Clearwater Beach Restaurants, From Beach Shacks to Steak

Clearwater Beach is a skinny barrier island, and the restaurants on it sort themselves by where you're standing: grouper shacks and crab boils on the north end, hotel dining rooms with Gulf views along South Gulfview Boulevard, and fish camps around the marina where the Memorial Causeway lands at the roundabout. This guide to Clearwater Beach restaurants is laid out the same way, north to south and then out toward the harbor, with a note on each about whether you can book or should just show up.

Everything here sits within about a mile of Pier 60, so pick the zone you'll already be in for a day on the sand around Pier 60 and eat there.

If you're staying in town and want the Greek, Thai and pho kitchens east of the harbor, the restaurants across the causeway in Clearwater proper are a different shortlist with lower prices.

North beach

North of Pier 60 is where the beach's grouper-sandwich culture lives, and Frenchy's Rockaway Grill is the pick because you eat it with your feet in the sand. The stretch along Mandalay Avenue and its side streets (Rockaway, Baymont, Papaya, Poinsettia) is quieter than the pier area, more residential, and has a long run of sit-down restaurants away from the crowds.

Frenchy's, if you're new here, is a family of five beach seafood restaurants built around the grouper sandwich, started in 1981 by a Quebec-born local named Michael Preston whose friends called him Frenchy. He bought his own fishing boats to keep the first cafe in fresh fish, which tells you how seriously the place takes the grouper.

Two blocks inland, Frenchy's Original Cafe on Baymont Street is the 1981 original: small, loud, colorful and cheaper than its beachfront siblings at about $10 to $20 a person. Get the grouper cheeks or the Cajun grouper with homemade potato chips, and note it closes at 9pm Sunday to Thursday (10pm Friday and Saturday).

On Mandalay Avenue, the Salty Crab's north beach bar and grill opens at 8:30am daily and runs until 11pm, and the crab boil is what the dinner reviews dwell on. Reviewers rave about the coconut shrimp with pina colada sauce and the beignets, and there's live music that stays background-level.

A block south on Poinsettia Avenue, Coco's Crush Bar, home of the orange crush is the late option, open 11am to midnight every day, with live music nightly and dogs welcome. Mondays are all-you-can-eat snow crab all day, Wednesday nights bring all-you-can-eat wings from 6pm to 10pm, and happy hour runs 11am to 6pm on weekdays.

Up early? The north end is also where most of the beach's eggs-and-grits mornings before the sand heats up happen, from Crabby's 8am breakfast to the Salty Crab's 8:30 opening.

Around Pier 60

For the pier area, the pick is up Bay Esplanade: Crabby's Beachside Pavilion, a pavilion that turns 100 this year and a fine seat for watching the sun go down over a basket of fried fish. The blocks just north of the pier are busy, touristy and convenient, which is fine when you've got sandy kids and no plan.

Closer to the pier on Poinsettia Avenue, Frenchy's Saltwater Cafe opened in 1989 and is the Frenchy's boaters use, with its own dock and a bar where locals know to ride out a passing storm. The grouper sandwich with a side of coconut rice is the move, and it's open 11am to 10pm every day.

For a burger and a ballgame, Hurricane Eddie's sports bar on Mandalay Avenue is open from 11am until 2am, serving Nathan's hot dogs, hand-cut fries and a black and blue burger with blackberry sauce. Ask before ordering the nachos: one couple learned the hard way that they feed four to six.

Several of these places double as bars once the sun drops, and the pier blocks are where the orange crushes and tiki-bar sets around Pier 60 keep going after the kitchens close.

South Gulfview

South of the pier, SHOR American Seafood Grill in the Hyatt Regency is the pick for a proper sit-down seafood meal with a view and a kitchen that takes allergies seriously. This is the high-rise end of the beach, where the better kitchens tend to sit inside hotels and the street-level options thin out.

Farther down the strip at 521 S Gulfview, Jimmy's Fish House and its Iguana tiki bar is the casual counterpoint, open 7am to 10pm (11pm on weekends) with live entertainment seven nights a week plus weekend afternoons, with evening sets typically starting around 6pm. Reviews swing hard here (a 4.0 average from about 2,500), so stick with what people praise, the clam chowder and the Key West pink shrimp, and skip the parmesan snapper.

At the south end, the Deep End on the JW Marriott's 11th-floor rooftop puts you 11 floors above South Gulfview, with lunch from 11am to 4:30pm and dinner from 5pm to 10pm. Book on OpenTable and ask for an ocean-side table; one couple who requested it still ended up staring at the surf shop across the street.

Honest take: the view outruns the kitchen. Reviewers rate the cocktails above the teriyaki bowls, so treat it as a sunset drink with a snack, and save dinner for one of the tables right on the water where the food matches the view.

Marina and Island Way

Around the marina, Salt Cracker Fish Camp is the pick because it will cook the fish you caught that morning, and because the ferry drops you a short walk away. This is the east side of the beach where the Memorial Causeway comes in, a tenth of a mile from Pier 60 but facing the harbor instead of the Gulf.

