Restaurants Overview

With a few exceptions, dining centers on low-key mom-and-pop places that serve hearty home-style food, and small eateries that specialize in local fare: alligator, fish, stone crab, frogs' legs, and fresh Florida lobster from the Keys. Native American restaurants add another dimension, serving local favorites as well as catfish, Indian fry bread (a flour-and-water flat bread), pumpkin bread, Indian burgers (ground beef browned, rolled in fry-bread dough), and tacos (fry bread with chili, lettuce, tomato, and shredded cheddar cheese on top). Because of its large Hispanic farm-worker population, Homestead is home to restaurants specializing in authentic and inexpensive Mexican cuisine and fresh produce. Diners looking for something more trendy head to the Keys or Miami. Restaurants in Everglades City, especially those along the river, have the freshest seafood, particularly stone crab. These places can be casual to the point of rustic, and often close for a month or two in the fall. The nearest fine restaurants to Everglades City are in Marco Island and Naples, each about a half hour away. Although both Everglades and Biscayne national parks and Big Cypress National Preserve are wilderness areas, there are restaurants within a short drive. Most are between Miami and Shark Valley along the Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41), in the Homestead-Florida City area, in Everglades City, and in the Florida Keys along the Overseas Highway (U.S. 1). There are also fast-food establishments on the Tamiami Trail east of Krome Avenue and along U.S. 1 in Homestead-Florida City, and west of Everglades City in Naples.