My wife and I are planning to visit the Sarasota area (Lido Key) for 4 nights in early May. I've compiled a list of places mentioned in other forum threads. How would you rank the following restaurants (1-5) in terms of food, service, and value? Would you recommend it? Are there restaurants that are missing? Thanks for your help!

Casual-Dining: Seafood
1. Star Fish Company (Cortez)
2. Phillips Creek Village O.B. (Sarasota)
3. Capt. Brian's Seafood Mkt (Sarasota)

Breakfast
4. Blue Dolphin Cafe (St. Armand's Circle)
5. The Broken Egg (Siesta Key)
6. Cafe on the Beach (Holmes Beach)

Picnic/Deli and Ethnic
7. Whole Food Market (Sarasota)
8. Morton's Market (Southside Village)
9. Mi Pueblo (Palm Plaza)
10. Yoder's (Sarasota)
11. Old Salty Dog (next to Mote Aquarium)

Splurge Dinner/Lunch
12. Beach Bistro (Holmes Beach)
13. Cafe L'Europe (St. Armand's Circle)
14. Michael's on East (Midtown Plaza)
15. Fred's (Southside Village)

Oddly enough the only places you mention where I've been are the four "splurge restaurants" (no, I take that back, I have eaten at Siesta's Broken Egg-- good).

For the four splurge choices, I'd rate them in the same order you have them (although I haven't been to Beach Bistro in quite a while, I hope it still rates highest). While I like Fred's though, I hardly think of that as a splurge place in the same terms as the other places.

Patrick - I think the Beach House only has dinner. However, the others in the "splurge" category are open for both lunch and dinner. Would you recommend Cafe L'Europe or Michael's on East for a nice lunch?

I'd opt for Cafe L'Europe for lunch. Although recently I noticed their lunch menu seems to have been lightened significantly, it still looks very good. For dinner, I'd probably choose Michael's on East over Cafe L'Europe.

For casual, I'd highly recommend the Dry Dock on Longboat Key.

gilber20- Be careful, Beach House and Beach Bistro are two entirely different restaurants. Beach Bistro is a splurge, Beach House is a packed, overrated, wait forever casual spot.

Do a search for my recent trip report on Anna Maria Island or just click on my name at the top of this post and hunt for my trip report. I have a pretty thorough report on Beach Bistro ...its all good. I also went to Philippi Creek (sp?) and mention it as well.

I like Michaels on East but not as well as Beach Bistro.

Do you like cuban food? The Columbia Restaurant at St. Armand's is lively and the food, though not gourmet or new cuisine, is usually dependable and good cost value. Sort of like mom would make if mom were cuban.

I second Columbia - great for people watching and the chopped salad is delicious. For dessert, grab an ice cream at Kilwins.

Also, we really liked the Bijou Cafe - presentation as well as food were excellent.

The white sangria at Columbia's is fabulous!

I didn't realize Kilwin's was a chain. We have them up here in NC mountains!

Hi

Casual
starfish - pretty decent
Philippi creek - enjoyed it sa few times
capt brians - haven't tried

Blue dolphin - large breakfasts on St armands and on Longboat Key
The Broken Egg - sorry haven't tried
Cafe on the Beach - again pretty good

Whole Foods - pretty darn good for deli items

Salty Dog - good luncheon spot if you head to the Mote Acquarium

Yoders - Amish restaurant -large portions

Dinner - Splurge

Beach Bistro - generally good but has its moments

Cafe L-Europe - very good

Columbia - I've always liked it

Michaels on east - again good not cheap but big dining out place

Pattigeorge on Longboat - same ownership as Michaels - and pretty good

Euphemia Haye - Longboat Key - always good - never had a bad meal here

Fred's - haven't tried

I also enjoy the small restaurants down on Main Street in sarasota and really enjoy dining there.

Thanks for all the helpful comments and suggestions. Where is the Bijou Cafe? Are there any recommendations for small restaurants or cafes on Main St.?

The Bijou Cafe is located at
1287 First Street
Sarasota
(941)366-8111
www.BIJOUCAFE.NET

We were there just last month and I highly recommend it.

The Bijou is right off Main street. Two Senoritas is a good, fun type Mexican restaurant also on Main st and about two or three doors up there's a good Italian restaurant.

