These are the best restaurants in Cedar Key, Florida in 2022. We’ve included the best waterfront restaurants with outdoor seating on the ocean, our favorite Cedar Key seafood restaurants, a pet-friendly (dog-friendly) restaurant option, and even a unique, historical, haunted restaurant that you absolutely must visit while you’re in town! (If you dare!)
Waterfront Restaurants in Cedar Key FL
The oceanfront restaurants in Cedar Key are all located on Dock Street, which is the busiest street in town, as well as the central activity hub for the island. Taking a stroll along Dock Street is one of the best things to do in Cedar Key, Florida. There are so many cute shops and eateries to explore in this one location.
These are the best Cedar Key waterfront restaurants on the Gulf in 2022:
1. Steamers Clam Bar & Grill
Steamers Clam Bar and Grill is located in the middle of Dock Street, directly on the water. They offer both indoor seating, with large windows facing the Gulf, as well as a small number of private outdoor deck spots, perfectly sized for a family. Steamers serves a variety of American and seafood options. On their menu, you’ll find everything from burgers, chicken, steaks, Phillys, wings, salads, and pastas to shrimp, fish, mussels, oysters, crab, clams, and even gator bites.
2. The Tipsy Cow Bar and Grill
This is a Pet-Friendly Restaurant with Outdoor Seating in Cedar Key.
The Tipsy Cow is located on the top suite of a cute blue and peach-colored building that’s built directly over the water. They claim to have the best burgers in town and serve over ten different types. They also serve chicken wings, sandwiches, salads, pastas, nachos, fish, shrimp, clams, and steak. For dessert, you definitely have to try their fried Oreos!
You can choose to dine indoors or outside on their patio. Dogs are allowed on their outside deck, and Tipsy Cow loves your furry friend so much that they’ve even made a special Doggie Menu so that he can eat alongside you. Choose from The Goodest Boy (a steak dinner for the goodest baby ever), Who’s a Good Boy (grilled chicken for the bestest boy or girl), or The BFFL (a burger for your Best Friend for Life). If you’re looking for a dog-friendly restaurant in Cedar Key with ocean views, this by far the #1 best restaurant for you!
3. Duncan’s on the Gulf
In addition to lunch and dinner, they also serve the best breakfast in Cedar Key!
Duncan’s on the Gulf is another one of our favorite oceanfront restaurants in Cedar Key. Like the other restaurants on this list, they’re located on Dock Street, and you’ll find them closest to the pier end of the street. Duncan’s specializes in seafood cuisine, serving dishes like steamed clams, conch fritters, shrimp, oysters, fish, and crab. They also have burgers, steaks, chicken, and pasta.
Duncan’s is also one of the few restaurants that are open for breakfast in Cedar Key. If you’re an early riser, you can come dine at Duncan’s on the Gulf as early as 7:30 in the morning. They’ll be ready to serve you eggs, omelets, pancakes, French toast, cinnamon rolls, biscuits, and a handful of other breakfast treats.
Seafood Restaurants in Cedar Key FL
1. Tony’s Seafood Restaurant
For World-Famous Clam Chowder
Tony’s Seafood Restaurant is world-famous. The owner chef won the world championship for his clam chowder three years in a row at the Newport Rhode Island Great Chowder Cook-Off before finally having his recipe inducted into the Hall of Fame and automatically retired from the competition. Today, people travel to Cedar Key just to try his world-famous clam chowder for themselves. Tony’s Seafood Restaurant also serves a variety of shrimp, crab, clam, and oyster dishes, including a seafood platter, a shrimp pasta, and po’boy sandwiches.
2. Steamers Clam Bar and Grill
We already mentioned Steamers Clam Bar once up above, but it deserves to be in this section as well because their seafood is that good! Steamers is known for their clam bowls and pots, which are always made with fresh, local Cedar Key clams steamed in white wine and garlic. They also serve snow crab legs, crab cakes, peel & eat shrimp, coconut shrimp, tomato garlic mussels, steamed or fried oysters, Oysters Rockefeller, fish sandwiches, and a variety of other fish and crab dinner plates. They also have pretty good clam chowder if you’d rather eat your soup with an ocean view rather than head all the way over to Tony’s to get their award-winning chowder. The choice is yours! Both are top-rated seafood restaurants in Cedar Key!
Haunted Restaurant in Cedar Key
Island Hotel & Restaurant
On historic 2nd Street, you’ll find one of the most famous places in Cedar Key–the Island Hotel. This one-of-a-kind place functions as both a restaurant and bar, in addition to a bed and breakfast, but it’s not necessary to stay the night in order to enjoy the dining options.
The hotel itself was built way back in 1859. It was featured on the television show Haunted Inns & Mansions and is said to be haunted by at least thirteen ghosts of the building’s previous inhabitants. Throughout history, it has functioned as a general store, a brothel, and multiple hotels under different ownerships before ultimately becoming the Island Hotel in 1946.
During the Civil War, it even briefly served as officer quarters after Union soldiers captured Cedar Key and burned the whole town to the ground, sparing this building from the flames when it destroyed almost everything else.
Today there’s still a ghost of a Confederate soldier who stands guard on the second floor, according to multiple guests who have seen him appear around sunrise. There’s also a little boy who still hides in the dark basement after drowning there in a water cistern many years ago.
If you decide to eat at the restaurant, you just might spot the ghost of previous hotel owner, Simon Feinberg, who has been wandering the premises ever since his suspected murder in the early 1900s at the hands of his own hotel manager.
If that doesn’t scare you away, then take a seat in the dining room, and order some filet mignon, chicken, pasta, burgers, fish, clams, shrimp, grits, or even escargot. They also have the best key lime pie in town!
If after eating at this Cedar Key restaurant, you’re still feeling brave and would like to book a room at the inn, then ask for room 27 or 28 for the most daring adventure of all. A murdered prostitute from the hotel’s former brothel is said to visit guests who stay in those particular rooms, sit down on their beds, and then try to touch them before vanishing just as quickly as she came.
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