The Connection Bar and Grill

The food is very delicious especially the ciche and the cuban sandwiches. Sweet tea and muffins are wonderful. I eat here every chance I get.

The fries here are to die for! Love coming here and it never disappoints. Confused on what to order? Try the Cuban!

I love coming to The French Connection because they lean towards healthy… they also have homemade dishes such as quiche and their sandwiches are not cookie cutter… and they do substitutions which is good for me!
The atmosphere is friendly and they have large rooms for groups. friendly service people too!

I have been to The Connection a few times and every time I order food, I find my new favorite. It started with the amazing Hot Italian, then the Cuban and a few other dishes but has finally ended with the most delicious Cheeseburger! Jimmy Buffet has nothing on this one! The staff and patrons are alike; friendly and welcoming! Check out this restaurant/​bar and you will definitely leave with everyone knowing your name.

Love the food! Love the staff! Love the location! Can say in the 8+ years I’ve gone there I’ve never had bad food or bad service! Love eating outside watching the people walk by! Downtown is just such a great place to go compared to 10 years ago! Oh btw. It hasn’t been called the French Connection in a while!

I sat the bar awaiting a cool beverage and an appetizer. The bar waitress was friendly and made me feel welcome. I ordered a cool beverage and a crepé (chicken & almonds). When the dish arrived I had a lovely side of fruit with a mouth watering crepé. The plate looked lovely and tasted wonderful! I intend to come back and try many other items on the menu.

The service has always been consistent. The food has always been delicious. The Caribbean chicken is for sure my favorite. Maybe we can work on adding that dish to the lunch menu?

Just like how most people mentioned there’s nothing French about this place felt more like American food to me, cute café though. Anyways, I ordered the spicy turkey with a side of pasta salad. Really enjoyed my meal and the server was nice. It was pretty slow on a Monday at 3pm, I guess I missed the lunch rush? They have good food I’ll give them that!

I gave this restaurant two stars because of its great location and the good service we received from our waitress. However, two of us ordered the crepes. We thought, «French restaurant. They must know how to prepare crepes. «Big mistake! Do not order these! Both the ham and cheese crepes and the chicken almond crepes were really bland. We couldn’t find the chicken and the nasty mushroom sauce was awful! The price? Expensive, because I left most my dinner on the plate. On the other hand, one of our party had a French dip sandwich which was «OK». Skip this place, Ford’s is better — in fact, just about anything would be better.

Nothing «French» about this place. If you are looking for French food look elsewhere.

I feel like it’s gonna down hill over the years. I hadn’t eaten here in several years and upon going back during a midweek lunch rush I was left so unimpressed. Our drinks took forever to be refilled. The food took quite awhile as well and was really just meh. But the ONE thing that really ticked me off? The waitress, who again couldn’t be bothered with refilling our drinks, took one look at the mess my one year old made from eating and gave me the snarkiest attitude. Little did she know I ALWAYS clean the floor up before I leave. Having been a waitress and now a mother of three, I just don’t want anyone else to have to do it. I could tell she would rather have a table of suits than a couple of moms meeting their girlfriends downtown for their lunch breaks, and that’s fine cause I would much prefer to spend my money elsewhere.

Great sandwich spot on the strip. I love coming here on my trips home. They have a lot of outdoor tables, the sandwiches are great, and the service has always been good in my experience. Try the french onion soup!

I gave this place one star, but since the food never came, I would’ve given it zero had that been an option since I didn’t even get to taste anything.
My family and I came in on a Saturday afternoon around 1:30 or 2, it was pretty crowded, but nothing that the cooks and wait staff shouldn’t be used to by now. It took a while for the server to even come over to take our drink order, and when she did she was clearly frantic and rushed and without even asking if we were ready, insisted on taking our food orders, but we had already waited so long that we knew what we wanted. That should’ve been a sign.
The table next to us sat down exactly when we did, got their food, ate, paid, and left ALL BEFORE we were even acknowledged by the waitress that we were yet to get food, also during this time, she did not bother to check on us once. After 45 minutes went by, she came over to fill drinks, and did not mention the lack of food until asked, to which she replied how busy she was and that «when this happens it throws off her whole day». WHAT. No apology or anything. She then comes over a few minutes later to say it will be a few more minutes and that the people next to us left so quickly because they ordered a French Dip sandwich, supposedly the quickest made item. Meanwhile, we all ordered similar things to, none of which should’ve taken anywhere near that amount of time. Several more tables that arrived after us were already leaving.
She walked into the kitchen, we waited for 10 more minutes. She never came out of the kitchen the entire time, not even to update us on the status or own up to the fact that someone clearly forgot about the order.
Without trying what all looked to be just mediocre food, we left.
I would absolutely not recommend this horrible place.

