The Meatetarian Eats AMI: Part 2

Welcome to day two of our journey together eating Anna Maria Island! On Monday you got to read about my three favorite places, and here are the four that get the honorable mention (aka the four that wouldn't fit in the first post, because it would have been ridiculously long).

Sandbar

Stuffed Sandbar Grouper - and check out that
baked potato side!

Sandbar is on the beach, which makes it a great place to go for dinner, drinks and sunsets. You gotta budget a little bit for this one -- I'm going to tell you up front. Sandbar's are not the cheapest eats on the island, but they're worth a little extra moolah. You will also want to order grouper, because we had three different grouper entrees at our table and they were each so, so good. And seasonally there's soft-shell crab, but I didn't get it since I had it relatively recently (read about that in my post on De Novo).

I took on the Sandbar Grouper: one thick, meaty piece of fish stuffed with crabmeat, shrimp and pepperjack cheese. Holy fish sticks, Batman. Grouper has a mild flavor and kind of bouncy, flaky texture. Not the type of fish to fall apart on your fork; it's more substantial, probably why it holds up to being stuffed. I loved having the fish, sweetness of crab and tender shrimp in the same bite. And whoever said fish shouldn't be mixed with cheese ... well, they got another think coming. The melted pepperjack offered up a nice bite in comparison to the sweet and mild seafood flavors.

Oh, and for this one you get a Boozy Bonus. Order a key lime martini. Your level of happiness will increase by a factor of 10. If you really want to up the ante at Sandbar, sneak in a key lime doughnut and eat it alongside your key lime martini for dessert.

Waterfront Restaurant
Down on the main drag at AMI is Waterfront Restaurant. It's not quite waterfront, because the water is across the street, but you still have a nice view of City Pier and sailboats drifting in front of the bridge. I'm putting this one on the list mostly for its cocktails -- nothing wrong with the food, but what I found most memorable both when we went last summer and when we visited last week was the beverage I had in my hand.

I highly recommend the margaritas (one has ginger to spice things up, and the other includes jalapenos), the mule (it's brought in a copper mug which is about the only hipster thing I like on the reg) and the beverage I partook in this time around -- the Stone Sour. It's pretty much a whiskey sour with Jameson and homemade sour mix, but blended with egg whites for a slightly thicker viscosity. The whites don't add flavor to it, necessarily, rather, they give it a better mouthfeel.

A healthy heaping portion of crab atop this caesar salad.
Lobster bisque cup on the side.

As for the food, I went the soup and salad route. The crab salad was good, and I appreciated the generous amount of crab in the salad. Don't you hate when you order a salad with some kind of meat and there's like ... one chicken finger on there? Thankfully, Waterfront treats you well and gives you lots of the good stuff! The lobster bisque here I found interesting because it was a heavy tomato base. It was almost like eating your regular tomato soup, just with added cream and a bit of lobster to give it a little sweetness.

Island Time Bar and Grill
The trip to Island Time actually takes you to a city called Bradenton Beach, so for this one you will need to pack into the car. A word to the wise: This may not be the ideal restaurant to bring kids to, because there is lots of live music and because it is completely open air, smoking is allowed. But if you do bring your kids here, their meals are served inside frisbees that you can take to the beach the next morning!

When you walk up, it doesn't look like it's going to be that great of a meal. It's a little dim and dark inside. The music lends itself to a great drinking atmosphere, but it looked super casual and laid-back. I can only speak for what I had, and what I saw my aunt order, but I was pleasantly surprised with how good my food was.

Less tomato-y lobster bisque, and crisp coconut shrimp

After a hot day on the beach I wanted something light and flavorful, but I was over salads and had
eaten my fair share of fish. It was time for some shrimp. I selected the coconut shrimp off the "munchies" menu and expected to be presented with a platter of the frozen food section coconut shrimp. What appeared instead was a handful of giant shrimp that had been dipped in a coconut and sliced almond breading and baked (I assume they were baked, not fried) until the edges of the coconut flakes were lightly browned. They had a great crunch that gave way to sweet, perfectly cooked shrimp inside. The dipping sauce they came with was delicious. It was billed as an orange horseradish sauce, and though I didn't get the spicy kick I expected from the horseradish, it was definitely a mellower sweet than a lot of duck or orange sauces I've had in my day.

On the side of this I also grabbed a cup of lobster bisque. This took the cake as the better of the bisques I had on the trip. It was not a tomato base, and it had good-sized lobster chunks all in the soup, plus a few more sprinkled on top for artistic effect.

Capt. Anthony's Seafood
I purposely saved the best for last on this post. I am so, so excited to find this place. It's not even a restaurant -- it's a fish shack full of wonderful things like stone crab, grouper, red snapper, homemade ceviche, fish dip and mango salsa, which you can take home and turn into the best mama-made fish dish.

Homemade ceviche featuring snapper. We couldn't get enough.

The ceviche was to die for. Like we bought one thing of it for eight people and I wanted to sneak it away in my room, lock my door, barricade myself in my closet and eat the whole container ... slowly, relishing each bit of fresh peppers, onions, cilantro and marinated red snapper as it touched my tongue. We gave up using chips and started eating it with a spoon instead. Theoretically there were supposed to be leftovers to put on fish tacos we made the following day with our leftover grouper fillet, but we ate all of it and were spooning through what was left of the fresh, acidic marinade to make sure every bit of solid ingredient got eaten.

Stay tuned for a Chew & A with Joanna, wife of Capt. Anthony, who stole my heart and captivated my soul the moment I met her. Hopefully she'll let me share what we did with our three pounds of fresh-caught grouper over on Meatetarian: Foodish for you!