A gluten-free bakery on San Marco Avenue whose baked goods are organic, dairy-free and naturally sweetened, with coffee, wellness lattes and toast alongside. Every purchase sends a donation to organizations fighting hunger in the city, and seating is a few tables, so plan on taking it with you.
St. Augustine's oldest Irish pub by its own count, open since 1992 in an 1878 family home by the Old City Gate. Owner Kelli Meacham spent 16 years as a county deputy before buying it, the porch is where the regulars people-watch, and it goes 21 and over after 7 p.m.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
Argentine live-fire cooking from husband and wife Nick and Christie Carrera, on the San Sebastian River where the shrimp boats dock, MICHELIN Recommended in 2026. This is the original room; a second Asado Life has since opened in Jacksonville.
A self-serve tap house and sports bar just south of the City Gate on St. George Street. Its Instagram bio says 13 TVs to watch your fav teams, and recent posts promote college football game days.
BellyUp! St. Augustine / Over 50
Over 50 St. Augustine
Nobody publishes the noise level, and it is the thing that decides the night.
Good places to eat and drink in St. Augustine, minus the nightclubs. When a spot gets loud later or draws a lot of kids, the card tells you.
55 spots
Argentine live-fire cooking from husband and wife Nick and Christie Carrera, on the San Sebastian River where the shrimp boats dock, MICHELIN Recommended in 2026. This is the original room; a second Asado Life has since opened in Jacksonville.
A self-serve tap house and sports bar just south of the City Gate on St. George Street. Its Instagram bio says 13 TVs to watch your fav teams, and recent posts promote college football game days.
Named for Catherine Usina, whose oyster roast for Henry Flagler's party in 1900 started a family tradition on the Tolomato River. The Usinas opened Aunt Kate's under the live oaks in 2009, boaters can tie up at the floating dock, and the steamed oysters and pilau are the family recipes.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
One of only two St. Augustine venues with a 2026 MICHELIN Bib Gourmand, and it says so on its own site, badge and all. A coffee counter, bakery and natural wine bar out on US-1 rather than in the historic core, with cardamom and cinnamon buns baked each morning and select evenings open for plates and wine.
St. Augustine's only Irish gastropub by its own description, on Spanish Street since 2011 and open until 2 a.m. every night, with a late-night menu and a weekend brunch for late risers.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
The only restaurant directly on the ocean in St. Augustine Beach by its own account, where A Street meets the sand, dating to 1965. Kids get tables at the foot of the restaurant's own dune and well-behaved dogs are welcome, both straight from its homepage.
St. Augustine's Caribbean Connection, in its own words, on the Tolomato River at the Vilano end of the Usina Bridge, with a boat dock and jet ski parking. Live music Thursday through Sunday, first come first served, with room for groups.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
A Caribbean fishing-lodge kitchen tied to Vaughn Cochran's fly-fishing art and the Blackfly Lodge in Abaco, with his paintings on every wall. After 13 years at 108 Anastasia Blvd it bought the old Mellow Mushroom building at 410 and moved there in early 2026, wine room of more than a thousand bottles included.
A tropical cocktail and oyster bar that outgrew St. George Street and moved in 2025 to a bigger room on San Marco Avenue with its own parking lot. It claims Florida's most expansive selection of high-end rums, and promises the only thing frozen is the drinks.
Family-owned since 2018, smoking meats for 16 hours and making nearly everything from scratch, hand-cut fries included, with two dining rooms and a bar. It has no website of its own, so this profile is built from Visit St. Augustine and Yelp.
Lunch in the deep end of what was once the largest indoor swimming pool of Flagler's 1888 Alcazar Hotel, now the Lightner Museum. Classical guitar or piano plays from noon to three every day, museum admission is not required, and the cafe itself says reservations are highly recommended from October through March.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
A broken-down convenience store rebuilt around 2001 into a breakfast spot and a music room that books national touring acts and comedians. Weekend breakfast buffet, dogs welcome on the patio, and in its own words: tourists for brunch, hipsters for the music, retirees for the pork barbecue.
This is a music venue. It is loud when a show is on.
A wings and full-bar spot at the Anastasia Island end of the Bridge of Lions. Its own game day page lists 12 HD flat screens and every major sports package.
On the Tolomato River with a 100-foot dock for visiting boats, a big sunset deck, a tiki bar, an oyster bar and a wine list of more than 500 bottles. No standard reservations, just a live waitlist and free valet, and pet dogs stay home: service animals only, per its own site.
A Second Spanish Period family home, restored and opened as Casa Maya in 2015, now known for octopus, ceviche and seafood paella. The patio has its own stage with live music three or four nights a week, and the restaurant says up front that the upstairs group room has no elevator.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
Named for Florida, the 27th state, and built around fish caught in Florida waters and delivered daily: snapper to sheepshead, mahi to triggerfish, depending on the boat. The local accent shows up in the Minorcan seafood chowder and the datil pepper ketchup.
