Where to Eat in Lake Mary Right Now

Ask where to eat in Lake Mary and locals will point you west, toward the County Road 46A corridor and Colonial TownPark — and they are mostly right. That stretch, plus the International Parkway office corridor just off I-4, holds one of the densest collections of serious restaurants in Seminole County. But the full answer includes a wood-fired seafood house, two of the region’s top ten steakhouses, a 1988-vintage pizzeria and a small downtown that eats better than its size suggests. Here is the honest map.

The headliners

F&D Prime Modern Steakhouse (1541 International Parkway) is the corridor’s modern flagship: custom-aged USDA Prime steaks from a privately managed inventory, a long menu that runs from Japanese milk bread and blue crab deviled eggs to wagyu ribeye, and a full cocktail bar. In Orlando Citizen’s rankings it places No. 9 among the region’s steakhouses with a Net Score of 92.4 — see the full list in our best steakhouses in Orlando rankings and our dedicated Lake Mary steakhouse guide.

FishBones (7005 County Road 46A) is the seafood counterpart: fresh fish flown in daily, sushi and a raw bar, and steaks cooked over a Florida citrus and oak wood fire, in a Key West-inspired room with a patio and live music. It has been a Seminole County fixture for years and remains the default answer when a Lake Mary table wants seafood with ceremony. Our FishBones profile goes deeper.

Ruth’s Chris Steak House (80 Colonial Center Parkway) anchors Colonial TownPark with the brand’s signature formula — USDA Prime beef broiled at high heat and served sizzling on a 500-degree plate with butter and parsley. It ranks No. 10 in our steakhouse rankings with a Net Score of 92.0, which means Lake Mary holds two of the region’s top ten steak rooms within a few minutes of each other. The category’s winner feature, on Capa, is here.

Inside Colonial TownPark

Boca, at 1145 Townpark Avenue, is the TownPark opening locals talk about most: a seasonal American restaurant from the team behind the Winter Park original, in an industrial-farmhouse room with a sidewalk patio, serving lunch, dinner and weekend brunch — ahi tuna crisps, flatbreads, hardwood-grilled cuts and a serious bar program. F&D Cantina (1125 Townpark Avenue), from the same F&D family as the steakhouse, does brick-walled Mexican — taco plates, birria tacos, Florida fish tacos and margaritas including a blackberry mezcal-rita — with a dog-friendly patio. The Hangry Bison builds burgers your way across a range of proteins and has collected local best-burger honors; The Vineyard Wine Company is the pick when the evening should be organized around a bottle; and Papa Joe’s Pizza has been serving Seminole County Italian-American staples since 1988, which in Florida restaurant years makes it a landmark. Pal Campo covers Puerto Rican cooking, and Duffy’s Sports Grill covers game day. The full walk-through is our Colonial TownPark guide.

The rest of the map

On Lake Mary Boulevard, Shula’s 347 Grille — named for Coach Don Shula’s 347 career wins — does premium-casual American cooking inside the Westin Lake Mary, Orlando North, on the Heathrow edge of the corridor; we label it as such because it sits in the hotel that serves both communities. Downtown, around 4th Street and Central Park, the eating is smaller-scale and local: cafés and grills that serve the Saturday market crowd and the neighborhood rather than the interstate. And mornings have their own geography — CFS Coffee and NewCity Coffee lead our breakfast and coffee roundup.

However you assemble it, check locations against the Orlando Top Spots Map and book the steakhouse nights ahead — on this corridor, Friday fills up by Wednesday.

Filed under Colonial TownPark · Lake Mary · Restaurants · Seminole County

Related Stories

ReviewsWhere to Eat in Pine Castle: The Orange Avenue PatternReviewsWhere to Eat in Union Park: The Colonial Corridor Feeds ItReviewsWhere to Eat in Azalea Park: The Corridors Do the Cooking

Spotted an error? Tell us — corrections · How we rank