Originally posted by FSUTribe76:
Just to keep the conversation going, I'm going to go in a different route. It's tough to say what the "best" restaurant in Florida or anywhere is because they're usually all over the top foodie places where there's 35 ingredients and 12 prep steps per dish and if you go on a day where the principal chef is not in the kitchen cooking your meal it can be disastrous or at least underwhelming. That could be why I didn't like highly rated places like Kai in Arizona. And when I travel, I've learned to skip the highly rated foodie places (which just like fashion usually all follow the same trends) unless there's something unique about it and instead go with local food items or cuisines. For example I was much happier with the Johns Roast Pork Sammy and cheesesteak I got in Philly than the two highly rated restaurants we went to and I much preferred Chap's pit beef and the G&M crab cakes in Baltimore to the foodie places we went to in DC.
Instead I'll put forward my ten favorite Florida meals (which are easily repeatable). I'm numbering them to keep track and separate but these are in no particular order.
1) The grand tour and steak experience at Bern's Steak House in Tampa. Enjoy the full tour plus the dessert room and then sit down for an amazing steak. This is covered well by the thread about it elsewhere in the LR just for it so I'll move on.
2) Sitting along the Apalachicola River on the deck at Boss Oyster eating while you watch the working oyster and shrimp boats cruise by or even pull up to your dock to drop off seafood. Sipping on an American swill beer (Bud or Coors of course) while starting with a dozen raw oysters that are usually the best in the country if not the world (a little weak this year due to chicanery by Georgians controlling the waterflow). Then advance to a dozen of the oysters Japonnaise (raw with heaping spoonfuls of flying fish roe, some wasabi and ponzu sauce), a mixed dozen of three different styles of cooked oysters (they have over 20 preps more than any other oyster bar I've been to) and maybe a pound of fresh steamed gulf shrimp to split with your loved one. Finish off with an adequate piece of key lime pie and you're in "Real Florida" heaven.
3) Another classic restaurant experience I would put in the top 10 is grabbing overpriced stone crabs in Miami Beach at Joe's Stone Crab. It's not exactly a "tourist trap" but it's basically the city of Miami wrapped up into one experience. You see plenty of over the top Italian sports cars and richie rich's mingling with the blue hairs and the tourons all while enjoying really good seafood at four times the price you would pay in Cedar Key or Apalachicola. Definitely stick with the "Joe's Classic" and get everything you would want including the stone crab claws, the quite good hash browns, the delicious creamed spinach and the adequate key lime pie. It basically summarizes Miami on a plate (unless there's a place that serves a second plate with a jerk chicken wing stabbing into a plate of arroz con pollo).
4) The best Amish food I've ever had was not in Pennsylvania or Ohio, but in Sarasota at Yoder's Restaurant. It's tough to pass up many of the Amish classics, but one of the best meals you will ever have is to start with a slice of Amish bread and spread on some of Yoder's homemade applebutter. Then for your main course stick with the best fried chicken in Florida, Yoder's "broasted" aka pressure-fried chicken. It's the only chicken in Florida that has consistently juicy white meat breasts thanks to the quick high pressure cooking treatment. For sides you should go with the potato cakes topped with sour cream or more of the amazing homemade applebutter and then also order a side of dumplings cooked in chicken stock. But the real star (other than the applebutter which will make ANYTHING taste amazing) is the pies. It's a real conundrum as far as what to get but to eat here without ordering pie should be a first degree felony. If you have a real sweet tooth then the traditional Amish shoofly pie with a side of homemade ice cream to tone down the sugar would be my suggestion OR the absolutely stunning butterscotch cream pie. If you want it so tart your teeth hurt, then their rhubarb pie is for you. Want something in between, then their rightfully famous peanut butter pie (which is not ridiculously rich like most peanut butter pies, its actually a homemade vanilla mousse for the most part topped with a mix of peanut butter and powdered sugar that has been blended into little PB fudge balls) is for you. Really, you CANNOT go wrong with any pie you order, the only thing you will regret is passing on the other 30 pies available.