The Connection Bar & Grill reminds me of Cheers, everyone knows your name and the bartenders know what you like to drink and have it ready for you as soon as you sit down. The food is excellent (especially the Cuban Sandwich) and the service is phenomenal. I love coming here, I know everyone, always run into friends, & make new ones! This place is a must visit if you are ever in The River District Downtown Fort Myers!

Nothing French about it. Hopefully if there’s an interesting story, someone will share to make this «French» part more relevant.
Any who, I had a very yummy spicy turkey sandwich during my lunch break at an outside table. I ordered something they couldn’t mess up. Our waitress didn’t have the best memory.
Oh and FYI, The sandwich was not spicy AT ALL.

The ribeye was perfect as ordered blue & blackened which is not easy to receive. Unfortunately we did not receive the French Onion Soup as ordered and no explanation given for the omision.

I have to say this is the definition of tourist trap. Located in the middle of Fort Myers’ really nice little downtown district, this restaurant looks like it would be well worth a visit from the outside, but inside is a different story. This place has no ambience, and there is really nothing French to connect it to.
Menu was long and all over the place. Wine selection (why we thought we’d give it a try… French…wine) was pitiful and short. Beer selection was that of a bad sports bar. After my wife refused to finish her glass of wine, I downed my beer and we left for a better place.
If you are ever stuck going here, at least eat outside to enjoy Fort Myers.

There are several ways I can approach this review.
1. I wrote a review about a restaurant called Heidi’s in Reno, where my ex husband exclaimed that it was a Swiss restaurant — despite having nothing on there that was actually Swiss — because it had a picture of the Matterhorn on the menu cover. That is not an indication of food ethnicity.
2. Places that have somewhat of a food identify crisis — Ack! What should we serve? Uh. how about crepes because we have «French» in the title, fish stuff because we’re in Southwest Florida, muffins because they’re fun to make, and steak because I stopped caring halfway through this sentence.
3. Barely passable as «tourist food,» certainly not local, organic, whatever. It’s passable. Maybe.
Seriously though, don’t call this place the French Connection and have a couple crepes on the menu to satisfy that weird requirement. They were your standard American carnival batter crepes, nothing special. I ordered the supposed «favorite,» Chicken & Almond, which said came with a LIGHT cream sauce… to which I would like to do a survey as to what they believe the word light really means. I don’t want to be a grammar nazi or anything but I think the word they’re looking for is «drenched.» It was not appetizing.
My dad’s broccoli and cheddar quiche was apparently good — I did not get a chance to try it. His tropical flavored muffin (includes coconut) wasn’t too bad, would have been tastier if it was warmer. The onion rings were standard processed food from a bag — which, I can’t actually say bad things about because for some reason it tastes better than the handmade stuff.
If you asked me, «Should we eat there?» I’d say no. I’d say, «Maybe you should eat a few hours earlier before everyone else’s kitchens take a siesta before dinner.»

A very cute café. I visited French Connection while on a work trip to Fort Myers. While I went for dinner, I think this place is definitely more of a lunch spot just based on their menu consisting mostly of sandwiches and crepes. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the food here, just seemed more of a sit, eat, enjoy lunch-​time type spot.
Anyway, you’re allowed to seat yourself, so my co-​worker and I opted for outdoor, street-​side seating. Great view of passersby and otherwise a great feeling of the beautiful Fort Myers weather. We were promptly greeted by our server, who was friendly and attentive.
We ordered the spinach and artichoke dip, and it was very fresh, very warm, and very tasty. For my entrée, I opted for the choose 2 crêpe — I got the chicken and almond and ham and sour cream. The chicken and almond was delectable. I found myself wanting to eat more and more. While the ham and sour cream was also good, I felt it had a bit too much sour cream (note: if you like sour cream just a little, I’d suggest asking them to ‘go lite’ on the application). Overall, it was very good!
I’d love to go back and try other menu items, including their quiche.

I probably just didnt order the right thing, but my vegetable crêpe was just blah (my friends cheeseburger on the other hand looked amazing — go figure). I also asked them to hold the cheese and put the gravy on the side, which of course totally altered what the dish should have been. It was nice of them to do and I appreciated them accommodating my picky taste.
Crêpe was just ok and the gravy was frighteningly similar to Campbell cream of mushroom soup. Odd.
Good fries and generous portions of fruit that came with the crêpe.
Overall a cool atmosphere, but I didn’t get the «french connection» part. Maybe the 3 crepes they have on the menu connect it to France lol? No clue. Ok spot for lunch or a drink, just don’t go messing up the veggie crêpe like I did; play it safe with the cheeseburger.