Restaurants near Holiday Inn Sarasota-Lakewood Ranch

We ate at Sophie’s today on busy Black Friday and they were making it happen. Mike our server was fantastic! The hostess (did not get her name) was excellent! My husband had salmon burger and I had wedge and Brussels.

First of all, this is a new restaurant to us. We were pleasantly surprised. The food, service were excellent. Apparently they make everything from scratch. And it was impressive and it tasted like from scratch. I had the lettuce wraps which were excellent. To my taste, the chicken was a little salty, but my boyfriend thought it was great. I have to say, I was disappointed how horrible their coffee was … just horrible. when you finish off a nice dinner, it should be followed by a nice cup of coffee. In this case, the coffee kind of lessened the wonderfulness of the dinner . And it was impressive and it tasted like from scratch. I had the lettuce wraps which were excellent. To my taste, the chicken was a little salty, but my boyfriend thought it was great. The same goes for the onion soup, which I considered salty as well. My boyfriend had the filet mignon which is cooked perfectly. It seemed to be smaller than 6 ounces however. 

We visited on a Wednesday for $8 martini. We ordered items that we had ordered previously, burrata salad, fig and pig pizza and the bread but this time with whipped ricotta. Everything was delicious and we have leftovers. The martini was spot on as well. We asked to be seated in the rear as it is a much quieter area which made for a vey pleasant dinner. Our server Marissa was delightful. We will be back!

My wife and I enjoyed our dinner and the excellent service by Juan. He helped us get the most from our dining experience. We had drinks and four appetizers, They were all great but the lobster tostados were fabulous. We didn't have desert as we were stuffed by our great meal. We will be back again and will ask for Juan.

It was very busy, so it was a little loud for the older people in our group to be able to hear. However, very nice atmosphere and surroundings. Our overall experience was "good" based on the wait staff was good, but not exceptional. IE: the waitress spilled our over-filled drink on the table when she delivered it and didn't brink beverage napkin, we waited a too long for empty glasses or dishes to be cleared, etc. Not enough to deter us from coming back! The food was exceptional.