Dockside dining is just one attraction at this eatery perched on the Intracoastal just south of Oakland Park Boulevard near A1A. The vibe is Florida-casual, and you can expect to see men in Hawaiian shirts disembarking from boats and strutting inside. Traditional bar bites, Floribbean fare, and international offerings comprise the menu, including crabcakes, fried calamari, coconut shrimp, seared ahi, and conch fritters. You can also order half-pound beef burgers, overstuffed wraps, and out-of-the-ordinary takes on fish, like the blackened mahi Reuben sandwich. Cocktails run the gamut, including fruity martinis, thick frozen margarita-like concoctions, and enormous fish bowls filled with fizzy, vodka-based drinks.
Old-fashioned, homemade cooking in the form of seafood cuisine with locally sourced ingredients.
Il Paesano emphasizes fresh ingredients, quality food and spreading love. There’s no set menu, only daily specials determined by the fresh ingredients that are found in the market. During the week there are about 15 to 16 different dishes. And owner Vergilio Peixoto has no freezers; from the pasta to the tomato sauce, everything is made fresh in-house. Il Paesano’s chef formerly owned Vesuvio, which was a popular Italian restaurant in Fort Lauderdale back in its heyday.
Il Paesano has a wide variety of wines and the private wine room can also be used as a more intimate setting for couples to dine. (There have been marriage proposals, Peixoto reports.) And if you want to know more about wine, Peixoto hosts a winetasting class every month. But be quick – the classes tend to fill up within minutes of being announced.
A family-owned restaurant serving upscale comfort food from chicken potpie to pigs in a blanket to Janice’s meatloaf and fried green tomatoes. And yes, drinks are served in Mason jars.
Kitchenetta was opened in 2004 by chef Vincent Foti and wife Maria as a come-as-you-are casual eatery that pumps out top-notch Italian fare with a modern touch. The menu rotates seasonally and includes as many organic and local ingredients as possible. Individual and family-sized portions are offered, so you can mangia some rigatoni bolognese de medici all by yourself or share with your favorite famiglia.
Almost any seafood you can think of is offered at Crafty Crab. The chain promises to use only the freshest seafood and most authentic food in the area. Menu items include crab meat fries, oysters, seafood boils and platters and much more.
This beachside restaurant offers casual, classic Floridian breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Sushi, tempura and a large list of sushi rolls, including the Matsui 55, volcano roll, fire roll, spider roll, and dancing eel roll. For those wanting cooked food, there’s steak teriyaki, dynamite lobster, or nabeyaki udon (a kind of noodle hot pot with seafood and vegetables).
This traditional Italian place serves generous portions of familiar fare.
A part of the Ocean Manor Beach Resort, this casual spot serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. There’s brunch on Sunday, followed by a late-afternoon Caribbean pig roast buffet. Mondays are dedicated to Italian food, and parties are held whenever the moon is full.
To prepare the menu, owner Frank Talerico and his family took several trips to Calabria to gather authentic recipes. Each dish had to be approved by Talerico’s mother and his family. Every sauce is freshly made in-house every day. Another unique characteristic is the small marketplace inside the restaurant. The marketplace provides a variety of cheeses and meats, olives, eggplants, mushrooms, bread sticks and more, all imported from Italy.
Located inside the Ocean Sky Hotel & Resort, serving American Continental at budget-friendly prices.
This authentic Thai restaurant guarantees only native flavors in their unique dinner offerings. Notable menu items include grilled whole squid marinated in house special sauce, Choo Chee Snapper (whole fried snapper with Thai choo chee curry sauce), Thai curry dishes and stir fry.
The dishes Myapapaya puts out feature ingredients found in few South Florida restaurants, healthy items owner Adam Kanner says he found while traveling the globe. The kale salad, for instance, features almonds roasted with tamari, a soy sauce brewed with a deeper flavor. The Whole Grain Bowl — overflowing with quinoa, brown rice, tomatoes, peppers, chickpeas, feta, and coconut oil — has a bit of dulse flakes, a snack food from Iceland that provides a nice saltiness to a stunningly beautiful and delicious dish.
The juices, sold in 16-ounce plastic bottles for about $9, are made in a cold-press system that keeps more nutrients and allows them to stay fresh longer. They also feature blends like the Peruvian Pink, with beets, ginger, pear, pineapple, and a Peruvian fruit called maca, which some believe improves libido.