Fish Camp on Lake Eustis

901 Lake Shore Blvd.
Tavares, FL 32778
(352) 742-4400
View Website Here

The Fish Camp on Lake Eustis is a newer restaurant to the area, that is serving up some pretty darn good seafood in a hospitable atmosphere that is directly on the lake. 

The locals are flocking to this new hotspot, but even if you live in Orlando or any surrounding areas, this place is certainly worth the drive, especially for a Friday night or a weekend visit.

The exterior is pretty low key, but that's a good thing, because they do a fine job of selling the whole fish camp vibe. Many patrons have snapped photos of gators resting dockside, wild birds, eagles, owls, you name it, can be seen on a daily basis from the docks surrounding Fish Camp.

People who live on Lake Eustis, or are out on a weekend fishing trip or a nature tour can easily pull right up to the boat slips they have outside and go inside the restaurant to grab a bite to eat and a drink or two.

The food served here is very seafood and fish oriented, hence the name. The appetizer list starts off with items like Middle Neck Clams, Grouper Nuggets, Old Bay Crab Cake and Groveland Gator Bites. Moving on to entrees, they have Shrimp Scampi over linguini, Grouper Tacos, Shrimp and Grits, Seafood Trio and a Pineapple Marinated Sirloin to name a few.

The Bar is nice and cozy at Fish Camp with a laid back atmosphere.

Speaking of the bar, I was very pleased to find out that Fish Camp is very dedicated to not only local food sourcing, but also working with local distilleries as well. We did sample and try some very good spirits from Palm Ridge Reserve and Yalaha Bootlegging Co., both of whom are located in Umatilla and Yalaha Florida.

The inside dining room is very spacious with plenty of seating, and they also have a nice outside deck area to enjoy the sights and sounds of nature during your visit.

We started our evening off with Swamp Cabbage Ceviche that is made with fish and shrimp with lime, roasted corn, hearts of palm, red onion and tomato and is served with homemade tortillas. The flavors going on in this appetizer were pretty impressive with a perfect blend of citrus and spice, and the housemade tortillas really made this dish excell. Everyone has their own interpretation of Ceviche, and I personally really enjoyed this version.

The drinks at Fish Camp are pretty impressive as well, and they don’t skimp on the ingredients either. On the left is the Unhinged Anhinga Mojito and The Grand Ol' Osprey old fashioned on the right.

Gator Bites can be tough, chewy, or just plain not enjoyable, so when you find some really good ones, it is required to eat every last bite, and that is exactly what we did. The Groveland Gator Bites are breaded pieces of Gator Tail, fried and served with Sriracha Garlic Aioli and a Pineapple Salsa Cruda. These were delicious.

The Seafood Trio Tavares is a great way to sample a few things while dining at the Fish Camp. This dish comes with butterflied shrimp, grilled fish of your choice, and a crab cake over a dijon sauce with two sides. We chose blackened grouper for the fish. All of this was phenomenal, and the crab cake here has as much crab as possible with almost no fillers. Everything was fresh and full of flavor, and the dijon sauce went very well with all of the selections plated.

They have a variety of sides available here also like Linguini, Wilted Kale, Shaved Brussels Sprouts, Sweet Potato Fries, Corn on the cob, Bacon Cheddar Grits, Salt & Pepper Fries, Side Salad and Hush Puppies. We chose to sample the Bacon Cheddar Grits, Wilted Kale and the Shaved Brussels Sprouts and all of them were quite tasty side selections and really a notch above what one might find at a traditional fish camp type of restaurant. 

A Redneck Margarita made with Yalaha Bootlegging Moonshine is on the left, and a splash of Palmridge whiskey on the rocks is on the right.

I have been to some rather famous locations on Florida’s West Coast and have had some pretty darn good grouper, so I'm always impartial when it comes to grouper, but this is hands down some of the freshest and tastiest grouper that I have had from Orlando to Clearwater. These Fried Grouper Tacos were excellent. They are served with a light drizzle of chili crema and topped with Pico de Gallo salsa. You can order them fried, blackened, or grilled.

