Hello,
I will be travelling to Naples at the end of May and will be staying at the Hotel Escalante for 4 nights and 3 nights at La Playa.
I am looking for any info on restaurants serving fish,unusual salads and of course a good pasta dish.Please let me know of your favourites.
Many thanks
Angie

Angie, sorry I can't help you w/ where to eat in Naples but I can tell you where not to go! Charlie's Crab was awful....bad food, bad service, terrible location. We usually go to Charlie's Crab in FLL when we are on the east coast so were expecting something similar. Wrong.

Angie,

First let me say that you have made a wise choice by staying at the La Playa. It has recently been renovated and is a superb upscale property with a good restaurant right there. I read the post about Charlie's Crab and don't agree. We had a wonderful dinner there just a month ago. I would say it was one of the best seafood dinners I have ever had. She must have been there on an off night or is too hard to please.

Other restaurants we have tried and liked are:

Bistro 821 on 5th ave. (walk along 5th ave and there are many restaurants to choose from).

Campiello on 3rd ave south

Tommy Bahama for lunch on 3rd ave south

Try Aqua Grill at the Waterside Shops in Pelican Bay.

Russ

As with Russ, I love dinners at "LaPlaya." Very nice dining room and great food. Also, I had an excellent meal at "Syrah" - over in the harbor area, not far from downtown. It was EXCELLENT!!!

There are more restaurants in the area than you would know what to do with. You could eat at a different restaurant every day of the year and still not eat at them all. {There are more than 365 restaurants!}

Happy Trails,
Paul

PS I have not eaten at "Charlie's Crab," but I have read where it was a top restaurant in Naples.

Vergina is near the Escalante and is fantastic!

Try Roy's right off of highway 41 in Bonita. We've had several very good seafood meals there.

We enjoyed Stonewood restaurant and Sam Sneed's Tavern on our last trip to Naples. They are both a bit in off the coast on Vanderbuilt Beach Road.

Love, love the Snook Inn on Marco Island.

Oh, yes, the coconut shrimp at the little beach snack bar in front of the Registry...mmmmm....

Have a wonderful trip!

One more-Michelle's at Venetian Bay. Lovely French restaurant.

LaPlaya looked like a very nice hotel. Try for one of the beachfront rooms that you can walk right onto the sand. At LaPlaya is one of the best restaurants around--Baleen. It is a new restaurant, but has been around for awhile in Miami. Don't miss it!!

Just got back from Naples. We ate one dissapointing dinner at a seafood style restaurant located on 5th Avenue. I can't remember the name but it was on a corner, very attractive and advertised a four star review. We gave it two stars at best. It is accross from an Italian Restaurant with outdoor seating that we wished we had chosen instead.

The last post sounds like Yabba, and yes, since it switched from a Carribean to a mostly seafood menu it is disappointing. Don't worry about Charlie's Crab. It has now closed for lack of business -- I guess that tells us who was right and who was wrong.
Vergina gets my vote as the worst of the 5th Avenue restuarants.
The best of 5th Avenue? Probably Pazzo and Chops, Mangrove Cafe, and Buongustaio. Heading south from Escalante -- Tommy Bahamas is still always jammed and popular and decent but fun casual. Campiello across the street from there (on 3rd Street South) is very good and wonderful atmosphere.
Roy's in Bonita is great. Syrah on 5th Avenue -- but further east at the Harbourtowne complex at the Gordon River bridge is outstanding, probably one of our best right now.
Up by La Playa, in addition to going to Roy's, try the beach bar for casual dinner, drinks, or lunch at the Ritz. Or do grouper ruebens at Buzz's lighthouse, on the bay side between the Ritz and La Playa (very casual place).

Yes, it was Yabba. Didn't have a clue that it switched menus.