Reviewing Restaurants from the Sarasota Food Scene - Spring 2026 Edition Part 2

Ready for more Sarasota-area restaurant reviews? Then this post is for you – part 2 of my spring restaurant review series! In this week’s post I’ll review two new Japanese sushi restaurants, an old school waterside fish house, a Latin bistro in a strip mall, a “kind of pop up” restaurant at Waterside in Lakewood Ranch, and a quick revisit and update of a small family-owned Italian restaurant.

Zoto

Zoto restaurant, pork katsudon, and the lobster roll

Laurie and I have really come to appreciate high quality, Japanese cooking. And as luck would have it, two higher-end sushi restaurants have opened recently in the Lakewood Ranch/Sarasota area. The first is Zoto, a lovely Japanese restaurant that showcases both sushi and other traditional Japanese dishes located in the UTC area across from the mall. The dining room is warm and quiet, with an understated elegance. The menu showcases a wide range of Japanese cooking, including sushi rolls, sashimi and nigiri, kushiyaki, agemono, and ryori. If you don’t know what any of those are, try them all – you won’t find a bad dish in the house! All the ingredients are incredibly fresh and creatively crafted as well. The service is prompt and unobtrusive. The cocktails are also creative and delicious, and the saki selection is extensive and well-curated as well. The owners of Koto just opened a sister restaurant next door called Yugen, which provide a more intimate tasting menu experience. By far, the best sushi in the Sarasota area!

Overall Rating: Excellent; Food: Excellent; Ambiance: Excellent; Service: Excellent; Cost: Expensive; Value: Good

Kuro Sushi

Kuro sushi restaurant, pot stickers, and spring rolls

Kuro Sushi is a new sushi restaurant located in Lakewood Ranch on Main Street. Similar to Zoto, Kuro Sushi serves upscale sushi and other Japanese classics in a modern, elegant setting. The menu showcases a large selection of options from the sushi bar, including maki rolls. They also offer both cold and hot appetizers, along with robata grill options like pork belly, wagyu, and jumbo shrimp. The wine and cocktail list is limited and a bit underwhelming. Service was competent, but the dishes came out of the kitchen a bit slowly. The food was fresh and nicely plated, but a number of the dishes were under seasoned and even a bit bland. Overall, this place is a nice addition to Main Street but comes in a distant second or third to the standout Zoto. Definitely worth a visit though.

Overall Rating: Good: Food: Good/Very Good; Ambiance: Very Good; Service: Good; Cost: Expensive; Value: Average

Coco’s Bistro

Coco’s Bistro, arepa, and cachapa

Coco’s Bistro is a small restaurant located in a strip mall off of Fruitville in Sarasota that specializes in homemade Latin cuisine. The dining room is small, casual, and minimalist, with counter service. This place is popular (at least when we went at lunch), and does a brisk takeout service. The menu has a dizzying number of options, to include 18 different kinds of arepas (corn flatbread sandwiches), 9 different kinds of patacons (plantain sandwiches), and traditional appetizers and sides like empanadas, plantains, and rice. All the dishes are made to order and come out of the kitchen hot and ready to eat. The arepas are excellent and stuffed full of meats and cheeses. Nothing fussy about this place – dishes are served on paper plates and wax paper, and utensils are plastic. But who cares when the food is so tasty? This is a great place to go for a casual lunch or dinner when you are craving authentic Latin/South America fare!