We've had good dinners at each of the places that we've tried there.

You can try Pino's at the beginning of Main St., small, nice ambience, delicious food, somewhat pricey. Farther up Main Street are Zoria, next to the Hollywood Twenty movie theaters. Nice atmosphere, good food. Across the street from the Hollywood Twenty is Mediterraneo. Nice looking restaurant, northern Italian cuisine.

By the way, upstairs from Euphemia Haye is the Hayeloft, a great place to drop in for a drink, dessert/coffee, or to order from a lighter menu. They have live music every night, and it is a real
treat. Even if you dine downstairs, be sure to take your coffee and dessert upstairs.

Enjoy your stay--we LOVE Sarasota!

One place I'd skip on Main Street is Bellini. We had a rather mediocre meal there and when the owner (very friendly) came over to ask how everything was I couldn't help but tell him I was a little disappointed that for the Bucatini Amatriciana they didn't have Bucatini. He got very flustered and said, "but we do". I mentioned that mine was simply spaghetti (and didn't even mention that the sauce was rather poor too). He proceded to tell me I don't know the difference. "In Italy" he said, "bucatini is much fatter and is hollow." "Yes", I acknowledged. "But in the US, bucatini is just like spaghetti." Huh? Where? I order it at two restaurants here in Naples all the time and the bucatini is fat and hollow, as it is at the market where I buy it and fix at home. To try to pass off being too cheap or too lazy to use the real stuff as being "correct" for the US was just plain silly.

Bijou is my favorite in Sarasota. I didn't want to start mentioning other places as you already had a good list. Now you're probably getting too many to choose from!

As to your "Splurge" restaurants---Bijou is very good. I happen to be a "wine" person and appreciate the very well thought out list in addition to very good food.
If you decide on Beach Bistro, you might want to book a reservation well in advance as it tends to be busy even off season. Also, Pattigeorge is a wonderful place, right on Sarasota Bay with beautiful views and excellent food. Beach Bistro is directly on the gulf. Many locals consider it the most romantic restaurant in the area.

I second the vote for Mediterraneo's for northern Italian----also on Main St.: Cafe Epicure: light, pleasant; option of dining alfresco. If you like French cuisine in a small, but charming atmosphere, try a light lunch or delicious baked goods at C'est la Vie (also on Main). On St. Armand's, I also pull for Columbia (give the black bean cakes a whirl). Kilwin's is great for dessert, watching fudge/candy making, but if you have the opportunity, (and you like the 50's era), definitely give Scoop Daddy's a shot (huge portions, jukebox, chrome and red decor; clean restrooms in back). Also----there is another Old Salty Dog on Siesta Key (in addition to the one near Mote Aquarium). Don't be surprised to see a celeb or two on one of the keys: Jerry Springer has a house on Bird Key (between Sarasota and St. Armand's), among others. We run into and spoken with Dick Vitale (lives in Sarasota) with his family on several occasions (very friendly, down-to-earth person). You'll have a good time---weather should be pretty decent in early May.

Thanks for all of your comments and helpful suggestions. Here is a trip report of the places we were able to visit for lunch and dinner. We stayed at the Lido Beach Resort, near Sarasota for 3 nights. With a full kitchenette and a lovely balcony overlooking the downtown bay area, we prepared our own breakfast of tea and cereal with fresh fruit.

Sunday (April 24th) – Drove our rented white Ford Taurus from the Tampa airport to the Sarasota Whole Foods Market on the corner of 1st and Lemon and to pickup cereal, milk, oranges, a bottle of wine, and a light spinach salad with tomatoes, blue cheese and balsamic vinegar.

Cha-Cha Coconuts (Dinner): My wife and I were very tired, and had a craving for a simple meal at a super-casual place. Our expectations of this place were very low, as the scent of beer was everywhere. But the grilled grouper sandwiches were delicious and seemed quite fresh. Is it possible to go wrong by ordering any dish with grouper in Sarasota? We liked the elegant yet tourist-friendly atmosphere of St. Armand’s Circle. Parking was easy on a Sunday night.

