Florida Report - Roy's (Bonita Springs), Campiello's (Naples)

After an excellent Thanksgiving spent at my cousin Ken and Carolyn's house in NJ, Danna and I took a quick trip to my family's place in Bonita Springs. A great getaway from the city (i.e., pollution, people, "urban wildlife", work) and a chance to just chill out...and eat.

Roy's

Bonita Springs, Florida

Our first night in town, Danna wanted to go to the movies...I wanted to go to dinner. So we did both. We live a 2 minute bicycle ride from Roy Yamaguchi's Bonita Springs Florida. So close, I don't even have to leave our "community". Fantastic.

The thing about Roy's that I like - and I guess what is the whole idea behind chain restaurants of any quality - is that it is predictable. I can count on getting good service. I can count on getting decent, tasty food, and I can count on getting asked if I want the chocolate souffle before I even put my napkin on my lap.

Some may scoff at such predictability and I would have to agree that it does seem a bit formulaic, but if it works - who cares. So with that, we ordered mostly signature Roy's dishes including:

Wood Grilled Szechuan Spiced Baby Back Pork Ribs (meaty, very flavorful and good enough to take home the leftovers to include in a salad for lunch at home the next day) and the Classic Trio, which was:

Hawaiian Style Misoyaki Butterfish (cod) in a soy vinaigrette, Ahi Tuna with a sauce I forget and Hibachi style grilled salmon with japanese vegetables and citrus ponzu sauce. All of which was cooked just right, had great differences in flavor and was presented nicely. The japanese vegetables had a nice kick to it too. The butterfish was particularly good - and I'm not really a fan of cod-style fish.

Not necessarily "Roy's Classics", but we also ordered a dragon roll as a starter and lobster potstickers with a cognac cream sauce. All very good, though the dragon roll was just okay. Nothing surprised us. Nothing blew us off of our seat. But everything was good or better

I'd be remiss to mention neglect how good the service was. Luis was our waiter - and if every dining experience included a cloned version of Luis, I think its fair to say we'd always tip 20% or more. He was fantastic as was his supporting staff.

Campiello's

Naples

There is some fine dining in Naples...to be continued