baseballmom

We are going to be staying at the Don Cesar for the first time and are looking for good seafood resaurants in the region and suggested areas for good surf fishing. Thanks!

luvtravelin2

I was looking into the Don Cesar resort also. Did you find a good deal at this resort? It's kind of expensive.If yes, which website did you use?

Thanks!!

joan

My neighbor caught two gorgeous snook the other day - right off the beach at the end of our street (Treasure Island - about 4 miles north of you) so I'd think anywhere along the beach, even right in front of the hotel, might just work. (Snook are wonderful eating - but endangered so you can catch 'em but not sell or buy 'em.)

Just went to a great restaurant in that area: Crazy Conch Cafe. Mmm! It's on the causeway in Tierra Verde, along the road to Fort DeSoto, which has a fabulous fishing pier.

Also, the old Skyway Bridge, alongside the real bridge, has been refurbished into a fishing pier. Both these piers get the big deepwater fish.

Tandoori_Girl

Agree with Joan -- the old Skyway bridge is now the greatest place, despite the disaster that made it that way. The old bridge had a span collapse in the 1970s when a tanker ship ran into it, taking a Greyhound bus and its passengers into their graves below. With one span down, they took down what remained, as well as the other span, and left the approaches -- so you can drive onto it and up to the bait shop and turn-around at the end. It is an absolutely gorgeous spot -- you'll be fishing under the new bridge at the very mouth of the Tampa Bay.

Don't forget to buy your fishing license. I think you can buy one there.

There are some restaurants in Passe-a-grill just south of the DonCesar. I like two -- they are both on Gulf Blvd. which runs in front of the Don, one on the left just past the first light that you'll come to. The other is further down on the right on that road. Can't remember either name. The Hurricane is also on Passe-a-grill, it's an old but renovated restaurant that lost its charm from its expansion. The food is just OK but the view atop its third floor is fabulous.

Though it's a little unpredicatable during tourist season when the tourists overrun its capacity, Dockside Dave's in Madiera Beach does blackened fish better than anyone. Casual. I like Guppy's in Indian Rocks, more upscale but still casual. For upscale, I like Island Way Grill in Clearwater. Never been to the Beach Bistro but seems a lot of people like it.

cd

Our favorite restaurant was the Backfin Blue Cafe. Small and you usually have to wait but just have a glass of wine on the front porch and the wait is not long. Everything we had there was good! A funky very casual place for crawfish that we enjoyed is the Cajun Grill on a Bayou in St Petersburg. Try to sit on the portion that is over the water. The fishing pier at Fort DeSoto that Joan recommended is great! A wonderful place to spend the day fishing and walking the beach and grounds. The above poster, Joan, and her husband own a wonderful market/restaurant where you can buy fresh seafood to go and take to the Fort DeSoto for a picnic! It is in St Petersburg and the name is Mid Peninsula. They have a website. Have fun!