Restaurants in Melbourne

In 1985, Jim Mellody had a simple dream: to create a neighborhood pub where friends, family, and nice-looking strangers could enjoy good food and sports. So, with his wife, Jeanette, he opened the first of the now-famous Beef ‘O’ Brady’s, filling the first Brandon, Florida, location with sports memorabilia and TVs. The menu—which has grown over the years as the franchise has birthed more than 200 outposts—celebrates American pub classics with an Irish twist, including an Irish blessing on every menu. The expansive menu can quell any number of cravings, with hearty dishes such as award-winning jumbo wings hand tossed in 12 signature sauces and pretzel roll Angus sliders with thick-cut bacon, all served with homestyle shakes or domestic drafts.

Finding Chef's Corner within the Melbourne Beach Market is as simple as following your nose. The smell of pizza and home-style Italian comfort foods wafts past the aisles of fresh produce, cold beer, and other groceries, leading guests eager to bite into a slice of one of the specialty New York- or Chicago-style pies. These pizzas can be customized from selection of 14 available toppings, which includes everything from sausage and mushrooms to onions and hot peppers. Additionally, Chef's Corner indulges appetites with hot subs and a variety of authentic old world entrées, such as chicken parmigiana, baked ziti, and spaghetti and meatballs, which are made made with imported pasta and pots and pans that speak fluent Italian.

The chefs at La Piazza Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria don't just cook up one style of Italian cuisine. Instead, they prepare Italian favorites that vary from quickly prepared calzones to linguini tossed with seafood, a splash of white wine, minced garlic, and a healthy pat of butter. They spend just as much time finding the perfect combinations of toppings for pizza as they spend whipping up bowls of veal parmigiana on a bed of penne. The kitchen team also incorporates all types of meat, and includes a range of seafood options that showcase the area's best catches, just like a student welding an aquarium to the blackboard for a school presentation.

Free samples are something you might expect when stopping by an ice-cream parlor or a farmer's market. But at Bubba's Backyard BBQ, a locally owned eatery with antlers mounted to its walls, diners are surprised–and often delighted–when servers offer them samples of smoked meats and soul-food sides. After whetting their palates with these savory nibbles, diners can order pulled pork sandwiches or baskets of tender baby back ribs, pairing the meats with dollops of housemade barbecue sauce. The restaurant's owner is also known for her desserts such as the rocky road pudding or the peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

After Chef Abramo left his native Cairo to learn the ropes as an Italian cook, he preserved his family's recipes and passed them on to his own children. After two decades working in Italian kitchens, he now serves as the head chef at Alexandria Mediterranean Grill, where he and his children prepare traditional Egyptian dishes of lamb and hummus alongside some Italian favorites. Herb-filled dolmades and tahini-drizzled falafel transport diners to the Mediterranean more smoothly than a roller coaster that travels through the earth's crust.

Captain Katanna's treats guests to a taste of tropical paradise via a smorgasbord of fresh seafood, cold beers, and a cool breeze rolling off the Indian River. The waterside eatery's large wooden deck is where most patrons prefer to feast on panko-crusted Barbados grouper, shrimp po' boys, and seafood platters. Over at the patio tiki bar, shrimp-loaded bloody marys and shrimp-free margaritas give you options for toasting incoming diners as they attempt to parallel-park their galleon at the restaurant's dock.