Spotlight on: Captiva

This past weekend I decided to leave the madness that is Miami and tag along with my boyfriend to the west coast of Florida.  He had to do some work on the boat that he keeps in Ft. Myers so we decided to make a vacation out of it (leave it to us to turn work into a vacay) and stay on Captiva Island.  As soon as I got there I began to wonder what kind of food the island had to offer and after sifting through some of the mediocre island fare throughout the weekend I found some great places to report.

The Bubble Room has it all.  It's fun, has great service, and great food.  I recommend that everyone go with an open mind because it is not your conventional family restaurant.  The outside of this place is painted pink with blue bubbles all over it.  And that's just the beginning.  The inside is decorated from floor to ceiling with antique and retro toys with an underlying Christmas theme, as there are multiple Santas and Christmas tree lights everywhere.   As far as service goes, the  "servers" are not called  "servers" at all.  They are referred to as "bubble scouts."  Now let me pause for a moment here and say that the cynic in me wanted to write the place off as a cheezy tourist trap but luckily I stayed long enough to enjoy a meal.  The restaurant started to win me over when my boyfriend ordered some Cokes for us and our bubble scout brought us two glass bottle Cokes with a cherry on top of each one. The kid inside me flipped for it.  It was all downhill after that.  I was running all over the place examining the random retro paraphernalia and toys. 

The food itself is wonderful.  The meal is started off with a basket of bubble bread which are baguettes covered with a buttery garlic parmesan concoction and cinnamon sticky buns.  I ordered "The Eddie Fisherman" which is a fillet of grouper covered with crushed  pecans and Ritz crackers which is then baked in a brown paper bag.  I can't even describe how yummy this was.  It came with a twice baked potato and steamed veggies.  My boyfriend ordered the t-bone steak that came on a sizzling pan in garlic sauce which smelled incredible and tasted even better.

But if you know me at all by now you know that I saved room for desert.  Before we even sat to eat I saw people walking out with wrapped up pieces of cake the size of my head so naturally, I was very intrigued.  When our bubble scout brought out the desert tray I almost had a heart attack.  There were HUGE pieces of cake of all different varieties.  We ended up ordering an orange crunch cake which was a yellow cake covered in orange cream cheese icing with layers of brown sugar mixed with crushed pecans.  I don't have any adjective to describe the feeling I had when I took my first bite, but to put it mildly, it was absolutely incredible.

All in all our experience  at The Bubble Room was a lot a fun.  The only negative about this place is that they don't take reservations so if you want to eat at a normal time be prepared to wait for up to an hour.  But do not get put off by this because as I quickly learned, it is well worth the wait.

We also ate a a great place called The Mad Hatter. We had no idea what to expect when we walked in and were very pleasantly surprised.  Apparently this restaurant has recently changed ownership and from what we experienced, it will become the premier gourmet restaurant on the island.  The place itself is adorable.  It has just been redone and is tastefully decorated with a gorgeous view of the gulf.  The restaurant is very small however so I would recommend reservations which is something we did not do. 

The food was spot-on.  Our appetizer was a "lobster escargot" special which did not actually contain any escargot but was served in an escargot dish.  The lobster was wrapped in spinach which was resting in garlic butter which was very tasty.  For my entree I ordered grouper (again) which was maple syrup glazed and served over a creamy risotto.  My boyfriend ordered the seared tuna which tends to be boring but this one was rubbed with a delicious combination of spices which was a nice departure from the usual sesame crusted tuna. 

I recommend this place for the overall experience.  It's the perfect place for a romantic dinner (someone was actually proposed to while we were there) and is just too cute to miss.