Sweet Melissa's Cafe

Excellent place for dinner, which is why we went. I had the best tenderloin I have ever had, paired with some cooked spinach and garlic mashed potatoes, it's going on my list for the best dishes of all time. I had the octopus as a small dish, and it was average. Atmosphere felt more like a higher-class restaurant than a "café" like the name suggested. My goat cheese-cheesecake with crushed pistachios was absolutely superb. Prices were high, but fair considering the quality of the food.

Delicious! A super nice place to have a romantic dinner. The outdoor seating ambiance is really nice, and live music really adds to the charm of this gourmet restaurant. The grilled octopus appetizer and the watermelon salad were perfect starters. The duck and red fish entrees were both cooked perfectly. The key lime bread pudding is a nice way to end a delicious meal.

Marvelous!! Fish stew is common food. You can find it up and down the coasts and throughout the islands. Fresh ingredients, good seafood, etc. And it's all good to very good. What chef Melissa uses is the best shellfish, the best fish, the best spices , tomatoes and wine.. and cooks it all perfectly! Tender scallops, great, plump mussels and clams, fresh shrimp and classic, perfectly done fish fillets. Garlic was not raw or bitter. Sausage was a nice counterpoint and not overpowering. You were glad they served it with grilled bread so you could sop up every single drop of the sauce. Our Server was quiet, professional and wore a mask and gloves. Social distancing and outside seating are part of the program. A little more expensive, but we'll worth it! Take your best date and go enjoy the soft piano jazz and ambclassic, We'll be going back!

It's not often that you find a restaurant while traveling that you love so much you go back for a second time! Melissa's restaurant is not your average Sanibel "grouper" sandwich place. Her food is inspired, creative and sooooo good. As reviewed below it's way above 5 stars!! I enjoyed the James Beard Award Winning Fish Stew both times; IT WAS THAT GOOD! Creative menu offerings like crispy sweetbreads and goat cheese cheesecake. The night we were there they had carrot cake with triple cheese frosting. Who does that!? They offer intimate outdoor dining and our servers was excellent with a delightful personality. I cannot say enough great things about this chef and restaurant. Try it you will not be disappointed. One of the best restaurants ever! I want to go back to Sanibel just for Sweet Melissa's

Highs: Atomposhere, Live Guitar Lows: Expensive, Limited Menu, Quirky Taste Combinations, Poorly Executed. The sum of the parts do not equal the whole. If this was a sports analogy you could say they scored alot of points but poor execution and too many mistakes cost them the win. Maybe one star is somewhat unfair but when you spend over $180 on a dinner out you would like to come away feeling good about it. So many good reviews and we were lured into this place by the online menu which had some interesting appetizers and entrees. We went to celebrate our anniversary hoping for something memorable, which it was but not in a good way, we got there to find the menu was different, which I know happens but what was offered was not anything stellar to choose from with only 5 entrees and some bizarre sounding sting-ray wing special. Not a chicken dish to be found. Trying to find a variation of flavors not to be redundant between the appy and entree, I went with the mussels and frites the wife had the grilled octopus one of her faves, the mussels were good, French fries with them tho? I can pass on that! wife loved the octopus very tender, BUT they served with with Korean BBQ sauce too over-powering, when less is more, simple, fresh lemon, EVOO and cilantro would have been better. Plus the brussle sprouts were charred looking outside but basically raw inside. Bread and dipping oil (which was good) did not get to the table until we were almost thru our appetizers course. Then came wine debacle #1: saw on the wine list a very interesting Cuvee, ordered a bottle, the blend on the bottle was not what as described on the wine list, different by far, opted for something else. Entrees came, Mrs. Ordered the smoked tenderloin because there wasn't much to choose from, asked it be cooked MEDIUM, the steak arrived and after two slices it was found raw inside, sent it back, returned a few minutes later still on the rarer side (see photo) sent back again, got it to a point it was edible. [This was also noted in another one star review] My Duck Breast was cooked nicely but the rest of the dish was a disaster, just an ugly plate of food, the so-called sweet potato gnocchi were four prune sized gummy, pan blackened wads with a play- dough consistency, and the braised red cabbage gave a twisted suarukraut flavor to the dish, just a mis-paired combo, a nice chorizo and poached apple corn bread stuffing and a grilled Portobello slice would have worked better. As in another one star review this place tries do a mash-up of flavors, attempting to be eclectic and tries to do too much and can't pull it off. When you only have FIVE entrees on the menu they should be the most amazing dishes ever presented. Last but not least got the key lime bread pudding, I thought it was very good, freshly warm, however the lime taste is just a hint almost undetectable. Wine debacle #2 happened when we asked for the Standing Stone Vineyard (Finger Lakes NY) Reisling Ice Dessert Wine. We emphatically asked the waiter do you have this Because Its rare to find. He assured us yes, but we ended up with glasses of regular Reisling wine, (see photo) very disappointing. So on that I blame our waiter, the service was Ok otherwise. Most people seem to come for the $40 fish stew, that seems to be the flagship dish here. The Goat cheese cheesecake also seems popular, comes out in huge slab big enought to share. Know they have two serving sizes for the entree's. The half portion is very small. I Know this review won't affect the popularity of this place, its always busy and has be around for years. Just on this day we were hoping for a special fine dining experience and this fell way short. Not worth the money. Would not go back.

I enjoy the food here so much I can’t deduct a single star. From the salads, to the cheese plate to our main courses, absolutely everything was wonderful. Our only compliant was the inside is very loud. We’re going a second time before we head home. Here’s a picture of the fish stew and scallops. We went again tonight. They double checked with us multiple times before our first due to our party size. They put us on the patio which had a lovely atmosphere. Our server was amazing. Our food was even better than last week. Melissa stopped at every table tonight. My friends raved about the beef tartare. The fish stew was again a big hit.

We stopped @ Sweet Melissa's for dessert and coffee last night. The service was eh ... a bit snooty. My key lime bread pudding was good, but only a slight key lime flavor. A bit overpowered by the raspberry sauce. My wife's' apple turnover was underwhelming - the wrapping was a thick flour, more dense than a pie crust. It was supposed to be accompanied with cinnamon crunch, but no crunch. The atmosphere was pleasing, but with not great service and so so food, we have no reason to return.