In Dunnellon: A new restaurant is opening by the bridge on 484 where the Rainbow meets the Withlachoochee. There have been a series of restaurants in this location, but we are thinking that the new one might just be there for quite a while. The have remodeled the building and will offer a variety of choices on the menu. You can sit inside or outside and the views of the river are great. I suspect they have a beer drinking sports enthusiast crowd on weekends.
Daytona/Ormond/Flagler Beaches: Last year we discovered our favorite restaurant in Flagler Beach-Flagler Fish Company. There are no reservations and you can expect a wait on the weekends-even at lunch. However, the wait is well worth it! Dinners come with homemade potato chips and a fish dip that catches our interest. Some of us love the asiago potato side as well. Choose any fish or shellfish and prepared any way and topped with any sauce (or not). I adore the fish tacos. The chipotle mayo finds it way on most of the sandwiches. Marcia's crabcake sandwich was quite good as well. Lobster bisque is made with a medium brown roux-very tasty. Last year we had the brownie-heated and covered in ice cream and whipped cream and chocolate and caramel sauces. One brownie feeds a table of 6 easily.
Dish on US 40 near I-75. American and Italian food served tapas style. We liked the lobster bisque, but the consistency was more like a pudding-very tasty though. The baby back ribs were sticky and sweet but quite tasty. Both the portabella pizza and the mixed cheese pizza got our approval. The menus online are quite different from our lunch menu. They also feature a gluten free menu. Deserts were fabulous-we liked the red velvet cake, the chocolate bomb (a mousse thing) and the chocolate cake thing. Our server encouraged us to try the chocolate espresso cup thing next time.
Ocala: Finally, a restaurant in Ocala that catches our interest. Braised Onion at 754 NE 25th Ave. "American comfort food with an attitude" is their claim. We liked the shrimp and grits (we call it prawns and polenta for our European guests). It is almost as good as Marcia's. Likewise the Mac and Cheese-combination of several cheeses-don't expect yellow-and sprinkled with panko crumbs. I had it as a side with green beans and made it my dinner focus. The grilled mahi went home with me for a kick butt fish sandwich the next day. Charlotte liked the pecan crusted salmon enought to order it two nights in a row. We will have the fried green tomatoes again. In short, everyone was quite pleased with their food. It must be said that they were out of beef short ribs-possibly a sign that they are too good to last past lunch. The wine list was good. Bread comes with braised onions that set the tone for the meal-stick to your ribs food done well. Coconut cream pie!!!!
LaCuisine in downtown Ocala has become our favorite special night out dinning. Order anything with a sauce. For those who like foire gras, I am told that it is quite good here. I will order the poached eggs on bits of bread in a sauce with a French name I cannot remember much less spell, but my taste buds remember and I will order it again. We have had lamb shank and pork shank with a sauce that we would lick the plate in public for. The veal is superb, and the duck with cornbread dressing is worth a repeat performance. The portions are American, so we do the take home in a box thing. If you want to try the desserts you will have to take home your entree leftovers-way too much food and wasting that sauce would be a sin. I loved my caramel crepes. They were described as Breton, but they were white flour. (I see that they feature sweet and savory crepes on Wednesdays.) The cream puffs were gigantic-easily 3-4 people could share one. Our friend managed her warm chocolate cake with ice cream and whipped cream on her own and the couple with the warm apple pie thing were all smiles. Do I even need to say that the wine list is quite good? We look forward to the next special occasion here.
KG
