Casa Monica Hotel
95 Cordova St., St. Augustine 904/810-6810
The Casa is a breathtaking rebirth, and its 95 Cordova signature room is one of the rising stars of northeast Florida if not the entire state. Two real pros are in charge: The Viennese Laine K. Blaker, whose Florida credentials include the Boca Raton Resort and The Tides on South Beach, and the Swiss-born executive chef René Nyfeler, who has developed an innovative New World Electric Cuisine, a masterful merger of Moroccan, Mediterranean, Caribbean, Asian and American flavors. That's defined as mussels in a ginger-saffron-wasabi broth, semolina-coated calamari with Moroccan pesto and cashew-crusted salmon with Madurados chili sauce. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, with entrees $16 to $37, are served daily.
Gaylord Palms Resort
6000 W. Osceola Parkway, Kissimmee 407/586-0000
A $450-million, 1,406-room giant on 63 acres convenient to the theme parks but with a theme park of its own, a 41¼2-acre, glass-enclosed atrium that recaptures three of Florida's unique non-theme areas -- the Everglades, Key West and St. Augustine. Each with its own restaurant: The Old Hickory Steakhouse on stilts with fresh seafood and Kansas City steaks; Sunset Sam's Fish Camp with its own boat bar and a seafood-smart menu; and Villa de Flora, where the setting is Spanish and the sustenance is Mediterranean with six display kitchens producing everything from a flurry of tapas, ceviche and arugula couscous salads to prime rib and eggplant Parmesan. The prices are in the moderate range.
Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne
455 Grand Bay Drive 305/365-4500
With its 12 acres of tropical gardens at the edge of the Atlantic, this Ritz opened in July with another dynamic duo in charge of its signature room, Aria -- executive chef Jeff Vigilla and chef de cuisine Jordi Valles. They're in charge of the knockout Sunday brunch, where the 13 presentation stations reveal European, Asian and South American accents along with the Mediterranean: Sushi and sashimi, miso soup, smoked salmon and finnan haddie, seafood zarzuela and churrasco grilled meats with chimichurri sauce. French master pastry chef Frederic Monnet finishes you off with a striking assortment of sweets. The cost is $55 plus tax and gratuity, and it's worth every sou or pesata or drachma -- excuse me, euro.
Ritz-Carlton Sarasota
1111 Ritz-Carlton Drive 941/309-2008
This gem opened last November, and with its downtown location and commanding view of the bay, it immediately staked a claim as one of the class acts of the west coast, recalling the glory years when John Ringling had a hotel on the site called El Vernona, now the name of the signature restaurant. In the kitchen, Karim Hassene from the Ritz in San Francisco is in charge, producing a splendid menu inspired by the cuisines of the Mediterranean, from calamari chargrilled in the Greek manner to salad Nicoise and chicken on a bed of couscous. The wine list is Ritz-Carlton remarkable. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, with entrees $18 to $33, are served daily.
Terrace Hotel
329 E. Main St., Lakeland 863/688-0800
The Terrace is a 10-story sentinel of the 1920s shining with an $8.5-million rejuvenation in the heart of a reborn downtown. Vital to its rebirth has been its Terrace Bar & Grille, where the luncheons are built around chilled berry soup, followed by a Caesar salad or one made with a Bosc pear, candied pecans and Gorgonzola lightly dressed with orange-shallot vinaigrette. Then comes meatloaf with beer-battered onion rings, seafood pasta pomodoro with mussels, scallops and shrimp, or sandwiches thickly stacked with crab cakes, portobellos or steak. Dinner starts with steamed mussels in saffron cream, spinach and artichoke fondue or bruschetta as prelude to grilled loin of pork with poached pear and sesame-crusted red snapper with Asian chili vinaigrette and cumin-scented basmati rice. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, with entrees $9 to $30, are served daily.
Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa
3555 S. Ocean Drive, Hollywood 954/602-8330
The Westin had its rebirth in February as the most expensive ($800 million), tallest (39 stories) and one of the largest (998 rooms) hotels ever built in Florida. Its two outstanding restaurants are Hollywood Primer -- watched over by chef Marvin Woods, formerly at SoBe's National Hotel -- and Satine, where Jamaican-born chef de cuisine Donna Wynter is in charge. The veteran of the Biltmore's La Palme d'Or and her own Donna's Bistro at the David William Hotel produces an exciting array of island-inspired surprises plus new twists on Mediterranean and Pacific Rim standbys. A seared breast of duck fanned over moist duck confit with acorn squash, sauteed Swiss chard and cherry port reduction; and chorizo-and-pork-filled shrimp are wrapped in rice paper and christened with a sage-savvy pineapple sabayon. Be sure to order a Moulin Rouge salad. Dinner, with all entrees $24, is served nightly.
Westin Grand Bohemian
325 S. Orange Ave., Orlando 407/313-9000
This beaut riveted my attention in the lounge with its Gustav Klimt collection and Imperial Grand Bosendorfer piano and then kept up the pressure in the quietly elegant Boheme restaurant, where executive chef Robert Mason holds sway. Previously the executive chef at the California Cafe, a Top 200 restaurant winner, Mason has a menu bristling with brilliance, starting with his beautiful lobster bisque and mango-barbecued shrimp sate and leading to wood-roasted salmon with warm lentil salad and mushroom demi or pistachio-crusted rack of lamb with Boursin cheese, braised squash, chili and mint demi-glace. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, with entrees $19 to $39, are served daily.
Restaurants Around the State
SOUTHEAST: Fort Lauderdale
Cafe Seville
2768 E. Oakland Park Blvd. 954/565-1148
Three times olé! for the best Spanish restaurant in town, one with ultra-helpful, knowledgeable staff led by the omnipresent owner who leads you through the intricacies of his highly competent kitchen. Lunch and dinner, $6 to $20.
SOUTHWEST/TAMPA BAY: Dunedin
Six Tables
1153 Main St. 727/736-8821
Capacity is 24, and the menu is strictly fixed price in this pioneering concept, a dream size and arrangement for many a chef, especially when supported by such skilled staffs in a rather sophisticated setting. Additional locations in Largo and Tampa. Dinner is $60 per person for a six-course meal.
CENTRAL: Cocoa Beach
Yen Yen Chinese
2 N. Atlantic Ave. (Minuteman Cswy.) 321/783-9512
Not a typical chop suey-fortune cookie kind of place but an upscale haven for the best Chinese food for miles around with chef's specials and a staff knowledgeable enough to recommend and comment on them. Lunch, $5 to $9, and dinner, $8 to $19.
NORTHEAST: Jacksonville
The Wine Cellar
1314 Prudential Drive 904/398-8989
Wines, of course, are a great strength in this 17-year-young fixture, but the luncheon salads are superb, as are the dinners of jerk-peppered tuna, tournedos au poivre and banana-macadamia-coated Chilean sea bass. Lunch, $7 to $15, and dinner, $19 to $29.
NORTHWEST: Tallahassee
Georgio's
3425 Thomasville Road 850/893-4161
Chefs Grant Beane and Patrick Molthen are the terrific twosome who produce for owner George Koikos some of the best food in all north Florida, from gumbo and she-crab soup to blue-crab-stuffed Gulf snapper, garlic-loaded filet mignon and rack of lamb. Dinner, $8 to $30.