643 Best Restaurants in Florida, USA

This waterfront restaurant along the Himmarshee Canal offers Pan-Asian-Latin fusion dishes, including a full sushi bar and a plethora of comfort dishes like pad Thai, lo mein, and kimchi fried rice. Diners can opt to enjoy their meal as part of a gondola ride leaving from the restaurant's dock. The bar features an expansive collection of sake and Japanese whiskeys as well as creative cocktails. Each meal is finished with a massive puff of cotton candy.

The menu at this piano bar and restaurant offers a global hodgepodge of American, Mediterranean, and Asian flavors, with a specific focus on eclectic preparations of Florida fish. The food isn't particularly good, but the atmosphere at this historic home is excellent. Prepare for long waits to sit outside—it's incredibly popular for the direct views of the ocean.

At Casey's Corner there are multiple ways to enjoy a classic American hot dog—complete with pulled pork or Chicago style. The corn-dog nuggets are a perfect snack to grab while waiting for the parade, and try a pressed penny silk pie for a taste of yesterday.

A hot spot for drinking and dining, this restaurant and bar benefits from its location directly on the Gulf of Mexico. Sit in the covered open-air bar, or pick a spot under an umbrella on the Gulf-front patio and dig into island-inspired fare featuring plantains and beans, along with favorites like fish tacos, poke bowls, and gumbo. Want to relax even more? Grab a lounge chair in the sand and order right on the beach.

If you drop in for a drink at what is one of the best happy-hour spots in St. Petersburg, it's worth sticking around for dinner. Casual French options include croque monsieur, but there are also more elaborate entrées like bouillabaisse or Atlantic salmon served with smashed peas, baby-carrot confit, and an orange-coriander glaze. The wine list is formidable, and the cocktails are a Friday-evening draw for local movers and shakers. Given the location on bustling Beach Drive, the people-watching here is second to none. If you're around in the morning, stroll over to the attached bakery for a pastry and some coffee.

The wait for a table at this outpost of the legendary Italian restaurant is just as long as for its counterparts in West Hollywood and London. Expect heavy portions of atmosphere: it's a real scene of who's who and who's eating what, cast in a seductive, vintage-chic setting across the courtyard of Soho Beach House.

This family-owned Lebanese eatery, set in a major upscale strip shopping center that's become part of Restaurant Row, serves Middle Eastern standards like shish kebab, baba ghanoush (an ultrasmoky variety that is the very best in town), and hummus as well as tasty daily specials. One of the most notable regular entrées is the shawarma cooked on a rotisserie. More formal than the average Orlando-area Middle Eastern restaurant, and featuring a cocktail menu, Cedar's has tables with white-linen tablecloths and diners who tend to wear resort-casual attire. Musicians or belly dancers perform on some Friday and Saturday nights; hookah pipes are popular on the back patio.

A choice romantic destination as well as an excellent launchpad for a night out, this restaurant offers an astonishing spate of meat, seafood, or veggie small-plate options. You can't go wrong with any of the ceviches, and the paella (featuring vegetables, seafood, or chicken and pork paella) is a good large-plate choice. In the catacomb-like bar downstairs, there's jazz, salsa, and flamenco many nights (the schedule varies each month). While you're here, the sangria is a must.

A little off the beaten path, but very much worth looking for, Chanticleer has colorful decor featuring giant rooster paintings, but it's the food that will have you crowing. Most of the items are are homemade—including the bread, soups, and to-die-for cookies—and many of the entrées have a Cajun twist (Creole crab claws, shrimp and grits, jambalaya). The menu also features salads, burgers, steak, and pork chops. Whether you eat inside or outdoors, it's first-come-first-served seating.

Superstar chef Art Smith, recognized by foodies for having worked for Oprah and cooked for heads of state, incorporates ingredients from nearby farms, ranches, and fisheries in this tribute to down-home Southern cooking. Having been a part of Disney's College program (the native of Jasper, Florida, started his career with a culinary internship here), he's returned to present dishes like his famous fried chicken, deviled eggs, shrimp and grits, pork chops, fried green tomatoes, mashed potatoes, and Southern slaw. The portions are enormous, and the flavors are bold. Try the Jasper Board sampler—smoked fish dip, pimento cheese, Tasso hams, bread-and-butter pickles, candied pecans, and buttermilk crackers—for a taste of everything. Save room for the Moonshine Mash (there's a long list of cocktails) and Smith's signature hummingbird cake.

