7 Best Neptune Beach Restaurants | Where To Eat In Neptune Beach, Florida

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Foodie Flash Packer | November 27, 2021

https://www.foodieflashpacker.com/neptune-beach-restaurants/

Neptune Beach, Florida, part of Duval County, part of the Jacksonville Beaches communities, retains its own unique flare.

In town for a conference, we stayed at the One Ocean Resort and Spa, right on the Atlantic Ocean at the end of Atlantic Boulevard (SR10/ US90) that crosses two massive bridges (including The Mathews Bridge) and along the highway that gets you from Jacksonville (JAX) to the beach. Access to St. Augustine is an easy 45-minute drive down A1A.

Best Neptune Beach Restaurants

As you drive into town, you see Neptune Beach to the south, and Atlantic Beach to the north (check out my article on Atlantic Beach restaurants next!). These two beach towns have wonderful restaurants close to the beach. And even more several blocks inland.

With a local guiding me, once again, I ate my way through the town, picking up some pretty fun stories along the way.

The 7 Best Neptune Beach Restaurants

Flying Iguana Taquerio & Tequila Bar

207 Atlantic Blvd. // (904) 853-5680

Open daily with a “Let the good times fly” motto, this restaurant features Mexican and Southwestern food with plenty of vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options.

A few blocks inland, the food here is worth the trip away from the beach for just a little while. In addition to their awesome food, they serve over 100 tequilas and a large selection of craft beers so you’ll be glad you’re within walking distance to your hotel.

There for lunch, we started with the guacamole with chips. The guacamole is spicier than I’d expected. Turns out they add jalapenos and red onion as well as tomato, cilantro, and lime juice to the avocado dish. Prepared tableside, it’s nice for a show and an introduction to the staff. They’ve weathered the pandemic but are very glad to be getting tourists back to town.

When I come next, I may have to check out the chorizo and potato empanadas, or the queso blanco dip. Favorite daughter may like the shrimp ceviche, and the esquites look good, too. They’re char-grilled Mexican street corn served on the cob, with chipotle aioli, chives, and cotija cheese. Reminds me of La Calle in Midtown Houston.  Favorite daughter may also choose the grilled stuffed avocado since it includes shrimp escabeche. 

They offer six soups and salads. My companion had the sweet potato bisque and declared it “ah-maze-ing!” The Peruvian chicken salad, with spiced pepitas and an aji verde dressing, did remind me of the flavors we’d experienced in Cusco. It’s so nice to have the different flavor profiles available to us in the United States. We’re very lucky.

Then, things took a turn for the serious. The Flying Iguana only offers their Tortas, Mexican Griddle Baked Sandwiches, until 4 pm. What to choose? The Bahn Mi Mexico? The Cubana? Calabacitas (favorite daughter’s choice)? Mexican Cheese Steak? Tostones Burger?

My companion chose the Bahn Mi Mexico, a marinated and grilled all-natural chicken with a chipotle aioli, house-made escabeche, cucumber, jalapeno, and cilantro. You can substitute shrimp for chicken.

Tacos on offer have great names – like “Dirty South,” a fried green tomato, black-eyed “peaco” de gallo, queso sauce and baby arugula, the “Junkyard,” grilled chicken, roasted potato, queso sauce, cabbage, charred corn, and flaming iguana sauce (it is HOT!), and “Meat ‘N’ Potato,” a spicy ground beef tinga, roasted red potato, grilled corn, and Chihuahua cheese – as well as wonderful familiar dishes like carnitas, blackened shrimp, Baja fish taco (beer-battered cod), steak taco, crispy pork belly, flying fish taco (today’s catch!), farm-to-table-taco, seared scallop taco, and the vegan. 

I elected to go with the flying fish taco since I can’t get enough of great fish tacos anymore. It was delicious. Gone before I remembered to take a photo. The fish was served a la plancha with shaved cabbage, aji Amarillo, and salsa criolla. I could have had more than one, but the guacamole and chips were filling.

