Daytona Beach Restaurants

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BJ's is a brewery and restaurant with a great location, just across the street from Daytona International Speedway. We arrived on a race day, during practice, and the restaurant was surprisingly not busy.

We started with beers; I had the Abby Normal, and Laura decided on the Jeremiah Red. The Abby is a seasonal double ale, traditionally brewed by Trappist Monks in Belgium. This is a fairly strong (6.6% ABV) brown ale, with slight bitterness, medium body, and a distinct fruitiness. The Jeremiah Red is an Irish Red ale, 7.3% ABV, made from a blend of specialty malts.

For lunch I had the fish tacos, which were great and cheap. They are made with a fried piece of fish, wrapped in a tortilla with chipotle mayonnaise, Santa Fe dressing, Napa cabbage, carrots, red onions and cilantro. Served with tortilla chips, avocado cream sauce and tomato salsa. A really good lunch for about $6.

BJ's began in California in 1978 as a pizza joint, and by 1996 it had slowly expanded to seven restaurants, all in California. That's when they opened the first BJ's Brewhouse, and they have since expanded to well over 100 locations across the US. BJ's is a publicly traded company.

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When we got to Daytona (spring 2004) we called our friend Charlie who was at Caribbean Jacks. He was going to come over and take us to a restaurant. But his car was blocked in (by patrons of the restaurant at his marina), so he rode his motorcycle over to our marina and met us at this restaurant which was brand new and had just opened.

We ate out on the patio, which was a little chilly later on (the photo of us that I took in the mirror is in the collage)

Favorite Dish: I had the Queens Cut prime rib (lower left of collage) for $15.95. It came with a garden salad, rice (which I had) or garlic mashed potatoes and vegetable. Bob had the Exchange Caeser salad with shrimp ($10.95), and Charlie had the pan seared salmon ($15.95). I had fried cheesecake for dessert ($4.95). Iced tea or coke was $1.95@

Service was a little disconnected, but they had only been open for 2 or 3 days. They have live music and dancing.

The bill for the three of us without the tip or Charlie's drink was $57.14.

This restaurant has been built since we last stayed at this marina, and it is BIG and popular. They have had to put in reserved spaces for the boaters, otherwise they'd have no place to park. Charlie, our friend whose boat is here gets free food for taking care of the fish tanks (collage in the picture), so he brought us over in his truck. He figured there wouldn't be as many people here since it was rainy and nasty out - particularly there wouldn't be many motorcyclists out.

Even so the restaurant was quite crowded and busy. The fish tank was at the entrance and you could see through it to the kitchen. There was also a window at the far end looking out onto and across the river.

Favorite Dish: Bob had a half rack of ribs, I had teriyki chicken (in the inset) and Charlie had the salmon special. He paid with his free meal card, so I don't know exactly what the total was. The special on the entrance board was Tilapia (fish) for $17.95.

Ocean Deck is a wonderful restraunt. It is full of kind helpful workers and has an amazing nightlife. Its the only place that you can go to and dance and drink until 3 in the morning. Topped off by having a wonderful location with a great view of the ocean, I would recommend it to anyone

Favorite Dish: The food is AMAZING!! I enjoyed the chicken sandwich I had, which was made JUST RIGHT!!

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The Ocean Deck has incredible Seafood, but also anything someone who doesnt like seafood would enjoy. My husband doesnt eat fish but he comes back every year for the ribs!

Favorite Dish: RASTA CHICKEN! They have a signature hot sauce thats so good, I go to the gift shop online and order some to be delievered to my house when im cooking at home!

AMAZING sushi!!!!

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This is a family owned restaurant, The cook is from Jamaica and makes outstanding jerked pork and chicken-extremely spicy! The atmosphere is nothing to write home about, but don't let that scare you. The food and the people make the place. Best fried porkchops and chicken in town.

Favorite Dish: My favorite dish is the Oxtail. Super tender morsels of beef in a gravy that makes you want to lick the plate. And don't forget the ginger beer!

We were first time visitors and chose this by chance. From start to finish this was an outstanding choice. The service was wonderful with the server not shy about making great recommendations. I had the Lobster Lasagna and it was out of this world. It was early and we had a chance to watch another server help an elderly couple. He took his time and I was totally impressed with his kindness. A great combination of service and food!

Favorite Dish: Lobster lasagna

LC&H is a beautiful, relaxing restaurant with genuine professional service although its second floor location and its tastefully discreet signage make it somewhat difficult to access. They don't read or answer their email, but we were greeted by name even though it was our first visit in many years. Beautiful flowers and appointments, but I don’t care much for the music which was somewhat frantic jazz. If you like to listen to jazz that’s fine, but I personally don’t feel that it is conducive to good digestion. The mussels with Pernod were fabulous and it was impossible to leave even a drop of the delicious broth. But the entrees were not up to the same standard. The green peppercorn filet mignon was cooked perfectly medium rare as ordered, but was not prime meat. The menu did not say that it would be prime, but I feel that a restaurant of this quality and reputation should serve nothing but prime beef. The veal was somewhat tough and overdone and seemed to have been pre-cooked. The salad would have been fine if they had not used pale, tasteless, pre-cut and oiled, boxed tomato wedges. If good tomatoes are not available it would be better to serve none--or if you must have some red color, use grape tomatoes. The desserts seemed to have been brought in and would have been only ordinary except that COOL WHIP was used. Yes, I said COOL WHIP--in a French restaurant! They even admitted it. For heaven’s sake, if real whipped cream is too much trouble, use Reddi-Whip. But COOL WHIP? Please! The final nail in the coffin is that this whole affair took a full two and one-half hours (there were only two other tables being served and we were a party of two!). The explanation was that it was a Thursday and the regular weekend kitchen crew was not working. So, we will go back for a weekend trial. But how can you excuse COOL WHIP and pale, tasteless, pre-cut and oiled, boxed tomato wedges? What were they thinking?

Favorite Dish: Mussels and Pernod