Local Guide

Where to Eat With Kids on Anna Maria Island

Anna Maria Island is seven miles long and has a fixed number of tables on it. That single fact explains everything about eating here: not whether the food is good, which it generally is, but whether you will be standing outside for ninety minutes with a four-year-old at seven in the evening.

The three rules that decide your week

Eat early or eat late. Before six or after eight. The island eats between those hours and there is no overflow capacity. Early dinner also means you are on the beach for sunset rather than still waiting for a table.
Reserve where you can, and early. Where reservations are taken they go days ahead in season. Where they are not, put your name down and treat the wait as part of the plan rather than a surprise.
Go on foot, by cart or by trolley. Parking in the Bridge Street and Pine Avenue districts is tight and actively ticketed, and circling for a space with hungry children is the worst part of any evening here. The free trolley runs the length of Gulf Drive until late.

The places to know

A short list on purpose: long-standing island names rather than the newest openings, which change faster than anyone keeps a list current. Ask at the house for what has opened this season.

Bridge Street

Bradenton Beach, south end

Two blocks running from the Gulf to the bay, and the most useful dinner decision on the island with children. Several places close together, outdoor seating, live music spilling out, and the beach at one end for anyone who finishes early.

Worth knowing: Metered parking in the district, actively enforced. This is a cart or a trolley trip.

Pine Avenue

City of Anna Maria, north end

The north end's short main street, quieter than Bridge Street and equally walkable. Shops and restaurants along a few blocks from bay to Gulf, so you can put your name down and wander.

Worth knowing: Turns over quickly but is genuinely full at lunch and dinner. Take the first legal space you see.

The Sandbar

City of Anna Maria

On the sand at the north end, on a site where people have been gathering since the 1910s. Tables effectively on the beach, which means a child who has had enough of sitting can put their feet in the sand two steps away. That is worth more than any menu.

Worth knowing: Sunset is the busiest hour by a long way, for obvious reasons. Go early or accept the wait.

Duffy's Tavern

Holmes Beach

A long-standing family-run island tavern on Marina Drive known for burgers and for not being fancy. Small, cash-friendly in feel, and the sort of place islanders send you when you ask where they actually eat.

Worth knowing: Small room. Not the choice for a party of twelve, very much the choice for a party of four.

Star Fish Company

Cortez, over the bridge

A dockside fish market and eating place in the working fishing village, where you order at a window and eat at a picnic table on the dock with the boats tied up beside you. The most memorable meal on this list and the least formal.

Worth knowing: Outdoors, first come first served, and lines form. Go early, and go on a day the weather is good.

Feeding a group of ten or more

Big houses on this island mean big groups, and the island's restaurants are mostly small rooms. A party of twelve is a genuine logistical problem in season, so solve it early.

Call in the morning for that evening and take whatever time is offered. It will be early, and early is what you wanted anyway.
Two tables of six beats one table of twelve, and it is far easier to get. Nobody at either table minds.
Cortez is the group answer for lunch: order at a window, eat at picnic tables on the dock, and a party of fourteen is simply fourteen separate orders.
Cook at the house at least twice. Buy from a fish house in Cortez in the morning and the kitchen beats any restaurant on the island for cost, noise and bedtime.
Arrival day is the worst possible night to try to eat out, because every house on the island changes over on the same day. Plan to cook.

Dinner on the beach instead

The island's best table is the sand, and the evening is when this place is at its most pleasant: heat gone, wind dropped, crowds thinned, and a sunset over the Gulf that people plan their week around.

Take the backpack chairs and the umbrella from the house. Hands free for the cooler is the whole trick.
Coquina Beach at the south end has the most parking, the most shade behind the sand, and the easiest evening logistics.
The bay side at the north end is the calm-water alternative if the Gulf has gone rough, and the light across Tampa Bay is worth seeing at least once.
Take everything home when you leave, including the umbrella. The island expects a clear beach overnight, and turtles are the reason.
Fill in the holes the children dug. Same reason.

Small practical things

Casual is the island default. Sandy feet and a cover-up are fine nearly everywhere.
Ask about a high chair when you put your name down rather than when you sit.
Takeout eaten on the porch is an excellent island dinner and cuts the wait to a fraction.
Several island places close one day a week, and the day varies by season. Check before you ride down.

Common questions

Do you need reservations on Anna Maria Island?

Where they are taken, yes, and well ahead in season. Several of the island's best-known places do not take them at all, in which case you put your name down and wait. A seven-mile island has a fixed number of tables, so an hour's wait at seven in the evening in March is normal rather than bad luck.

What time should we eat dinner on Anna Maria Island with kids?

Before six or after eight. The island eats between six and eight and there is nowhere for the overflow to go. Early dinner also puts you on the beach for sunset afterwards, which is the right order to do those two things in anyway.

Where can you eat outside with children on Anna Maria Island?

Bridge Street in Bradenton Beach and Pine Avenue in the City of Anna Maria are both short walkable blocks with outdoor seating and somewhere for a restless child to go. Across the bridge in Cortez, the dockside fish houses put you on the water with boats coming in, which buys a lot of patience.

Where do you get fresh seafood near Anna Maria Island?

Cortez, the working fishing village immediately over the bridge. It is one of the last commercial fishing communities on this coast, the fish houses sell what came in that morning, and there are dockside places to eat it. It is a car trip, because a cart cannot cross the bridge.

Can you take the golf cart to dinner on Anna Maria Island?

Anywhere on the island, yes, and it is the easiest way to do Bridge Street or Pine Avenue because parking in both districts is tight and enforced. Cortez and anywhere else on the mainland is a car trip: the bridges are posted above the speed a low-speed vehicle may use.

Staying at an Amenio partner home?

The bikes, cart, and beach gear are already part of your stay. They are at the house when you walk in, so there is nothing to pick up and nothing to carry home. Amenio works only with partner vacation homes on Florida's Emerald Coast, Suncoast, and First Coast, so if your house is one of ours, the gear is already there.

Want to see what is at the house? See the carts, or find your reservation. Questions about equipment at your home? Call or text 850-231-8000.

Already booked a partner home?

Open your stay to see the bikes, cart and beach gear waiting at the house.