Sustainable Seafood at Farlow's in Englewood, SW Florida

Owner Keith Farlow and Red Snapper

Triple threat seafood appetizer

An integral part of any visit to Southwest Florida includes consuming lots of seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. There are many local restaurants in the Englewood section, just north north of Punta Gorda, but Farlow's on the Water brings a special accent to fresh fish offerings. The owner actually grew up St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands and he brings a hands-on experience with seafood to the list of daily specials. Some restaurants offer two or three specials per night, but Farlow's offers about a dozen each night. And you can look them up on their website before making your supper plans, or you can wait to read them with excitement once seated.

Jamaican Jerk Cobia - fresh and local

There is a large indoor dining room, with a small bar, but the better seating is outside behind the restaurant. They have a trellis covering most of the seating, and then a tropical garden extends towards a private dock and wharf overlooking Ainger Creek. There are also tables with umbrellas set up there to provide more remote, and perhaps a more romantic dinner setting. All guests are invited to walk on the dock and enjoy the scenery, or perhaps make a souvenir photo.

Our supper started off with a three-tiered tray of house specialty appetizers including coconut shrimp, calamari and a crab-stuffed portabella mushroom. The calamari was tender and not chewy, and easily the best clam strips that I tasted while visiting SW Florida. The crab and mushroom combo was tasty, and we also ate garlic sauteed mussels with bread. Some members of our group enjoyed a specialty mango drink that came in an impossibly-tall pitcher that could only be handled properly by our waitress, which added an element of fun to the proceedings.

Friends gather for supper at Farlow's

After a tasty salad, I ordered a nightly special. The Jamaican Jerk Cobia was cooked to perfection, but not spicy at all. For side dishes I ordered sweet corn casserole and a baked sweet potato, and I also tasted some asparagus from a friend's plate. Other fish dishes served at our table included red snapper, mahi mahi, grouper, and the St. Croix Seafood Pie which looked like a mountain of seafood. There was little room left for dessert, but with Tropical Dining the focus should be on the tropical fish!

To view blog entries from SW Florida click on Offshore Fishing - Field Notes - Gulf Islands

To view past blog entries about sustainable seafood click Guy Harvey Magazine / Oysters - Pink House / Savannah - Boathouse On Breech Inlet / Isle Of Palms - Circa 1886 / Charleston - Wine on the Water / SC Aquarium - Fish Restaurant / Charleston - Fresh On The Menu

To view blog entries from the Southeastern Wildlife Expo's Wild Game Supper click The Drawing Room - Hall's Chop House