My Guide to the Best Places to Eat in St Augustine

When we finally decided to make a trip to St Augustine a reality, I was excited to see all the history and old Spanish colonial buildings. What I wasn’t prepared for was all the incredible food. Seriously, how St Augustine isn’t more widely recognized as a foodie destination is borderline criminal!

We didn’t have a single bad meal during our time there. In fact, we didn’t even have an average meal. Everything we ate exceeded my expectations, so much so that it was hard creating this list and not just including everything.

It wasn’t even just the food, though. Almost every place we stopped to grab a drink was also very good. After experiencing how good all the eateries and bars were, I had to share some of my best places to eat in St Augustine.

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Burrito Works

Burrito works is a small local chain with four restaurants spread across St Augustine, and it’s an absolute must try when you’re in St Augustine.

I checked out their spot located at St Augustine Beach after reading about how good Burrito Works was before our trip. It was a bit of a wait, not because they were moving slow but because this spot is popular with locals and tourists alike. While you wait, you can grab a beer or soda to kill the time because it may be a long wait depending on the time of the day. I ended up waiting about 20 minutes at 1:00.

They have a menu with tacos, nachos and burritos arranged in different ways, but you can also pick your style with the type of meat you like in either a more traditional style or Baja style.

Catch 27

My favorite meal during our time in St Augustine was easily at Catch 27, and that’s saying something because every meal was very good.

Catch 27 serves up locally caught seafood in a chic setting. The menu when we visited wasn’t too extensive, but it was still varied enough to offer a few things that interested me. I wanted some kind of pasta, so I ultimately settled on Creole salmon. Before that entree, we shared a bowl of coconut curry seafood bisque.

Wow! This bisque was one of the best soups I’ve ever had. The coconut curry flavor imparted a creamy Asian taste to the more traditional bisque flavors that made me want more. Had we been alone, I may have licked the bowl clean!

My Creole salmon was no slouch, either. As someone who can be a bit picky with salmon, Catch 27’s was perfectly cooked. It was just done enough to not be chewy while maintaining a good salmon flavor. The pasta came in a Cajun cream sauce with small chunks of crawfish and Andouille sausage to give it a strong Creole flavor. It was absolutely delicious and only slightly outdone by that bisque.

The only downside to Catch 27 is it is a bit on the expensive side. Still, the food is so good that it’s definitely worth the splurge. It’s easy to see why many people consider Catch 27 to be one of the best places to eat in St Augustine.

City Perks Coffee Company

City Coffee Company is another spot like Kookaburra that offers visitors to St Augustine’s Old Town a boost of energy in the afternoon.

But that’s not why I’m recommending City Perks Coffee Company. I’m recommending it because it has a nice wine menu and a large variety of beers to pick from to enjoy in the large courtyard right outside their doors.

The courtyard is wide open and despite being right off St George Street isn’t very crowded. On one side of the courtyard is a large waterwheel from the 1880s. Even with the noise of nearby live music, the soft churning of the water is a relaxing way to enjoy your beverage of choice.

It’s maybe not the most spectacular option on my list of the best places to eat in St Augustine, but I loved its calm courtyard just off St George Street. It’s a small gem worth checking out if you just want a calm atmosphere to have a glass of wine or cup of coffee.

Columbia

Our first dinner in St Augustine was at Columbia, a Florida chain featuring Spanish and Cuban cuisine. I was a bit wary of eating here because I try to stay away from chains, but it came recommended as one of the best places to eat in St Augustine by a couple Floridians we know. It also only has seven locations spread across Florida, so it’s a far cry from McDonald’s.

I’m glad we ended up coming here because it was a fun experience. Both the outside and inside were elegantly decorated with touches of Spanish and deco flairs. It felt a bit like eating in a couple different restaurants we tried in Mexico City, but then I’d look around and see deco stained-glass windows and a bar that came right out of the Roaring Twenties.

