Veranda

Went there last night sat a bar and the place stinks. Very musty dirty smell. We were seated and ordered app’s they were good. Ordered meals they came cold. My prime rib was over cooked and was so thin you could read a newspaper through it. They tried micro waving mine but came back tough and they were sold out of my dinner so couldn’t remake it. We were very disappointed in this higher end over priced restaurant.

Went with friends to celebrate birthdays. The waiter was not able to get anything right. From drinks to entrée there were errors. It was as though his head was in the clouds.
Now to the food. We had the fish special and it was not good! Very pricey but had no taste.
We used to go and have a good experience but last three times have been unsatisfactory. We will not go again, slow learners!

Very elegant dining in a beautiful old home. This is located in downtown fort Myers and there is only a small parking lot attached to the property. You’ll have to do paid street parking. Came here for lunch ordered the blackened salmon over greens with lemon poppy dressing, it was delicious! For starters they bring out this fresh baked bread with honey on it, which is to die for!!! I also got a chance to try the meatloaf which was very tasty and soft, good flavor. Be warned this is the «uppity crowd» of Fort Myers, so dress accordingly. I walked in with a «hoodie», lol. But I must say I was still treated very well :) P. S. they have beautiful grounds with outdoor dining.

Super cool restaurant! It’s set in 2 old houses (one is the former residence of an original early settler I think) and the garden is beautiful. This is fine dining for our area :)
The piano in the bar was a nice touch and we loved our upstairs private dining room. Very romantic and classy. Loved the rack of lamb. A must see/​do kind of place.

A little nervous after reading some of the reviews but went anyway. It was great! Comfortable surroundings, warm greetings from the valet to hostess to server to bus person.
Server was prompt, polite and appropriately friendly. Food was wonderfully prepared and delicious. All of this on a Monday night between Christmas and New Year’s.

This restaurant has classic old colonial style set up. It is located at downtown Ft. Myers easy walking distance from any offices.
The restaurant lunch menu is affordable compare to dinner. People who dine here dressed up. It is classic power lunch location for businesses. I have order the Tuesday special with a salmon salad. This dish serve with a fresh pan seared salmon over a bed of green and Asian cucumber with sesame vinaigrette. The vinaigrette has some spicy oil that crest some kick into it.
The ambients of the restaurant is nice. It has patio and inside seating. Today weather is nice for the outside seating. Food is average. The salmon can a bit tasty on pan seared. Service is good. This is my second time here. I like my first visit compare to the current one.

Very nice ambience, mediocre food even though on pricey side. Waiter didn’t bother checking back after food served. Had looked forward to bananas foster but
told bananas too green. Also the prime rib was only available medium!!! Souther sampler seafood plate included two dry shrimp, two scallops, and a chunk of fish on some noodles for $ 35+

Oh Veranda, how I used to love you. Always good food, and impeccable service. But really, do you really have to have such segregation of staff? I’ve been to 81 countries and yet you have such a separation between white table service and black clean up. More than I’ve ever seen. Please, make it more balanced. It’s quite sickening.

Food is ok service is not great and it’s very overpriced. Not a five star place! We walked in at 6pm and its 9:00 and we haven’t had dessert yet! This isn’t France folks!

What ever you do, do not order French onion soup. Salty beyond salty. Over rated and time for a change veranda. Start using someone who has a dream, and not just a career. Think outside the bowl.

I have come here before and liked it. It had been a family favorite however this visit really outlined how poor the service has become. You would think they would really try to cater to the year round residents but they do not.
First, this was a special occasion. At our table of four there was one 59^th wedding anniversary and 2 birthdays. We told them this when we made the reservations and we even asked for a specific table or area. They seated us in a corner next to the doors to the bathrooms. That would be bad enough for any visit but a special occasion?
It must have been the waiter’s first day as he had to read the specials and at one point had to double check because he said «I cannot even read my own handwriting». At a restaurant such as this is it too much to ask they memorize these things? And, it gets worse.
Even after reading the specials, he got them wrong. He said we were to have «whipped potatoes» and what came where Potatoes Au Gratin. Again, not a big deal but you would like to get the food you were expecting. Finally, the vegetables were as bland as could be.
And, as you can imagine, this is a very expensive location.
So, we decided to pass on the dessert and get out as quick as possible. Too bad, it once was great and the venue is beautiful — the service and just the catering to regulars /​taking care of events, was atrocious.
I highly recommend you skip this and find another location.

THE GOOD: The location is beautiful. The best part of this restaurant is the architecture and atmosphere created by being located inside two adjoined homes from the early 1900’s.
THE BAD: The service here, at least in our experience, was not good. The waiter constantly seemed in the weeds and treated us like we were an inconvenience. They had plenty of people clearing plates and pouring water but no one helping the wait staff run food or drinks.
THE UGLY: I was disappointed in the food. When I go to a fine dining restaurant I want to be wowed and this experience really fell flat. I ordered one of the fish specials and I do not think my dish was cooked to the proper temperature and it had a gross vein of fat or something similar that was tough and inedible through the center. The drinks from the bar were underwhelming as well.
The bottom line is I wouldn’t go back and I wish we would have checked the Unilocal reviews before we made the reservation because it seems others have had less that fantastic experiences as well.

As a tourist, I wanted to try something different. I tried this place out, and was very disappointed with the menu. The menu is quite limited (and expensive I might add) and it really doesn’t offer anything that I eat. The menu really needs to be expanded if I were to return to the restaurant. Most restaurants usually have at least five pages of different items to looks at, and this restaurant practically only had one page. Seriously?