Overall Rating: Good/Very Good: Food: Very Good; Ambiance: Average; Service: Good (counter service only); Cost: Moderate; Value: Good

Casey Key Fish House

Casey Key Fish House sign, grilled grouper sandwich, and char-grilled burger

Looking for a great “Old Florida” waterfront seafood grill restaurant? Then Casey Key Fish House is a great option! These kind of old school fish and seafood restaurants on the water are a dime a dozen in and around Sarasota, but many of them serve average-at-best food – Casey Key Fish House is a cut above and is similar in style and quality to Dry Dock Waterfront Grill and Mar Vista on Longboat Key. Located on the upper tip of Casey Key, the view from the patio and dining room of the sound is lovely. The restaurant itself is showing its age but isn’t that what makes these places so charming anyway?! The menu is classic fish house fare, with a nice selection of appetizers, baskets filled with fresh fish, seafood, and hand helds, and more classic entrees served after 4:00 for dinner (like shrimp scampi, seafood pasta, diver scallops, and grilled salmon and mahi-mahi). All the seafood is incredibly fresh and tasty, and cooked to perfection. Laurie’s grouper sandwich was light and flaky, while my hamburger was cooked a perfect medium to medium-well with nice seasoning as well. Cocktails are good, but a bit on the sweeter side. Service is friendly and efficient as well. I wouldn’t necessarily travel 45 minutes to eat here, but if I was in the area I’d definitely stop for a bite!  

Overall Rating: Good; Food: Very Good; Ambiance: Very Good; Service: Good; Cost: Moderate; Value: Good

Florida Provision Company

Florida Provision’s sign, lunch/dinner menu, and bagel breakfast sandwiches

Florida Provisions Company in Waterside at Lakewood Ranch started out as a coastal retail goods shop specializing in local sports and beach wear, upscale pre-made cocktail and spice mixes, an eclectic selection of books, and a nice selection of canned beers and ales (both local and otherwise). We visited frequently to buy our favorite bloody Mary mix and other unique food items. But recently, they transformed the space into a much smaller retail section, along with a larger dining area with a bar in the back serving wine and beer, as well as a kitchen turning out lunch and dinner, and breakfast on the weekends. I was skeptical at first, until I read that they make the best BLT in the Sarasota area. I still haven’t gotten around to trying the BLT, but Laurie and I did make it to Waterside one morning to try out their breakfast offerings. And the verdict? Excellent! Breakfast offerings include build-your-own bagel, toast, or croissant sandwiches, along with breakfast flatbread, farmhouse tot bowl, and breakfast nachos. The breakfast sandwiches were quite large and filled with thick cut bacon and sausage, and served on NY style bagels – some of the best breakfast sandwiches we’ve had in the area. The lunch and dinner menu is more extensive, and we are excited to try out some of those dishes soon! Ordering and pick up is done at a counter, and the wait for food can be a bit long, but it’s well worth it. Seating is a bit akward and crowded, with quite a few tables and chairs crammed into a relatively smalll space. There were few customers when we went early in the morning, but fair warning – in the evening this place is packed solid!

Overall rating: Very Good; Food: Very Good; Ambiance: Average; Service: Good; Cost: Average; Value: Good

Trattoria Bella Napoli (Revisited)

Tris Arancini and Tris Montanare appetizers at Trattoria Bella Napoli

In a previous post I reviewed this small, family-owned Italian restaurant located on Main Street in downtown Sarasota. At the time, I gave the restaurant an overall rating of “good”, noting that the appetizers were the standout dishes but that the entrees were good but not great. To be fair, we tried this restaurant only a month or so after they had opened, so I’m sure they were still working out some kinks. Recently, we returned with our niece and her husband who were visiting from Minnesota, and the experience was much better than our first visit! The appetizers were a good as we remembered, but the entrees were excellent as well! The Belle Napoli Gnocchi served in a bread basket with zucchini pesto was outstanding, as were cacio pepe ravoli, cotoletta di pollo (breaded chicken with arugula and tomatoes), and the calzone (which was bigger than my head!). The service was much improved as well. We will be returning again soon – let us know if you’d like to join us!

Overall rating: Very Good/Excellent; Food: Very Good/Excellent; Ambiance: Very Good; Service: Very Good; Cost: Expensive; Value: Good

Hopefully that gives you plenty of options to try in the coming months, or if you aren’t local, when you come down to visit! I’ll be back with more restaurant reviews later in the year – in the meantime, bon Appetit!