naples
 

Hi,I have a two part question.
Can anyone tell me how far the sanibel harbor resort and Spa is from the Ritz Carlton Naples.Also what is the best way to travel there, taxi or rental car.
My second question is restaurant related.
Has anyone been to Marie Michele or the Dinning Room in the Ritz Carlton.Also can anyone suggest places for lunch with a water view.
Thanks

There are two Ritz Carltons in Naples the beach & spa and the Naples Golf .You will need to rent a car. If staying at the RC beach the turtle club is a five minute walk from the Ritz with beach front dinning the two Ritz have a shuttle between both.the best way to sanibel would be wiggns pass road along the cost line up to sanibel you go thru Bonita beach and Ft Myers beach along this route . if staying at the Ritz on the beach its the first left at the traffic light and follow that road to wiggns pass to bonita beach rd .go to map quest and put in the hotels address it will give you the driving directions . places for beach front dinning vanderbilt beach inn beach bar the ritz on the beach . buzz's lighthouse on the intercostal across from the Turtle club 5 min walk from the Ritz

Italiano, have you ever driven the route you suggest? The route you give would be about 2 hrs to 2.5 hrs. depending on traffic onto Bonita Beach and Estero island. Other than the pretty Lovers Key, Fort Myers Beach and Bonita Beach are pretty much walls of highrise condos.

Traffic in SW Florida is reaching epic proportions. Last Thursday, it took me 95 minutes to go from Daniels Parkway and 41 to Pine Ridge Rd. (Naples) and US 41. Traffic is at a crawl. So many accidents on I-75 that divert traffic to 41.

Cabs are few in SW Florida. Everyone seems to rent a car.

Restaurants with Gulf view:

Bonita Beach: doc's beach house. A beach dive that is easily found from Bonita Beach Rd. and US 41. Take BB Rd. west until the turn. Doc's is on the right.

North Naples: Baleen. Lovely elegant restaurant with tables outside with great beach views. In the LaPlaya Resort.

Patrick always recommends a beachside restaurant in this area with great Grouper Reubens. I haven't been there yet.

Marie Michelle is in the Venetian Village, a pretty venue. Very french but I have to say that I do not remember very much about my luncheon or my dinner there which is unusual for me. I usually remember food and presentation in detail.
LMF

There are a handful of taxis you can take, but you'd have to call one. A rough estimate of cost between Sanible Harbour and the Ritz is about $225 each way by taxi. The times as LMF has mentioned above are about right if you are coming in season (within the next three months). Here is Naples the usual traffic joke is "we were going to go to Sanibel for the day, but we couldn't get a motel room".

The little place for Grouper Ruebens is Buzz's Lighthouse, super casual deckside dining on the bay side, not the beach -- just north of the beach Ritz.

Perhaps the finest dining in Naples these days is at the Golfing Ritz in their beautiful dining room. Marie Michel is nice. I thought it OK, but kind of overly pretentious for what it was -- a nice little restaurant in a shopping center trying to be a grand dining experience.

Right by there though is Bayside, a nice restaurant with a casual bar and bistro downstairs and a much nicer dining room upstairs with great views out over the bay. Good, contemporary sort of food.

And Baleen is indeed very nice and right on the beach.

Perfect timing. I cut and pasted this too for our 5 day trip to Naples this weekend. We have reservations at Chops for Tuesday dinner and Roy's for Sunday dinner. Hope we did ok with these spots. Maybe we'll fill in the other 2 nights with Baleen and Bayside or the Golfing Ritz, though that sounds REALLY expensive! Glad we're staying at a cheap hotel in Naples - sounds like keeping a big budget for food was a good idea.

Steve R
Maryland

Stever, which Chops? The one near Bonita, or the one on Fifth Avenue South? There has been some confusion on this, so make sure you know which one you booked.

Yes, the Golfing Ritz, like the other Ritz is VERY expenive. My favorite between the two places is actually the smaller dining room at the beach Ritz -- the Grill Room, beautiful paneled library feeling. But last time I looked the cheapest entree was $36 for a grilled chicken breast!

By the way, we finally went to the new Flemings Steakhouse and were mightily impressed with the entire thing. That's quite close to the Doubletree, Stever. It is a "chain" owned by Paul Fleming (the PF of PF Changs), but don't let the chain idea throw you -- it is excellent. Ask to sit on the "balcony" level, which is more relaxed and quieter -- I think they call it the private room -- but it is all open to the main dining room just a few steps below.

For waterview dining...we like The Dock, which is casual. Also Turtle Club and Lighthouse We also like Cloyd's, which is a couple of doors from Marie Michelle. Not alot of water can be seen from their windows but the food is good. In fact, all of the restaurants in Venetian Village are pretty good, not award winning mind you, but every meal won't be at the Ritz I trust. You can even get a pretty good burger at the beach by the Registry Hotel.

Just back from my first visit to Naples and had excellent all-around experiences at the following (none of which are cheap; but well worth it):
Ritz/Beach "Grill Room"
Chops (5th Ave)
Truluxe (5th Ave)
Pazzo (5th ave)
Campiellos (3rd St)
There are also many smaller "bistros" between 5th and 3rd where you can usually find a spot at the bar without planning ahead.

UG_THE_TD, I am really upset. Here I sit for the past week waiting for your call and dinner invitation and do I hear from you? NO! LOL

What a great week of dining you did!!

By the way, for future reference it is Truluck's -- but I like your spelling better!

When visiting my parents who winter in Naples we ate at The Dining Room.

