Long Point Cafe: Fresh fish for dinner, two nights a week
A mile and a half north of the bridge over the Sebastian Inlet, a roadside café next to a bait-and-tackle shop serves breakfast and lunch six days a week to campers at the adjacent Long Point Park, fishermen and an assortment of locals.
But on Fridays and Saturdays, the Long Point Café also serves dinner to a pretty much full house which increasingly includes visitors from our barrier island community.
While we would not be inclined to rate this among the area’s top restaurants, two nights a week, the Long Point Café proves it is hard to go wrong when you are serving really, really fresh fish. And the fish served at the Long Point – generally dolphin and grouper – are as fresh as it gets.
The restaurant, which you can easily miss driving north toward Melbourne on A1A, turns out to be more tastefully decorated than you would guess from the road, with blonde wood tables and chairs spaced nicely in a room adorned with an assortment of mounted gamefish.
On a recent visit earlier this month, we somehow failed to receive the complementary Florida smoked fish dip –– a spicy specialty of the Long Point – and started our meals with soups.
Our companion and I enjoyed the shell fish bisque ($4.25), and my husband had the fish chowder ($4.25). The bisque was creamy smooth and tasty; the pale and lumpy chowder, however, even with bacon bits sprinkled on top, was a fairly tasteless affair (though somewhat better after the addition of considerable salt). Go for the shell fish bisque.
For main courses, I ordered the salmon and shrimp entrée ($22), a six-ounce filet of wild-caught North Atlantic salmon; my husband ordered the fish of the day, a grilled piece of grouper ($24). Our companion had the day’s special, a pesto marinated shrimp risotto ($20) with sun-dried tomatoes.
The consensus was that my husband had the better of the entrées, a gorgeous filet of the whitest grouper imaginable. It couldn’t have been fresher and only a splash of lemon was needed.
I would give my salmon and shrimp dish a mixed review. The salmon was excellent; the shrimp served on a skewer might have been good, but they had not been properly deveined and some were sandy. The seafood was accompanied by a very tasty medley of al dente vegetables.
The day’s special also was very flavorful, though it should have been called something other than risotto. The rice was clearly not the Arborio most commonly associated with risotto – nor was it Carnaroli or Vialone Nano. We inquired what type of rice had been used, and after first being told it was a secret (?), were informed it was arrozo (kind of sounded like someone in the kitchen decided to see if we recognized the Spanish word for rice with an added “o.”)
With the pesto and sun-dried tomatoes, the special was a nice dish and these shrimp were tasty – but it simply was not a risotto.
For dessert, I ordered a Boston cream pie (the chocolate syrup on top left something to be desired), while my husband and companion enjoyed a very good Key Lime pie. The Long Point gets their Key Lime pie from the Florida Key Lime Pie Company of Cocoa, which also provides Key Lime pie to several locations on our island.
Dinner for three with a modest but decent bottle of wine (the Long Point has a pretty modest wine list) came to about $110 before tip.
If you are craving good fresh seafood, are looking for a change from Vero restaurants, and want to go somewhere new on a Friday or Saturday night (keep in mind they are only open two nights a week), the Long Point Café is worth a try – particularly if you live toward the northern end of our barrier island.
It’s not a “must visit” like the 12A Buoy in Fort Pierce, which we reviewed two weeks ago. But if you try the Long Point, you are likely to leave happy. Be sure to call ahead for a reservation.
PS. The breakfasts here – which we have not tried – sound extremely interesting. One of their specialties is the Eggs Benedict Grouper, where fresh grouper substitutes for the ham. I don’t feel too confident about this, but I am increasingly thinking I have to try it.
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
Breakfast: Tuesday through Sunday, 7 am to 11 am
Lunch: Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am to 3 pm
Saturday, 5 pm to 9 pm
Dinner: Friday and Saturday, 4 pm to 9 pm
Bar
Beer and wine
Address (MAP)
100 Long Point Road, Melbourne Beach, Telephone: (321) 723-8839
Online
www.longpointcafe.com