Monday (April 25th) – Visited the Ringling Art Museum, which is free on Mondays, for a guided tour of the mostly baroque and renaissance collection. We admired the view of the bay from the backside of Ca’d’Zan and enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the rose garden.

Café L’Europe (Lunch): My wife was craving fried oysters ($12), which were quite good. I had the shrimp chinoise ($14), which consisted of 5 delicious Gulf shrimp with bright-red angel hair pasta that was infused with beets. Creative and visually striking dish! The soy-ginger vinaigrette added a sweet and tangy flavor to the shrimp.

El Habanero (Dinner): After an afternoon of lazing at the beach, we were in the mood for Peruvian or Cuban food, but Javier’s on Siesta Key was closed on Monday nights. In Sarasota, we drove to this little house on Burns Court. The interior was very simple – and inviting. A good sign was the freshly squeezed mango juice ($2). My wife ordered the pot roast chicken special ($9) with plantains and of course, black beans and rice. We agreed this was delicious and the better choice. I had to try the Cuban sandwich ($6) – which was very good, but not as great as the chicken. But the shared dessert combination ($7) of a café con leche with a tres leches sponge cake was superb. Our dessert was the culinary highlight of the entire vacation trip!

Tuesday (April 26th) – Visited the Mote Aquarium, which was very fun and educational. I didn’t know that sharks and horseshoe crabs were essential parts of biomedical research on cancer and toxicity tests for vaccines. The manatees were amazing to watch up close. Why do so many visitors find these creatures repulsive? I couldn’t understand why, since they are gentle vegetarians of the sea. Perhaps some people dislike the small eyes and elephant-like features.

Old Salty Dog (Lunch): My wife ordered the fish n’ chips special ($10) – which was batter fried grouper. I enjoyed the blackened grouper sandwich ($10) which was good, but not as delicious as the first grouper sandwich at Cha-Cha Coconuts. The outdoor setting overlooking the bay and proximity to the aquarium were fantastic – it’s a very child-friendly atmosphere.

Whole Foods Market (Dinner): After a long drive up to Anna Maria Island via Longboat Key and Coquina Beach, we had an ice cream ($4) at Mama Lo’s by the fishing pier, and were too tired to go to a restaurant. So we stopped by Whole Foods Market for a large salad ($5) and dined there. With sheets of rain coming down, we visited the cat-friendly Main Bookstore for an hour of book-browsing and then retired to the hotel for the evening. I read a good portion of the mystery novel, “Double Whammy” by Carl Hiassen. It’s an entertaining book filled with bizarre but memorable characters. Another short and fun book is his entertaining critique of Disney in “Team Rodent”.

Wednesday (April 27th) – The morning was cloudy with drizzle. We checked out of the hotel, and drove down I-75 to Sanibel Island via Ft. Myers. Great tram tour of the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge where we saw ospreys, cormorants, and egrets. No alligators, however, which had their traditional resting area disturbed by Hurricane Charlie, which caused much damage in August 2004. There were plenty of shells everywhere at Bowman’s Beach.

Ann’s Over Easy Café (Lunch): My wife enjoyed a Gulf shrimp omelette ($10) with tomatoes and provolone cheese and grits. I had a very satisfying egg reuben sandwich ($7) with a side of bland and overcooked potatoes. The place is very casual, and feels more like a diner. However, we had to wait about 15 minutes for an empty table during the peak lunch hour.

Backfin Blue Café (Dinner): After a 2 hour drive up I-75 north to Gulfport near SP, we checked into the Sea Breeze Manor B&B. This was a relaxing alternative to downtown SP. Lori, the proprietor who moved here in 2002, was very kind, and prepared a delicious eggs benedict and quiche for us. It’s a good option for independent travelers and couples without kids who seek a laid-back and quiet escape from the world. At the café, my wife ordered a crab cake sandwich ($9), which was quite good – almost as delicious as Maryland crab cakes. I had a baked grouper sandwich ($9) that was OK, but nothing special. We shared a huge spinach salad appetizer ($4), and finished the meal with a very sweet key lime pie ($4), that seemed like it had too much sugar or lime juice. The café had a relaxed atmosphere for casual dining on the outdoor porch, but the inside smelled like grease and fish. The evening view of the Peninsula Inn next door was relaxing as some people were sitting on the porch enjoying drinks. Gulfport itself is a laid-back haven for artists and free spirits. Beach Avenue feels like a movie set of a town from 1950s Florida. After reading the works of Carl Hiassen, I imagine it’s what Florida might have been like before Disney arrived, and the big money of commercial tourism and high-rise condos sprang up everywhere.

