Alma's, 306 N. Orlando Ave., Cocoa Beach _ 407/783-1981
Chef and co-owner Tony Fiedler is obviously an oenophile to be taken seriously. He has assembled the best wine list on the Space Coast and put together an Italian-American menu to complement it perfectly. Seafood is a specialty, from the classic clams casino to crab cakes and shrimp tangled with linguine or mingled with scallops and cuts from the fresh catch of the day presented on a bed of green fettuccine blessed with a garlic-zapped white wine sauce. Dinner, entrees $9 to $17, nightly.
Bello Mondo, 401 Delannoy Ave., Cocoa Village _ 407/633-7653
This corner cornucopia of imagination lives up gloriously to its boast that it features "Gourmet Italian Seafood with a Touch of Jazz." The jazz is upstairs at the recently opened East Village Jazz and Blues club; the seafood on the first floor where the talented kitchen produces such innovative departures as whole fresh fish perfectly seasoned then roasted for presentation with an orange-mango-pineapple chutney and a zest-loaded basil sauce. The mahi-mahi is Mediterranean style, meaning with Gaeta black olives, capers and tomatoes with a garlic-white wine-virgin olive oil sauce. Shrimp is steamed and saluted with avocado, radicchio, hearts of palm and served with a mango-strawberry coulis; slabs of tuna are grilled and orientalized with ginger, shallots, Thai peppers and a teriyaki marinade. Dinner, entrees $16 to $22, Monday through Saturday. (If you want Italian pie and heroes, go next door to Corleone's Pizzeria at 405 Delannoy Ave., 407/631-0004. It's the best pizza for miles and miles around.)
Captain Katanna's Dockside Restaurant & Bar, 4263 N. Harbor City Blvd., Melbourne _ 407/253-1369
A well-weathered oceanfront survivor taken over this summer by Terry and Tina Salamis. Menu offerings of spanakopita (spinach pie), pastitso (lasagna), gyro sandwiches and galaktobouriko (custard in flaky filo dough) reveal their Greek origins, but they do so much more to make this a lunch or dinner stop. Wings, oysters, crab fritters - which are more like little flatcakes - burgers, catch-of-the-day sandwiches for lunch and at night everything from a fried seafood platter with scallops, shrimp and thick fillets of cod to a 14-ounce New York strip and chicken bordelaise, a breast filled with spinach, ham and provolone and covered with burgundy sauce. Don't worry about appearances or the bumpy gravel road out front. It's all part of the honesty and a blessedly informal introduction to the inviting bar, walls of windows and an outside deck overlooking the pier. Lunch and dinner, entrees $7.50 to $15, daily.
Cocoa Beach Pier, 401 Meade Ave., Cocoa Beach _ 407/783-7549
Dine in class and comfort 800 feet over the Atlantic, indulging in a bit of mollusk mayhem as introduction to the shrimp stuffed with crab or given a fresh coconut coating, chicken treated to tropical spices, fillets of freshly caught fish or slabs of beef. For simpler fare, check into Marlin's Good Times Bar & Grill, the Oh' Shucks Raw Bar or The Boardwalk at any time of day. The Atlantic Ocean Grille opens for dinner, entrees $10 to $20.
Crab Heaven, 6910 N. Atlantic Ave., Cape Canaveral _ 407/783-5001
For all lovers of those beautiful swimmers, heaven indeed! The blues are the main attraction, whether served after a garlic steaming or simply with liberal sprinklings of Old Bay seasoning, but there are also soft-shells guaranteed to be fresh from their molting as well as snow crab clusters, featured in the special all-you-can-eat feasts. Lunch and dinner, all meals under $20, daily.
Grills Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar, 505 Glen Cheek Drive, Port Canaveral _ 407/868-2226
Who says you have to have experience to run a successful restaurant? All you need is a location, reliable suppliers of freshness and honesty - in taste and tariffs. Owner Joe Penovich has all three, and he's serving the best seafood in the port. Nothing fried; everything fresh, with grilled half-pound fillets of local fish marinated a bit to prevent drying out the poor creatures once they're committed to the fire. A taste triumph of the first order and reasonably priced, with $13 the top tariff. Lunch and dinner daily.
Heidelberg, Seven N. Orlando Ave., Cocoa Beach _ 407/783-6806
Heidi and Edmund Deleuil are the Austrian-born and Austrian-trained couple in charge of this Continental outpost of carefully cared for European spirit and sustenance. Of course, they have the best wurst and superior schnitzels and soups, roast pork surrounded by stewed red cabbage, and those wonderful little noodles known as spaetzle, but the kitchen also does wondrous things with the fresh Norwegian salmon, roast duck, steak peppered with Madagascar pellets and other specialties far from the usual Austrian fare. And naturally there's sensational strudel. Alongside is Heidi's Jazz Club, a fine retreat to while away the hours early and late, while toasting the Deleuils with a "Gott sei Dank!" Lunch and dinner, entrees $14 to $19, daily.
Lloyds Canaveral Feast, 610 Glen Cheek Drive, Port Canaveral _407/784-9031
High volume two-story blockhouse that's smack on the shoreline of the Port Canaveral Channel and features feast-like portions of seafood, much of it fried, along with steaks and sandwiches and lots of snack food. But I come here for the best possible double-deck viewing of the channel, and its always fascinating boat parade, especially exciting when the spectacular new Disney Magic glides in or out. Lunch and dinner, entrees $9 to $25, daily.
Old Fish House, 249 West Cocoa Beach Causeway, Cocoa Beach _ 407/799-9190
Veteran family feeder with budget-pleasing prices and all-you-can-eat specials, conveniently located a block from the super-hyped Ron Jon's Surf Shop. I go for the blue crabs, handled with respect Baltimore style, whether picked and molded into crab cakes or steamed in Old Bay for patrons to do the work. Lunch, Monday through Saturday; dinner, entrees $9 to $15, nightly.
Old Fisherman's Wharf, Crescent Beach Drive, South Cocoa Beach _ 407/783-2731
Great place to take the kids, who get with their meal a bag of feed to fatten the best-fed catfish on the coast while you're dipping conch fritters into honey-mustard or working through the shrimp and surimi crab substitute, baked fish covered with lightly seasoned crumbly coat or any of the fried fish specialties. Dinner, entrees $7 to $13, nightly.
Rusty's Seafood & Oyster Bar, 628 Glen Cheek Drive, Port Canaveral _ 407/783-2033
A channel-facing outpost of the famous Bernard's Surf of Cocoa Beach, a perennial 200 Best honoree, famous for its slogan, "From Our Fishing Fleet to You." That means a steady supply of fresh fish to back up their luncheon buffets and specials of grilled tuna, blackened grouper and jerked flounder, plus early bird dinners of grilled crab cakes and scallop-mushroom casseroles. I like any time the steamed seafood platter with rock and regular shrimp, oysters, clams and scallops and corn on the cob. Lunch and dinner, entrees $3.50 to $17.50, daily.
Schoolies Crab House & Subs, 505B Glen Cheek Drive, Port Canaveral _ 407/784-0522
What Grills Seafood is to perfectly prepared fresh fish, this authentic hideaway is to crabs, local and imported, prepared with great respect and liberal doses of TLC to ensure their delicacy and sweet yielding flavor. I like the brown paper on the tables, the rolls of paper towels, the location above a bait and tackle shop, and the prices. Two pounds of blues are pegged at $11, three at $15 and four at $19. Dungeness crab, airborne delivered when needed, is $15 and $21 for two and three pounds. Call in advance to make sure its in stock. Lunch and dinner daily.