Looking for a good old fashioned Fish Shack in Florida.

June 21, 2021 11:33 AM

You know the type...been around for eleventy billion years....All the fish is caught fresh that day by some dude named Hank and cooked up right then for you. We are staying in Kissimmee and then meeting someone in Daytona (midway-is between our place and Jacksonville) and then traveling south along the coast. Anywhere in those locations would be swell. Have suggestions?

Alternate / follow up questions. We are avoiding the Usual Tourist Places (Disneyworld, et al) do you have suggestions of where to go in / around Kissimmee / Orlando? A fantastic Cuban restaurant would be nice. Some great dive bar or club with my sister. Roadside attractions? We have kids ages 8 & 11 who are mostly satisfied with the pool & waterpark place we are staying in but we could take them elsewhere.

Many thanks for any suggestions!

posted by Wink Ricketts to Travel & Transportation around Kissimmee, FL (7 answers total)

Is Whitey's Fish Camp the sort of thing you're looking for? (I've never been, but I had friends in high school who worked there in the mid-80s.)
posted by kimota at 12:07 PM on June 21, 2021

I only know of 2, both probably a stretch from Orlando/Kissimmee: Owen's Fish Camp in Sarasota and Big Ray's in Tampa.

One of our kids goes to school in DeLand which is about 45 min from Orlando. It's a funky little college town and does a street fair thing every weekend. Our favorite spot there is bakechop, but it gets busy quick. Skip the Cuban place in DeLand; it sucks.

While I'm at it, skip any and all of the Columbia Restaurant locations for Cuban food as well. They're likewise terrible. If you do get into Tampa, Arco Iris is our go-to spot.
posted by jquinby at 12:39 PM on June 21, 2021 [2 favorites]

Wait so just to clarify, you're meeting them in Daytona because that's halfway between Kissimmee and Jax? If so I'd scratch that plan and come up to St. Augustine instead.
posted by saladin at 2:02 PM on June 21, 2021

Saltwater Cowboys is not a fish camp, but it is an interesting place on the intracoastal waterway just south of St. Augustine. Food is good, atmosphere is fun and loose. Fresh seafood.
posted by Ochre,Hugh at 4:20 PM on June 21, 2021

Best answer: Dixie Crossroads will probably be legit.

In Orlando, Player 1 is cool if you like beer and video games and there's a great izakaya bar next door.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:22 PM on June 21, 2021

Best answer: ... though I'd say the atmosphere at Dixie Crossroads isn't fish-campy, but the seafood quality is high. JB's Fish Camp is likely to be what you're looking for atmosphere-wise, you can go kayaking! Can't vouch for their seafood sourcing, though.

You might try Grillz in Port Canaveral -- they occasionally have lionfish which is delicious, as long as they cut off those poison spines. There's also seafood markets at the port which sell raw and smoked fish to go.

Ms. Apple's Crab Shack is an institution if you like those hot bottom feeders.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:44 PM on June 21, 2021

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions. We had chosen Daytona just because it seemed to be equidistant driving time-wise from us and Jacksonville. But the places in St. Augustine look swell so maybe we'll pop up there instead.
posted by Wink Ricketts at 1:19 PM on June 22, 2021