Owners Mike Hyatt and Cindy Stangby cook local seafood, lamb and veal with international flavors, everything from scratch, behind a set of wooden doors on Hypolita Street. It has made OpenTable's Top 100 restaurants in America more than once, and its sister restaurant is Blackfly on Anastasia Island.
The St. Augustine branch of the Columbia, the family group whose Tampa original has served since 1905 and bills itself as Florida's oldest restaurant. This one opened on St. George Street in 1983, and the rooms are the draw: hundreds of hand-painted tiles, a Spanish-style fountain, and private dining for groups of 10 to 200.
The dining room of the Casa Monica, which opened in 1888, was bought and renamed the Cordova by Henry Flagler four months later, and spent years as the county courthouse before it became a hotel again in 2000. The old Costa Brava relaunched here as a chophouse in November 2023, with a wine list holding a 2026 Wine Spectator Award of Excellence.
A 1920 building at the Vilano Bridge roundabout with a Mediterranean kitchen that grows its own herbs and buys from local farms and fish markets. The Flamingo Room has live piano seven nights a week, and the courtyard does al fresco among tropical plants and fountains.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
Old Florida home cooking on St. George Street for more than 35 years: gator tail, fried green tomatoes, shrimp and grits. The name honors the original Cracker cowboys, and the garden patio welcomes dogs, which the cafe says on its own site instead of leaving you to guess.
Comfort food and shrub-based cocktails on Aviles Street, the narrow cobblestone lane it calls the oldest street in the USA, in the space that used to be Cellar 6. It adds an optional surcharge that funds health, dental and vision insurance, maternity leave and paid time off for its staff, and it says so on its own site.
Family-run Greek and Polish cooking, from pierogies to spinach pie and stuffed cabbage, named for its crisp sugar waffles. Its website is an under-construction page, and listings now put it at 212 Charlotte Street, reached through an Aviles Street alley, where older write-ups say 9 Aviles. Treat the address as unconfirmed.
A fast casual boater stop inside Cat's Paw Marina on the San Sebastian River, from the same family as The BoatHouse up the road. Half-pound baskets of local shrimp, grouper and mahi, and a place its own site pitches to kids and parents alike.
A cocktail bar in the 1927 ice plant building, with the original crane still on its rails over the bar and a 300-pound block of ice behind it. Fresh-pressed juices and house syrups at the bar, grass-fed burgers and local seafood from the kitchen, no reservations, and open until 2 a.m. on weekends.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
Jack's has barbecue in the name and on the menu, but locals know it better as a beach bar than a barbecue destination. It is one of the cheaper places to drink near the ocean. The current Visit St. Augustine listing says the kitchen closes at 9 PM while the bar stays open until 2 AM, which tells you which side owns the late shift. The unofficial Jack's rule is simple: if you are still there late, the night has probably done its job. Let somebody else handle the ride home. It has no official website, so the profile remains marked for re-checking.
A French bistro that opened in February 2024 in the Jefferson House on Bridge Street, the Victorian that used to hold Preserved. Chef Michael Lugo brought in Matthieu Landillon from Marseille, and you choose between the dining room, the wraparound porch and the garden patio. Walk-ins are usually seated.
Chef-owner Barry Honan cooked as a sous chef at the Michelin-starred Le Bernardin in New York before turning a run of pop-ups into this room in 2023, and MICHELIN Recommended it in 2026. Reservation only through Resy, with tables held to about 90 minutes.
Three rooms in one building a block south of the fort: the Irish pub, Johnny's Oyster Bar upstairs with a deck over Matanzas Bay, and the Backyard's island bar. The house belonged to William Diskmuits, first president of First Florida National Bank, and the music runs daily.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
The St. Augustine member of the Jacksonville-area Mojo family, in the Old City since 2012, smoking across regional styles from Kansas City burnt ends to Carolina vinegar pork. Dogs are welcome on both patios, where the staff keeps water bowls ready, and plan on city parking because the lot is for staff.
A Hawaiian-style food truck on Anastasia Island since 2002, cutting fish fresh every morning and packing it in biodegradable sugarcane boxes. After Hurricane Matthew knocked out the island's power, Nalu's opened for two weeks on donations and became a base for fresh water and supplies.
Family-owned for 16 years: owner Adamo and his two sons cook from recipes handed down through the family and greet the tables themselves. It sits on Aviles Street, the brick pedestrian lane of galleries, and the room fills fast enough that Visit St. Augustine suggests arriving early on weekends.
Open since 1965, cash only, no reservations, and famous for St. Augustine fried shrimp, nine or twelve to a plate with hush puppies. The menu has barely changed and many of the staff have been there more than 20 years, which is rather the point.
