12A Buoy Offshore Grill: The place for fresh seafood
After two years and many visits, I feel confident in saying some of the best fresh seafood in these parts is currently found at the 12A Buoy Offshore Grill in Fort Pierce.
Fine dining this is not. Even by “family restaurant” standards, this restaurant, now in its third year at the foot of the South Bridge in Fort Pierce, is nothing fancy.
But the fresh seafood, which we almost always have here, time after time has been excellent (though we should also note there are steaks on the menu which are pretty darn good).
While we have heard a few gripes over the course of the past year about the service (we have never experienced anything but great service ourselves), it’s hard to imagine anyone leaves unhappy with their meal.
Even the simplest dishes are so good they make you wish this restaurant was here in Vero, rather than a 25-minute drive away in Fort Pierce.
One can start the raves with the appetizers. The lobster mac and cheese ($11), a table-sized appetizer of macaroni and asiago cheese baked in a personal-sized skillet with chunks of lobster, is always a winner.
But on this most recent visit, I passed up the mac and cheese and started with a house salad ($6). My husband also passed up a favorite -- the creamy, clam-filled New England clam chowder ($4), which he insists is the best he has found in Florida – and started with the fried oysters ($10). Our companion ordered Jack’s Miami Vice chowder ($4).
The Jack’s Miami Vice is the name the restaurant has finally given to a concoction it has long been serving: a cup filled half with clam chowder, and half with conch chowder. The result is amazing – not quite as creamy as the clam chowder, not nearly as spicy as the conch.
The oysters, lightly breaded and fried, were juicy and succulent. The salad was a perfectly fine mixed greens salad, served with a tasty blue cheese dressing.
For entrees, my husband had one of my favorite dishes -- the blackened scallops ($21), wonderful plump, juicy scallops dredged in blackened seasonings, pan seared and finished in a lobster ginger cream sauce. He ordered the lobster ginger cream sauce on the side, and said the medium rare scallops were so good they really did not need the sauce.
I ordered the special of the day, a pound and a quarter Maine lobster stuffed with rock shrimp, feta cheese and spinach ($25), topped with a Newburg sauce with mushrooms (which I had on the side), and served with roasted potatoes and asparagus.
Frankly, I thought the special fell into the category of too much of a good thing. The lobster was prepared perfectly, and the shrimp, feta and spinach stuffing was delicious. But the whole plate was a bit overwhelming – way more food than most diners are going to finish.
Our companion ordered the nine-ounce Florida lobster tail ($22), which came grilled and accompanied by a huge chunk of broccoli and very tasty mashed potatoes. I think most diners would prefer that the carving of the broccoli into bite-sized pieces take place in the kitchen, and not require that the work be done at the table.
On previous visits, we have enjoyed the offshore pasta ($20), clams, shrimp, scallops and fish sautéed in wine, garlic and fresh tomatoes served over linguini; crab stuffed shrimp ($19), beautiful large shrimp stuffed with crab meat, broiled, and topped with a citrus buerre blanc sauce; and ahi tuna ($19), a beautiful piece of sesame encrusted tuna, seared and served rare with ponzu sauce, wasabi and ginger.
For dessert, if you are lucky, there are two choices: a homemade key lime pie and a homemade peanut butter pie (each $4).
But be forewarned: Some evenings, even if you dine relatively early, by the time you get to that stage of your meal, the desserts are all gone. That’s the price you pay for dining in a small restaurant where everything is made fresh.
One other item worth noting is the interesting “Grape List.” Helped by the wine prices that top out in the mid-$30s, a family of three can have an excellent dinner, including appetizer and dessert, for about $110 before tip.
If you really like fresh seafood, this is the place.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com.
The reviewer is a beachside resident who dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.
Hours
Wednesday through Monday (closed Tuesdays)
Lunch: From 11
Dinner: From 4:30
Bar
Beer and wine
Address (MAP)
21 Fisherman’s Wharf, Fort Pierce,
Telephone: (772) 672-4524
