richopp

The Sea Watch is my favorite restaurant in Florida for regular food. Sure, Chef Allen and Norman Aiken do the fancy stuff better than most, but if you want to eat fresh seafood while gazing at the ocean and swaying palm trees and not have to mortgage the house, the Sea Watch is for you.
I moved down in ‘72, and have been coming here ever since it opened in ’74. It is casual to dressy, you decide. The dishes are a bit more expensive than they were in ’74, but the conch chowder, house salad, fresh rolls, and the fresh Florida Snapper with black bean, mango, and papaya relish is my dream dinner. Dates swear by the crab, shrimp, and asparagus over thinly-sliced, fanned garlic potatoes, the shrimp, the combination platter, or the medley, but give me the Snapper every time. It hasn’t changed one bit in years, and it is awesome.
Make this plan:
Arrive early, give your name to the hostess and request a table on the porch, by the window if possible. Climb upstairs to the raw bar, order a nice bottle of Fume Blanc, and grab some great shrimp, etc., from the raw bar, and go sit outside on the porch and watch the waves and the palm trees. Pick a night when there is a full moon and I guarantee success! (I call it my only 100% restaurant…you figure it out.)
They will take whatever is left in your bottle downstairs when they call your name, and bring you superb fresh rolls and bread—think CIA American Bounty Room or the Marina Bay Club in the ’70s—with your menu. Order some conch chowder, the required sherry, and sit back and enjoy. Next, the house salad and then your main course. You will be full, but for me the drive back to Boca on A1A with the top down is enough time to digest and relax with some great tunes—Jimmy is always in style, but pick your personal favorite. Then, a stroll on the beach and up to pool deck to, well, relax. Those warm Florida breezes and that full moon will turn you into a conch faster than anything I know of!
The Sea Watch is a South Florida treasure. Go before some developer offers him a billion dollars for it or the business just gets too much to handle. Trust me, you will come back as often as you can!