Izzy's Fish & Oyster
CITY GUIDES | FLORIDA
The Best Fort Myers Restaurants Right Now
Fort Myers still knows exactly what to do with fresh Gulf seafood, but that’s only the beginning of what the city does well.
By Eric Barton
Updated Aug. 3, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
My college roommate grew up in Fort Myers, so I first learned the city through visits built around inexpensive seafood, alarmingly inexpensive drinks at the Lani Kai, and little concern for what either might do to us later.
The Fort Myers restaurant scene has grown considerably since then, with serious downtown kitchens, polished waterfront restaurants, and chefs giving Southwest Florida dining an identity beyond grouper sandwiches and frozen cocktails.
For anyone wondering where to eat in Fort Myers, these are the restaurants that deserve a place at the top of the list.
10 Twenty Five
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At 10 Twenty Five, the tables spill into Patio de Leon, a downtown courtyard that can feel like one large outdoor bar by nightfall. The kitchen handles bar food with a certain recklessness, building the footlong Bully with shaved ribeye, pork roll, roasted garlic, cherry-pepper relish, and Cooper Sharp. There’s Guinness in the French onion soup, too, which should tell you where the restaurant’s interests lie.
Best for: A big sandwich and a few beers downtown
Bruno’s of Brooklyn
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Rocco Bruno came close to fulfilling his dream of opening a restaurant before a fire destroyed his Brooklyn pizzeria. His son, chef Calcedonio Bruno, and daughter-in-law, Genevieve, eventually picked up that story in Fort Myers, where fresh pappardelle arrives under clams, mussels, shrimp, calamari, crushed tomatoes, and red pepper flakes. The pork braciole, stuffed with prosciutto and cheese, tastes like the kind of dish kept on a tattered recipe card for generations.
Best for: Fresh pasta and a family history worth knowing
Coconut Jack’s
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The back deck at Coconut Jack’s faces the mangroves of Estero Bay, where boats slide past the tables on their way toward the Gulf. Executive chef Beto folds some of that geography into mahi tacos with pineapple-cilantro salsa, cabbage, and key lime aioli. It’s a place to order fish, watch the water, and let the afternoon slide by lazily, like the pelicans flying overhead.
Best for: Fish tacos on the back bay
Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille
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Doc Ford’s takes its name from the marine biologist and reluctant crime solver who appears in Randy Wayne White’s novels. The restaurant’s Yucatan shrimp have developed their own following, steamed in their shells and soaked in butter, garlic, Key lime, cilantro, and Colombian chiles. From the Fort Myers Beach deck, diners can watch shrimp boats move through Matanzas Pass, a scene that connects the fictional Florida of the books with the working coast outside.
Best for: Yucatan shrimp and the boats on Matanzas Pass
Izzy’s Fish & Oyster
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Chef Jamie DeRosa named Izzy’s for his daughter, Isabella, opening the original on Miami Beach before the restaurant found its way to downtown Fort Myers. The menu still carries New England standards such as oysters, chowder, and lobster rolls, but the coconut-and-macadamia-crusted tripletail with red curry sauce belongs farther south. Blue-and-white tiles and striped banquettes make the place look a little like a Cape Cod fish house imagined during a Florida summer.
Best for: Oysters followed by something from the Gulf
OISE
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OISE explores itameshi, the style of cooking that grew from Japan’s fascination with Italian food, filtered here through chef Brad Kilgore’s memories of his Sicilian grandmother. He finds the overlap in dishes such as an oversized Wagyu meatball set over red miso marinara, a Caesar salad sharpened with yuzu kosho, and Okinawan chicken parm with caper aioli, mozzarella, and chile crisp. Sushi and hand rolls share the menu with pasta and steaks, but the most interesting dishes are the ones where the two traditions become difficult to pull apart. If you think Japanese and Italian don’t belong together, trust me when I say Kilgore will convince you otherwise.
Best for: Italian cooking with a Japanese vocabulary
On the Bay at Matanzas
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On the Bay has held its spot beside Matanzas Pass since 1984, long enough to watch Fort Myers Beach change around it more than once. Boats can pull up to the docks for coconut shrimp, crab cakes, and cold drinks, while a band plays nearby seven days a week. Upstairs, Petey’s Upper Deck adds pizza and a higher view of the water.
Best for: Arriving by boat and staying for the music
Oxbow Bar & Grill
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Oxbow rises two stories beside the Caloosahatchee, its patios pointed toward the river and the bridges crossing downtown. Chef de cuisine Germán Méndez arrived with more than two decades of experience and a menu that runs through oysters, seafood boils, steaks, burgers, and sandwiches. Downstairs, diners can leave with a paddle, a fishing shirt, or a Fort Myers souvenir from the gift shop.
Best for: Lunch within a few feet of the river
Ristorante Fabio
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Edmondo and Clementina Ciminati opened Ristorante Fabio in 1993 after running restaurants in New York, and their daughter, chef Viviana Vena, took over two decades later. Her farfalle comes with chicken, peas, mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, sherry cream, and shards of crisp prosciutto. From a modest North Fort Myers shopping center, the family has kept cooking the Northern Italian food that brought them here.
Best for: Northern Italian cooking from two generations
The Silver King Coastal Kitchen
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The Silver King takes its name from the tarpon that once drew anglers from around the world to the Caloosahatchee. Now operating as a Mediterranean restaurant inside the Luminary Hotel, it serves Spanish octopus with roasted potatoes and romesco, gambas al ajillo, and red snapper. The menu has changed considerably since its Ocean Brasserie days, though seafood still provides the reason to come.
Best for: Mediterranean seafood downtown
Tarpon Lodge
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The main building at Tarpon Lodge dates to 1926 and looks west across Pine Island Sound, where the horizon can turn orange enough to empty the dining room onto the porch. The Wells family has run the property since 1999, preserving the clapboard lodge, cottages, and old boathouse around it. Dinner might bring snapper under saffron beurre blanc or Pine Island clams and shrimp tangled with pasta, but the sunset remains the course everyone waits for.
Best for: Dinner as the sun drops over Pine Island Sound
Wickie’s Lighthouse
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The owners of the Island Cow and Mad Hatter opened Wickie’s after losing their Sanibel restaurants, one to fire and the other to Hurricane Ian. They named it for the wickies who once climbed lighthouse stairs to trim the wicks, polish the lenses, and keep the lamps burning. The new restaurant serves breakfast through dinner near the Sanibel Lighthouse, giving the two families—and the island—some continuity after a brutal year.
Best for: An all-day meal near the lighthouse
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