When traveling across this great country, I love to try authentic dishes from that particular region. As a matter of fact, I try to steer my family away from “chain’ restaurants so that we can help local families and their businesses. However, we do sometimes visit the chain restaurants when we need that comfort fix of knowing what we have had before and really enjoying it.
Here are just some of my favorites over the last couple of years:
Marathon, Florida
The Island Fish Company is where me and 2 of my brothers ate after a day spent going out to the Dry Tortugas from Key West. We walked in and were famished. One of my brothers ordered the fried Hawgfish while I ordered the Baja Fish Tacos. His plate was enormous with the amount of fish and sides. My tacos were generous with amount and flavor. I really wanted to save room for the best part of the meal, dessert. I saw that they had a Deep-Fried Key Lime Pie. By far, this is the best meal I’ve ever shared with my brothers.
Key Largo, Florida
The Lazy Lobster was a strange find for us. We actually were at another restaurant waiting to be seated. Overhearing one employee tell the hostess to only seat locals because of the specialty event going on in the next few hours, we decided to leave. We left and found the Lazy Lobster. What a find this was for us. I enjoyed Oysters Moscow for the first time, which included caviar. It was quite the delicacy. Loved it. After the appetizer, I had the Grouper Almondine. Served perfectly! Homemade Key Lime pie for dessert to finish off a wonderful meal. We ate there several more times for lunch because of the great service and fresh food.
Las Vegas, Nevada
This is where the chain restaurant cam into play for us as a family. We went to Maggiano’s a few days before New Year’s Eve of 2020. The food was so good and the atmosphere was electric. We enjoyed sitting where we could watch people pass by along the strip. We enjoyed our food so much that we decided to take advantage of their New Year’s Eve Special where we got 4 appetizers, 4 entrees and 4 desserts for a very reasonable price.
Peach Springs, Arizona
This was more about the view than it was the meal at the Sky View Restaurant. The restaurant allows you to watch as people make their way around the Skywalk located at the Grand Canyon West. The chicken fingers and cheeseburgers with fries were just enough to tie us over until we made the drive back to Las Vegas. Enjoying this meal with my family was one of the greatest meals we had together.
Orlando, Florida
Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville has an appetizer that several of my family enjoy as a meal. It is the Volcano Nachos. You actually have a mountain of nachos smothered in seasoned hamburger with chili and melted shredded cheese. All of this is topped with fresh tomatoes, jalapeno peppers and a dollop of sour cream and guacamole.
Tavernier, Florida
We found the Key Lime Factory the first day we arrived in Tavernier for our week-long stay in the Florida Keys. Other than their award-winning key lime pies, which we each took 2 home with us, they have a frozen chocolate-dipped key lime pie on a stick. I am not joking. It’s diabetes on stick. It was fabulous after a long hot June day sight-seeing. The store has over 170 different items that center on the key lime treats.