Columbia’s menu has a lot to choose from, including both tapas and entrees. It also has a large selection of Spanish wines to choose from. Neither of us were terribly hungry, so we passed on any tapas and each got a single entree.

It turned out to be a good thing we didn’t get any appetizers or tapas because we each got a large hunk of bread before our meals. This bread was so good. It was soft and warm but with a nice crusty exterior that invited me to keep having just one more bite.

I had grilled red snapper with yellow rice and carrots while Michelle had Cuban-style roast pork with black beans, white rice, yuca and platanos. My red snapper was decent. It wasn’t the best fish I ever had, but it was pretty good, especially with the sauce it was served with. That yellow rice, though? It was mind blowing. I didn’t know rice could be so good.

Columbia also had some intriguing desserts, but I was so full after my dinner that I couldn’t even think about eating more.

Dog Rose Brewing Company

You can’t escape craft breweries when visiting tourist destinations, and St Augustine is no exception. I checked out two different breweries, with Dog Rose Brewing Company being my clear favorite.

I only tried three different beers, but two of them, Rhapsody in Red and Ol’ Josephus Brown, were very good, especially the brown. The third, Roadside IPA, w aas reasonably good IPA in a world filled with reasonably good IPAs. The brown had notes of coffee that warranted coming back a second time before we drove back to the airport for one last draft.

In terms of setting, Dog Rose Brewing was a pretty fun spot. Both times I visited, it had a lively atmosphere. The taproom was filled with people having a good time. They have TVs showing live sports, two shuffleboard tables and two dartboards. Dog Rose Brewing also has a calendar filled with live music and food trucks for guests to enjoy.

Ice Plant

Our last meal in St Augustine was at the Ice Plant in the town’s Lincolnville neighborhood. Appropriately housed in a 1920s ice factory, the Ice Plant features farm-to-table and locally sourced seafood on their menu, as well as plenty of delightful handcrafted cocktails.

From the outside, the Ice Plant looks like a factory. On one side of the building is St Augustine Distillery while the other half contains the restaurant. On the inside, well, it still looks like a factory, except a factory that was remodeled to look like a restaurant and bar. It’s a pretty neat spot with lots of callbacks to its time as an actual ice plant. The toilets have old fashioned pullcords to flush them, exposed steel beams crisscross the ceiling, and random objects like what workers used to clock in and out can still be found on the walls (though I’m not 100% how much of this is original). It’s unlike most bars you’ll come across.

But enough about all that. It doesn’t matter how unique it is if the food and drinks aren’t worth having. Fortunately, the Ice Plant more than holds its own with its menu. It’s a bit expensive (not unlike most everywhere else we ate in St Augustine), but it’s worth it.

I had two different cocktails, a Saltburn and a Moonage Daydream (all their signature cocktails are named after movies), both of which were quite good. My only complaint was with the Moonage Daydream as it came in a rocks glass with a large chunk of ice that took up a lot of the volume. It tasted good. I just wish there was more of it to taste.

I had the grilled bistro steak sandwich on rosemary ciabatta focaccia from their brunch menu. This sandwich was pretty amazing. It came with an onion jam, radishes and candied jalapenos that altogether gave it a bite and a sweet flavor. The steak was cooked perfectly. It was almost more like prime rib. It was a bit messy, owing to the amount of steak on it, but oh my, was it good! This sandwich definitely showed why the Ice Plant is one of the best places to eat in St Augustine.

After you’re done at the Ice Plant, head next door to St Augustine Distillery for a fun – and shockingly free! – tour of the distillery. The tour includes four tastings plus more at the end if you want to sample anything else.

The Kookaburra Coffee

The Kookaburra Coffee won’t make many lists of the best places to eat in St Augustine, but it is a nice little coffee cafe if you need a pick-me-up in the middle of your day while exploring St Augustine’s Old Town.

It’s located just off busy St George Street across from Plaza de la Constitución. They offer several varieties of coffee and loose leaf tea, as well as various pastries like scones and muffins.