The Bacon Caramel Cheesecake is pretty ridiculous at Fish Camp. This little slice of heaven is worth the drive over there all by itself. This is a sweet and savory dessert that was a perfect ending to a great visit The Fish Camp in Lake Eustis.

The Fish Camp on Lake Eustis is a great place to enjoy some fine seafood, craft cocktails, and warm and friendly service, all with a view and a location that is unmatched in the area. If you are a local, make sure you hit them up. If you live in Orlando like I do, It is certainly worth the drive.

They also have a few specials throughout the week like Maryland Mondays with a Baltimore-style Blue Crab Feast Old Bay Crab Cake Dinner with Two Sides for $9.99, Soft Shell Crabs 6.99 per 1lb and a Snow Crab Dinner for $19.99

Raw Bar Wednesdays start with Fresh Oysters raw or steamed Middleneck Clams for $6/Dozen and Oysters $9.99/Dozen as well as a Pound of Peel n Eat Shrimp for $10.99.

Thirsty Thursdays feature $1.99 Margaritas and Martinis with dinner from 4pm to close, Fish Friday is Every Friday with All You Can Eat Fish N’ Chips.

They recently started doing a weekend brunch special as well, which would make for a great start to your day of fishing or sightseeing on Lake Eustis.

Fish Camp is open Monday to Thursday from 11:00am until 9:00pm and on Friday and Saturday from 11:00am until 10:00pm.

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Taste Of The Holidays at Reunion Resort

7593 Gathering Drive
Kissimmee, FL 34747

(407-662-1000)

View Website Here

The Reunion resort is always a spectacular place to visit, especially for the holidays. I mean who wouldn't be interested in spending Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, or what ever holiday you and your family celebrate playing golf on one of the three signature golf courses designed by golf’s greatest legends? If golf is not your thing,  the resort also boasts 10 swimming pools and a water park as well, so you can spend the day splashing around the water park, or play tennis on one of the six lighted tennis courts.

With Reunions central location between its sister Grand Golf Resorts of Florida properties, and only a short 30 minutes from the Orlando International Airport and six miles from Walt Disney World, Reunion Resort is an ideal place to spend the holidays. With an exclusive 2,300-acre community that has the space, amenities and accommodations to bring together families, golfing buddies, social events and meetings, Reunion is already a great destination, but what can make it better you ask?

Food...and lots of it.

For Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve and Day, all of the restaurants on the resorts property are serving up some pretty awesome food, and the best part is...No slaving away in the kitchen, and more time to spend with family.

Lets start with Thanksgiving:

The Thanksgiving Grande Feast is held in the Grande Ballroom and is $45.95 for adults and $19.95 for children ages 4 -12.

The Thanksgiving Grande feast includes a selection of salads with local field greens, seasonal fruits and berries, cured meats, breads and condiments, potato salad, and a quinoa & kale salad. The carving station will feature buttermilk brined turkey, and herb crusted prime rib with herbed celery and onion stuffing. On display in the chilled seafood section guests will find house smoked salmon, spicy New Orleans shrimp and a crab and tortellini salad. Additionally there will be an offering of lemon thyme roasted pork loin, butternut squash bisque, herb roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, and maple rosemary sweet potatoes. 

The little ones are not forgotten as they will have honey fried chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, and macaroni and cheese. Desserts will include the following: pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, spiced carrot cake,mini creme caramel, chocolate fudge peanut butter cake and a pear upside down cake. 

The other restaurants on the resorts property will also be offering dining options as well like at Eleven Restaurant. At Eleven, you will have the choice of two entrees in oven Roasted Turkey Breast for $21.00 with candied sweet potato, haricot verts, onion celery and sage dressing and cranberry sauce, or the Pan Seared Salmon for $28.00. The salmon comes with a wild mushroom ragout, grilled asparagus tips, cranberry chutney and a port wine sauce. For dessert the Spiced Pumpkin Caramel Creme will be offered for $9.00

The Clubhouse will be offering a dinner only deal for $34.95 for adults and $19.95 for children, that features a choice of soups or a salad and a choice of one of four different entrees as well a choice of dessert.

