Best Restaurants in Southwest Florida: Marco Island, the Everglades, and Naples

Is it cold where you are?  Raining?  Snowing?  All of the above?  Then you’re thinking of sun and sand.  I certainly am, and I just got back from Florida a few days ago.

Nancy and I have been regulars at Marco Island during the winter the last few years.  Marco is as far south as you can go on the Florida West Coast without getting a boat.  The temperatures are friendly, the water is warm, the beach is nice and firm for walking, interesting shells abound, and the sunsets are great.

All that’s important, but a huge reason to choose Marco Island is the food.  Marco is right next to the fishing village of Goodland, and the seafood in Marco Island is abundant, fresh, and available at a reasonable price, and a few at a higher price that, considering the quality, is still reasonable.

Our “Best” list starts in Goodland itself, where there are two memorable waterside restaurants with very different personalities, Little Bar and Stan’s Idle Hour.

You want to go to both of them.  Little Bar has a little bar, that’s always crowded, but mainly Little Bar is a tablecloth restaurant with excellent local seafood.  It’s the place to get the stone crab claws that flourish in the mangroves near Marco — for less than half the price they charge here in DC.

Stan’s has a big bar.  In fact, on weekend afternoons in the season, Stan’s spills over its large lot and becomes a huge, sprawling outside bar that attracts hundreds of people for an afternoon of beer and country music, with occasional food from a limited menu.  You go for the show.  The rest of the time, Stan’s is an excellent seafood restaurant with a full menu, including fresh oysters and, usually, country music.

In Marco Island proper, perhaps the most popular good restaurant is the Snook Inn.  It’s been around forever, and is forever busy.  The attractions include well cooked fresh seafood, water views, and subdued live music.  The Snook Inn is old school — there’s a big soup, salad, and bread bar, and some regular specials, such as endless shrimp on Mondays.  But get the grouper.

Another very popular place is the Dolphin Tiki Bar, which is hidden behind an apartment complex overlooking a marina.  This is a casual, lively place where the food uniformly is top notch, and the prices are reasonable.  There’s an open air dining area and more tables around the tiki bar.

The least expensive place to get excellent seafood is Lee Be Fish, a retail fish market cum restaurant.  At lunch and dinner, Lee Be offers two fish options, each of which comes grilled or blackened with either cole slaw or rice and beans.  They also have cold beer and some wine, but people often bring their own.  The food comes in red plastic baskets with plastic silverware. and the fish is fresh, well prepared, and cheap.

Near the other end of the price spectrum, you’ll find the Oyster Society and Fin Bistro, both of which are across from the Marriott Crystal Shores.  We finally were able to get a reservation at Fin Bistro on our last trip, and it has extraordinary food and service.  Everything about is shouts quality and professionalism.  Fin Bistro is the place to go for a special meal — if you can get a reservation.  Make one before you go.  The Oyster society also boasts beautifully prepared  food in a nice setting.  Imagine pistachio crusted Chilean sea bas, potato crusted grouper, snapper in a burr monte sauce.  Aah!

Another good restaurant is a newcomer, Deep lagoon Seafood and Oyster Bar.  It has a view over a marina, and the combination of  the view, friendly service, and delicious food make for a great experience.  We actually ate at Deep Lagoon twice on our last trip.

The Best List also includes two great Italian restaurants on Marco, Da Vinci and Davide.  Da Vinci is big and nice, with white tablecloths and a broad, sophisticated menu.  The food is local whenever possible, the and the pasta, like their equally outstanding sausage, is made in-house.  Delicious.  Da Vinci’s prices reflect the upscale setting, but they aren’t too bad unless you get carried away.  We go at least once in every visit.

Davide feels more like a neighborhood Italian restaurant in an Italian neighborhood.  The red sauces are very popular, and Davide makes an unforgettable sausage and rapini.  Davide has a huge selection of Italian wines, and live musical entertainment in the evening.  Usually there are two singers, at least one with a real operatic voice, and another singing pop or Italian standards.

Breakfast

Everyone in Marco goes to Doreen’s Cup of Joe for breakfast.  That means it has great food, but it also means you can’t get in, at least if you don’t have a whole of patience — a lot more than I can muster.  We have had good luck with Hoot’s Breakfast and lunch.  It’s tucked back in a corner of a shopping center, but it’s worth a visit for the Men’s room alone.  Honest.

Beyond Marco

Just north of Marco you’ll find an interesting waterside community, the Isles of Capri.  It’s worth exploring — perhaps taking a sunset cruise on a catamaran — and try Pelican Bend.  It has a wealth of outdoor seating, covered and uncovered, as well as a screened-in area, all on the water.

While you’re in Marco you probably will take a day trip up to Naples.  It’s a nice city that attracts a lot of absurdly rich people.  You can gawk at some beachside mansions, Rodeo Drive-like stores, and Ferraris and Rolls Royces.  A nice casual place is the marina-side Dock at Crayton Cove.  The food is good, and it’s a perfect place to stay for an extra drink if someone else is driving.

My favorite restaurant in Naples, though, is the Rumba Cafe, easily the best Cuban restaurant in Southwest Florida.  It’s in a nondescript strip mall on the east side of Naples, and it serves great Cuban pork at a great price, and it serves one of the best Cuban sandwiches I’ve had in all of Florida.  We usually stop at the Rumba Cafe on the way from and to the airport in Fort Meyers; indeed, we look for excuses to go to the airport, but the Rumba Cafe alone is well worth a drive from Marco.

You also should take a trip to Everglades National Park while you’re in Marco.  Never pass up a National Park, and you need to ease up on the sun for one day.  The Park trip takes you to a fishing community, Everglades City, where you can get a tour of the mangroves in a small boat, or a tour of the 10,000+ Islands in a larger boat with dolphins frolicking in the wake.  It’s a good, and after your tour you can go to the Havana Cafe of the Everglades in nearby Chokoloskee.  Order a seafood dish.

The Havana Cafe is a lovely setting, with naturally shaded outdoor seating and a guitarist who plays soothing Cuban music.

All of these are great places for food, and you can eat well without breaking the bank.  Go to Marco Island for great beaches, great sunsets, and some exceptional restaurants.

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