5) Speaking of Cedar Key, one of if not THE best dish in all of Florida if not the US can be found in this quaint little fishing village. Stroll the little boardwalk on the water and then head back for the best clam chowder and arguably the best soup you will find anywhere. Tony's is a three time (in a row) world champion at the Clam Chowder World Championships held every year throughout New England but with competitors from all over the US. Not only did Tony's win three straight years, but they put in a special rule just for the restaurant where they "retired" his recipe as Grand Champion and would not allow him to compete using the same style of recipe anymore as they were tired of giving the prize to a tiny 54 seat restaurant in bumble*&^% Florida. So OBVIOUSLY, you know what to order. Get a cup (or even a bowl) of the clam chowder and then you'll be surprised to find out the rest of his menu of fried and broiled Florida seafood is actually pretty good as well. They're not the stars though, just good solid A+ seafood shack food and the world's best clam chowder.
6) Any list that left out Florida's best restaurant for the price would be worthless. And that best restaurant for the price is McGuire's Irish Pub in Pensacola. Tacky decor and world-famous incorrect restroom signage aside, this is simply a great, fun restaurant to visit and it will not break your bank. Slam home an Irish Wake to get the buzz going and then start with some reuben egg rolls for the table (a dish that shouldn't work but absolutely does) and maybe a craftbrewed onsite Irish Red Ale to wash them down. Then grab one of the best steaks in Florida (certainly for the price) or maybe one of their fantastic burgers if your wallet is feeling light and then enjoy a nice Irish Porter with it. McGuire's is not a romantic candlelit affair, it is a place for fun! Either with your significant other or a group. Don't worry about dessert, you will not have room.
7) Back to Tampa (and we will be back, I just realized I will need to expand this list to 20 to bring in more South Florida and Orlando places otherwise, it would be a very Tampa-centric list) for Mr. Dunderbak's and the best beer list in Florida (yes even over Redlight Redlight in Otown). Don't believe me? Then click here http://www.whatsontap.buildabeer.org/WhatsOnTapAt.php?BarID=USAFL00014 and realize that's just the tap list and a small percentage of the beers on bottle doesn't count the literally hundreds of other varieties they have in the bottle (they used to have a complete list and then gave up trying to keep it updated, it is ENORMOUS). But this isn't best bar, this is best dining experience. While you listen to a live oompah music in the center, grab your first beer and some authentic German currywurst with your choice of sausage (I'd go with the weisswurst or smoked bauernwurst). For seconds and thirds it's more beer and either the best fried Zigeuner Schnitzel or Jagerschnitzle around with some of the best warm German potato salad and red cabbage outside of German (and yes, much better than anything in Hellen Georgia). For dessert get one more beer and some of the bayrischer apfelstrudel.
8) The Sunday Brunch at Blue Heaven in Key West is definitely in my top ten of dining experiences for the state of Florida. See if your loved one or friends will let you split the shrimp and grits AND the famous eggs benedict with lime hollandaise sauce. Grab an actually quite good key lime pie for dessert. The free-roaming roosters, sixtoed cats and *&^&*y white reggae or Jimmy Buffetesque "island music" played on the live stage means that this is a quintessential Key West experience.
9) Returning to Tampa yet again for a visit to the oldest restaurant in Florida, the original Columbia in Ybor. Go for the Spanish/Cuban dishes that have been ripped off by lesser restaurants for over one hundred years but stay for the live flamenco dancers. Order some of the white sangria/sangria de cava made from Spanish sparkling wine and Spanish brandy plus fresh fruit made tableside and get some of the 1905 Salad that USA Today labeled one of the top 10 salads in the US. For your main course, the made entirely to order from scratch paella (I prefer the seafood variety) is a must even if it takes several extra minutes over the other courses, but that's what the Flamenco show is for and you should use the extra time to order more white sangria or upgrade to some tableside mojitos. For dessert, the crema catalana or the flan cannot be beaten.
10) The Yearling in Hawthorne is redneck Florida food at its best with live blues and occassionally bluegrass music played on stage. Ordering the venison, gator or frog legs with some American swill beer (only Bud or other adjunct "lagers" match with the cracker food).
Now that I've done 10, I've noticed I really need another 10 to cover Miami and Orlando as I wouldn't have any of those topping these 10 and Hellas in Tarpon Springs and Mai-Kai in Ft Lauderdale would definitely be in my top 20 dining experiences as well. So I'll come back and add 10 more when I come back.
This post was edited on 2/21 11:24 AM by FSUTribe76
