Spring Break 2014 - The Food

Other than basking in the sun on vacation, food is the next most important thing. Am I right? ;)

On our beach days, we just ate a quick breakfast in the room and grabbed a sandwich or salad from the food cart for lunch. But we did manage to eat at several delicious restaurants while we were on vacation (thanks to recommendations by my sweet hubby).

We were pretty tired from our long day when we arrived Friday night and opted to just eat at the hotel. There was an Italian night at the Island Grille and we decided to eat there. 

Skip it - it wasn't good. 

I don't know how someone can mess up pasta, but they did. The pasta was overcooked and the sauces were not good. Briana was literally gagging (I don't think it was THAT bad, but Bri is 7 and really didn't like hers). We tried to get her peanut butter and jelly after that, but she ended up not wanting that either. I was pretty disappointed that ended up being our first meal on vacation, but luckily we had better luck after that!

Our next big meal was at the Columbia (Spanish) Restaurant in Ybon City. There is a Columbia Restaurant in Clearwater Beach, but Doug wanted to take us to the oldest restaurant in Florida...

The traffic stunk getting there (lots of construction), but it was worth it when we did. The atmosphere was beautiful...

My beauty waiting for dinner...

Doug reserved seats for us in the room where they have flamenco dancers. We had delicious food and drinks and enjoyed fantastic entertainment.

The Sangria de Cava was amazing...

We really enjoyed the dancing...

Torching our dessert...

Two thumbs up for the Columbia!!

The next night we headed to Guppy's...

The food was delicious and the atmosphere was laid back. Briana loved her fried shrimp. :)

Monday was our last day in Clearwater and we had both breakfast and lunch out before heading to the airport.

Maggie Mae's Waterfront restaurant was small and cramped but the food was delish! The only person that didn't like her food was Briana - again. She didn't like her eggs or peanut butter toast. (I swear she is getting finickier by the day.) She did like her strawberry milk at least. But, I loved my breakfast and so did Doug. It is super popular, so call ahead to get your name on the wait list. We only had to wait a minute or two before we were seated...

We decided to head to Tampa to eat lunch so we could be near the airport. Doug has eaten at the Chart House in Tampa before, so he recommended we go there...

The view was beautiful - we sat outside and enjoyed the weather.

We had the nicest waitress. The food took a while to come out, but once it did, it was delish.

I couldn't decide between the lobster grilled cheese with lobster bisque and the blue crab sandwich. I asked our waitress which she recommended. She smiled and said "I'll surprise you." She served me half of each sandwich. How nice is that???

The blue crab ended up being my favorite. :)

So overall, other than the first night, our meals were awesome. Thus the couple of pounds I gained on vacation. Whoops.

So, that is my vacation wrap up. I would visit Clearwater Beach again in a second. It was a wonderful, relaxing trip!!!