The reservation proved to be difficult to get... not because they were booked, but rather because they don't seem to have the most efficient way of handling them. If memory serves, when we called there was no one in the dining room, and, thus, no one to take our reservation (Odd, for a hotel... couldn't reservations or the concierge do it?!?).

They called the next day to take the reservation. When we arrived, there was no reservation on the books. Up until this point, this is NOT what I expect of a five star/diamond hotel and restaurant.

After that, things looked up. Dinner was fabulous (I recall I had the veal) and the service was very good (including 'use of name' which, believe it or not, is key for the top AAA and Mobil ratings). Portion sizes are reasonable for a high end restaurant... you certainly won't leave stuffed, but if you are hungry, do have the cheese course which the waiter had suggested to us.

The Dining Room is beautiful (and I must say the washrooms in the lobby are some of the finest I have utilized!)

All around (well, minus the reservation mix up) a wonderful experience, though it doesn't make my list of the top ten dining experiences I have had.

Thanks everyone.I think I am going to change marie-michelle,I have reservations at the dinning room at Ritz carlton naples beach.Patrick should we change it to the golf resort?.Seems silly if we are staying at the beach.We have steak all the time so we may want to pass on the grill room although patrick makes that restaurant sound great.Have a reservation at baleens and i need one more.I have fancy friends so they want everything upscale.Thinking campiello
or any other sug.Thanks everyone and that tip about the 225 dollar cab ride was very helpful

Patrick: We have reservations for the Chops in Bonita. Should we change that to Flemings by the Doubletree instead?

Steve R

If staying at the beach Ritz, then I'd have dinner there. But if you're coming down just for dinner, I'm not sure what to tell you. I tend not to like the huge dining room, and prefer the more intimate atmosphere of that "men's clubby" paneled Grill Room, but that may just be me. It's not all steaks by the way. The dining room at the beach Ritz is much more grand than the dining room at the golfing Ritz, so if that's part of the attraction, you'd probably be best sticking to the beach Ritz Dining Room.

I happen to love Campiello, but it is hardly "upscale" in the sense of the other restaurants. In fact it is quite casual, not very expensive and just good Tuscan oven food. You might want to go to Lurcat, the newer place by Campiello which in a lovely upstairs setting (downstairs is the bar and more casual dining) on Fifth. I haven't been upstairs, but people are saying it is one of the nicest dining experiences on Fifth. Certainly quieter and more refined than all the trendy places like Zoe's, Pazzo, Chops, or Mangrove.

Not to totally hijack this thread, but,

Disregard that last post, Patrick... we DO have reservations at Chops on 5th in Naples for Tuesday, NOT Bonita. Sunday we have Roy's. Valentines day is open for us. We'll have to find a place that doesn't take reservations as most places are booked for 630-7pm when we typically eat. We'll pick a place where you just go in and wait, EARLY!

We have 2 more nights to fill... which do you recommend, something a bit cheaper maybe? :o)

Steve R
Maryland

My, it took me a long time to post that last one. Stever's question came after I started.

If you don't have a Flemings near where you live, then yes, I'd probably change to it. The main reason to stick with Chops would be if you are into doing a sushi and steak mix for dinner, as that is the unusual combination of dining experiences they offer. Frankly, I think the steaks are considerably better at Flemings than at Chops. The bone-in sirloin is supposed to be the best, and all their side dishes to share are really wonderful.

My timing is great huh?
OK, stick with going down to Fifth for Chops. But I'd work on doing Flemings one night.
Waiting early on Valentine's sounds like a nightmare. You'd probably be better making a 9 PM reservation, as I suspect that's what you'll wait for.

Something cheaper? How about PF Chang's? So good and so reasonable. Are you familiar with them? One of the most often raved about "chains" around. Very popular, but worth a call now to get a reservation. Otherwise it is a "wait" place. It's also north, not far from Doubletree.

And either The Dock or Riverwalk in Naples will serve for fun, on the water, casual and tropical. Really fun and inexpensive places.

Stever, get ready. I called PF Changs to see how busy they were on Valentine's -- busy later. You have a reservation if you want it for Valentine's at 7 PM at PF Changs. Your confirmation number is 21701. It is for 2 right, or were there kids too, I lost track? If not, please just call them and cancel when you get here. 239-596-2174. The name on the reservation is "Stever". What do they know? No problem if you don't want it, I just got caught up in the surprise of it being available so went ahead and booked it.

Thanks Patrick. We DO have a PF Changs right near our house and go occasionally so if that's pretty much the only place we could get into on Valentines eve, we'll take it! It's very cheap and decent in quality. We'll at least keep the reservation till we get down there, and if we can't get anything else that sounds better, we'll just eat there. If we find something more locally interesting, we'll eat there instead and cancel the reservation at PF Changs.

I'm going to put Flemings on our list of places to try if we get the chance. We're not sushi people so I'm still not sure which to go with (vs Chops) If Flemings is closer to the Doubletree and is better, wouldn't it be better to blow off Chops and just do Flemings? I've never even heard of Chops or Flemings till this post. We only have Capital Grill, Mortons and Ruth Chris (and a half dozen other very expensive steak houses in DC like Sam and Harry's, Charlie Palmer, Rays, Occidental Grill, the Palm, etc!)

Steve R
Maryland

Had a wonderful dinner at Lurcat the other night-very good looking room upstairs room with good menu and food to match. Fleming's is excellent, too.

thanks patrick and everyone else.I think I will try lucrat.Naples sounds great.