Captain J's Ocean Front Restaurant in Cocoa Beach, Florida

We arrived at our vacation home in the later evening hours of May 8 with another couple who would be staying with us until we returned from Aruba.  It had been an uneventful flight.  We were tired and decided to cook at home the following day.  On the Thursday we headed down for a road trip to Cocoa Beach, Florida to connect up with our friend's (the other couple) son who works on the cruise ships.  After our scenic drive, we met up with their son at Captain J's Ocean Front Restaurant.

Captain J's Ocean Front Restaurant is located at 211 E Cocoa Beach Cswy in Cocoa Beach, Florida.  The cozy, casual dining restaurant is on the beach so you can dine while enjoying all the sights and sounds of the beach.  We ate at the tiki bar, just off the upper deck over looking the Cocoa Beach.  The view was gorgeous and the atmosphere was relaxed and casual.  The service and food was average for this type of restaurant.  Despite a few less than stellar online ratings, we enjoyed our food.

We ordered the coconut shrimp (not pictured).  I ordered the grouper.  This was a delicious, light meal perfect for a hot day.  The meal would not score a ten on presentation but it was definitely better than some of the reviews indicated.  What I didn't like and this is a very common practice at many pub-style restaurants is the baked potato came wrapped in tin foil.  Not only does this get the diner's hands dirty while leaving the potato skin almost soggy, it is a safety issue if the potato has not been kept in the proper temperature zone prior to serving.  Potatoes in foil present a very good opportunity for food born illness including botulism.

My husband ordered the baked scallops.  They were served with a baked potato and mixed vegetable of the day.  The scallops were quite tasty!

On a scale of one to ten for pub grub food, I would rate this restaurant a six but will admit the view definitely helped tip the scale.  The food itself was very much average for Florida beach side bars.  What was nice, is most of their dishes could easily be duplicated at home.  In fact, I would almost call their food home style cooking because there was nothing pretentious about it.  The food was simply good.

When it comes to restaurants, you don't always need spectacular food, you need good food.  Captain J's did not disappoint.  This really is a nice beach front restaurant to visit.  The view is well worth it!