The fact that the Disney monorail zooms overhead right through the Contemporary Resort, and that Mickey, Minnie, or Goofy hangs around for breakfast and dinner, would be enough to make it popular, but the food here is surprisingly good. Chef Mickey's is shiny and bright, offering a breakfast and brunch that includes eggs and frittatas, a ham and beef brisket carving station, and, naturally, Mickey waffles. The family-style dinner doesn't disappoint either, with shrimp and grits, house-made macaroni and cheese, and a Mickey Mouse Dome for dessert. A large selection of specialty cocktails is available for the grown-ups, morning and evening.

This plush, bustling brasserie remains true to the spirit and the vision of Paul Bocuse, Gaston Lenôtre, and Roger Vergé, three of France's most famous chefs (Bocuse's son, Jerome, continues to run the restaurant). Classic escargots, a good starter, are prepared in a casserole with garlic butter; you might follow up with salmon marinated in white wine and lemon and served in a champagne sauce or grilled beef tenderloin with green peppercorn sauce; naturally, ratatouille is available, as is the occasional three-course, prix-fixe meal. Finish with your pick of a Parisian dessert.

Chez Le Bebe offers a short menu of Haitian home cooking—it's been going strong for over 30 years and has been featured on shows like the Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and The Layover with Anthony Bourdain. Try the stewed goat (the specialty) or the tender and flavorful chicken, fish, oxtail, or fried pork; each plate comes with rice, beans, plantains, and salad, for around $15.

Family-style meals are served here as the restaurant revolves, giving you an ever-changing backstage view of the Living with the Land boat ride. Offering quantity over quality, the restaurant serves all-you-can-eat meals with visits from Chip ’n’ Dale, Pluto, and occasionally Mickey. Typical choices include grilled beef, barbecue chicken, and seasonal veggies, plus kiddie favorites like mac and cheese. Beer and wine are available as well. Those who prefer a plant-based diet will appreciate a feast crafted just for them.  Except for the princess meals in Norway, this is the only EPCOT restaurant that has Disney character meet and greets during meals.

Luxurious yet simultaneously resort-wear casual, this restaurant draws everyone from young businesspeople to local retirees. Sushi and such Pacific Rim inspirations as shrimp spring rolls rub elbows with beef carpaccio and watermelon salad with goat cheese and pecans; grilled seafood and fine cuts of meat like dry-aged rib-eyes or strip steaks come with your choice of nine sides that include "wild" sherry-laced mushrooms for four-cheese mac. For dessert, sip a Special K Express martini, made with a full shot of espresso. Dine alfresco or inside with a view of the kitchen. There's a second location in Bonita Springs.

With bright graffiti walls, a buzzing bar, and an open-air roof, this trendy Japanese-Peruvian fusion restaurant has brought sophistication and edge to Lincoln Road. Order a pisco or Japanese whiskey and settle in for flavor-packed Nikkei-style cuisine and some of the best sushi in town.

Business travelers love to spend money at Christini's, one of the city's fanciest places for northern Italian cuisine. A throwback to elegant dining in the 1950s, the menu is filled with high-end versions of familiar dishes like chicken marsala and veal with lemon-wine sauce. You may be so enchanted by the rose each lady receives and the serenade by a roving accordion player that you forget to check the price of the recommended wine, which will cost you.

Its flavor-bursting food and its propensity for using fresh, quality ingredients keep Cibo (pronounced chee-bo) at the head of the class for local Italian restaurants. In contrast to the sophisticated black-and-white setting, the menu is colorful, from the classic Caesar salad with shaved Grana Padano to the spaghetti and meatballs, salmon piccata, and veal porterhouse with porcini risotto. The lasagna Napoletana is typical of the standards set here—a generous square of pasta layered with fluffy ricotta, meat ragu, mozzarella, and the totally fresh-tasting, garlicky pomodoro sauce.

Cinderella and other Disney princesses appear at this eatery in the castle's old mead hall, offering prix-fixe Fairyland dining as only Disney can supply. The Fairytale Breakfast offers options such as beef tenderloin and eggs and caramel apple–stuffed French toast; the Fairytale Lunch or Dinner includes entrées like spiced-crusted pork tenderloin or Parisian gnocchi. When you arrive at the Cinderella Castle, a photographer snaps a shot of your group in the lobby.  Extremely advanced reservations are required.

Recently updated Citricos pays homage to Mary Poppins and all things London. Kids will enjoy looking for the hidden touches from Mary Poppins Returns while adults enjoy Florida-inspired dishes such as sweet corn bisque, butter-poached mahimahi, or truffle macaroni and cheese. For dessert, the orange blossom flan is a true taste of Florida.  The Chef's Domain private dining and wine experience is great for larger groups as tables seat up to 12.

