Frosty Mug Icelandic Pub & Restaurant
411 N. Donnelly St., Mount Dora 352/383-1696
Owner-manager Thora Einarsson is serving the best Viking vittles in the state from the cellar of the landmark Renaissance Building -- Icelandic haddock pan-seared or deep fried for fish and chips, carefully cured Icelandic gravlax, Icelandic pickled herring, Icelandic smoked salmon along with blue-cheese-crowned burgers, mor's (mother's) meatloaf, schnitzels and New York strips, Sveppa Strimlar, Godhi Frakkinn and Saet Fjalla Brie, otherwise known as beer-battered portobello strips, thinly sliced roast beef on a baguette and puff-pastry-encased brie baked with brown sugar and walnuts then drizzled with raspberry and white chocolate sauce. All that plus a choice of 50 beers. Lunch and dinner, with entrees $6.95 to $18.95, are served Tuesday through Sunday, with a Sunday brunch.
Le Clos
20 S. 2nd St., Amelia Island 904/261-8100
Whenever I want to tickle my French memory bank, I head for a delightful 1906 cottage a few feet from Fernandina Beach's famous shrimp docks. That's where Le Cordon Bleu graduate and Ritz of Paris alum Katherine Ewing holds forth, blending a peerless liver pate, creating classically inspired escargot bourguignonne, serving seared diver scallops with herbs, shallots and tomato on a bed of linguine, fish of the day delivered fresh daily, shrimp steeped in garlic- chive cream with feta and red-yellow pepper confetti bedded down with seared spinach, and marinated hanger steak sporting roasted shallots and gorgonzola. The coup de grace is the French chocolate cake with creme anglaise. Dinner entrees range from $18 to $25 and are served Tuesday through Saturday.
The Oyster House Restaurant
Highway 29 S., Everglades City 941/695-2073
I don't go to this rugged hangout for the freshly shucked bivalves but for the freshly trapped stone crab claws unloaded in Florida's crab paradise of Chokoloskee at the western threshold of the Everglades and the Ten Thousand Islands. There I can enjoy one of our most valuable natural resources in great casual comfort during the Oct. 15-May 15 season, contemplating whether to continue the feast with freshly gigged Everglades frog legs or something else succulent from the sea. Lunch and dinner, with entrees at market price, are served daily.
Philly Steak & Sub
2009 13th St., St. Cloud 407/957-6772
The main man here, Ted Palmer, admits: "We like to brag because we have a product and service worth bragging about, 'The Best Cheese-steak in Florida!' " A "Philly," made with thinly sliced beef, cheese (purists insist it must be provolone) and grilled onions on an Italian hoagie roll. The controversy comes in when you want a bit of sweet green pepper added or even jalapeños and mushrooms. Palmer believesin satisfying the customer and assembles hot subs with meatballs, sausage andchicken parmesan along with Cubans and Reubens, cold subs of turkey, chicken, cheese and ham, and his most expensive offering, the "Gut Bomb" for $6.99 and $8.99, an explosion of a Philly with American and cheddar cheeses and a triple portion of jalapeño firecrackers. Lunch and dinner, starting at $3.95, are served Monday through Saturday.
Shade at the Cannery
115 E. 8th Ave., Havana 850/539-8401
Recently rebuilt and reopened in the heart of antique country after a disastrous fire and still experimenting with a new menu, inspired perhaps by the owner's brother, who has an Italian restaurant in town, this little hideaway is already easy to recommend with enthusiasm for the made-from-scratch salads and freshly brewed soups, including my favorite, the one based on baked potatoes. Luncheons average $8 and are served Wednesday through Sunday.
The Yearling
State Road 325, Hawthorne 352/466-3999
Miz Rawlins, count your blessings! The restaurant, inspired in name by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "The Yearling," reopened last January after six years of neglect and non-notice, and it's once again serving the kind of solid back-country fare described with recipe and vivid prose in Rawlings' book "Cross Creek Cookery." That means such vittles as gator tail and gopher tortoise, known as cooter, fried catfish and fried chicken, seafood chowder and hush puppies by the hundreds, maybe the thousands, served in a refreshingly honest and simple wooden rustic setting with reminders of Miz Rawlins and wildlife all about. Special thanks for this rebirth of one of my all-time favorite escapes go to owner Robert Blauer, who miraculously found one of the restaurant's original cooks, Junior Jenkins, who once again is in the kitchen. It's a tale worthy of Rawlings. Dinner entrees range from $10 to $20 and are served Wednesday through Sunday.
Ziggie's Gumbo and Crab Shack
83000 Overseas Highway, Islamorada 305/664-3391
The name is no idle boast. This simple shack that's heir to a grand and glorious Keys legend, Sigmund "Ziggie" Stocki, who opened his Conch Restaurant in 1962, is serving some of the best Cajun and Creole fare in Florida. In part that's because the owner is importing his filé, so vital to a proper gumbo, and his crawfish, necessary to several of the dishes, and the special back bayou boudin sausage, essential for the jambalaya. Even the Po-Boys are authentic, and so too are the crab cakes, which are loaded with enough crab to justify the old dictum that they're held together only by their own will power. Lunch and dinner, with entrees $8 to $18, are served daily.
Restaurants Around the State
SOUTHEAST: Boca Raton
Roy's
1901 N. Military Trail 561/620-9401
The local outpost of the excitingly innovative Roy Yamaguchi, the Japanese-American who has brought the freshness of flown-in daily Pacific seafood flattered with all the spices and seductions of the Pacific Rim. Dinner, $19 to $30.
SOUTHWEST/TAMPA BAY: Dunedin
The Black Pearl of Dunedin
315 Main St. 727/734-3463
Owner Kathleen LaRoche is blessed with a talented pair of chefs, Karen Schluntz and Mark Hrycko, who have winning ways with Long Island duckling and crab cakes that are arguably the best in the state. A real gem. Sunday brunch, $6 to $14, and dinner, $15 to $25.
CENTRAL: New Smyrna Beach
Riverview
101 Flagler Ave. 386/428-1865
Terrific waterfront setting for watching the boat parade while working over a menu of the continental classics prepared with some tableside fuss and a good deal of pride. Lunch, $6 to $12, and dinner, $15 to $30.
NORTHEAST: Ponte Vedra Beach
Gio's
900 Sawgrass Village 904/273-0101
Mod Italian food in mod Italian setting with lots of chrome and neon, good wines, popular piano bar and on-site bakery turning out great breads and pastries. Dinner, $14 to $32.
NORTHWEST: Tallahassee
Albert's Provence
1415 Timberlane Road 850/894-9003
French chef Albert Ughetto executes to perfection a menu emphasizing fresh harvests from the sea, and manager Mark Lee provides the front-room professionalism to make this relative newcomer a real winner. Lunch, $7 to $12, and dinner, $12 to $25.