Island Hotel & Restaurant

A quaint historic hotel and restaurant. While it didn’t advertise itself as a B&B, they did serve breakfast on this Valentine’s Day. As a historical hotel, it has its charm, such as second story wrap-​around porch with swing, and its limitations, such as no television. There was free Wi-​Fi which was good enough for streaming a movie. Staff was very friendly and accommodating. Shower was small and pressure inconsistent. One bed didn’t have clean sheets. The other was fine. Restaurant served a great dinner, especially the Artichokes Atsena Otie. The breakfast was fabulous. Area is a small fishing community. Very pretty. Didn’t see many pools. The beaches aren’t suitable for swimMing because of the clams.

Seafood restaurant inside of the Island Hotel. Cool atmosphere in the «lobby», the dining room is a little plain for the price tag and seemed to be at a distinct angle downward from the center. If I ever go back, I’ll make sure to eat outside.
You have to navigate through the tiny bar to use the bathroom, although, the homemade hand scrub makes the bathroom excursion well worth it!
Their hostess was very nice, and served me in the lobby after dinner, where I bought some hand scrub and jewelry on display by a local artist. Our awesome server Ashley came out and showed me all around the hotel, bar and patios; showing they truly care about their place of employment, which is a rarity.
Okay, food!
The overall comment I came away with is they are uneven in their salting of dishes. The steamed clams for our app were far too salty. The seafood soup and crab bisque were under salted. Throw some salty clam broth into each soup and they’re perfect.
The crab bisque boasts 10oz of pure crab in each cup but I think if you’re going to mention the amount, the customer should be overwhelmed with that ingredient. I was hard-​pressed to find a big chunk of crab. The soup was delicious, nonetheless. I could swim in its velvety, creamy, goodness.
The Magic Seafood Soup was absolutely lovely (although under salted) it was delicate yet hearty, packed with seafood and vegetables.
Fresh pepper at the table was a big plus. Bleu cheese dressing was awesome. The half carafe of wine came with an additional full glass for 15 $ and a 16oz Stella was only 5 $.
Tried three entrees:
*Crab-​stuffed snapper (special)
Snapper was small in portion and the sides** were disappointing. The taste, however, makes up for lack of presentation. Light yet buttery crab piled into perfectly cooked snapper then baked for a nice golden brown top.
*Scallop, clam & shrimp pasta (special)
The sauce (broth) was too sweet for my taste, pasta over cooked but I’m an al dente stickler. Clams were same as app so very salty still.
*Crab Imperial with shrimp
Okay, where I’m from there’s a 95% chance you’ll receive crab stick when you order crab so eating local Blue Crab was impossible to deny. If you add the shrimp for 4 $ more (29 $ altogether), it’s basically like stuffed shrimp casserole. It was a smaller portion than I was expecting but it’s a highly decadent dish so it’s probably just as well. I got four shrimp smothered in buttery crab and baked for a beautiful crunch. **The sides were identical to the snapper dish:
PLAIN (?!) couscous
Boiled carrot cross-​sections
Pretty good asparagus
One random yellow squash cross section

What can I say about this establishment. I’ve stayed here a few times over the last 10 years and never had a bad visit. Lol well I’ve never had a bad news at the Cedar Key overall.
The food is always fresh and offers an array of various delights both from the sea and land. Service is always superstar and they seem to really care that you have a great dining experience.
The hotel has seen better days but it adds to its charm and your overall stay in a place like Cedar Key that has no chain Stillers or change anything. I’m a big fan of Cedar Key.
What’s a girl to do? When in Cedar Key do as the locals do.

The owners are very nice and the food is great, you should order the clams island hotel meal,

Review for the small Hotel bar only. This was a wonderful little bar if you are looking for ambiance and rubbing elbows with other vacationers and locals. The prices were good and drinks well made,. we had fun in this old little bar!

What can we say, but just fantastic! This was our wedding dinner restaurant and they could not have been nicer. Salad was fresh, filet mignon was wonderful, our seafood past dish was delicious, everything was just first rate all the way and reasonably priced. The building itself is worth the visit, very historic and is known as the most historic B & B in Florida. The nautical bar area is something that is also a must see. Very small, but does have music on Friday nights. Some guest of ours stayed at the Hotel and loved it. I can’t say enough positive things about this place. Just great and delicious food. Make sure it is a stop while in Florida, Cedar Key is one cool place!

We really enjoyed our time at the Island hotel. it was build in 1859 and instead of feeling dark and creaky, it was light, clean and full of life. The floor slant in places and the whole place creaks at night, but it was all part of the charm. We spent a good deal of time just sitting on the upper balcony playing cards and people watching. the breakfast (which is included in the room rate) was delicious. Get the french toast! The bar is such a cool place. it doesn’t open until 5 though, and I wish we could have spent more time there.

