CC: rec.travel After spending a weekend in Sanibel/Captiva, I thought I would share some restaurant samplings. My husband and I stayed at South Seas Plantation and had one breakfast and one lunch there. We ate at the Greenhouse Grill, Twilight Pasta, Windows on the Water, Moonlight Southwestern Grill and the Mad Hatter. Our first dinner was at the Moonlight Southwestern Grill. The menu was small but the food was delicious. Portions are enormous. The bread was warm and crusty; it came with an unusual shrimp butter. I had the chicken, bacon and cheese quesadilla on a bed of mesclun salad. The chicken breast was nicely grilled and juicy, the salad was lightly dressed with viniagrette (sp?). My husband had a pork burrito with saffron rice and black beans. The pork was tender and flavorful, a nice light hand on the chili powder (ancho chilis?). We shared a flourless chocolate cake with marscapone cream and strawberries. The cake and cream were pleasantly bittersweet, offset by the sweet ripe strawberries. Yum. The restaurant is small, with an open kitchen and faux adobe walls. Next night we visited Twilight Pasta. Another small restaurant with open kitchen, lots of neat art on the white stuccoed walls. You can't miss this restaurant, it's painted turquoise on the outside with pink and seafoam green trim. The menu was small but innovative, all pasta made fresh on the premises. Nice crusty bread came with a roasted red pepper butter. I started out with the red oak lettuce and arugula salad with warm goat cheese and a roasted shallot/raspberry viniagrette. It was absolutely fresh and delicious, the salad delicately dressed, the vinegar not overpowering; I had a glass of Round Hill cabernet that stood up fine to the dressing. My entree was the blackened chicken breast served with tomato linguini, herb pesto and asiago cheese. The chicken was flavorful with blackened spices, not at all burned or overly spicey. I've found most flavored pastas underwhelming, but the tomato pasta was full-flavored with ripe tomatoes. My husband was pleased with his grilled mahi-mahi. The portions were huge. We had breakfast at Windows on the Water, at the Sundial Beach Resort. They had the best breakfast potatoes I have ever tasted, nicely seasoned with salt and pepper, baby red-skinned potatoes sauteed in butter with red peppers and onions. My husband had the stuffed blueberry toast. It was enormous, three thick slices of french toasted stacked and filled with blueberries, with a melted brown sugar and cinnamon crust. It was out of this world. We had dinner at the Mad Hatter on our last night. This restaurant had a beautiful view of the Gulf, the beach just footsteps beyond. We each had a delicious entree of chicken breast with a mushroom/eggplant ragu, rosemary potato pancakes and baby vegetables. A statler style breast was dredged in flour and seasonings and sauteed, very tasty. The mushroom/eggplant ragu had lots of flavor and a rich vegetable stock. The baby vegetables were crisp/tender and sweet. The potato pancake was made of mashed potatoes and rosemary, a comforting side dish. We shared an apple kuchen for dessert, made with granny smith apples and custard on a coconut pastry crust and Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream. We lunched the first day at the Greenhouse Grill and had heard lots of good things about it, but sadly, we were a little disappointed. Granted, we went for lunch and not for dinner; but I did expect the food and menu to be more innovative. The lunch menu had the usual suspects of club sandwiches and salads; they were done on a southwestern note, yet the restaurant's theme is Floridian/Caribbean cuisine. They served fresh potato sticks as an appetizer, which I felt was out of place. The dinner menu looks more interesting, with veal, rack of lamb and various seafood entrees. Well, thanks for everyone's suggestions prior to our trip. If anyone is visiting the area soon, bon appetite!
Florida