A house with a longer resume than most of the city: Don Miguel Ysnardy built it around 1790, it served as one of St. Augustine's first hotels, and in 1961 it was moved to this spot on the bayfront. The O.C. White family has run it since 1992, with a garden patio, a balcony for the sunset over the bay, and live music in the evenings.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
A craft cocktail lounge and Southern Latin kitchen just over the Bridge of Lions, hiding a speakeasy, Charlotte 33, open Friday and Saturday for groups of two to six by reservation. Three private event spaces for 15 to 80 guests, and open until 2 a.m. on weekends.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
A laid-back taqueria on Anastasia Boulevard next door to Old Coast Ales, with made-to-order tacos and bowls and gluten-free and vegan options named on its own site.
A boat-in crab shack on Six Mile Creek off the St. Johns River, first opened in 1984, wrecked by Hurricanes Matthew and Irma and rebuilt with the building raised and a dock for up to 100 boats. Reopened under new ownership in 2024, from the family behind The BoatHouse and Grouper Shack.
A Prohibition-era gastropub on the site of the old Genovar Theater, with live music every night and what it calls the longest bar in the city, built from 400-year-old heart pine reclaimed from the original colonial structure. Speakeasy booths downstairs, a balcony over the stage upstairs.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
Chef Peter Kenney's restaurant spent 21 years on St. Augustine Beach before moving to Anastasia Island in 2025, into the remodeled Gypsy Cab Company building. The menu marks vegan and gluten-free dishes, and the kids menu is billed as Kids, Tweens & Teens.
The MacDonald family sailed from England on their own yacht in 1979, found this Victorian house on San Marco Avenue in 1980, and opened the Raintree in 1981. The founders' daughter and grandson still run it: dine in the Victorian rooms or the courtyard with its gazebos and koi fountain, and leave room for the dessert bar.
A flower-filled courtyard and upstairs bay views make Saint a tempting Italian dinner spot. Explore the menu and seating choices, then book the table you want.
A fish camp built to feel turn-of-the-century, on the Intracoastal marsh at the end of Dondanville Road, serving gator tail, frog legs and open pit barbecue. Its website now returns a 404 and listings mention new owners, so everything here comes from Visit St. Augustine and needs confirming before you go.
A sports grill on US 1 South with wings and burgers. Its own events page lists every NFL game on Sundays, Monday and Thursday night football, Wednesday trivia and Friday live music, and calls the room a college football headquarters.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
The north location of Smokin' D's, on US-1: meats smoked six to fifteen hours and sold until they run out, because the pit refuses to sell yesterday's meat. Five regional sauces plus a datil pepper sauce from peppers grown on site. Check its latest official hours before you drive over.
From Ben and Liza Groshell of Marker 32, opened in 2020 on the San Sebastian River, where their own site says the water is just steps from your table. Oysters, shrimp, clams and octopus, with catering and private dining for up to 200.
A fast casual seafood counter on St. George Street built around wild American shrimp, Minorcan chowder and a datil-buffalo shrimp, with a kids section on the menu. It shares the Colonial Quarter with the Colonial Oak Music Park, which is where its live music happens.
The city's other 2026 Bib Gourmand: a sourdough bakehouse on San Marco Avenue doing breakfast and lunch Tuesday through Sunday. MICHELIN lists it as plain Sunday; the sign, and everyone in Uptown, says Sunday Gathering Table.
Two bartenders turned a former Phillips 66 station into a Key West style beach restaurant in 1990. The upstairs deck is open air, with fans in summer and heaters in winter, the chowder is a Great Chowder Debate regular, and the bar pours St. Augustine Distillery spirits.
A breakfast and lunch favorite that moved out of its Lincolnville cottage to a bigger place on West King Street, with more room inside and tables outdoors. Blue crab quiche, chicken biscuits and a datil BBQ Cuban, mimosas on the side, and no reservations or call-ahead.
The old Creekside Dinery on Gonzales Creek, reopened by Nathan Stuart and Margo Klar and now The BoatHouse, with a deck of about 4,500 square feet over the marsh, a fire pit and weekend music. Sushi and a raw bar next to the fried seafood, and weekend brunch with bottomless mimosas.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
The Ponce family has run this spot on Salt Run since 1946, when the old Coast Guard gunnery station became a four-room hotel. Eat on the deck under a palm or in grass huts built over the water, walk-up only, with a 200-slip marina and live music on the Lounge Deck.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
Genie and Jeff McNally's farm-to-table Southern kitchen, founded downtown in 2010, reopened in 2026 in its own building on Old Beach Road. The menu names its farms and marks vegan and gluten-free plates, and tofu or tempeh goes on most of them.
A mostly vegetarian cafe in Westgate Plaza on State Road 16, where owner and chef Michael Ugarte uses certified organic produce when available and swaps in vegan or gluten-free on request. It doubles as a community board, flyers welcome.
One of the few true oceanfront dining rooms left in Northeast Florida, built by the Usina family on land they held for generations and run by that family since 2002. Tablecloths without the stiffness, Florida-grown beef, and a brunch that comes with a glass of champagne.
A beach bar and oyster spot on A1A Beach Boulevard. Its own site says 14 TVs and invites fans for College Saturdays and Football Sundays, and its events page lists live music.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
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