a place that I love to recommend to family and friends and visit as often as possible with my wife, Kristin. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
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Beach Bistro
6600 Gulf Drive, Holmes Beach; 941-778-6444; beachbistro.com
Boasting decades of history and myriad accolades, Beach Bistro excels at fine dining done Florida-style. Secure a table on the soft white sands of Anna Maria Island and watch the waves gently crash on the shoreline while indulging in a fabulous five-course tasting menu. It begins with a mini cocktail and an equally sublime shot of ice cream, and somehow, only gets better from there. Choose from iconic dishes such as Lobstercargots and Bistro Bouillabaisse, as well as my personal favorite, the grouper grenobloise.
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Dockside Waterfront Grill
509 N. Tamiami Trail, Venice; 941-218-6418; docksidewaterfrontgrill.com
The more casual and less famous sister restaurant of Dry Dock Waterfront Grill on Longboat Key, also owned by the Sarasota-based Gecko's Hospitality Group, this Venice gem is located about 23 miles to the south down U.S. 41. It offers a laid-back, mostly open-air setting in the Fisherman's Wharf Marina on the Intracoastal Waterway. While the menus at Dockside and Dry Dock are very similar, both serving the citrus grouper entrée I adore, only Dockside offers the house-made potato chips that originated at Gecko's and elevate any meal they touch.
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Dry Dock Waterfront Grill
412 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key; 941-383-0102; drydockwaterfrontgrill.com
This Longboat Key landmark, which opened in 1989, places guests right on Sarasota Bay with several dining area options, including umbrella-covered outdoor tables that provide a front-row seat of the arriving boats, pelicans, and occasional dolphins. Dry Dock excels at routinely offering fresh, deftly prepared grouper dishes. Additionally, I've enjoyed excellent red snapper, as well as scallops served wrapped in perfectly crispy bacon with a delightfully decadent side of maple syrup.
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Marina Jack
2 Marina Plaza, Sarasota; 941-365-4232; marinajacks.com
This downtown Sarasota destination, with more than a half-century of history, boasts a nationally acclaimed marina, sunset dinner cruises, and three restaurants, including my favorite, the Blue Sunshine Patio. It offers a large bar and lots of covered open-air seating, ideal for enjoying live music by local favorite Bain Beakley while noshing on, say, a Grouper Reuben or Double Angus Cheeseburger, which I also adore. Of course, no visit to Marina Jack is complete without a walk along the Bayfront for a beverage or two at sister business O'Leary's Tiki Bar & Grill.
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Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant
760 Broadway St., Longboat Key; 941-383-2391, marvistadining.com
There might not be a more enchanting waterfront dining experience in Florida than being seated at the wrought-iron tables located under the buttonwood trees overlooking Sarasota Bay at Mar Vista, which also offers a charming covered deck for seating that overlooks the restaurant's 14-slip dock. To complement the Old Florida setting with more than 100 years of history, Mar Vista serves delectable Southern cuisine including the Lemon & Herb grouper entrée that features a fresh filet of fish covered in a superior beurre blanc, served with a side of smartly seasoned rice and delectable sausage made from Florida wild boar via Shogun Farms in Seffner. Local resident Ed Chiles, son of former Gov. Lawton Chiles, owns Mar Vista along with the nearby Anna Maria Island waterfront restaurants Beach House and Sandbar.
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The Old Salty Dog
1601 Ken Thompson Parkway, Sarasota; 941-388-4311; theoldsaltydog.com/city-island
Located on City Island overlooking the New Pass Inlet, next to the boat retailer MarineMax, Old Salty Dog offers covered, open-air seating right on the water. The restaurant regularly features fresh grouper at reasonable prices, complementing its pub grub staples, including its most famous item, the Salty Dog — a quarter-pound hot dog dipped in batter and fried to a golden brown. Feeling adventurous? Try the “fully loaded” hot dog Adam Richman devoured during an episode of "Man v. Food." Old Salty Dog has another waterfront location on Venice Island, and its original spot is in Siesta Key Village, which offers a bit more of an English pub vibe while still within walking distance of the world-famous Siesta Beach.