If you need a more sustaining food option, they also have Aussie Pies in a few different flavors. The best way I can describe these is that they’re kind of like a Cornish pastie except they’re round and come in a pie tin. Both of us had a corker, which was a pie filled with sausage, pepper jack cheese and eggs topped with a salty seasoning on the crust. It comes with a house made sauce which is kind of like a salsa.

It was a bit small, but very flavorful with the addition of the sauce. However, you’ll need to add a pastry if you’re hungry. Our berry scone was alright. It was a little on the dry side and could have used more berries, but it was good enough after the pie.

Kookaburra also has a spot just a block off St Augustine Beach near the intersection of A Street and A1A Beach Boulevard if the salty air has you feeling a bit drowsy in the middle of the day.

Prohibition Kitchen

Prohibition Kitchen makes many lists of the best places to eat in St Augustine. I did a quick glance at pictures of online that had me expecting a speakeasy atmosphere. Unfortunately, I should have done more research.

Once we actually visited, it was clear that Prohibition Kitchen was much more of a touristy venue than any type of small, cozy speakeasy.

Nevertheless, it still makes my list of the best places to eat in St Augustine. The negatives aside, the food was very good. I had one of their specials called the kitchen sink. It was basically a somewhat comically large fried chicken sandwich with pimento cheese and all sorts of other condiments.

The chicken was incredibly crispy and juicy. I probably would have been satisfied with just the chicken by itself, but everything else combined to make it an almost decadent meal. Similarly, Michelle had a burger that was both large and delicious.

We each had a milkshake for dessert. Again, these were massive. We could have easily shared one, but I wanted one with booze in it. In addition to the bourbon, it also came with whipped cream and brownie bits. Except for the first taste, which was mostly bourbon, it was pretty tasty.

The Tini Martini Bar

We headed to The Tini Martini Bar after having it recommended to us by a friend who lives in nearby Orlando. I was a little reluctant to go here, not wanting to spend a ton of money on a small martini, but I left glad we tried it out.

Between its location right along the Matanzas River and its affordable martini menu, The Tini Martini Bar should be on your list of places to stop for a drink in St Augustine. Since it’s a martini bar, I’ll start with the drinks.

The Tini Martini Bar has an extensive martini menu with each drink coming in at $15. That may sound like a lot, but you’re not paying for just a martini. Each drink actually gets you a whole shaker’s worth of a martini. Factoring in ice melt, I’d guess it’s at least 2.5 martini glasses worth of liquid. Even if you aren’t looking for that much alcohol, it can still be a great shareable item with a friend.

Their menu has a wide variety of martinis, too. I chose the Rockin’ Tini Martini, a rum-based martini mixed with midori and pineapple juice. (Is it really a martini if it’s not vodka or gin? You’ll forget about this minor detail by the time you’re done!) It had a rummy taste but wasn’t overly boozy like martinis usually are. They also had several chocolate-flavored martinis that sounded good, but I still had to be functional for dinner.

The Tini Martini Bar’s location is also top notch. They have plenty of outdoor seating for good views of the river, Lion Bridge and, depending on the time of day, horse drawn carriages lined up along the road. Inside, Tini Martini also has a swanky-looking bar, but you’ll have a hard time choosing that over the views outside.

Honorable Mention to Victorian Bed and Breakfast

We stayed at Victorian Bed and Breakfast during our trip to St Augustine where we were treated to excellent breakfasts each morning.

Each of the three breakfasts we enjoyed here were culinary delights that I’d recommend anyone try. They included a French toast casserole with a wonderfully sweet blueberry syrup, a coffee cake that tasted like it came straight out of the kitchen of some Viennese fine chef, and a breakfast sandwich with a biscuit pastry that was to die for.

Unfortunately, not everyone can try Victorian Bed and Breakfast’s morning meals, which is why it’s only an honorable mention of my best places to eat in St Augustine. You have to be a guest of the hotel to have breakfast here. Still, the food was too good for me to not at least mention it.

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