We just got back from eating at The Veranda Restaurant (June 11, 2015). We’ve lived in Fort Myers for two years now and this was our first time at the Veranda. Not sure how that happened since fine dining is in our blood. We are from California and regularly frequent Michelin Star restaurants there whenever possible. When dining out we prefer the best possible dining experience. We only discovered after moving to Florida that there is not one Michelin Star rated restaurant in the whole state.
The restaurant itself is impressive in its southern elegance but is somewhat lacking in its service. Our server (Michael) was very good and knowledgeable but not overly friendly. The food was very good also from the artichoke fritters and blue crab cakes with Cajun Remoulade to the beef tournedos topped with lobster and Bernase sauce. Cooked to perfection. We found the only issue we had was the service. Water glasses were not filled timely and the service was slow. We felt somewhat neglected.
The Veranda charges Michelin Star prices and appears to be trying for Michelin Star status but slow service and chipped stem ware will continue to be an issue. Will I go back? In a heartbeat. Their food is excellent.

Dined her last weekend as a celebration to our «College Roomies/​Friends Girls Weekend». Charming décor. Food was delicious and well prepared. Deserts were spectacular. The only negative is the waiter was less then attentive. I think when we told him we girls hadn’t seen each other in some time that he took that a his cue to leave us alone. Other than the server all else was wonderful. A little pricey, but nice for a special occasion.

Outstanding atmosphere, excellent service! Good menu and fantastic food.
I would recommend you to try it.
A little on the expensive side but worth it.
A great place to go for a special occasion.

Overview — This is an ‘old school’ restaurant in the sense that all the wait staff have been there far too long and seem to think you are lucky for them to wait on you. Some of the food is excellent and some is average to poor. This place is not worth the prices (entrees $ 25-​$ 60) and the good dishes are not worth the bad dishes or poor service.
Atmosphere — Stuck up and snooty. We walked by a group of 4 wait staff when entering and rather than getting a smile and a hello they looked us up and down as if we should not have been there. (We were in semi-​formal attire, while others there were in shorts and baseball caps so I am not sure why we offended their sensibilities). We should have left at that point.
Drinks — Cocktail menu is average and they have a decent wine list. I ordered a martini with a twist and it turned up with olives. I mentioned this to the waiter and rather than bring me the right drink he went and got me a lemon peel in a napkin. I was too amazed that it happened to say anything.
Food — The mixed seafood platter was really excellent. The steaks were very good and well cooked to the requested temperature. All the appetizers (oysters Rockefeller, shrimp cocktail, blue crab cakes) were very very disappointing. They all tasted like they were cooked from frozen and the presentation was poor. The house salads were wilted like they had prepped them on the plates at the start of the night. The fish special wall full of bones, dry and inedible. I had to send it back which was the first time ever for a ‘special’.
Dessert — Only 2 of our party ordered desserts. We had mentioned to the waiter that it was my mothers birthday. Instead of provide a birthday dessert the waiter stuck a candle in the dessert one of the other people had ordered and presented it to my mother. The person who ordered the dessert then had to remove the candle.
All of these issues were politely mentioned at the time. There was no apology and nothing was comped (The food that was inedible was taken off the check). The check came out to ~$ 100 a head and I felt like we had received $ 30 quality and worthless service. I will never go back and recommend you try somewhere else.

Service was attentive and formal on a busy Friday night. Reminds me of one of those fine dining places of the past trying to hold onto those old traditions. Upkeep is a bit lacking, as the finer details were amiss… spots on carpet, crooked lights in chandeliers, peeling candlesticks in light fixtures. Still, the place is beautiful.
Food was nicely presented and portions were HUGE. IF you’re hungry, this is the spot to be. Had the escargot app in puff pastry with a superb bleu cheese sauce. Escargot was just ladled over the top of what seemed to be store-​bought puff pastry. Husband had the grits and andouille. He seemed to enjoy it. His prime rib was and should be excellent, given this place is known for it. Au jus was as it should be, which is hard to find these days. Not sure it was actually «prime» meat, however.
In a day where the dinner salad is an afterthought, these were marvelous. Beautiful greens dressed in a bleu-​cheese dressing that was more than generous with its namesake.
I had the surf and turf, with a lobster tail stuffed with horrid crab stuffing. The lobster itself was slightly undercooked and not quite freed from the tail… I had to work with it a little too much to free it up. The filet was cooked perfectly and topped with a thin but good bernaise. Given there was so much food, I didn’t touch the beautiful looking sides, but I suspect they would have been great.
No room whatsoever for dessert. They feed you well here, like it’s still the 60’s. Given the demographics of the area, this may be an expectation. All in all, it was OK and good for a special occasion or out of town guests. Not sure I’d make it part of my regular spots but can see why this Fort Myers institution still thrives. It’s worth the experience.

Verandah fit the bill for our group of four. One is a history buff, and enjoyed the historical photos on the walls which recounted Fort Myers’ origins. We stopped in the parlor style bar for cocktails. The single valet does a great job, and even on a week night and in a city that goes to bed at 8, can be expected to be on duty as late as 10 PM.
We didn’t stay for food this time. Yes, we cheated on Verandah & left her for someone younger -

It may be worth trying once, but that’s probably it. The restaurant is in a really old Colonial home that was converted. The house was nice, but still holds that old feel. There is an outdoor area that seemed cute, but no one was out there.
The food was ok, but probably not as good as others in the area. It feels a little stuffy in there, like you have to dress up, but you don’t get the feel you are really dining in style. Upscale but not posh.
What I did like was that the servers all seemed like older retired guys. They probably moved to the area to retire but continue to work.
If you go, the 1 major takeaway and item you have to order is the Caesars salad. If you like the homemade style salad, with egg and anchovies that they make table side in front of you… come and get it here. Those can be hard to find, so you now know you can get it here. That is probably the only thing I would go back for.