Cocoa Beach restaurants
 

Would like some restaurant recommendations for next week. I prefer unique local restaurants to chains. My first choice is seafood, but other types are fine as well. High end or dives are both acceptable.

Keith

For steaks try Durango Steak House, right on A1A.

For seafood, it is worth the drive to Titusville to Dixie Crossroads (plan to wait)

In the port area, I like Milliken's Reef and Grills. Milliken's has both a sand floored tiki bar and white table cloths. Grills is local and casual. Both have cruise ship port views.

Florida Seafood on the 520 Causeway is a long time local favorite.

If you have great outdoor dining weather, and don't mind a 20 minute drive, head south on A1A toward Melbourne Beach. Turn right on Eau Gallie, turn right on Pineapple. About 2 miles up is Bonefish Willies. Deck on the river dining. Excellent food. My favorite is the Grouper Brucetta. Worth the trip.

321go is our resident expert in Cocoa. You'll get up to date information when she posts.

Yep, we still haven't heard from 321 go!

In the meantime, a strong vote for Yen Yen at 2 N Atlantic Ave, Cocoa Beach, FL 32931. It very innovative & very delicious Chinese.

_______________________________________________
Vic's travels: http://my.flightmemory.com/vogilvie

Thanks for the recs!

Keith

2nding Yen Yen, and Millikens and Grills - all local favorites. Also adding Roberto's (Cuban food like Grandma in Havana used to make!) in downtown Cocoa Beach, Simply Delicious for brunch/breakfast, and Fat Snook in the south end of Cocoa Beach for excellent seafood (tiny place which could use better decor, but foodies love it).

We always go to Jack Baker's Lobster Shanty when we are in Cocoa Beach-love the coconut shrimp and the view is great.
Grills is also one of our favorites.

We just returned from Cocoa Beach and only tried two restaurants and sadly we were not impressed by either. First we went to Grills and it had been recommended by multiple people. We waited almost an hour for a table on a Sunday, but it was crowded so we were understanding of the wait. My frozen daiquiri was not great and my scallops dinner was bland and over cooked. The pasta side dish was even more bland. My companion had the broiled tuna which was decent but again the rice on the side was really bland. We left a lot of food on our plates to have paid as much as we did. The server was nice and fast though so at least it wasn't all bad.
The second place we tried again on recommendation was Coconuts at the Beach. This place shouldn't even be able to labeled as a seafood restaurant since you had a choice of either fish of the day or shrimp. They had more options for burgers than they did for seafood. My fish was dry as was my companions. The steamed veggies were excellent and the smoked fish dip appetizer was quite good too. But overall I think they make it based solely on location.
Hopefully we'll have a chance to go back soon and perhaps try some of the other places recommended in this post.

We did Millikens and Grills. Liked the settings, but found that the food was fine, but not special. At Grills we did 5 appetizers for two people and it wasn't as much food as I would have liked.

Rubio's Cuban Cafe was the best meal of anywhere during the trip. All of the food was good and the Cuban Creole sauce on the shrimp made me want to lick the plate.

Thanks again to all who helped!

Keith

Thank you both for offering feedback.

TrvlLvr, Coconuts is a beer-n-burger kind of place. It's really about having a drink while you watch the ocean or taking your drink out onto the beach; the food tends to be OK as long as you stick to the basics (the burgers).