RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK
A PERSONAL REVIEW OF RESTAURANTS AROUND THE WORLD

BARBARA JEAN'S
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

We sampled this restaurant, a favorite with the locals, on a rainy Saturday afternoon.  We arrived at about 12:30 and there were just a couple of tables unoccupied.  As we left the place around 1:30, all tables were filled and there people waiting in the lobby.

Kind Of Homely From The Outside

This restaurant sits right on the intracoastal waterway and offers indoor and outdoor seating.  We chose to sit inside because the rain made it very humid.  But those on the deck get great and close-up views of all kinds of pleasure boats passing by.  From our table inside we watched several huge yachts pass by along with some smaller fishin' boats.

Outside Deck Dining (Lousy Weather That Day)

Boats Come Right By Blitzin'

Barbara Jean's is famous for it's signature crab cakes.  And while my wife and I were extremely tempted to try a couple of the highly recommended cakes, we were on a low carb diet and decided to go with a blue cheese salad instead.

I actually started off my meal with a cup of she crab soup (hoping that it wasn't thickened with carb attacking flour).  It was creamy and had quite a bit of crab meat in it.  However it was a little on the "fishy" side.  I've had much better.

As mentioned, my wife and I both chose a large, signature blue cheese salad and we opted to have grilled yellow fin tuna on it.  It came with a standard sweet salad dressing and Mandarin oranges.  We asked that the oranges be left off (carbs again) and that the salads be dressed with blue cheese dressing.

Not Exactly The Young Jet Set Here

Curiously my salad came with onions (which is okay) and my wife's did not (which was okay with her).  When asked how we wanted the tuna cooked, we both said medium.  My tuna was absolutely perfect.  Lightly marinated, perfectly salted and peppered and cooked medium to medium rare.  My wife's tuna was over seasoned, had fairly deep and bitter grill marks and most of her tuna was decidedly overcooked.

All my friends and associates absolutely swear by this place.  Will we go back?  Yes -- but not until we're down to our ideal fighting weight and we can give the crab cakes a shot.

For directions, a look at the menu, and other Barbara Jean's locations in Florida, South Carolina & North Carolina, they have a web site here.