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Pop’s Sunset Grill
112 Circuit Road, Nokomis; 941-488-3177; popssunsetgrill.com
Pop's offers a tropical getaway along the Intracoastal Waterway by the Albee Road Bridge connecting Casey Key to Nokomis. Originally opened as Urbanek’s Fish Camp in 1954, Pop's produces a winning combination of Old Florida charm and modern features, such as the three-level, full-liquor tiki bar. While stopping by Pop's for libations and daily live music is always fun, be sure to bring your appetite. Personal favorites include the smoked mahi spread, fresh grouper cooked on the open-flame grill, and a veggie skewer that is not to be dismissed.
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Star Fish Company
12306 46th Ave. W., Cortez; 941-794-1243, starfishcompany.com
Nestled along Sarasota Bay in the fishing village of Cortez, Star Fish Company offers exceptional Gulf seafood with a generous serving of Old Florida charm. Credit Karen Bell, a third-generation Cortezian dedicated to preserving her family's commercial fishing heritage. She not only owns Star Fish and its adjoining fish market but also a fleet of commercial fishing boats and the adjacent “fish house.” While dining at her dockside restaurant boasting a century of history, you'll be captivated by the fishermen working alongside seabirds and the occasional dolphin. Star Fish serves expertly prepared Florida favorites like grouper, shrimp and oysters. However, the restaurant is particularly renowned for its mullet, a fish best enjoyed fried or blackened with a side of cheese grits.
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Swordfish Grill
4628 119th St. W., Cortez; 941-798-2035; swordfishgrillcortez.com
You can see the downtown Sarasota skyline from the large, covered back patio of Swordfish Grill that regularly features live music, but you feel like you're a thousand miles away from city hassles while relaxing here along the bay waters and working docks of Cortez. Swordfish Grill's many fresh seafood delights include the newly introduced Nashville Hot Fish. Typically consisting of fried grouper. the bite-sized pieces are tossed in house-made hot seasoning, drizzled with honey and served with razor-thin pickle slices. Fourth-generation commercial fisherman John Banyas owns Swordfish along with newly reopened next-door restaurant Cortez Kitchen, another one of my favorites.
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Tide Tables
12507 Cortez Road, Cortez; 941-567-6206; tidetablescortez.com
For those who appreciate fresh grouper, perhaps no one in Florida consistently does a better job of this than Tide Tables, which celebrated its 10th anniversary Feb. 24 and is owned by three beloved locals: Bobby and Gwen Woodson and Karen Bell (who also owns nearby Star Fish Company). At Tide Tables, they cut their fish right on the restaurant's dock on the Intracoastal Waterway, overlooking Anna Maria Island, and use it for delicious dishes such as their recent Thai chili grouper bites and blackened grouper sandwich. In addition to any and all grouper dishes you see on the menu or specials board, be sure to consider an order of Tide Tables' famous fish tacos featuring blackened fillets of mahi-mahi and a show-stopping sesame ginger sauce. Also, they make an outstanding Key lime pie that tastes extra amazing while watching the sunset spill over the water.
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Bonus picks: Best bait shops in Sarasota and Manatee
Neither New Pass Grill & Bait Shop on Sarasota's City Island nor Annie's Bait & Tackle in Cortez are the kind of places I recommend to someone seeking a proper restaurant. But for folks who want a funky, Old Florida waterfront dining experience adjacent to a bait shop, then you can't beat either one of these places. At New Pass, I highly recommend their New Famous Angus Burger, while at Annie's you'll want to order the grouper sandwich — it only comes fried and it is delicious — while their burger is very good, too.
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Wade Tatangelo is Ticket Editor for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and Florida Regional Dining and Entertainment Editor for the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. He can be reached by email at wade.tatangelo@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Best waterfront restaurant Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice
