SoWal Scene - South Walton County, Florida Blog

Panko Shrimp Caesar Salad at Smiling Fish Café in Santa Rosa Beach

I stopped in at one of my fav lunch spots recently - Smiling Fish Café at Gulf Place in Santa Rosa Beach - for a quick bite.  My Smiling Fish Café standard is one of their wraps, which I always order with a side of their baked potato salad, but decided this time to be a good girl and go with the Panko-Shrimp Caesar Salad ($11.50) instead.  I'm glad I got out of my comfort zone!

I wish I had a picture (sigh...my camera was not with me on this day)  to share - a generous portion of hand cut romaine was dressed with a lemony-garlic Caesar dressing (which, if I had to guess, I would say was homemade), grated parm, and croûtons.  On top, and the best part of the dish, sat at least 1/2 dozen perfectly sautéed panko-crusted fresh shrimp (FYI - panko is a Japanese breadcrumb that makes THE best bread crumb coating on just about everything that can be coated!)  In all honesty, I could've eaten a bucket full of these things with a few lemon wedges and a chilled glass of rose.  The dish was excellent and definitely worthy of SoWal Scene's stamp of approval as a "Quick Bite" to try!

Smiling Fish Café at Gulf Place specializes in Casual Coastal Cuisine and  is located at 37 Town Center Loop Suite C-8.  Their phone is 850.622.3071.  No website but Chef/Owner George Barnes can be reached via email at gumbo@mchsi.com.  They are open Monday-Saturday, from 11:30a-3pm.  They offer daily lunch specials priced from $12-$14.  Tuesday is "Local's Night" - dinner is available from 5:30-9pm.

UPDATE -

Read the Walton Sun's July 10, 2008 review of Smiling Fish Café.

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Amoré - a pizzeria in Gulf Place

Tucked away in a quaint second floor space right on Scenic 30A in Gulf Place (Santa Rosa Beach) is a gem of a restaurant called Amoré - a pizzeria.  Amoré ... just love the way that rolls off the tongue and love is exactly what proprietors and local South Walton residents Amory and Lauren Basford put into their pizzeria- and trattoria-inspired cuisine and hospitality.

It had been a while since I ate at Amoré so I decided to stop in for lunch recently.  They serve lunch and dinner but, with two boys at home to cook for every night, I have only been there for lunch as is the case with most restaurants I frequent these days.

I love the feel of this place - the decor is hip but not pretentious.  Large floor to ceiling windows, lots of aluminum furniture, a serene light greenish-blue and black color scheme and hip art which adds a nice splash of color combine to make the space really inviting.  In the spring, early summer and fall, diners must take advantage of dining al fresco on the large, covered terrace.

As fabulous as the decor is, though, what really brings me back to Amoré time and again is their food.  A large menu you won't find - as their tag says, it's pizza - paninis - salads.  But don't let the limited menu fool you because what they do offer is all delicious.  It's one of those rare restaurants where you can't order wrong. 

For my lunch, I pulled an Andrew Zimmern and ordered more than one item.  A pizzeria, their obvious specialty is their pizza so I ordered the Margherita - a 12" hand-tossed pizza with diced roma tomato, fresh basil, mozzarella & marinara ($10) as well as one of my favorite comfort foods, a panini.  I decided on this day to get the Pollo Tapenade - oven roasted chicken, fontina cheese, red onion & kalamata olive spread on hot pressed ciabata bread and served with a side of pasta salad ($9).

My Daddy's Cheesecake Bakery & Cafe

As those of you that live here know, last Thursday and Friday were two days when the heavens broke loose and we were seeing 3"-5" of rain per hour at times.  Two days of flooding rains, and wet, chilly weather were the pits.  So on Friday afternoon, I threw on my bright yellow rain boots and braved the storm to visit the newly opened My Daddy's Cheesecake Bakery & Cafe at 7 Town Center Loop in Gulf Place - nothin' like a piece of cheesecake to bring the spirits back up on a cruddy day.

Tina and Rick Stanfield opened the bakery last December and have done a wonderful job of converting the cozy space into an inviting breakfast, lunch and early dinner spot.  It kinda feels like a more intimate Panera Bread in many ways, sans  the noise and flurry of activity, with soft lighting, soothing earth tones, dark tables and stools and attractive banner marketing pieces hanging on the walls. 

The first thing you notice when you walk in is the huge display cases of cheesecake and other baked goodies.  I can't remember what the "other baked goodies" actually are as I was drawn in by the cheesecake display and totally ignored everything else.