Sarasota: Chart House (December 2016)

My spouse and I dined at the Chart House with several family members on a Sunday night (Christmas Day) in late December 2016. The Chart House is open for dinner daily and lunch on weekends. You can reserve your table online using the Open Table reservation system or via telephone. Parking (complimentary) is offered in a dedicated surface lot.

The Chart House is part of a national chain owned by Landry’s restaurant group. (Landry’s operates a multitude of restaurants including Morton’s The Steakhouse, Aquarium, McCormick & Schmicks, The Boathouse, Kemah Boardwalk, Saltgrass Steak House, Golden Nugget, Vic & Anthony’s Steakhouse, Simms Steakhouse, Rainforest Café, Muer Seafood Restaurants, Landry’s Seafood, Peohe’s, Harlow’s, Grotto, Babin’s Seafood House, Cadillac Bar, La Griglia, Brenner’s Steakhouse, CJ Claim Jumper, Big Fish, Cameron’s Steakhouse, Charley’s Crab, Fisherman’s Wharf, The Flying Dutchman, Bubba Gump, Rusty Pelicans, Willie G’s, Lillie’s, Lighthouse Buffet, Mitchell’s Fish Market, and Pleasure Pier.) The Chart House concept was conceived over 55 years ago and has expanded to 26 waterfront restaurants across the United States. The restaurants provide fine dining, excellent service, and impressive views. They offer a frequent-diner card where you accrue points towards dollars off.

The Sarasota-area location of the Chart House is located on Longboat Key. The restaurant offers indoor dining in the raised bar area (which offers happy hour drink and food specials), on the raised dining area platform, or the floor-level dining area, all of which are adjoined and open to each other in the expansive high-ceilinged space. The Sarasota location offers outdoor dining on a covered deck overlooking the bay. The restaurant is mostly handicap-accessible. High ceilings, light-wood, interesting lighting, white-tablecloth-clad tables, padded chairs, and a few semi-circular booths create a clean contemporary look. Additionally, this location offers a salad bar, positioned inconspicuously at the rear corner of the dining room.

The Chart House serves a variety of seafood and steaks. We shared a few chopped salads to begin our meal, accompanied by a delicious bread basket. We ordered a variety of fish entrees (cobia, mahi mahi, snapper, and coconut shrimp [the shrimp has an amazing presentation!]) and steak dishes (filet mignon, NY strip), followed by the key lime pie and their signature hot chocolate lava cake (which you must order ahead because it takes 30 minutes to prepare) for dessert.

We enjoyed our dinner at The Chart House, and we would like to return in the daylight hours to enjoy lunch with a view (the view was still good in the darkness, too).