This trendy restaurant mingles the personalities and flavors of a New England oyster bar, a modern sushi eatery, an eclectic seafood grill, and an award-winning dessert bakery to create a can't-miss foodie haven in the heart of Delray's bustling Atlantic Avenue. Dishes like the oyster bisque, New Orleans–style shrimp and crab gumbo, tuna crudo, and lobster fried rice are simply sublime. The restaurant's colossal bakery adds an unexpected element of carb bliss with a full roster of homemade breads and desserts, including seasonal pies and an insanely divine pecan pie in a glass. Pastas, too, are made in house. On the downside, the place can be so busy and noisy that you can't hear your dining companions, especially in high season.

Gems from the sea are delivered fresh from the owners' boats to this rustic haven. Enjoy breakfast, lunch, or an early dinner outdoors to watch pelicans, gulls, tarpon, manatees, and the occasional gator play off the dock on the Barron River. Even better, you can chow down on sustainable stone crabs—medium, large, jumbo, and colossal, based on weight—with a clear conscience. After they remove the meaty claws, crabs are returned to the water so they can grow new ones. Brought a cooler with you? City Seafood wraps for the road (and ships, too). Gator and shark-tooth necklaces and cutesy crabby-style tanks, boxers, and tees await in the gift shop.

Nearly 100 beers as well as eight wines on tap provide reasons enough for Disney guests (and a fair share of Disney cast members) to frequent what's called the "ultimate sports bar." Paired with a global collection of rare, limited, and special brews are meals large enough to share, burgers big enough for one, and bar bites like nachos and wings to whet your appetite. The multitude of high-def televisions make watching live sporting events a natural in this active joint. Happy Hour specials run from 3:30 to 6 on weekdays, and there's a weekend Rock n' Roll Brunch from 10 to 3.

This lunch-only, family-owned restaurant (one of three branches) has devoted local patrons. The chicken salad pita with potato salad is legendary.

Befitting its Cuban and Spanish cuisine, this historic restaurant evokes an airy villa, thanks to a white-stucco exterior and an interior atrium dining room full of palm trees, hand-painted tiles, and decorative arches. Favorites on the menu include arroz con pollo, fillet salteado (with a spicy sauce), an array of tapas, and a fragrant seafood paella (allow extra time for preparation). Table not ready? Take in the archival family photos on the walls, linger in the courtyard, listen to the fountains, and enjoy a glass of homemade sangria or a refreshing mojito.

Because of its location where the fast ferry docks, Conch Republic does a brisk business. It's huge, open-air, and on the water, and the menu is ambitious, offering more than just standard seafood fare. Try a Caribbean-style twist on oysters Rockefeller with the baked oysters callaloo, or opt for paella, plantain-crusted mahimahi, or steak. Live music adds to the decibel level.

Like a hermit crab sliding into a new shell, Conchy Joe's moved up from West Palm Beach to its current home, a 1920s rustic stilt house on the Indian River. It's full of antique fish mounts, gator hides, and snakeskins and is a popular tourist spot—but the waterfront location, very casual vibe, and delicious seafood lure locals, too. Grouper marsala (the house specialty), coconut shrimp, and fried Bahamian cracked conch are menu fixtures. Don't miss the conch chowder. Live reggae gets people out of their shells Thursday through Sunday.

In your hurry to reach the attractions upon entering the park, you could (like many people) walk right past this full-service restaurant without noticing it, but it's a good place to enjoy a sit-down meal. The menu is American with international influences, and offerings include exotic wraps and sandwiches as well as entrées ranging from chilled tuna noodle bowls and pad Thai to sweet-and-sour ribs.

Those looking for their Starbucks coffee will appreciate the large space and quick-moving lines at this spot to the left of Spaceship Earth when you enter EPCOT. Disney-crafted bakery items change out regularly here, with some items inspired by whichever festival is happening in the park at that time.

With three kitchens offering a range of American-, French-, and Asian-inspired dishes, there's something for everyone at this brightly covered eatery. Picky eaters can enjoy an American burger or chicken sandwich, while those with sophisticated taste buds can savor the French Bistro Burger or an Asian-inspired salad. Disney is working on expanding its plant-based offerings, shown here in the California Burger or Niçoise-style salad. And make sure to save room for dessert. The Liège waffle and Black Forest baumkuchen (tree cake) are both delicious!