Cortez Kitchen

Thank you, friends on Unilocal!We took a Unilocaler recommendation and went to this fun restaurant, took another rec and ordered the seafood platter to split, and took a final recommendation to have the key lime pie. We loved the fishing village atmosphere, the friendly staff and service, and a delicious meal! They have real fresh seafood and a great homemade pie! We want to come back on a bright, sunny day to eat out on the pier!

What a cool little place! Don’t let the looks fool you, step up and grab a table and be prepared to enjoy a wonderful evening! Staff was wonderful and served drinks and food promptly. The food was delicious. Tried the seafood platter and ordered it blackened which was a treat! To top off a great evening they had a nice local trio that covered everything from Bob Marley to the Bee Gees! I think the sign out front should read Welcome to the Cortez Kitchen, No Shoes, No Shirt, No Bra … No Problem!

A nice place very laid back I like the Hawaiian style. I had the Mahi Mahi sandwich and it was good. Located right near the fishing docs so the fish is fresh everyday and the beers cold. So depends on what you’re looking for it’s not fancy shmancy but its good food.

Super Florida place. On the water by the fishing boats. The locals and the fishermen eat here and it is just like old tyme Florida before the condos came!

If the locals eat there, it must be good. Besides, they have this stuff coming right off the boat, right there! The service is good, the food is excellent and the beer is cold. Been coming here for the past 5 years and it’s my first stop. a
The only drawback is that smoking is allowed, since it’s all open, but the food makes up for it. The grouper is excellent!

Ordered one grilled fish sandwich, one soft shell crab sandwich and one popcorn shrimp dinner. The soft crab was actually rotten. When I bit into it, it was black inside and tasted horrible. They did switch it to something else, but honestly I wished they just kept it. The fish sandwich was bland, had no char marks from a grill and was not fully cooked. The remoulade had no flavor. With so much good fish in the area, I would never go back. Trying to understand how they earned 4 stars unless people drank too much to taste the food.

Absolutely delicious food last night, great service and a fantastic band playing some awesome music. Only people smoking everywhere and typical selection of way too many lite beers and lack of Pabst loses the 1-​star. Place has a spotless kitchen and super-​clean rest rooms too! Best and by far the freshest conch fritters appetizer we’ve ever had!

Rude waiter named Shane yelled at all customers who didn’t order enough from him. «I need to make money!» Even ruder manager name Chris. Ended up sharing a table with a nice couple. Ordered crab legs and margaritas and they were about average. Drinks were all sour mix and tasted horrible. Ended up going somewhere else for desert because the waiter was so rude to everyone. Will never return to this place again.

Great atmosphere great happy hr! Love the peel and eat shrimp! Great place to sit and listen to live music. Don’t miss Doug Demming and the jewel tones band! A must stop on a Sunday afternoon!

Very laid back. With the seafood coming from the fish market only next door. The grouper was FRESH and the Mac and cheese is homemade. It was amazing!

Could be a 5 star dive bar/​restaurant if it had a sail sunshade over the deck to help with the heat and some fans out there to keep the flies away. Once your food arrives so do the flies! Really kills the atmosphere. Easy fixes.
Love when Eric Von plays!

Great food, amazing casual ambiance, and we really enjoyed the live music. Service was a little slow, but they were really busy so that’s understandable!

The Grouper sandwich was not as good as last year. The service was unbelieveabley slow. We arrived at 6:30, the food arrived at 8.
We’ll go elsewhere né t time!

Ended up here because there was an hour wait at Star Café. Let me say what a pleasant surprise it was. The place is out of the way a little but well worth the exploration to get there. The well shaded and airy dinning area is right off the retail fish market and you can smell and see the fresh fish. The staff was busy but kind. Spent time with you and recommendations were right on. The Grouper was meaty and taste great. The fried shrimp fantastic. I had some grilled red shrimp and as our waitress said taste more like lobster than Shrimp. I was a little disappointed with the Clam Chowder but the place was great. If you can’t get in at the Star Café this place has got the same food with happier staff and better parking. Go east 3 blocks from Star and enjoy.

I had a yen for Fish & Chips. Our friends told us this was the place to go for F&Cs. Indeed it was. This was the best I’ve had in a long while. As an additional treat, the oysters were excellent!

I’d go back. I can’t say what we ordered was anything special but it was well prepared, nicely and timely presented. What is outstanding is their outside dining, it is like eating on a dock; which I love. A few tiki umbrellas, boats going by nothing like eating while sitting on the water and watching the pelicans. Our server «Thomas» was absolutely outstanding, enthusiastic and attentive. We were seated promptly in the spot right at the rail but I think when Thomas caught us melting a bit in the sun he quickly offered us a seat with a touch of shade.

When planning our date night while staying in AMI, I decided on Cortez Kitchen for the seafood, not the atmosphere. Thankfully Unilocal did not lead us astray.
We’d had an appetizer and cocktail while watching the sunset elsewhere, so we didn’t get to CK until well after dark. We almost walked to the pricier restaurant next door, since the entrance has a back door vibe.
We chose our seats, and were promptly attended by our friendly server. It’s not the longest menu, but it’s got good variety. Only Bud Light on draft, but plenty of other beers in bottles.
I started with the spider roll since I’m a sucker for softshell crab and J got the clam chowder. The portions were generous. The crab in the spider roll was a little dry and over cooked. The clam chowder was good, though not terribly memorable.
For our dinners, I got the grouper dinner (grilled) with hush puppies and fried okra. It wasn’t bad, but nothing really stood out. I suggest getting the grouper blackened or fried next time. J took the advice of the server and got the blackened scallops with broccoli (veggie du jour) and cheese grits. He considered mac and cheese until the server said that it’s just Kraft. This plate of food was divine. The scallops were nicely cooked, the cheese grits were the perfect consistency and ratio, and the broccoli was nicely cooked and seasoned to be tasty and add interest (and healthiness points) to the rest of the platter.
Sadly we didn’t save room for dessert. When we return, we’ll split the blackened scallops and save room for the key lime pie!

Super fun little dive bar and restaurant overlooking the marina. Great spot for a cold beer, fresh shellfish, and live tunes. Don’t come if you’re looking for a nice glass of wine or China to accompany your stone crabs. My girl was jamming out to the classic rock cover band and everyone was wildly accommodating of her five year old dance move antics, so it’s not gruff as the look may suggest.

Came for late Sunday lunch.
Great onion rings, breaking doesn’t separate from the onion. Good burger and very juicy and flavorful grilled chicken. Hush puppies were great too. Nice beer selection. Lots of seafood. Cool view from the deck.
Live jazz was playing. The band had a really nice and lively sound. Loved them.

We came here for lunch on Saturday with relatives who spend the winter in the area and heard this place was pretty good, so they wanted to take us.
It’s in an out-​of-​the-​way spot off the main road. Let’s politely call it «authentic» or just plain not very fancy. Who cares it was kind of a cool place with outdoor and quasi-​outdoor seating.
We got seated straight away but 15 minutes or so later all the tables were taken on a perfect Saturday afternoon.
The lunch menu wasn’t huge and had a lots of seafood but other stuff as well (prime rib sandwich?).
Between the four of us we had popcorn shrimp, coconut shrimp, grouper ruben, grits, cole slaw, onion rings and hush puppies. I am happy to report all were very good. Being from Connecticut I’m not an expert on southern cooking but I order grits and hush puppies whenever I can. These seemed pretty decent to me.
This is definitely more of a beer place than a wine place and they had a decent beer selection.
The service was efficient and our server was pleasant.
Prices were reasonable for what you get.
Overall this was exactly what we wanted in a lunch spot.