Restaurants near Bee Ridge Park

We’ve dined at Pietro’s several times. The new venue is quite small but nothing else has changed. The food and service are excellent and Pietro makes the rounds at each table several times. Definitely recommend!

We had a delicious Christmas day dinner. I chose the restaurant over many others because they had enough variety to accommodate my vegetarian wife, and my elderly in-laws visiting from Germany. My wife loved the cauliflower steak, and my in-laws and I thought the 24 hour slow cooked short ribs were excellent. Most restaurants have nothing for vegetarians and it's so difficult to find both meat dishes and vegetarian dishes. They did a great job at Libby's with both.

If you want authentic Spanish/Cuban food, Columbia is the place to go in Sarasota. We tried a number of things from the menu, chopped tomatoes, Cuban black bean soup (vegan), stuffed shrimp, key lime pie, and white chocolate bread pudding. These items, along with the crispy bread and an Andulusian Gimlet with fresh strawberries were fantastic. Our waitress has quite friendly and extremely prompt, which added to the overall experience. We will definitely be visiting again and hoping to have a cozy table inside. We were seated on the sidewalk (which was the only availability when we made our reservation), and the constant parade of cars, people, and dogs often distracted us from the wonderful meal before us. Note to self: reserve early, this restaurant is extremely popular!

La Violetta is absolutely my favorite place to go for an incredible night out. The food and service is always outstanding.

On Dec. 2nd, 13 of my friends met me at Connors in Sarasota to celebrate my birthday at 3 p.m. It was a total surprise to me. Our waiter was Isaah Mills...He handled all these women with ease and with a smile. He even cut my birthday cake and handed it to my friends. All of us commented about his personality and nice smile and his friendly manner. I just had to mention that about Isaah as frequently a diner does not experience such royal treatment. On December 24th, my husband and I went to Connors for an early dinner and again we were treated like royalty. Our waiter's name was Jake. He also was very friendly and made sure we did not need anything . I live in Venice and I have recommended Connors to everyone. I have lived here for 7 years and I have been to Connors 51 times and never once was disappointed with any meal or service. Happy New Year to all the nice people who work for Connors. Nan Miller