Sam's St. Johns Seafood

A Florida Seafood Tradition

Sam's St. Johns Seafood takes its name from the first family restaurant, which the company's About Us page says Sam's father founded in 1983 two blocks from the St. Johns River. The Ocala restaurant at 7119 North US Highway 441 sits in the Ocala Spring Shopping Center on the north side of town. The company's motto is “Great Seafood, Reasonably Priced, Served With a Smile.”

The menu posted on the company's website is built around fried and grilled seafood: shrimp, flounder, whole catfish and catfish fillets, snapper, mahi, tilapia, salmon, scallops, oysters, clam strips and crab cakes, along with crab legs and lobster tails at market price. Gator tail and frog legs appear both as appetizers and as entrees. Combo platters let diners choose two or three items, and the “Plenty for One” and “Plenty for Two” platters combine several. Lunch entrees, served 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., come with hushpuppies and two sides.

For diners who prefer something other than seafood, the menu lists a hand-cut 12-ounce Certified Angus ribeye, which the menu says is aged at least 21 days, plus chicken, an Angus burger, sandwiches, salads and pasta. Listed sides include cheese grits, fried okra and cole slaw, and homemade Key lime and peanut butter pies are on the dessert list. The menu notes that food is prepared only when ordered.

According to the About Us page, Sam Jr. opened his first Crystal River Seafood restaurant in Tallahassee in 1987, and he and his wife later opened four restaurants in Florida, Alabama and Georgia before returning to Jacksonville. After Sam Sr.'s death in 2005 the business became Sam's Family of Seafood Restaurants, which Sam Jr. now runs.