My wife and I have eaten here twice and have not been disappointed. The menu always has several non-​seafood items, which is a nice change for this area. One evening I had lamb chops and they were outstanding. If the weather is nice, try to dine on the screened in porch because it’s fun watching the street scene. The dining room is lovely, very quaint and charming and seemingly unchanged over the last hundred years. Highly recommended.

Had an amazing 4 days and 3 nights at this «haunted» hotel. Had an odd event happen on our first night in room 30, but the rest of the week was uneventful. Amazing food, gracious service and clean rooms. I can’t recommend a better place to stay on Cedar Key.

I have gone to the Island Hotel many times for dinner. Last night I went again and as always the food was fabulous. I had a shrimp, scallop and clan special over angle hair pasta with mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, and sugar snap peas. My meal was so eye appealing I had to take a picture and it tasted wonderful. The service was fantastic. The atmosphere is so comfortable is this very old beautiful hotel.

I live in Dallas, where great restaurants abound, and this was one of the best meals Ive had in a long time. The crab bisque was stellar, the salad seemed to come out of their own garden it was so fresh, the dressings were superb, and the fish picatta was the best Ive ever had. While the service was good for the most part, my only complaint would be the server disappeared for a while when it was time to bring the check, a pet peeve of mine.

We had such a nice stay here. We stayed in room 32 and it was lovely. Clean, sweet décor and quiet. Great location too, walking distance to everything. We had the complimentary breakfast, I had the French toast and it was so good! The waitress gave us recommendations on where to find seafood to take home with us.

Best food and staff on the island!!. The artichoke hearts and shrimp appetizer was awesome. Our waitress Angel (the ginger ninja) Was fantastic!
She was friendly, knowledgeable, easy on the eyes, and went way above and beyond to make us feel at home!!!
DEFINITELY a must visit

I was actually quite impressed with the restaurant at the Island Hotel! Upon our arrival, the hostess asked if we were there for a special occasion, which we were (my husband’s birthday). She said,” that’s great, you’ll get free dessert!” After our waiter came to serve us, he again repeated that we would get free dessert, which made my mouth water. For our meal, we got Escargot a la Jahn, which was tasty, though a bit thick. The salad for our entrée included a delicious creamy dill dressing. Our main course was fish piccata, which had a lot of capers (delicious for me, my husband scraped some off). Then of course, we did get free dessert! It was carrot cake and quite good! Not only was the food yummy here, but our server (Richie) was very friendly and had an awesome radio voice!

The Island Hotel & Restaurant on Cedar Key, Florida is a hidden gem. No wonder Jimmy Buffett himself played and hung out here.
Eight words best describe this gem: Friendly, laid-​back, gourmet food, an overall delight!
Andy the owner, Deanna front desk manager, Angie the bartender, Richie the waiter, Kaitlyn the waitress and the rest of the staff are genuinely friendly and a real pleasure. The food is prepared with care and professional culinary expertise.
The overall ambiance is relaxing yet exciting with a nightly rollicking bar full of friendly talkative locals and hotel guests. The outside upstairs veranda has nice rocking chairs and a 3 seater swing just perfect for sipping wine and watching the tropical downpour while staying dry. There are cool stories of ghosts but none were experienced by us during our 3 night stay.
All in all a really nice B&B. I see why folks keep coming back year after year. Captures the elegance of old Florida mixed with the modern-​day WiFi-​enabled comfortable clean hotel you’d expect to find if you chose the right place to stay.
Try the hearts-​of-​palm salad and Island Hotel Clams. Mmmm mmmm great! Hopefully you’ll see the soldier at daybreak guarding the entrance to the upstairs verandah!
Tell ‘em Bill & Donna from Davie Florida sent ya!

This review is of the bar area only. We went in for dinner and the staff was wonderful. Very friendly, very relaxed. We sat in a small room that had only 4 tables. Although it was small, it was comfortable. We ordered 2 steak sandwiches, a red fish sandwich, a grilled chicken sandwich and a key lime pie. Everyone enjoyed their meal. I think any visitor to town would be happy eating here.

(Review for restaurant only): Very friendly service, good seafood pasta. We ate in the bar area, so we were able to order off of the bar menu. This is a good place to stop in for drinks, they seem to make them the best on the island.

Had a lovely dinner in the dining room this time with friends. We are eating plant-​based now and the waitress and chef went out of their way to accommodate us. We’ve eaten before in the bar, several times and once on the balcony — we’ve always enjoyed ourselves.

We enjoyed the very small bar area, get there early or try to sneak in a spot around the locals. My martini was perfection. We had some steamed clams that were nice and garlicky, some bisque and salads. I had to try the Hearts of Palm salad, it was good and an interesting experience — a salad truly like no other I’ve had.

Great seafood bisque — fantastic bar atmosphere — political discussions with the locals were a highlight.
Sitting on the swing on the porch eating superb Key Lime Pie the perfect finish to a great night and discovery.
Did not see any ghosts, and we nearly did not stay here because of other Unilocal reviews — however, we can report, the rooms were spacious, historic and quiet. No TV’s needed with this atmosphere of Romance.