At Forte Grill guests can go for a more traditional dining option and enjoy a three course meal for $49.95 that includes your choice of braised kale and Linguica sausage or arugula and fennel salad for a first course, slow roasted maple glazed tom turkey, grilled fillet of beef or a pan roasted halibut for a second course. The dessert featured will be the white chocolate cranberry bread pudding.   

The Christmas Grande Feast is held in the Grande Ballroom and is $45.95 for adults and $19.95 for children ages 4 - 12

The Christmas Grande Feast includes a selection of salads with spinach & Mandarin orange salad, Caesar salad, pate's and cured meats and a truffle fingerling salad. The carving station will feature herb roasted turkey and a horseradish and herb crusted strip sirloin. In the chilled seafood display area, guests will be treated to citrus dill Atlantic salmon, poached gulf shrimp, and marinated green lip New Zealand  mussels. other offerings include smoked tomato and shallot bisque, braised short ribs, chive mashed potatoes, creamed spinach & artichoke hearts and sauteed shrimp & fennel with a tomato pernod sauce.

Deserts will feature pecan pie, yule logs, snicker doodles, Christmas cookies, turtle cheesecakes, mini cream puffs and peppermint meringue.

As with the Thanksgiving dinner festivities, the resorts other restaurants...The Clubhouse, Forte and Eleven will also be featuring separate  Christmas eve and Christmas day dinner specials as well as New Years eve and day dinner specials individually. Of particular note is the New Years Eve special at Forte that has roast lamb loin as a choice for the second course.  

Of course the wonderful people at Reunion were kind enough to invite me out to sample just  about everything, so enjoy all of the pics....and yes it was all very delicious. 

The first thing I sampled was the Herb Lamb Chop with rosemary mint jelly and fresh gnocchi with basil cream sauce. Very tender lamb chops and a delicious gnocchi made this hard to stop eating. 

Next up was the Seared Duck Breast over arugula salad with sweet potato, caramelized pecans and raspberry vinaigrette. Moist tender medallions of duck cooked to perfection.

For Christmas, The Clubhouse will feature a Winter Salad with mixed greens, poached pears, candied pecans, herb crusted goat cheese toasted walnuts and a white balsamic vinaigrette.

One of my favorite dishes was the Pan Seared Grouper over brown rice risotto served with ginger cilantro sauce and citrus salsa. Very delicately cooked fish with a touch of heat and sweet.

The Smoked Tomato Shallot Bisque will be featured on the Christmas Grande Feast buffet. This had a very nice flavor profile and was delicious.

One of the more unique offerings was the Grilled Linguica Sausage served on white bean cakes topped with onion rings. This was a rich dish, but it comes with a sauce to even it out. Unique and flavorful.

Of course no holiday feast is complete without turkey, so Reunion has a Sliced Buttermilk Brined Roasted Turkey that is off the charts good. It is served with stuffing.

Guest who dine at The Clubhouse will be treated to a superb Pork Loin with wild mushroom confit.

The Braised Short Ribs with coffee demi-glace will be featured on the Christmas Grande Feast buffet. These short ribs were tender and had nice depth of flavor and taste.

The dessert selections started with Dark Chocolate Cream Pies. These are pretty simple in concept, but provided a wallop of chocolate flavor.  

To finish out the evening we were treated to Spiced Pumpkin Creme Caramel that will be featured at Eleven on Thanksgiving. This was almost like a flan in texture, but much more delicious.

So there you have it...lots of great food to choose from at a great resort for the family. If you are considering dining at any one of the resorts restaurants or at one of the Grande Feasts, it is recommended that you make reservations and plan ahead.

Grande Feast:   (407) 396-3184
Forte:                (407) 396-5285
Clubhouse:        (407) 662-1320
Eleven:              (407) 622-1170

  

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