Restaurants in Atlantic Beach

Nestled within the brick-lined streets of the Tapestry Park shopping center, Lime Leaf Thai Restaurant lures diners in with tangerine walls, piquant framed artwork, and mocha-colored banquettes. Its menu sports classic Thai plates and house specialties helpfully arrayed alongside a barometer of spiciness, with portion sizes that prompted the Florida Times-Union to proclaim, “When they say ‘seafood,’ they mean it … you won't leave hungry.” The rich scents of curry and deep-fried duck waft off tabletops set with neatly folded linen napkins that can be used to demurely wave at passing sailors.

Directly below Beachside Seafood's dining room, you will find the restaurant's in-house market. Here, chefs browse through the stock of locally caught seafood, picking out premium fillets of fish and shellfish and kindly directing lost scuba divers back to their hotels. After carrying their fresh purchases back up to the kitchen, chefs fire up stoves to fry baskets of their renowned mayport shrimp, steam lobster tails, and stack sandwiches with grilled mahi.

Once assembled, the staff carries dishes to the alfresco dining area, where playful nautical decor hangs out on the walls. On the covered upstairs deck, sunlight streams onto wooden floors that support rows of picnic tables. This scene backdrops guests sipping from frosty mugs of beer with the aroma of fried seafood wafting through the air, reminding diners of childhood vacations spent in Atlantis.

Inside Giuliano's Italian Restaurant, George Gjergj and Leonard Gjergji's family recipes guide them as they stuff shells with ricotta cheese, sauté shrimp in homemade marinara sauce, and drizzle merlot reduction onto char-grilled filet mignon. Specialty pizzas marry ingredients such as grilled chicken and pesto or sliced steak and sautéed onions. A bottomless lunch buffet brims with slices of pizza like the description of a third grader’s dream job, and calzones slice open to reveal ricotta and ham.

Behind Matsuya Sushi & Grill's sparkling L-shaped sushi counter, succulent fillets of tuna, salmon, and white fish succumb to chefs' keen knives before joining rice in bite-sized nigiri or tempting rolls. Collective gasps of admiration—usually reserved for the unveiling of a child’s macaroni self-portrait—leap from the lips of patrons as a chef taps and tosses shrimp, chicken, filet mignon, and lobster on the hibachi grill. Dressed in traditional Japanese robes and hats, waiters ferry plates decorated with carrot roses and artful splashes of sauce across the dining room, where screens and blond woods cultivate a peaceful atmosphere. Chefs reveal their sushi secrets every Sunday, bestowing their knowledge upon students during four-hour all-you-can-eat sushi-making classes.

From cracking eggs in the morning to oven-baking chicken at night, the staff at Tapestry Café do it all with a smile, earning the eatery a customer-satisfaction award from Talk of the Town in 2012. The scent of freshly brewed coffee permeates the quaint storefront, filtering through the air and out onto the patio where diners bite into sandwiches layered with high-quality Boar’s Head meats and cheeses. Pastries and ice cream round out the café’s offerings, ending meals with a sweeter finish than a noogie from the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Tradition fuels the menu at Mi Fiesta Mexicana, which draws on generations-old family recipes for familiar dishes of hearty Mexican cuisine. The chefs grill marbled cuts of steak, load sizzling fajita skillets with sliced meats and vegetables, and fry tortilla chips in the kitchen's naturally occurring hot springs of vegetable oil. The bartenders keep mealtimes festive with pitchers of flavored margaritas, carafes of sangria, and drafts of Mexican beer poured in frosted mugs.