By the way, I don’t care for the taste of the water in the area, so became fairly fluent in the liquid love languages on offer. They serve Coke products here, and Barq’s Root beer, Mr. Pibb, Lemonade, Fanta Orange, and both sweet and unsweet tea. I found the perfect combination to be half-sweet, half-unsweet tea, and learned quickly to ask them to put the unsweet tea on the bottom half. 

Additional entrees included a traditional slow-roasted pulled pork (cochinita pibil), pollo a la brasa, Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken, the daily catch, and chimichurri steak.

Desserts include stuffed churros (tres leches), Nutella bread pudding, and guava cheesecake.

North Beach Fish Camp

100 1^st Street // (904) 249-3474

Located caddy-corner to One Ocean, this restaurant comes highly recommended by business and pleasure visitors alike. The choice of indoor seating or out allows optimal choice. You can’t see the beach from here, but you can smell it, that saltwater flavored breeze is lovely once the sun actually comes out (I was there during a King Tide and a Nor’easter – didn’t see the sun for three days). 

Whether you’re indoors or out, this restaurant has the casual elegance I often crave on a business trip. The menu matches it well.

Featured starters include a spicy pimento cheese spread, crispy artichoke hearts, fried green tomatoes with goat cheese, ceviche of the day, fried New England Clam Bellies, Roasted Beet salad, and an Asian chopped tuna salad.

But wait, there’s more …

Additional starters include oysters on the half shell (by the half dozen or dozen), crispy calamari with pecorino cheese and spicy tomato sauce, fried gator tail (!) with Cowgill’s Datil Pepper Aioli, smoked fish spread with toasted melba, abaco conch fritters with lemon aioli, New England-style clam chowder, Greek salad with olives and feta, fried clams with fish camp tartar sauce, grilled octopus and white bean salad, iceberg wedge with blue cheese dressing, peel and eat shrimp (spicy or regular), Rick’s all-day seafood soup (by the cup or bowl) and broiled scallops with bacon, sun-dried tomato, and spinach cream.

Since it is SUCH a seafood place, I’m glad some of my fellow conference-goers have more developed palates than I do.

One gentleman started with the octopus, while one lady had the gator tail. I know they both “taste like chicken” but I couldn’t do it. I have had five-way alligator in New Orleans, but that’s as much as I could do. Their plates emptied quickly. They highly recommend each dish. 

On to the Mains (that phrase made me feel more like I was back in Dublin), they offer a fried fish sandwich, fish camp shrimp and grits, spicy shrimp linguini, Baja style fish tacos with cod, blue crab cakes with caper dill aioli, bacon cheddar Angus beef burgers, buttermilk pan-fried chicken with grits, grilled salmon BLT with Carol’s pickled zucchini and fish camp tartar sauce, salt and pepper seared tuna with toasted sesame salad, fried oyster po’ boy, low boil for two (shrimp, clams, andouille, corn, broccoli, mushrooms, onions), royal red shrimp roll with shrimp salad, and whole fried market fish. 

The tough choice became the Baja fish tacos vs. the fried seafood baskets. Many from my group chose the seafood baskets. They’re offered with deviled crab, oysters, shrimp, scallops, clam strips, fish filet, and combinations thereof.

Two people decided to share the seafood platter for two with scallops, oysters, clam strips, shrimp, and fish filet. It was beautifully presented and quickly eaten. And all within our 90-minute lunch break.

The Baja fish tacos were fresh and flaky. I stuck with the cod (you can “upgrade” to mahi) and it was a delicious flavor profile with the salsa fresca and adobe sour cream. Refreshing and on my list for my next visit as well.

The northerners who hadn’t tried grits before really enjoyed the creamy grits offered at this delightful restaurant. Other sides include parsley potatoes, collard greens, and tomatoes, and okra. Definitely not things I’d see at home. 

Desserts are hard to pass up here. They offer a signature white chocolate bread pudding, sweet and salty chocolate torte (the hit of half the table), key lime pie, vanilla ice cream, or Reese’s pie (the hit of the other half of the table).