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Fish-house cuisine served early generations and survives as the classic in local culinary traditions.
Seaside Fare
Whether you like your marine cuisine steamed, fried, grilled or raw, you’re sure to satisfy your cravings for fresh-off-the-hook seafood at these restaurants. Grouper, Mahi, shrimp, gator tail, seafood casserole, and fried fish baskets are just a few of the dishes you can sample at these local favorite eateries.
By Chelle Koster Walton, member of the Society of American Travel Writers
Whether you like your marine cuisine steamed, fried, grilled or raw, you’re sure to satisfy your cravings for fresh-off-the-hook seafood at these restaurants. Grouper, Mahi, shrimp, gator tail, seafood casserole, and fried fish baskets are just a few of the dishes you can sample at these local favorite eateries.
By Chelle Koster Walton, member of the Society of American Travel Writers
  Parrot Key Caribbean Grill |
No surprise: it’s a common prerequisite from visitors who understand the fresh-off-the-hook availability of fish in Lee County restaurants, a reputation that goes way back. Fish-house cuisine, with its unadulterated steamed, fried, grilled and raw preparations, served early generations and survives as the classic in local culinary traditions. In recent years, restaurants have raised seafood to its just throne of regal fare with the "haut-est" of haute. Here’s a survey of some of the local favorites in both genres.
Fort Myers Beach
As home to the local shrimp fleet, it specializes in inexpensive and fish-shack-style.
Matanzas Inn – Endearingly slouched on the banks of Matanzas Pass, it serves traditional fare in a range from the Matanzas Steamer to fried shrimp and seafood-stuffed grouper.
Beach Seafood – You know it’s fresh when it’s inside a fish market. A local secret, this shrimp packer serves prepared meals, including all-you-can-eat fried shrimp and fish specials.
Snug Harbor – More creative with its fish than the classic shacks, its specialties include Grouper Popeye (atop spinach, of course) and Grouper Matanzas, sauteed in egg batter and topped with crab and creamy lemon butter.
Sanibel & Captiva Islands
Known for their fine and imaginative use of seafood.
McT’s Shrimp House – America’s favorite shellfish comes more than 20 different ways, from steamed in the shell to Cajun and Oscar styles.
Timbers – Its fish market stocks the kitchen with fresh local product prepared cleanly and served indoors ‘neath jaunty market umbrellas.
Sweet Melissa's – About as imaginative as it gets, this island delight sells seafood in flavor-packed, small-plate portions for the ultimate in fish-noshing.
Fort Myers & Cape Coral
Mainland restaurants run the gamut from simple to intriguingly complex.
Shrimp Shack – Two equally colorful and popular locations sell the tried-and-true in seafood platters and baskets.
Blue Pointe Oyster Bar & Seafood Grill – Top nouveau in seafood, it sells a sweeping variety of domestic oysters and fish, from local black grouper to Lake Erie perch and walleye. Dine on the fountain-adorned and paddle-fanned patio.
The Prawnbroker – A sister restaurant to Sanibel’s Timbers, it too combines fish market with fresh cuisine.
 Sandy Hook Fish & Rib House |
Skip One Seafoods – You can see how fresh the fish is in the market showcases. You can taste it in an overwhelming menu selection of seafood platters, from fried scallops to grilled mahi and coconut shrimp.
Maine’s Best – Lobster’s king here, but you can get just about anything that ever swam, prepared purely and served without pretense.
Cape Crab & Steak House – Hammer away at blue crabs garlic-steamed, or relish seafood the easy way: crab cakes, almond shrimp and fried clam strips.
Boca Grande & Outer Islands
The remoteness of these islands adds to the "castaways" experience at local seafood restaurants.
PJ’s Seagrille – Expect the utmost in fresh and ingenious at this former Boca Grande theater. Daily menus reflect the local catch; a recent special: pan-fried mangrove snapper.
Cabbage Key Inn – The epitome of the old-time seafood shack, it resides in an historic home papered with dollar bills. For the best in fresh fish, go for dinner, but go by boat: there’s no bridge to the island.
Collier Inn – Historic and magnificent, it sits atop a shell mound where ancient seafood junkies piled the remains of their shellfish feasting. Modern-day connoisseurs sup fabulously on what’s pulled from the waters that surround the inn on Useppa Island, from the famous grouper sandwich to shrimp tempura and crab cakes.
Bonita Springs
Infused with down-home, small-town charm, Bonita Springs offers a Southern twist to its seafood.
Ródes Fresh & Fancy – What began as a humble fish market has grown into a house where classic reigns in the form of fried oysters, fish-n-chips and grouper sandwiches – fried, grilled or blackened.
Big Hickory Seafood Grille – Practically in the water, its ramshackle position at Bonita Beach’s fishing charter docks guarantees freshness. Choose from "Cracker style" baskets to pan-seared banana-crusted grouper.
Pine Island
Fresh fish markets line the waterfront in Matlacha, a premonition of fresh seafood to come.
Lobster Shack – Maine meets Florida meets New Orleans: clam bakes, lobster rolls, Louisiana gumbo, Grouper Florentine and live Maine lobsters, canal-side.
Waterfront Restaurant – Popular with boaters, it looks and cooks totally fish shack, with ubiquitous fried seafood baskets and platter combos.
Matlacha Oyster House – Besides oysters fried, raw and baked, its menu sways towards Deep South classic, with catfish and hush puppies, seafood casserole, crab cakes and frog legs.
If you go…
3 Fishermen Seafood Restaurant, 239-931-FISH
Beach Seafood, 800-771-5050
Big Hickory Seafood Grille, 239-992-0991, www.bighickorygrille.com
Blue Pointe Oyster Bar & Seafood Grill, 239-433-0924, 888-456-DINE, www.bluepointerestaurant.com
Cabbage Key Inn, 239-283-2278, www.cabbagekey.com
Cape Crab & Steak House, 239-574-CRAB
Collier Inn, 888-735-6335, www.useppa.com
Lobster Shack, 239-283-5300
Maine’s Best, 239-694-2288, www.authenticmainelobster.com
Matanzas Inn, 239-463-3838, www.matanzasinn.com
Matlacha Oyster House, 239-283-2544
McT’s Shrimp House, 239-472-3161
PJ’s Seagrille, 941-964-0806
Prawnbroker, 239-489-2226, www.prawnbroker.com
Ródes Fresh & Fancy, 239-992-4040, 800-786-0450
Shrimp Shack, 239-561-6817, 239-277-5100
Skip One Seafoods, 239-482-0433
Snug Harbor, 239-463-8077, snugharborrestaurant.com
Sweet Melissa's, 239-472-1956
Timbers, 239-472-3128, www.prawnbroker.com
Waterfront Restaurant, 239-283-0592, www.waterfrontrestaurant.com
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