Thursday (April 28th) – We ventured to Pass-a-Grill beach for a morning stroll along the gulf, and collected more pretty shells. Then we witnessed a huge 9 pound grouper being weighed and filleted from a recent charter boat. The brown pelicans were hovering like crazy scavengers for the remains. Skipped lunch today and took an afternoon nap before driving into SP and stopping by the Mirror Lake Library to check email. Then we enjoyed an excellent docent-led tour of the Dali Collection. This was our cultural highlight of the entire vacation trip! It’s a real coup that SP was able to attract this collection that was started by an Ohio entrepreneur. It was amusing to learn that the Cleveland Museum of Art was to inherit the entire collection, but a stubborn and conservative museum director there refused Dali’s surrealist works as “utter rubbish”.

Bern’s Steak House (Dinner): My wife and I just had to try this place for a splurge meal, given all the “you’ll either love it or hate it” comments on the Fodor’s website threads. The décor is a bit tacky, and the place seems tailor-made for men to conduct business. With two limos waiting in the parking lot, I was expecting a baseball player celebrity or a real-estate tycoon to be in the restaurant. We ordered a medium-rare 18oz. thick Delmonico rib-eye steak for 2 people ($66 but came with many sides). Our waiter was rather bossy and aggressive in recommending things for us. My wife did not like this at all. Yet it seemed to be part of the whole Bern’s experience. Reading the wine list book was worth the trip – I enjoyed an $8 glass of 2003 Serghesio Zinfandel after our pushy waiter insisted on it instead of a medium-bodied Cab. We rolled ourselves up to the dessert room, and had an OK key lime pie ($9). The mini-jukebox where you can select your background music in a semi-private booth was nice. Joan - I agree with you that the place is not great in terms of the quality of its steaks or bossy service, but the atmosphere is unique to Tampa. You really do get a sense of how some Tampa folks view “fine dining”. With an all-male waiting staff and tacky decor, I can see why some women hate this place, but guys find it appealing. Why does the dining room add a 12% service charge in place of a salary? Our total bill came to $100 with tax, tip, and service charge. Is this a gimmick to get customers to pay more in tips – or is the restaurant so cheap in keeping its labor costs down?

Friday (April 29th) – After checking out of the B&B, we drove to Fort DeSoto Park for a lovely afternoon at the pier, museum, fort, and the pristine North Beach. This was the prettiest and most natural beach by far on our trip as there were no high-rise buildings and condos in sight. The sand was pleasant, and the gulf breeze was a welcome respite from the searing heat of the sun. We can’t wait to return for our next vacation trip in a year!

Tangelo’s Café (Lunch): We were pressed for time before returning to the airport, so we drove to downtown St. Petersburg. My wife ordered a Cuban sandwich ($6), with chips and black beans and rice. I had a roasted pork sandwich ($6). Both were decent, though not as delicious as El Habanero in Sarasota. I imagine that better Cuban food can be had in Tampa. The freshly squeezed lemonade was very refreshing after our afternoon at the beach. Our USAir flight had an electrical wiring malfunction that delayed us for more than an hour. Many passengers missed their connecting flights and were anxious and unhappy the entire flight. Do any of you think USAir will still be in business a year from now?

Have been to Beach Bistro and Bijou, and frankly wouldn't put Beach Bistro so high on the list. The food is purty good and the view at sunset is lovely BUT the chef seems to have a few things he/she grooves on and you have to think eating things out of martini glasses makes them taste better.

The Bijou is slightly less pretentious but actually more conscientious about what they do -- no sunset or seascape but a very pleasant ambiance.

A little surprised that you don't mention any of the Mennonite/Amish style restaurants, since they are sort of an anchor to Sarasota's "eats" (as opposed to "fine dining") scene. Two on Bahia Vista (Yoders, and..?) and one on Cattleman's near Bee Ridge -- serious comfort food, well prepared.