Next door at 45 Causeway, the Bait House, a tackle shop with a fish shack attached sells gear from 7am and serves food from 11:30am to 10pm daily. Order the drunken shrimp in bourbon reduction and keep the bread for the bowl; a 4.7 rating from more than 3,000 reviews says it isn't just tourists who come back. In summer, go around 7:45pm, when the breeze picks up and the heat backs off.

Across the water on the Island Way side of the causeway, Island Way Grill is the big harborfront dining room, with a sushi bar, Asian-leaning seafood and Sunday brunch from 10am to 1:30pm. Weeknight dinner starts at 4pm, there's an early-bird menu that reviewers call a real value, and it takes OpenTable bookings, which you'll want on weekends. Hogfish, snapper and grouper turn up across these three menus, which makes the marina a good base for a night built around Gulf seafood.

Date night

For a romantic dinner on the beach, book Caretta on the Gulf at the Sandpearl, and if steak is the plan, Mandalay Prime. All three of the places below take reservations, and all three are worth one.

Caretta on the Gulf, inside the Sandpearl Resort on Mandalay Avenue is named for the loggerhead sea turtle, and the resort bills it as Clearwater's only AAA Four-Diamond restaurant. Dinner runs 5:30pm to 10pm, prices start around $100 a person, and the moves are the surf-and-turf sushi, oysters Rockefeller and the corner table outside at sunset. Ask for a window seat when you book, and ask again when you arrive: an anniversary couple who booked a month out were seated in full sun anyway.

Just south on Mandalay Avenue, Mandalay Prime, a classic steakhouse and lounge opens nightly from 4pm to 10pm; the bone-in filet is the cut people write home about, and some couples come back every year for the same birthday or anniversary. Expect the manager to present the steak at the table, which is the kind of theater the price buys.

Down on South Gulfview, Seaguini at the Opal Sands promises a Gulf view from every seat and cooks Gulf seafood with Italian leanings: house-made pasta, pizzas, lobster bisque and a pan-seared hogfish that has stayed on the menu for years. Dinner is 5pm to 10pm at roughly $50 to $100 a head, and breakfast from 7am is a calmer way to get the same view.

Cheap and quick

For cheap eats, Taco Bus on South Gulfview is the pick: $5 margaritas, a Taco Tuesday deal and a kitchen open until midnight. Beach prices add up fast, and Taco Bus, Beach Burger Shack and Gondolier all sit in Google's $10 to $20 per person band.

Taco Bus, the converted-school-bus taco stand at 505 S Gulfview is the beach outpost of a Tampa street-food chain founded in 1995, serving tacos, chimichangas and vegan plates from 10am to midnight (1am Friday and Saturday). The marinated pork taco is the one to order; reviews on the carne asada are mixed.

On the north end at 45 Papaya Street, Beach Burger Shack is a colorful order-at-the-window stand with a patio, hand-pattied burgers and onion rings that people keep calling the best they've had. It holds a 4.9 from about 1,600 reviews and lets dogs sit on the patio, though a family of four can still hit $80 with tip.

At the marina end of the roundabout, Roundabout Pizza shares the 25 Causeway Boulevard building with Salt Cracker and was rebuilt after a hurricane; try the Baystar with its ricotta-stuffed crust and the Havana wings, and get there before the 8:45pm close.

South near the JW Marriott, Gondolier Pizza on South Gulfview is family-owned and open 8am to 10:30pm, so it covers waffles in the morning and a spicy Tijuana pie at night for $10 to $20 a person.

Sushi and something different

When you've had your fill of fried grouper, Sushi Tu over on Windward Passage is the pick, a small family-run bar where the chef rolls in front of you.

Sushi Tu, a family-owned bar at 288 Windward Passage sits a tenth of a mile from Island Way Grill, opens at 4pm Tuesday through Sunday and is closed Mondays. The Volcano roll and the Fire Dragon roll lead the reviews, and the owner likes to talk you through the fish.

Back on the beach at 432 Poinsettia, Hot Sake Sushi and Asian is a quiet room for sushi, hibachi salmon and ramen, and one of the easier places here for a vegetarian to get a full meal. Check the day before you go: it's closed Tuesday and Wednesday.

A couple of blocks north, the Mediterranean dining room at 486 Poinsettia holds a 4.9 from about 560 reviews for charred octopus, lamb and a white-wine seafood stew. Its Golden Hour runs 4pm to 6pm daily, with three shares for $15, $5 beer and half-price wine by the glass, and it recommends booking ahead.

How Clearwater Beach restaurants handle reservations

The hotel dining rooms book, the shacks don't, and everything in between is worth a phone call. Caretta, Seaguini, the Deep End, Island Way Grill, Mandalay Prime and the Mediterranean place on Poinsettia all take bookings online, while Frenchy's Rockaway Grill runs a walk-in waitlist and the counter-service spots need no booking at all.

Sunset is the crunch. Arrive before 6pm in summer or after 8pm, or book the dinner rooms, because the 7pm Saturday window is when the 30-minute waits show up. Check the city's parking page for current beach rates before you drive over, or leave the car downtown and take the ferry.